himself. There's no telling how much a vagabond like him injures a
respectable house."

"I wish he would stay away," said Simon, with a perplexed air.

"I'd make him stay away," answered Green.

"That may be easier said than done," remarked Judge Lyman. "Our
friend keeps a public-house, and can't just say who shall or shall
not come into it."

"But such a fellow has no business here. He's a good-for-nothing
sot. If I kept a tavern, I'd refuse to sell him liquor."

"That you might do," said Judge Lyman; "and I presume your hint
will not be lost on our friend Slade."

"He will have liquor, so long as he can get a cent to buy it
with," remarked one of the company; "and I don't see why our
landlord here, who has gone to so much expense to fit up a tavern,
shouldn't have the sale of it as well as anybody else. Joe talks a
little freely sometimes; but no one can say that he is
quarrelsome. You've got to take him as he is, that's all."

"I am one," retorted Harvey Green, with a slightly ruffled manner,
"who is never disposed to take people as they are when they choose
to render themselves disagreeable. If I was Mr. Slade, as I
remarked in the beginning, I'd pitch that fellow into the road the
next time he put his foot over my door step."