I could not at the moment explain even to her what had threatened me, but her calm sweet words at last gave my story vent. Out it came in torrential flow.
"Why, you poor child!" she said. "They were only fooling—they wouldn't dare to hurt your dog!"
This was probably true. Matt had spoken without any clear idea of the torture he was inflicting.
It is often said, "How little is required to give a child joy," but men—and women too—sometimes forget how little it takes to give a child pain.
CHAPTER IV
Father Sells the Farm
Green's Coulee was a delightful place for boys. It offered hunting and coasting and many other engrossing sports, but my father, as the seasons went by, became thoroughly dissatisfied with its disadvantages. More and more he resented the stumps and ridges which interrupted his plow. Much of his quarter-section remained unbroken. There were ditches to be dug in the marsh and young oaks to be uprooted from the forest, and he was obliged to toil with unremitting severity. There were times, of course, when field duties did not press, but never a day came when the necessity for twelve hours' labor did not exist.