“Truth, sir. Begging your pardon for sayin’ so. Here was I, laying myself out to entertain the boy; a telling stories till my jaws ached, and answering questions by the thousand till I couldn’t talk no more. Then I remembered the checker-board we’d brought along, and I tried to learn him how to play. The sass he give me—beat all! He knows more’n I do; more’n you do, sir; more’n the President of these United States and Queen Victory into the bargain.”
“I—I—I don’t! I—never!” sobbed Robert.
“You did. You do—er you think you do! Didn’t you conteradict me plain to my face about them moves? Didn’t you just as good as say I cheated?”
“Wull—wull—wull—you did!”
“Hush, Bob! Let the old man tell his story first.”
“If—if he gets his in fust—who’s a-goin’ ter b’lieve mine?” demanded “Humpty-Dumpty,” with renewed energy. “Fust off he knocked me down with the checker-board. Think I was goin’ ter stan’ that? I guess not! So I hit him with my fist. That’s all they was to it. An’ I’d a been satisfied nen to quit an’ begin over again, if he’d a played fair. But he wouldn’t. Nen—he—he caught me up—an’—”
“Never mind, now. Try not to think about it. And if you have been naughty you must apologize to Mr. Dolloway.”
“This—this is distressing!” exclaimed poor Mr. Brook, who hated a quarrel. “Try, both of you, to forget all about it. You were probably both almost starved. So I’ll order in the dinner at once, and that will set us all straight. Come here, my little man. Here is a quarter for you.”
But the “little man” was beyond the allurements of tips. He had sustained an indignity which it seemed to him he could never forget. It had been part of Mrs. Beckwith’s gentle rule that no physical violence should ever be visited upon her children. In the street the boys had taken their share of rough-and-tumble fighting with other boys, but in their own home or at their schools neither had ever received a blow. The fact and the method of Mr. Dolloway’s punishment was, therefore, the more infuriating and humiliating to the really proud little boy, who was at heart as “good” as his doting sister constantly declared him.
“Go, darling!” whispered Bonny. “Don’t make poor Mr. Brook feel any worse. He is unhappy about his man’s rudeness to you. Go! Be generous, and take it!”