"This damned foolishness has gone far enough," ruled the elder in a
voice of finality, his amusement suddenly giving way once more to
sternness. "I've listened to you because you seemed to be full of talk
an' I was willin' to let you get it off your chest, but I don't need
counsel from any cub of a boy. I'm nigh onto fifty years old an' I've
run my family all these years. I had enough brains to get on with before
you was born an' if you've got all the sense you think you've got, you
got it from me an' your mother. Until you get to be twenty-one, you'll
do what I bid you. Heretofore you've done it willin'ly. I hope you'll go
on doin' it that way--but if you don't, I guess I'm still man enough to
make you. Now go to bed--an' go quick."

The lad flushed to his cheekbones and for a moment he made no move to
obey. Under the tyrannizing manner of his father's voice his spirit rose
in rebellion. Tom Burton strode over and his attitude was threatening.
"Did you hear what I said to you?" he inquired. "Are you going by
yourself, or have I got to take you upstairs?"

Slowly and with a strong self-mastery, Ham came to his feet. "I'll go to
bed now," he replied quietly, "because it would be a pity for us to
quarrel--but I've got a few more things to say, and, after awhile, I
guess you'll have to listen to 'em. We'll talk about this thing some
more."

"We'll talk about it some more--when I get good an' ready--if I ever
do--an' if I don't we won't never talk about it any more. Go to bed!"

When the lad disappeared up the stairway, he left a long and constrained
silence behind him. From the mother's chair came a sound that hinted at