“You will find me so every time you try to trample on me,” declared George, boldly. “I don’t know why you should want to take my herd away from me, but I do know there’s not a man on the place who would help you do it. Ah! I forgot you,” thought George, as his eye fell upon the Mexican cook, who just then crossed the yard, walking slowly and carrying his head on one side as if he were trying to overhear what passed between Uncle John and his nephew. “I believe that you are mean enough to do anything, Master Philip!” “I intend that you shall obey me,” replied Uncle John, “and if you will not do it willingly, you must do it unwillingly. I shall discharge Zeke at once.” “I don’t see how you can do that,” thought George, as Uncle John turned on his heel and walked into the house, “for you don’t pay him his wages. I don’t see how you are going to take my cattle away from me either, for the first thing will be to find them, and what would Zeke and I be doing while you were trying to drive them away? I should call it robbery, and I wouldn’t submit to it.” The emphatic manner in which the boy nodded his head as he said this, and the look of determination that settled on his face would have surprised Uncle John if he could have seen them. The boy was resolved to hold fast to his property and to stubbornly resist any attempt that might be made to deprive him of it. It would be an act of gross injustice to take his earnings away from him, and George found it hard to believe that his uncle could think seriously of such a thing. “If he tries it, it will only be in keeping with other mean things he has done since he has been here,” said George. “He and Ned are coming down on me harder and harder every month, and I should like to know what they mean by it.” George seemed to put a little more energy into his work as he turned these matters over in his mind, and when at last the bridle was finished he threw it upon the porch, put the awl and what was left of the waxed-end ‘carefully away in a box that lay beside him on the ground, and taking the box in his hand started toward a little shed which stood a short distance in the rear of the house.