He had been gone a
fortnight, and during his absence Addison, Halstead and I had been doing
the farm chores. The drive from the railway stations, on that bleak
January afternoon had chilled the old gentleman, and he went directly
into the sitting-room to get warm. So it was not until he came out to
sit down to supper with us that he noticed a vacant chair at table.
"Where is Halstead?" he asked. "Isn't Halstead at home?"
No one answered at first; none of us liked to tell him what had
happened. We had always found our cousin Halstead hard to get on with.
Lately he had been complaining to us that he ought to be paid wages for
his labor, when, as a matter of fact, what he did at the farm never half
repaid the old Squire for his board, clothes and the trouble he gave.
During the old gentleman's absence that winter Halstead had become worse
than ever and had also begun making trouble at the district school.
His special crony at school was Alfred Batchelder, who had an extremely
bad influence on him. Alfred was a genius at instigating mischief, and
he and Halstead played an odious prank at the schoolhouse, as a result
of which the school committee suspended them for three weeks.
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