man who is a
chronic growler and opposed to you." There was the evident suggestion
of a sneer in Mogridge's voice.

"Well, I suppose I might look at it that way. I took him up when he
hadn't a friend."

"Pardon me, but I do not see how one might look at it in any other
way. A fellow who will do as you say he is doing, is an ingrate."

The squire frowned, but made no reply, and Henry Mogridge smiled
unpleasantly, for he saw that his words were surely poisoning his
uncle's thoughts respecting the Allisons.

CHAPTER II

SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE TROUBLES

Mogridge's sneers went to bed with the squire and arose with him in
the morning. The thought that a man whom he had befriended was
opposing him rankled deeply. And while in this irritable condition one
of the first persons the squire met was David Allison, who had come
early to work on the accounts.

"Good morning, Allison," was the squire's greeting, spoken gruffly.

"Good morning, Squire Danesford," replied the Scotchman. "I thought I
wad coom early an' ha' the work oot o' the way."

"So as to have time for carrying on your treasonable mischief, I
suppose."

"Excuse me, Squire, but I dinna think I understand."

"D'ye think I don't know that you go about preaching the pernicious
doctrines of Patrick Henry and Tom Jefferson, who sports on his seal
that sentiment of the demagogue: 'Resistance to tyrants is obedience
to God.' Who's the tyrant? Why, our most gracious sovereign! That sort
of talk is nothing short of treasonable. The purpose of it is
revolution. Oh, I know!"

Allison looked at the squire in wonderment, which apparently served to
further excite the squire's rage, for he, without waiting for reply,
exclaimed: "There soon will come a time when the traitors will have to
eat their words. When she was ready, England put her powerful hand on
the Indies, and they became hers. She reached out into Canada and,
taking France by the coat collar, marched her out. When she feels like
it, she'll devote some spare half hour to knocking your heads
together."

The bent figure of the Scotchman straightened as he looked full in the
face of his employer. "You misunderstand me, Squire; I only ask that
England shall treat the colonists as she would treat Englishmen, for
that is what we are. But for us she wad na' found the task o' running
France out of Canada an easy one. I fought for England in that war as
surely as I did for the colonies an' I dinna intend to