"You too, Emily," Durkin said. "Come here. I want to have a long, fatherly talk with you." Emily turned and cast a frantic glance of appeal toward the kitchen door. When her mother did not appear she started backing away from her stepfather across the yard. Without releasing her brother, Durkin circled around in back of her. "Not so fast, brat!" he warned. "You and Robbie play house in a mighty interesting way. Suppose you tell me more about it." "Let me go!" Robert pleaded. "We just took one of the dolls and made a Halloween coal man out of him." "A coal man, eh?" Durkin sneered. "That's sure odd. You must have forgotten it's not Halloween?" "It doesn't have to be Halloween!" Robert protested. "Doesn't it? I suppose not. You could turn on your own father just as well on Thanksgiving day. That's how grateful you are." Emily spoke up defiantly then. "You're not Robbie's father," she said. "You never could be." "I tried my best to be a good father to Robbie," Durkin said, lowering his voice in mock humility. "You can't claim I didn't try. But there comes a time when discipline's needed. No punishment's severe enough for a boy who'd like to see his own father roasted like a chestnut in a red-hot fire." A sudden, terrible anger flared in his eyes. "No punishment's bad enough. But a strong birch switch laid on heavy may do some good." He stared at Emily, his neck arched in chicken-hawk fashion. "I can't punish you the way I'm going to punish Robbie," he said. "You're too young--just a baby. But when a baby does wrong you've got to be stern. That's kindness." Durkin bent abruptly, gripped his stepdaughter by the elbow, and lifted her to her feet. "A few hours without your supper in the dark--" "Mommy!" Emily shrieked. "Mommy, _Mommy_!" The kitchen door flew open, and Helen Durkin came running out of the house, her eyes wide with fright. She went up to her husband, and started tugging at his wrists. "Let them go!" she cried. "Robbie hasn't done anything. I was watching every minute." "He hasn't, eh?" Durkin glared at her. "He'd like to see me hanging from a rafter. Give him a piece of rope, and he'd hang me in effigy." "He wouldn't. Why do you say a thing like that? You must be out of your mind, Will Durkin!" "He would, I tell you. He's already done something just as bad. He's got to learn respect, and I'm going to give him the thrashing of his life." "Will Durkin, you let them go. Do you hear? You've no right--" Surprisingly Durkin complied. He released both children, and turned his full fury on his wife. "I'm going upstairs and get a birch switch," he said. "You'd better see that Robbie stays right here in the yard. I'll hold you responsible. If he isn't here when I come back you can pack your things and get out. No right to punish my own son. We'll see--"