“Wal, ye could a hunted me up, I reckon, if ye had wanted to see me very bad. But if I am a layin’ out, I’m boss here yet. This is my house, an’ so’s every thing what’s into it, an’ I don’t want none on ye to forgit it.”
“We know it is all yours, father,” said Mrs. Evans. “You may have the blanket if you want it. I can get along without it.”
“I don’t want it, an’ dog-gone my buttons I won’t have it,” shouted Godfrey, throwing his arms wildly about his head. “I’m rich enough to buy more an’ better. Dave, hand out them hundred an’ sixty dollars, an’ be quick about it. You hear me?”
A deep silence followed this demand. Neither David nor his mother could make any reply to it, and while Godfrey was waiting for them to say something, he shook all over as if he had been seized with the ague. His excitement and impatience were so great that he could not hold himself still.
“Dave, does ye hear yer pap a speakin’ to ye?” Godfrey almost yelled. “Whar’s them thar greenbacks, I axes ye? Hand ’em out here quicker’n a streak of chain lightnin’.”
“O, Godfrey!” exclaimed Mrs. Evans, recovering her power of speech by a great effort, “you surely would not rob David of the money that he has worked so hard for! It is his, for he earned it. You have no claim upon it, for you didn’t help him.”
“Ole woman!” cried Godfrey, “Dave haint twenty-one year ole yit. Them thar greenbacks is in this house, kase I seed ’em not more’n a minute ago, an’ I’ll have ’em if I have to bust up the hul consarn. Dave, if ye don’t want to see me turn myself loose hand ’em out here.”
“I’ll die first,” was the boy’s firm reply. “If you want any money go to work and earn some, as I did. That’s the honest way.”
“Honest!” yelled Godfrey, seizing the “shake down” and lifting it from the floor. “Whoop! that there money is mine, kase yer my son an’ I’m yer pap. I’m boss here, too, an’ that gives me the right to handle every cent what comes into the house. If ye won’t hand ’em out peaceable, I’ll look for ’em myself; and ye won’t find much furnitur in the shantee arter I get through lookin’, nuther. You hear me?”
“Don’t waste no time with them bed-clothes, pap,” cried a voice from the rear of the cabin. “Shove Dave off’n that rock an’ hist it up. Then ye’ll find ’em, kase I seed him put ’em thar!”