y again.

"What's that to me? Mend your own fence," he said.

"Then I shall take these horses up to our barn. You can come and settle
the matter with Mrs. Atterson--unless you wish to pay me two dollars
here and now," said the young farmer, his voice carrying clearly to
where the man stood upon the rising ground above him.

"Why, you young whelp!" roared Dickerson, suddenly starting down the
slope.

But Hiram Strong neither moved nor showed fear. Somehow, this sturdy
young fellow, in the high laced boots, with his flannel shirt open at
the throat, raw as was the day, his sleeves rolled back to his elbows,
was a figure to make even a more muscular man than Sam Dickerson
hesitate.

"Pete!" exclaimed the farmer, harshly, still eyeing Hiram. "Run up to
the house and bring my shotgun. Be quick about it."

Hiram said never a word, and the horses, yoked together, began to crop
the short grass springing upon the bank of the water-hole.

"You'll find out you're fooling with the wrong man, you whippersnapper!"
promised Dickerson.

"You can pay me two dollars and I'll mend the fence; or you can mend the
fence and we'll call it square," said Hiram, slowly, and evenly. "I'm a
boy, but I'm not to be frightened with a threat----"

Pete's long legs brought him flying back across the fields. Nothing he
had done in a long while pleased him quite as much as this errand.

Hiram turned, jerked at the horses' bridle-reins, turned them around,
and with a sharp slap on the nigh one's flank, sent them both trotting
up into the Atterson pasture.

"Stop that, you rascal!" cried Dickerson, grabbing the gun from his
hopeful son, and losing his head now entirely. "Bring that team back!"

"You mend the fence, and I will," declared Hiram, unshaken.

The angry man sprang down to his level, flourishing the gun in a way
that would have been dangerous indeed had Hiram believed it to be
loaded. And as it was, the young farmer was very angry.

The right was on his side; if he allowed these Dickersons, father and
son, to browbeat him this once, it would only lead to future trouble.

This thing had to be settled right here and now. It would never do for
Hiram to show fear. And if both of the long-legged Dickersons pitched
upon him, of course, he would be no match for them.

But Sam Dickerson stumbled and almost fell as he reached the edge of the
water-hole, and before he could recover himself, Hiram leaped upon him,
seized the shotgun, and