“And what is the reason I don’t? It is because I have not got any clothes to wear,” said Nat, who plainly saw what was coming next.
“That’s neither here nor there,” said Jonas. “Caleb goes to church, and he would go every Sunday if he had the proper things.”
“You bet I would,” said Caleb.
“So I think that if you don’t go to church and Caleb does, you had better take off them shoes. Take them off and give them to Caleb.”
“Now, Uncle Jonas, you are not going to make me go bare-footed this cold weather,” said Nat, anxiously. “If Caleb wants shoes let him go to work and earn them.”
“I can’t go to work about here,” said Caleb. “There’s nobody will hire me to do a thing.”
“Because you are too lazy; that’s what’s the matter with you,” said Nat, under his breath.
“Take off them shoes,” said Jonas.
Nat hesitated, but it was only for an instant. Jonas was not the man to allow his orders to be disobeyed with impunity, so he arose from his seat on the milk bucket with alacrity, disappeared in a little room where he kept a switch which he had often used on the boys when they did anything that Jonas considered out of the way, and when he brought it out with him he found Nat on the floor taking off his shoes.
“You have come to time, have you?” said the man with a grin. “So you are going to take them off and give them to Caleb, are you?”