"Dust off my desk, and be quick about it."
Paul did as he was directed.
"Now go to the post-office. Wait, here is the key to our box."
Paul went and returned immediately, making unusually good time, but it is easy for an unreasonable man to find fault, if he has fully made up his mind to do so.
"What made you so long?" demanded the book-keeper, irascibly.
Paul was provoked, and had no hesitation in showing his sense of the book-keeper's unreasonableness.
"Because I haven't wings, or seven league boots," he answered, coolly.
"How do you dare speak thus to me?" demanded Manson, in a rage.
"Because, sir, neither you nor any one else can make better time without running."
As Paul said this, he looked Mr. Manson in the eye, and Manson saw that the boy did not mean to be imposed upon. But he did not propose to relinquish his habit of finding fault readily.