"What for, won't we?" demanded Dan.
"For a good many reasons. In the first place, Mr. Warren seems to think that he needs but one warden, and that I can do all the work myself."
"Well, you can't, and you shan't, neither," Dan almost shouted.
And in order to show his brother how very much in earnest he was about it, he struck up a war-dance, and called loudly for somebody to hold him on the ground.
"And in the next place," continued Joe, who had witnessed these ebullitions of rage often enough to know that they never ended in anything more serious than an unnecessary expenditure of breath and strength on Dan's part—"in the next place, every cent I make this winter will go to mother, with the exception of the little I shall need to clothe myself."
"I'll bet you a good hoss that it don't," roared Dan, who was so angry that it was all he could do to keep from laying violent hands upon his brother. "Now let me tell you what's the gospel truth, Joe Morgan: If you don't go pardners with me in this business, I'll bust up the whole thing. If I don't get half them hundred and twenty dollars, you shan't have a cent to bless yourself with. I've been kicked and slammed around till I am tired of it, and I ain't going to ask my consent to stand it no longer."
"If you want money, go to work and earn it for yourself," said Joe. "You can't have any of mine."
"I'll show you whether I will or not. Now, let me tell you: I'll make more out of them birds this winter than you will. You're awful smart, but you'll find that there are them in the world that are just as smart as you be."
"I know what you mean by that," answered Joe, who had fully made up his mind to see trouble with Dan. "Now let me tell you something: If I catch you on Mr. Warren's grounds after I take charge of them, you will wish you had stayed away, mind that. I took this position because mother needs money, and having accepted it, I shall look out for my employer's interests the best I know how. But why do you go against me in this way? You ought to help me all you can."
"Then why don't you help me?" retorted Dan.