“Why, I don’t know; maybe not. But I’m sure it’s the right thing to do.”
“Of course it is; and you deserve credit for doing it whether you came on your own account or because your father told you to. Now tell me; what was the trouble between you and Hal? First let me say, though, that he isn’t bad off at all. He’s coming out of it all right; a little dazed and mumbly yet, but he’ll be all over it in a day or two. Now, what led up to that fight?”
“Why, he as much as called me a puppy, and I wouldn’t stand for it, that’s all.”
Ben threw back his shoulders and put on that determined look characteristic of the Barriscales.
“Of course you wouldn’t,” was Miss Halpert’s quick reply. “No self-respecting young man cares to be called a puppy. But how did he come to call you one?”
“You see it was this way, Miss Halpert. His crowd put a sign on our gate-post Hallowe’en, ‘Puppies for sale.’ And one of them wrote on it to buy me because I was the only puppy left. I asked Hal who wrote it and he wouldn’t tell me. He said he was willing to stand for whatever any one of the bunch did.”
“Well, he was a pretty good sport, wasn’t he?”
“Yes; if you look at it that way.”
“But that’s the way to look at it, isn’t it? And when he wouldn’t tell you, you got mad and punched him, didn’t you?”
“Not exactly, but I jumped for him.”