"Come here, I say, and place yourself across my knee."
"Not this time, dad."
If Zebedee had drawn a pistol and shot at his father that worthy could not have been more astonished. He almost dropped the stick.
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I say. You are never going to beat me again."
"What?"
"Just what I say, dad. I'm going to make a bargain with you. You swear that you will never hit me again and I'll make you a rich man."
Ezekiel dropped the stick.
He opened his ponderous jaws and looked at his eldest son much as he might at a wild beast.
"You—what?"