“Good work, son,” laughed a grizzled old farmer, sitting across the aisle. “That’s the way to take the wind out of his sails.”
“What you got to say about it?” growled Andy, glaring at him.
“Whatever I choose to,” was the answer, “and there’ll be plenty more to say if you give me any of your impudence.”
Andy subsided, but for the rest of the journey his little eyes glowered with rage as he kept them fixed on the boys in front.
“He’s a sweet specimen, isn’t he?” chuckled Teddy.
“I’d hate to have to live under the same roof with him,” answered Fred, little thinking that for the next nine months they would have to do just that thing.
“Starting off with a scrap the first thing!” laughed Ted. “Wonder what mother would say to that?”
“I think she’d say we did just right,” answered Fred, “and I’m dead sure that father would.”
Nothing further happened to mar the pleasure of their journey. The country through which the train was passing was entirely new to the boys, and, in the ever changing panorama that flew past the windows, they soon became so absorbed, that they almost forgot the existence of their unpleasant fellow-traveler.
“Green Haven the next stop!” sang out the brakeman.