The boy that the grocer saw when he looked up from the pickle barrel
certainly had a badly freckled face; the grocer thought the boy had
bold, mean eyes. The youthful jaw set firmly, and the pain in his foot
engraved ugly lines in his face. The button was off one wristband. A
long tear down the lower part of his trousers' leg revealed a glimpse
of brown, tanned skin. He was not a boy that looked like a creature of
dreams and of high resolve. No boy that amounts to much ever does
look the part, as the actors say. So when Jimmy Sears--ragged and
brazen--stood before the wronged chicken owner, rage flooded the man's
bosom. He rushed around the counter end, mumbling at the boy. The
instinct of fear crowded all the fine speeches out of Jimmy's head.
He backed off, and exclaimed, as he saw the grocer grab a butter
paddle,--
"Dern you, don't you touch me; I'll pay for your old chicken. Watch
out now!"
Two scale weights slipped involuntarily into Jimmy's hands, and he
backed from the counter to the sidewalk. His hands were uplifted as
if to throw the weights. The grocer had not come up to the boy who
shouted in a burst of fear and anger,--
"I'll pay for your chicken, I say. Now you keep away from me!"
[Illustration: "_I'll pay for your chicken, I say. Now you keep away
from me_."]
The grocer hesitated, dismayed for a second by the threatening weights
in the boy's hand. But pride urged the man on. He stepped up quickly,
and planted a smarting blow on Jimmy's leg. It was well for the grocer
that he ducked his head; for when the paddle struck, the boy did not
flinch, but let drive one weight after another, and cried before each
crash of glass that the flying irons made inside the store, "Yes, you
will!" and again, "Yes, you will!"
He forgot the ache in his cramped heel and the burning in his bruised
toe as he ran to the middle of the street.
"You old coward, why don't you pick on some one your size?"
The tears were rising to his eyes; he had to run to escape from the
tide. Just as he turned, he caught a glimpse of his father joining the
gathering crowd. After that his feet grew wings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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