had you to meddle with my property?" demanded Ezekiel,
furiously.

"It was a kind of property that don't make any man the richer," replied
the youth.

"Who told you to do it?" asked the inebriate, glancing at his wife.

"No one told me, and no one knew anything about it."

"Then I'll teach you to steal my property! I'll take it out of your
hide, you rascal."

"There isn't any of it in my hide, and I don't mean there ever shall
be."

Ezekiel took down a clothes-stick which was hanging against the wall,
and with it he made a dive and a plunge at Robert. The boy was too
active to be caught by a man whose footing was none too steady. He
easily dodged the blows which were aimed at him, till the tippler, out
of breath from his exertions, placed himself before the door to prevent
the escape of the culprit, and there rested himself from the fatigue of
the onslaught.

"Don't you strike that boy," said Mrs. Taylor, warmly; and she had
before essayed to suspend the strife.

"Yes I will! I'll flog him within an inch of his life. I'll teach him to
meddle with my property," gasped Ezekiel.

"If you do, I'll leave this house, and never come into it again. I won't
have no such goings on where I am," said the woman, warmly and
energetically.

"That's right, mother; you leave," added Robert, who had remained in the
room only to turn the wrath of the husband from her to himself.

"He shan't hurt you, Robert. I'll stand up for you to the end," added
Mrs. Taylor, as she passed into her chamber, which was next to the
"living-room."

"I don't care who goes, nor who stays. I ain't a going to have any such
works as this," continued Ezekiel, as he gathered himself up for another
attack. "I ain't a going to have my property, that cost money,
destroyed, and you won't want to do such a thing again, I can tell you."

The angry man rushed towards Robert, who stood near the door which
opened into the front entry; but he knew that it was locked, and so he
did not attempt to escape in that direction. Being in the corner, his
furious assailant attempted to pin him there; but Robert, by a flank
movement, reached the door which led to the wood-shed, and passed out.
He was closely pursued by Ezekiel; but the tipsy man might as well have
attempted to catch a wild antelope. The boy dodged around the wood-shed
and other buildings till he had thrown his pursuer off the track; then
he went to the back window of his mother's chamber to assure him