“Misder Redink, please!” begged Moses Shuder, more meekly than before. “I do not ask you to sell. Only my rights I ask it of any man. It is my lead. Misder Redink, please, I do not say you are a thief--” “Well, dod-baste you!” cried Harvey, swelling. “Zhust a minute, please, Misder Redink,” begged Shuder. “Mit my own money I bought this lead, I assure you, and put it in my junkyard, Misder Redink, but that I should get you arrested I never so much as gave it a thought, Misder Redink, believe me! Why should I, Misder Redink? Do I blame you? No! If your boy stoled it from me--” “What?” Harvey shouted, taking a step toward Shuder. “Please, Misder Redink! Should I say it if I did not see it with my own two eyes? Climbing over my fence.” “You're a liar.” Shuder shrugged his shoulders. “No, Misder Redink; Rebecca could tell you the same story. I ain't sore, Misder Redink. Boys would be boys, always. It is right I should watch my yard. But my lead is my lead, Misder Redink. That your boy Lemuel should steal it from me is nothing. But I should have my lead back, Misder Redink. Sure!” Shuder put his hands on the chunk of lead. At that moment a vast and uncontrollable rage filled Harvey and he raised his fat hand and brought it down on Shuder's hat, crushing it over his eyes. He grasped Shuder by the shoulders and ran him out of the yard, giving him a final push that sent him sprawling in the street. Then, still raging, he turned while Shuder got to his feet. The spotted dog caught Harvey's eye. He drew back his foot and kicked the dog, and the surprised animal yelped and leaped out of the yard and down the street. “There, dod-baste you!” Harvey panted, shaking his fist at Shuder, who stood safely in the middle of the street. “That'll show you! An' don't you or your dog ever come into this yard again or I 'll handle you worse, a big sight!” Moses Shuder looked at his damaged hat. “Two dollars,” he said, and shook his head sadly. “But I should complain! What you do to me and my hat the law will take care of, and my lead the law will take care of, if you want it that way, Misder Redink, but that a man should kick a dog--” “An' I 'll kick your dog out o' this yard every time it comes in,” shouted Harvey. Moses Shuder raised his hands. “It is not my dog,” he said. “It is a stray dog.” The saintly career of Saint Harvey, the “Little Brother to the Stray Dogs,” seemed to have begun inauspidously. CHAPTER IV While Lorna Percy was in Susan Redding's kitchen acting as a witness to the compact that placed Lem Redding in pawn to his aunt for a period that seemed likely to be extended indefinitely, another lady had come down the front stairs, and after greeting the young woman on the front porch, had occupied one of the chairs. This was Miss Henrietta Bates. “I thought Lorna was here,” she said, as she seated herself. “Did n't I hear her voice?”