"You don't want to say anything hard about Don while I am around.

He's a friend of mine, and I won't hear anybody abuse him.
He's the best fellow in the settlement, and so is his brother; and any one who talks against him is just the opposite." Lester seemed very much astonished at this bold language.

He glared down at David for a moment and then slipping his right hand through the loop on the handle of his riding-whip, pulled his feet out of the stirrups and acted as if he were about to dismount.

"Do you know who you are talking to ?" said he.
"Yes, I do," replied David, "and that's just the kind of a fellow I am." Lester looked sharply at the ragged youth before him and then put his feet back into the stirrups again and settled himself firmly in the saddle.

He felt safer there.