I have a great mind to choke you.

Tell me--is your father alive ?" "I won't tell you, if you kill me." The wheedling had failed; the threatening had failed.

Then Mr.Belcher assumed the manner of a man whose motives had been misconstrued, and who wished for information that he might do a kind act to the lad's father.
"I should really like to help your father, and if he is poor, money would do him a great deal of good.

And here is the little boy who does not love his father well enough to get money for him, when he can have it and welcome! The little boy is taken care of.

He has plenty to eat, and good clothes to wear, and lives in a fine house, but his poor father can take care of himself.