“Hah! he goin’ to pay you?” demanded the boy, pointing with a dingy thumb toward the house.
At the word “pay,” Joel straightened up. “Yes,” he said, feeling very big and important.
“How much?” the boy looking over the railing cried eagerly, his green eyes glistening.
“I don’t know,” said Joel.
“Hah, hah, hah! You are a greeny,” cried the other boy. Then he doubled up with laughing, and slapped his patched knee.
“Stop your laughing,” cried Joel, lifting a face that would have looked very red, could it have been seen for the mud.
At this, the other boy laughed harder than ever.
“If you don’t stop laughing, I’ll come up and punch you,” cried Joel, forgetting all about Mamsie and what she had told him, and he lifted black, wrathful eyes that snapped vengeance.
But the other boy, preferring to keep on laughing, did so, until he rolled on the mangy grass, holding his sides, only to hop to his feet, when he saw a small but determined figure advancing dangerously near.
“I’m going to punch you,” announced Joel, his fists in two hard little knots; “I said I would.”