"Went to wash your face, did yer? Want to set yourself up for a dandy, I suppose, and think that you must souse that speckled face of yours into every brook you come to? I'll soon break you of that; and the sooner you understand that I can't afford to have you wasting your time in washing, the better it will be for you."
Toby now grew angry, and not realizing how wholly he was in this man's power, he retorted: "If you think I'm going round with a dirty face, even if it is speckled, for a dollar a week, you're mistaken, that's all. How many folks would eat your candy if they knew you handled it over before you washed your hands?"
"Oho! I've picked up a preacher, have I? Now I want you to understand, my bantam, that I do all the preaching as well as the practicing myself, and this is about as quick a way as I know of to make you understand it."
As the man spoke he grasped the boy by the coat collar with one hand, and with the other he plied a thin rubber cane with no gentle force to every portion of Toby's body that he could reach.
Every blow caused the poor boy the most intense pain, but he determined that his tormentor should not have the satisfaction of forcing an outcry from him, and he closed his teeth so tightly that not a single sound could escape from his mouth.
This very silence enraged the man so much that he redoubled the force and rapidity of his blows, and it is impossible to say what might have been the consequences had not Ben come that way just then, and changed the aspect of affairs.
"Up to your old tricks of whipping the boys, are you, Job?" he said, as he wrested the cane from the man's hand, and held him off at arm's-length to prevent him from doing Toby any more mischief.
Mr. Lord struggled to release himself, and insisted that since the boy was in his employ, he should do with him just as he saw fit.
"Now look here, Mr. Lord," said Ben, as gravely as if he was delivering some profound piece of wisdom: "I've never interfered with you before; but now I'm going to stop your games of thrashing your boy every morning before breakfast. You just tell this youngster what you want him to do, and if he don't do it, you can discharge him. If I hear of your flogging him, I shall attend to your case at once. You hear me?"
Ben shook the now terrified candy vender much as if he had been a child, and then released him, saying to Toby as he did so, "Now, my boy, you attend to your business as you ought to, and I'll settle his account if he tries the flogging game again."