"
"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."
"Not if I were present," remarked the other, coolly.
Green was on his feet in a moment, and I saw, from the flash of
his eyes, that he was a man of evil passions. Moving a pace or two
in the direction of the other, he said sharply.
"What is that, sir?"
The individual against whom his anger was so suddenly aroused was
dressed plainly, and had the appearance of a working man. He was
stout and muscular.
"I presume you heard my words. They were spoken distinctly," he
replied, not moving from where he sat, nor seeming to be in the
least disturbed.
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