Tad did not even glance at Mrs. Poole, but deliberately gathered up the coins and pocketed them, saying:
"Then, since you don't want my earnin's, dad, I'll keep 'em, for from to-day I'm a-goin' to feed myself."
And not waiting to hear any more, he went upstairs to his little garret room, and bolted himself in to brood over his wrongs, and think out some way of escape from the influences of a home that had grown so hateful.
[CHAPTER II]
PLANNING REVENGE
NO sleep did Tad get that night, tired though he was. He was thinking so hard that he could not close his eyes. Things had come to a climax at last, and something must be done. His stepmother and he hated each other cordially, and his efforts to stand up for the children only made matters worse both for himself and them.
There were only two courses open to Tad now, and to one of these he must commit himself on the following day. Either he must eat humble pie, submit his will entirely to his stepmother, and have no choice of his own in anything, or he must go quite away, away as far as he could—and try to shift for himself.
The thought of remaining at home, to be sneered at, and scolded, and abused by Mrs. Poole, was intolerable. The idea of submitting to her, and thus acknowledging her authority, he put from him as altogether too bitter a pill to be swallowed. There remained, then, only the other alternative, and that was to cut adrift from all his belongings, and go away.
The thing that troubled him most about this plan, next to leaving little Bert and Nell, was that he knew it would be nothing but a delight to Mrs. Poole to get rid of him, and he could not bear to give her pleasure even by carrying out this plan of his own.
"I'd like oncommon to punish her—punish her well!" said the boy to himself, as he tossed uneasily on his bed and stared before him into the darkness. "I'd like to make her real unhappy as she's always makin' us. Go away I'm bound to, but I must do something beside as 'll make her laugh t'other side of her mouth."