ng to this, father," he said, in a stern whisper; "you leave it
alone."

"I ain't goin' to stan' by an' see you givin' twice as much for eggs
as they're worth 'cause it's a gal you're tradin' with. That wa'n't
never my way of doin' business, an' I ain't goin' to have it done in
my store. I shouldn't have laid up a cent if I'd managed any such
ways, an' I ain't goin' to see my hard earnin's wasted by you. You
give her a pound and a half of sugar for them eggs and a cent to
boot."

"You sha'n't lose anything by it, father," said William, fiercely.
"You leave me alone."

The sugar-barrel stood quite near. William strode over to it, and
plunged in the great scoop with a grating noise. He heaped it
recklessly on some paper, and laid it on the steelyards.

"Don't give me more'n a pound and a half," Rebecca said, softly.

"Keep still," Rose whispered in her ear.

Silas pushed forward, and bent over the steelyards. "You've weighed
out nigh three," he began. Then his son's face suddenly confronted
his, and he stopped talking and stood back.

Almost involuntarily at times Silas Berry yielded to the combination
of mental and superior physical force in his son. While his own mind
had lost nothing of its vigor, his bodily weakness made him
distrustful of it sometimes, when his son towered over him in what
seemed the might of his own lost strength and youth, brandishing his
own old weapons.

William tied up the sugar neatly; then he took the eggs from
Rebecca's basket, and put the parcel in their place. Silas began
lifting the eggs from the box in which William had put them, and
counted them eagerly.

"There ain't but twenty-three eggs here," he called out, as Rebecca
and Rose turned away, and William was edging after them from behind
the counter.

"I thought there were two dozen," Rebecca responded, in a distressed
voice.

"Of course there are two dozen," said Rose, promptly. "You 'ain't
counted 'em right, father. Go along, Rebecca; it's all right."

"I tell ye it ain't," said Silas. "There ain't but twenty-three. It's
bad enough to be payin' twice what they're wuth for eggs, without
havin' of 'em come short."

"I tell you I counted 'em twice over, and they're all right. You keep
still, father," said William's voice at his ear, in a fierce whisper,
and Silas subsided into sullen mutterings.

William had meditated following Rebecca to the door; he had even
meditated going farther; but now he stood back behind the