“You let Dannie alone,” said the grandfather; whereupon Harlan laughed. “You ought to see what he and his little Jew partner called brackets!” he said. “Dan’s always thinking he’s making something, and it’s always something just awful. What he and that Sam Kohn were really making to-day was a horrible mess of our summer-house. It’ll take a week’s work for somebody to get it cleaned up, and he got mad at me and was going to hit me because mamma sent me to tell him to come in the house and get ready for dinner.” “I did not,” Dan muttered. “You didn’t? Didn’t you act like you were going to hit me?” “Yes,” Dan said. “But it wasn’t because what you say. It was because you called Sam names.” “I didn’t.” “You did!” And now Dan looked up, showing eyes that glistened along the lower lids. “You—you hurt his feelings.” Harlan had the air of a self-contained person who begins to be exasperated by a persistent injustice, and he appealed to the company. “I told him time and again mamma wanted him to come in and get ready to come here for dinner, and he simply wouldn’t do it.” Mrs. Savage shook her head. “I’ve always told you,” she said to her daughter, “you’ll repent bitterly some day for your lack of discipline with your children. You’re not raising them the way I raised mine, and some day——” But Harlan had not finished his explanation. “So, after I waited and waited,” he continued, “and they just went on messing up our summer-house, I told him he’d better come in and let the dirty little Jew boy go home. That’s all I said, and he was going to hit me for it.” “You—you hurt his fuf-feelings,” Dan stammered, as his emotion increased. “I told you, you hurt his _feelings_!” “Pooh!” Harlan returned lightly. “What feelings has he got? He wouldn’t be around where he doesn’t belong if he had any.” “I asked him there,” Dan said, the tears in his eyes overflowing as he spoke; and he began to grope hurriedly through his various pockets for a handkerchief. “He had a right to be where he was invited, didn’t he? You—you called him——” “I said he was just exactly what he is, and if he ever comes around our yard again, I’ll say it again.” “No, you won’t!” “Oh, yes, I will,” Harlan said with perfect composure; and this evidence that he believed himself in the right and would certainly carry out his promise was too much for the suffering Dan, who startled his relatives by unexpectedly sobbing aloud.