"Well, I'd like to see him shoot one of my dogs, and I wouldn't go off, neither, less'n I felt like it," said Silas, doubling his huge fists and looking very savage indeed. "Do you know how much he is going to give him?"
"Fifteen dollars a month from the first of September to the first of May," answered Dan, "and his grub is throwed in—the best kind of grub, too."
"Well, that ain't so bad," said Silas, slowly. "Fifteen dollars a month and grub for eight months—that would be a hundred and twenty dollars, wouldn't it, Dannie? That's more'n I could make by shooting the birds. Is old man Warren out there now? If he is, I'll go and tell him that I'll take the job. You and Joe can run the ferry during the rest of the summer, and pocket all you can make. I don't care for such trifling things any more."
"Whoop! Hold me on the ground, somebody!" yelled Dan, jumping up and knocking his heels together.
This was the expression he always used and the performance he went through whenever he got mad and became possessed with an insane desire to smash things.
"Now I'll just tell you what's a fact, pap," continued Dan, spreading out his feet, and settling his hat firmly on his head. "Me and Joe won't run the ferry, and neither will you get the chance to grow fat off good grub this winter, less'n you earn it yourself. Didn't I tell you the very first word I said that old man Warren had give the job to Joe?"
"Not our Joe!" exclaimed Silas, who was fairly staggered by this unexpected piece of news.
"Yes, our Joe—nobody else."
"No, you didn't tell me that," replied his father.
"Then it's 'cause you want to do all the talking yourself, and won't let me say a word," retorted Dan. "Yes, that Joe of our'n has got the job. He's going to have a nice house, with a carpet onto the floor, to live in, and the grub he'll have to eat will be just the same kind that old man Warren has onto his table at home. Just think of that, pap! You'll have to look around for some cheap boy to help you run the ferry from now till winter, 'cause I'm going up there to live with Joe, and help him keep an eye on them birds."