Hardee. "I paid you for it, didn't
I?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Wa'al, then that don't give you no right to interfere with me! This
is my hired boy, an' I can do as I please with him."
"Oh, no, you can't, Mr. Hardee!" said Mr. Bobbsey quickly.
"What's that? I can't? Wa'al, I'll show you! Stand back now, I'm goin'
to give him a good threshin'!"
Again he raised the whip, but it did not fall on poor, timid,
shrinking Will. For Mr. Bobbsey snatched it away from the angry
farmer's hand and flung it far to one side.
"Here! What'd you mean by that?" demanded Mr. Hardee, his face more
flushed than ever with anger.
"I mean you're not going to beat that boy!" replied the twins' father.
"He hasn't done anything to deserve it, and I'm not going to stand by
and see him abused. Is he your hired boy?"
"I took him out of the poorhouse--nobody would hire him. He's bound
out to me until he's of age, an' I can do as I please with him."
"Oh, no, you can't," said Mr. Bobbsey. "I happen to know something of
the law. You have no right to beat this boy, and if you try to do it
now, or again, and I hear of it, I'll make a complaint against you.
Don't you strike him again, especially when he hasn't done anything."
Mr. Hardee seemed so surprised that he did not know what to say. His
grip on Will's arm slipped off, and Will quickly stepped to one side.
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