“I heerd somethin’ but ’twan’t no motorcycles,” said Nathaniel Knapp; “’twas a auto or I’m crazy.”
Then spoke Beriah Bungel, sticking his thumbs into his suspenders so that his rusty-colored coat flapped open showing his imposing badge, “They wouldn’ never come this way, they wouldn’, when they got th’ highway ter go on. They hit inter th’ highway from Baxter, that’s what they done. Them fellers hez con-federates waitin’ across th’ state line with Noo York license plates. They made th’ line last night; them fellers gits as fur as they kin on the first go off. Waal, haow’s re-freshments?” he added, turning upon Pee-wee.
“You ought to know,” Pee-wee piped up; “you took enough of them.” Which caused a laugh among the store loungers.
“When I wuz a youngster if I sassed my elders I got the hickory stick,” Beriah said.
“Yes, and when you grew up you got the peppermint sticks and doughnuts and things,” Pee-wee shot back.
At this Darius Dragg and Nathaniel Knapp laughed uproariously. Constable Bungel saw but one way out of his rather embarrassing situation and that was the old approved device of a box on the ears. The official slap sounded loud in the little post office and left Pee-wee’s cheek and ear tingling.
“I’ll learn yer haow to answer back yer superiors,” said Constable Bungel. “We daon’t relish sass from city youngsters daown here, you mind that. Naow yer git along aouter here n’ tell yer uncle ter learn yer some manners n’ re-spect fer th’ law.”
Pee-wee faced him, his cheek flushed, his eyes blazing. “You’re a—you’re a—coward—and a thief—that’s what you are,” he shouted. “You—you—haven’t got brains enough to find two—two —motorcycles—you haven’t—all you can do is stand around and eat things that other people are trying to sell! You’re a coward and a—a fool—and you owe us as much as—a—a dollar. You’d better button your coat up or you’ll—you’ll be stealing your own watch—you—you coward!”
With this rebuke, which left Beriah gaping, Pee-wee started home, holding a hand to his cheek. He was trying hard not to cry, not from pain, but from the indignity he had suffered. He had never known such a thing in all his life before. He felt shamed, humiliated. His whole sturdy little form trembled at the thought of such degradation at the hands of a stranger....