"I don't see why you hate me so," said the boy wonderingly, checking the too frolicsome adventures of the puppies in the direction of the hounds."I've always liked you, you know, even before you saved my life--because you're the straightest shot and the best trainer of hounds about here.Grandpa says I mustn't have anything to do with you, but I will anyway, if I please.""Oh, you will, will you?" was Christopher's rejoinder, as he surveyed him with the humorous contempt which the strong so often feel for the weak of the same sex."Well, I suppose I'll have my say in the matter, and strangely enough I'm on your grandfather's side.The clearer you keep of me the better it will be for you, my man.""That's just like grandpa all over again," protested the boy; and when it comes to that, he needn't know anything about it--he doesn't know half that I do, anyway; he blusters so about things."Christopher's gaze returned slowly from the landscape and rested inquiringly upon the youthful features before him, seeking in them some definite promise of the future.The girlish look of the mouth irritated him ludicrously, and half-forgotten words of Carraway's awoke within his memory.
"Fletcher loves but one thing on this earth, and his ambition is that the boy shall be respected in the county." A Fletcher respected in the very stronghold of a Blake! He laughed aloud, and then spoke hurriedly as if to explain the surprising mirth in his outburst.
"So you came to pay a visit to your nearest neighbour and are afraid your grandfather will find it out? Then you'll get a spanking, I dare say."Will blushed furiously, and stood awkwardly scraping up a pile of sand with the sole of his boot."I'm not a baby," he blurted out at last, "and I'll go where I like, whatever he says.""He keeps a pretty close watch over you, I reckon.Perhaps he's afraid you'll become a man and step into his shoes before he knows it.""Oh, he can't find me out, all the same," said the boy slyly."He thinks I've gone over to Mr.Morrison's now to do my Greek--he's crazy about my learning Greek, and I hate it--and, you bet your life, he'll be hopping mad if he finds I've given him the slip.""He will, will he?" remarked Christopher, and the thought appeared to afford him a peculiar satisfaction.For the first time the frown left his brow and his tone lost its insolent contempt.Then he came forward suddenly and laid his hand upon the gate."Well, I can't waste my morning," he said."You'd better run back home and play the piano.I'm off.""I don't play the piano--I'm not a girl," declared the boy; "and what I want is to get you to train my hounds for me.I'd like to go hunting with you to-day.""Oh, I can't be bothered with babies," sneered Christopher in reply."You'd fall down, most likely, and scratch your knees on the briers, and then you'd run straight home to blab to Fletcher.""I won't!" cried Will angrily."I'll never blab.He'd be too mad, I tell you, if he found it out.""Well, I don't want you anyhow, so get out of my way.You'd better look sharp after your pups or the hounds will chew them up."The boy stood midway of the road, kicking the dust impatiently ahead of him.His lips quivered with disappointment, and the expression gave them a singularly wistful beauty."I'll give you all my pocket money if you'll take me with you," he pleaded suddenly, stretching out a handful of silver.
With a snarl Christopher pushed his arm roughly aside."Put up your money, you fool," he said; "I don't want it.""Oh, you don't, don't you?" taunted the other, raging with wounded pride."Why, grandpa says you're as poor as Job's turkey after it was plucked."It was an old joke of Fletcher's, who, in giving utterance to it, little thought of the purpose it would finally be made to serve, for Christopher, halting suddenly at the words, swung round in the cloud of dust and stood regarding the grandson of his enemy with a thoughtful and troubled look.The lawyer's words sounded so distinctly in his ears that he glanced at the boy with a start, fearing that they had been spoken aloud: "His grandson is the sole living thing that Fletcher loves." Again the recollection brought a laugh from him, which he carelessly threw off upon the frolics of the puppies.Then the frown settled slowly back upon his brow, and the brutal look, which Carraway had found so disfiguring, crept out about his mouth.
"I tell you honestly," he said gruffly, "that if you knew what was good for you, you'd scoot back along that road a good deal faster than you came.If you're such a headstrong fool as to want to come with me, however, I reckon you may do it.One thing, though, I'll have no puling ways."The boy jumped with pleasure."Why, I knew all the time I'd get around you," he answered.
"I always do when I try; and may I shoot some with your shotgun?""I'll teach you, perhaps."
"When? Shall we start now? Call the dogs together--they're nosing in the ditch."Without taking the trouble to reply, Christopher strode off briskly along the road, and after waiting a moment to assemble his scattered puppies, Will caught up with him and broke into a running pace at his side.As they swung onward the two shadows--the long one and the short one--stretched straight and black behind them in the sunlight.
"You're the biggest man about here, aren't you?" the boy asked suddenly, glancing upward with frank admiration.
"I dare say.What of it?"
"Oh, nothing; and your father was the biggest man of his time, Sol Peterkin says; and Aunt Mehitable remembers your grandfather, and he was the tallest man alive in his day.Who'll be the biggest when you die, I wonder? And, I say, isn't it a pity that such tall men had to live in such a little old house--I don't see how they ever got in the doors without stooping.Do you have to stoop when you go in and out?"Christopher nodded.
