“I won’t hurt him much, dad!” said Ben, opening his mouth in a good-natured grin.
“Of course it’s all in fun,” rejoined Noel Brooke smiling.
“Sartin! But you’d best consider what you’re a undertakin’ before you begin.”
“I have done that.”
“It’s like a boy standin’ up against me.”
“So I am a boy, am I?” asked Brooke with a smile at Gerald.
“You ain’t much bigger’n a boy, that’s a fact. My Ben was as big as you when he was only fifteen years old. Wasn’t you, Ben?”
“I was as big as him when I was fourteen, dad.”
“That’s so. You see, stranger, we’re a big race—we Peterses. Ben takes after the old man. When I was fifteen year old I could do a man’s work.”