"All right! It will give me pleasure. It always does me good to see your pa."
Percy looked at him critically, and thought that Mr. Fogson was about as homely a man as he had ever seen. It was fortunate that the keeper of the poorhouse could not read his thoughts, for, like most ugly men, Mr. Fogson thought himself on the whole rather prepossessing.
Fogson took his place beside Percy, and curtly desired Jed to walk behind.
Jed smiled to himself, for he understood that Mr. Fogson considered him not entitled to a place in such superior company.
Mr. Fogson addressed several questions to Percy, which the latter answered languidly, as if he considered it rather a bore to be entertained by a man in Fogson's position. Indeed he almost snubbed him, and Jed was pleased to find the man who made so many unpleasant speeches to others treated in the same manner himself. As a general thing, a man who bullies others has to take his turn in being bullied himself.
Meanwhile Mrs. Fogson was chatting with Squire Dixon.
"Nobody can tell what I have to put up with from them paupers," she said. "You'd actilly think they paid their board by the way they talk. The fact is, the Averys pampered and indulged them altogether too much."
"That is so, Mrs. Fogson," said the squire pompously, "and that, I may remark, was the reason I dismissed them from their responsible position. Do they—ahem!—complain of anything in particular?"
"Why, they want butter every day!" exclaimed Mrs. Fogson. "Think of it! Butter every day for paupers!"
"As you justly observe, this is very unreasonable. And how often do you give them butter?"