utside witness, I would
prosecute you for libel."

The squire winced. This was an attack he had never once dreamed of. He had
thought to bulldoze the widow and her son, but he was getting decidedly the
worse of the encounter.

"I know what I am talking about," he began, lamely, but Ralph cut him
short.

"So do I know what I am talking about, Squire Paget. You are down on us for
some reason; I have not yet found out what, but I will some day; and you
are doing your best to make endless trouble for us. But I am not going to
stand it. We are poor, but we have our rights as well as the rich."

"You rascal! I'll----"

"I want you to stop calling me a rascal and a vagabond. I might as well
call you a wooden-head, a shyster lawyer, and a lot more."

"Oh, Ralph!" pleaded Mrs. Nelson.

"No, mother, he shall not come here to worry and insult you. I will give
him fair warning now. If he does it again I'll pitch him out of the house."

"You--you," spluttered the squire.

He was so mad he could get no further.

"There is the front door," went on the boy, walking forward and opening it.
"The best thing you can do is to get on the other side of it just as quick
as you can."

The squire was livid. He wanted to say something awful, something that
would crush the fearless lad before him--but the words would not come. He
caught up his silk hat and waved it fiercely in the face of Ralph and his
mother.

"You'll rue this, both of you! Mark my words!" he fairly hissed, and the
next moment he had disappeared into the darkness of the night.

CHAPTER XXII.

RALPH'S NEW SITUATION.

After the squire had vanished Ralph closed the front door and locked it. He
returned to the sitting-room to find his mother pale and trembling. Unable
to stand, the poor woman had sunk back on the lounge.

"Oh, Ralph!" was all she could say just then.

"Don't look so scared, mother," he replied, soothingly. "He has gone now."

"Oh, my boy, how could you?" she went on, half in reproach, and yet
secretly admiring his courage.

"I wouldn't have done it had he not cast a slur on your fair name, mother.
I might have stood what he said against me, but I'll never allow any one to
say one word against you, never."

And the look he gave her out of his honest eyes showed that he meant what
he said.

"But the squire! What will he do now?"

"I don't care what he does. We haven't done wrong, so what can he do?"

"He is influential."

"So is