"Peleg Growdy is a crabbed old chap, I admit; but perhaps you wouldn't
blame him so much if you knew the trouble he has had."

"What was that?" asked one boy.

"His wife and two children were burned to death when his house caught
fire many years ago. Another child grew up to be a man, and committed
some crime that made him run away. His last one, a daughter, was killed
in a railroad wreck. Ever since then the old man shuns people, and just
works as if he never wanted to know a living soul."

"That's tough, for a fact!" admitted one boy, slowly.

"But it don't excuse him for hating all boys. What business did he have
sitting there and taking two-thirds of the road, to let William upset in
the ditch trying to pass him?" demanded Jud, still rebelling.

"Oh! well, that's a rule of the road that isn't always carried out. For
instance, the loaded vehicle is generally given _more_ than its half; and
William admits he was going light, while the old man carried a heavy
load," said Jack.

"Yes, that's so," grunted William, unable to hold out against such logic.

"And perhaps, if he told the actual truth, William would admit that there
was room enough for him to pass, if he had been a little more careful!"

"Sure; but I was in a hurry, you understand; and didn't see that the edge
of the ditch was crumbly. But he laughed, I tell you, and that riled me!"