"Have you got another cane you'd like to have broken?" asked Robert, significantly.
Halbert looked after him, enviously, as he rowed the boat out into the stream. He had asked his father to buy him a boat, but the superintendent's speculations had not turned out very well of late, and he had been deaf to his son's persuasions, backed, though they were, by his mother's influence. When Halbert heard that William Paine was going to boarding school, he decided to ask him for the loan of his boat during his absence, as the next best thing. Now, it seemed that he had been forestalled, and by the boy he hated. He resolved to see young Paine himself, and offer him two dollars for the use of his boat during the coming term. Then he would have the double satisfaction of using the boat and disappointing Robert.
He made his way to the house of Squire Paine, and, after a brief pause, was admitted. He was shown into the parlor, and Will Paine came down to see him.
"How are you, Davis?" he said, nodding, coolly, but not offering his hand.
"I hear you are going to boarding school?"
"Yes; I go to-morrow."
"I suppose you won't take your boat with you?"
"No."
"I'll give you two dollars for the use of it; the next three months?"
"I can't accept your offer. Robert Rushton is to have it."