"Heard you got licked," growled Dad, after tinkering with the fire for the twentieth time.
"I didn't get licked," retorted Georgie; "I got clubbed. I never had a chance to fight."
"These fellows hate to see a boy come out and take a man's job. Can't blame 'em much, neither."
"Whose job did I take?" demanded Georgie, angrily. "Was any one of those cowards that jumped on me in the dark looking for work on this engine?"
There was nothing to say to that. Dad kept still.
"You talk about men," continued the young fellow. "If I am not more of a man than to slug a fellow from behind, the way they slugged me, I'll get off this engine and stay off. If that's what you call men out here I don't want to be a man. I'll go back to Pennsylvania."
"Why didn't you stay there?" growled Dad.
"Why didn't you?"
Without attempting to return the shot, Dad pulled nervously at the chain.
"If I hadn't been fool enough to go out on a strike I might have been running there yet," continued Georgie.