nt at the bravado of the girl, ordinarily so quiet
and self-contained. He was speechless for a second, and then recovered
breath enough to shout to the terrified Patty: "I won't use the whip
till I hear whether you've got any excuse for your scandalous behavior.
Hear me tell you one thing: this little pleasure-trip o' yourn won't do
you no good, for I'll break the marriage! I won't have a Wilson in my
family if I have to empty a shot-gun into him; but your lies and your
low streets are so beyond reason I can't believe my ears. What's your
excuse, I say?"

"Stop a minute, Patty, before you answer, and let me say a few things
that ought to have been said before now," interposed Waitstill. "If
Patty has done wrong, father, you've no one but yourself to thank for
it, and it's only by God's grace that nothing worse has happened to her.
What could you expect from a young thing like that, with her merry heart
turned into a lump in her breast every day by your cruelty? Did she
deceive you? Well, you've made her afraid of you ever since she was a
baby in the cradle, drawing the covers over her little head when she
heard your step. Whatever crop you sow is bound to come up, father;
that's Nature's law, and God's, as well."

"You hold your tongue, you,--readin' the law to your elders an'
betters," said the old man, choking with wrath. "My business is with
this wuthless sister o' yourn, not with you!--You've got your coat and
hood on, miss, so you jest clear out o' the house; an' if you're too
slow about it, I'll help you along. I've no kind of an idea you're
rightly married, for that young Wilson sneak couldn't pay so high for
you as all that; but if it amuses you to call him your husband, go an'
find him an' stay with him. This is an honest house, an' no place for
such as you!"

Patty had a good share of the Baxter temper, not under such control as
Waitstill's, and the blood mounted into her face.

"You shall not speak to me so!" she said intrepidly, while keeping a
discreet eye on the whip. "I'm not a--a--caterpillar to be stepped on,
I'm a married woman, as right as a New Hampshire justice can make me,
with a wedding-ring and a certificate to show, if need be. And you shall
not call my husband names! Time will tell what he is going to be, and
that's a son-in-law any true father would be proud to own!"

"Why are you set against this match, father?" argued Waitstill, striving
to make him hear reason. "Patty has married into