Mr. Finkler turned a somewhat startled look at Jack and quickly shifted his gaze back to the horse.
“Don’t know as I ever did,” he said cautiously. Adding, after a moment, “Maybe――once or twice.”
“Well, you didn’t consider it stealing, did you?” demanded Jack triumphantly.
“Huh! You ought to be a lawyer, young man. So you think those boys didn’t fire my hay, do you?”
“I’m sure of it, sir,” answered Jack earnestly. “And if you want to know something, Mr. Finkler, I guess when you accused us of doing that and refused to believe us when we told you we knew nothing about it you――you sort of made things worse. I mean that it made the fellows sort of angry to be accused of such a mean thing, and so they――they kind of set out to annoy you, I guess.”
“Succeeded, too,” said Mr. Finkler dryly.
“The fellows are willing to promise never to swipe any more apples or do anything to annoy you, sir, if you’ll let us have that piece of land. We do need it awfully, Mr. Finkler.”
“You see, sir, if we had it we’d have a decent baseball field and a better football field and we could build a running track so that we wouldn’t always get beaten at the track and field meets.”
“Want to build a road, you mean, through my meadow?”
Jack explained. “And if you didn’t want to sell the land to us outright, sir, you could lease it for ten years or so. And if you did that we’d agree to put the land back in just the shape we found it when the lease ran out. Wouldn’t that be all right?”
“Maybe. Well, here’s where you live. Whoa, Dick!”
“You’ll think it over, won’t you, Mr. Finkler?” asked Jack as he got out of the buggy. The farmer shook his head.
“You mean that you――that you won’t do it?” asked Jack disappointedly.
“Exactly. Tell those friends of yours that they can get all the exercise they need with a saw and a pile o’ cord wood. And they won’t need any more land than they’ve got now.”
“I think――you’re a little bit unreasonable,” replied Jack, stifling his exasperation.
“Do, eh? Well, maybe, maybe. We’re all likely to think that of another person who won’t do what we want him to.”
“I wish you’d think it over, sir,” said Jack wistfully.
Farmer Finkler gazed thoughtfully between Dick’s ears.
“Don’t know but what I’d be willing to do it if those young rascals were all like you, boy. But they’ve been making my life miserable for five or six years and I guess I ain’t ready to cry quits yet. Sometime when you ain’t got anything better to do you come over and see me and I’ll show you some good horses. Guess you and me can be friends anyway, eh!”