JOSHUA STIRS UP THE WRONG CUSTOMER.
When Walter went into the house to dinner, the appearance of the table
indicated the truth of what Joshua had told him. Since Mr. Drummond had
ascertained the pecuniary position of his visitor, he no longer felt it
incumbent upon him to keep up appearances. Corned beef and potatoes, and
bread without butter, constituted the mid-day meal. This certainly
differed considerably from the supper and breakfast of which Walter had
partaken.
"Sit right down, Conrad," said Mr. Drummond. "Eat your dinner as fast as
you can, and go back to the store."
It did not take Walter long to eat his dinner. Corned beef he had never
liked, though now, having no choice, he managed to eat a little.
"If you're through, you needn't wait for me," said Mr. Drummond. "We
don't stand on ceremony here. Tell Nichols he may go to his dinner.
I'll be right over; so, if there are any customers you can't wait on,
ask them to wait."
In the evening Walter found that his carpet-bag had been removed from
the spare chamber to a small, uncarpeted back room, furnished with the
barest necessaries.
He smiled to himself.
"I shan't be in danger of forgetting my change of circumstances," he
said to himself.
He was tired, however, and, though the bed was harder than he had ever
before slept on, he managed to sleep soundly. He was waked up early by
Mr. Drummond.
"Hurry up, Conrad!" said that gentleman, unceremoniously. "I want you to
be up within fifteen minutes to open the store."
Walter jumped out of bed and hurriedly dressed. His position was so new
that he did not at first realize it. When he did reflect that he was
working for his board in a country store, he hardly knew whether to feel
glad or sorry. He had begun to earn his living, and this was
satisfactory; but he was working for a man whom he could neither like
nor respect, and his pay was very poor of its kind. That was not so
agreeable.
Walter was not a glutton, nor inordinately fond of good living, but he
had the appetite of a healthy boy, and when he entered the room where
breakfast was spread (this was after he had been in the store an hour),
he did wish that there had been something on the table besides the
remains of the corned beef and a plate of bread and butter.
"Do you take sugar and milk in your tea, Walter?" asked Mrs. Drummond.
"If you please."
"I don't take either," remarked Mr. Drummond. "It's only a habit, and an
expensive one. If you'd try going without for a week, you would cure
yourself of the habit."
"How intolerably mean he is!" thought Walter, for he understood very
well that the only consideration in Mr. Drummond's mind was the expense.
"I don't think I shall ever learn to go without milk and sugar," said
Walter, quietly, not feeling disposed to humor his employer in this
little meanness.
"There isn't anything fit to eat on the table," grumbled Joshua, looking
about him discontentedly.
"You are always complaining," said his father, sharply. "If you earned
your breakfast, you wouldn't be so particular."
"Why can't you have beefsteak once in a while, instead of corned beef?
I'm sick to death of corned beef."
"We shall have some beefsteak on Sunday morning, and not till then. I
don't mean to pamper your appetite."
"That's so!" said Joshua. "Not much danger of that."
"If you are not satisfied, you can go without."
"I will, then," said Joshua, rising from the table.
He knew very well that as soon as his father had gone to the store he
could get something better from his mother.
It had been a considerable disappointment to Joshua to find that Walter
was poor instead of rich, for he had proposed to make as free use of
Walter's purse as the latter would permit. Even now it occurred to him
that Walter might have a supply of ready money, a part of which he might
borrow. He accordingly took an opportunity during the day to sound our
hero on this subject.
"Walter, have you a couple of dollars about you to lend me for a day or
two?" he asked, in a tone of assumed carelessness.
"Yes, I have that amount of money, but I am afraid I must decline
lending."
"Why shouldn't you lend me? It's only for a day or two."
But Walter knew very well Joshua's small allowance, and that he would
not be able to return a loan of that amount, even if he were desirous of
so doing, and he judged Joshua so well that he doubted whether he would
have any such desire.
"You know my circumstances, Joshua," he said, "and that I am in no
position to lend anybody money."
"Two dollars isn't much. You said you had it."
"Yes, I have it; but I must take care of what little I have. I am
working for my board, as you know, and have got to provide for all my
other expenses myself; therefore I shall need all my money."
"You talk as if I wanted you to _give_ me the money. I only asked you to
lend it."
"That's about the same thing," thought Walter; but he only said, "Why
don't you ask your father for the money?"
"Because he wouldn't give it to me. He's as mean as dirt."
"Then where would you get the money to repay me in case I lent it to
you?"
"You're just as mean as he is," exclaimed Joshua, angrily, not caring to
answer this question. "A mighty fuss you make about lending a fellow a
couple of dollars!"
"It makes no particular difference to me whether you think me mean or
not," said Walter. "I have got to be richer than I am now before I lend
money."
Joshua stalked away in a fret, angry that Walter would not permit
himself to be swindled. From that time he cherished a dislike to our
hero, and this he showed by various little slights and annoyances, of
which Walter took little notice. He thoroughly despised Joshua for his
meanness and selfishness, and it mattered very little to him what such a
boy thought of him.
This forbearance Joshua utterly misinterpreted. He decided that Walter
was deficient in courage and spirit, and it encouraged him to persevere
in his system of petty annoyances until they might almost be called
bullying. Though Walter kept quiet under these provocations, there was
often a warning flash of the eye which showed that it would not be safe
to go too far. But this Joshua did not notice, and persisted.
"Joshua," said his mother one day, "I really think you don't treat
Walter right. You are not polite to him."
"Why should I be? What is he but a beggar?"
"He is not that, for he works for his living."
"At any rate he's a mean fellow, and I shall treat him as I please."
But one day matters came to a climax.
One afternoon there were a few young fellows standing on the piazza in
front of Mr. Drummond's store. Joshua was one of them, and there being
no customers to wait upon, Walter also had joined the company. They were
discussing plans for a picnic to be held in the woods on the next
Saturday afternoon. It was to be quite a general affair.
"You will come, Walter, won't you?" asked one of the number.
"No," said Joshua; "he can't come."
"I didn't authorize you to speak for me," said Walter, quietly.
"You didn't authorize me to speak for you?" repeated Joshua, in a
mocking tone. "Big words for a beggar!"
"What do you mean by calling me a beggar?" demanded Walter, quietly, but
with rising color.
"I don't choose to give you any explanation," said Joshua, scornfully.
"You're only my father's hired boy, working for your board."
"That may be true, but I am not a beggar, and I advise you not to call
me one again."
Walter's tone was still quiet, and Joshua wholly misunderstood him;
otherwise, being a coward at heart, he would have desisted.
"I'll say it as often as I please," he repeated. "You're a beggar, and
if we hadn't taken pity on you, you'd have had to go to the poor-house."
Walter was not quarrelsome; but this last insult, in presence of
half-a-dozen boys between his own age and Joshua's, roused him.
"Joshua Drummond," he said, "you've insulted me long enough, and I've
stood it, for I didn't want to quarrel; but I will stand it no longer."
He walked up to Joshua, and struck him in the face, not a hard blow, but
still a blow.
Joshua turned white with passion, and advanced upon our hero furiously,
with the intention of giving him, as he expressed it, the worst whipping
he ever had.
Walter parried his blow, and put in another, this time sharp and
stinging. Joshua was an inch or two taller, but Walter was more than a
match for him. Joshua threw out his arms, delivering his blows at
random, and most of them failed of effect. Indeed, he was so blinded
with rage, that Walter, who kept cool, had from this cause alone a great
advantage over him. Joshua at length seized him, and he was compelled
to throw him down. As Joshua lay prostrate, with Walter's knee upon his
breast, Mr. Drummond, who had gone over to his own house, appeared upon
the scene.
"What's all this?" he demanded in mingled surprise and anger. "Conrad,
what means this outrageous conduct?"
Walter rose, and, turning to his employer, said, manfully, "Joshua
insulted me, sir, and I have punished him. That's all!"