It's time to treat me as if I were a man." Ryder, Sr., leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily.
"A man at twenty-eight?
That's an excellent joke.

Do you know that a man doesn't get his horse sense till he's forty ?" "I want you to take me seriously," persisted Jefferson.
Ryder, Sr., was not a patient man.

His moments of good humour were of brief duration.

Anything that savoured of questioning his authority always angered him.

The smile went out of his face and he retorted explosively: "Go on--damn it all! Be serious if you want, only don't take so long about it.