"Hoh!" snorted the admonished Tom. But his mother pushed him out of the room and retired herself without making the boarder any reply. In the cold hall she hissed into the enraged Tom's ear: "_Now_ see what you've done! You want me to lose his board money, do ye, you good-for-nothin'? 'Twixt you an' that gal----" "Yah!" snarled Tom, for once openly antagonizing her, "there ain't nothin' out of the way between me an' Pearly. It's what is between her an' that city feller." "What do you care, Tom Petty?" "I do care. Pearly ain't for him----" "Nor she ain't for you," snapped his mother. "I'll have her if I want," blustered her son, his pale eyes gleaming. "I'll put her out of the house as sure as mornin' comes!" panted Sarah Petty. "An' I'll go with her," declared Tom. "You do, and you'll go for good," she threatened. "Aw, what d'you s'pose I'd care?" he sneered, knowing full well his strength with her. "You ain't got nothin' here I can't get along without. You say yourself Uncle Jonah can take most of it away from you if he has that note of grandpop's, and is so minded." "Sh!" she commanded fiercely. "I won't 'sh!' for you," he growled. "Who do you think you're talkin' to--a kid?" He grumbled on, following her down the stairs and back to the kitchen to which Pearl had preceded them. Orrin Petty, iron-rimmed glasses perched on nose, was reading the _Paulmouth Argus_ beside the kitchen lamp. Pearl stood defiantly, with clenched fists, in the middle of the room. "You--you little rat!" gasped Sarah Petty, hoarsely, bursting into the kitchen and approaching the girl with an energy that seemed to precede a blow. "Don't you strike me, Miz Petty!" cried Pearl, stepping back a pace. "Don't you ever strike me again! I'm too old for that and I won't stand it." "Hoity-toity!" exclaimed Orrin, dropping his paper. "What a long tail our old cat's got! Can't you women folks give us no peace at all?" Tom slouched into the kitchen without a word. Sarah Petty seemed poised like a rattlesnake, ready to strike. But there was something in the girl's attitude that held the woman back. "You didn't have no call to speak to me the way you did before Mr. Helmford," said Pearl, her voice shrill. "I work for you, but I'm not your slave." "You're a pauper!" hissed Sarah Petty. "You're beholden for your food and drink to me an' your uncle----" "He isn't my uncle!" declared Pearl fiercely. "And you are not related to me, either. Nor Tom." "Why, you impudent little baggage!" Sarah Petty gasped. "And if you don't want me here, I can find some other place to work," went on Pearl desperately. "I'm not beholden to you from choice, and you know it." "What's the matter? What's the matter?" inquired Orrin Petty again. "This ungrateful baggage!" cried his wife. "I told you often enough, Orrin Petty, you'd never ought to brought her home. She's a temptation an' a stumbling-block to our Tom----"