“I can’t do anything more, then. I know nothing about the blow-up, and I won’t go down on my knees to anybody in this world.”
“You are an obstinate villain, and I’ll bring you to your senses before I have done with you. Where is your father?”
“Gone to Hitaca.”
“Will you come down now, or shall I have you brought down?”
“I’ll be brought down, if it’s all the same to you, sir,” I replied, folding my arms, and looking as impudent as I spoke.
I felt that I had given my mother’s good advice a fair trial. I had gained nothing by apologizing, though I was not sorry I had done so. The more I humiliated myself, the more I must; and, without meaning to be saucy, I determined to stand up squarely for my own rights and my own dignity.
“I’ll bring him down, if you say so, father,” volunteered the Wimpleton junior.
“How?”
“We can drive him out of the tree, as we did off the bridge.”
“Exactly so!” exclaimed Captain Synders. “That’s a good idea. Since neither words nor grass will do, we’ll try what virtue’s in a stone or two.”