leap. "Ay," said he, exultantly, "I shall be out where the birds can
sing and the grass is green, and I shall see the stage-play, while ye
will be mewed up all day long in school, and have nothing but a beggarly
morris and a farthing May-pole on the morrow."

"Oh, no doubt, no doubt," said Hal Saddler, mockingly "We shall have
but bread and milk, and thou shalt have--a most glorious threshing from
thy father when thou comest home again!"

That was the last straw to Nick's unhappy heart.

"'Tis a threshing either way," said he, squaring his shoulders
doggedly. "Father will thresh me if I run away, and Master Brunswood
will thresh me if I don't. I'll not be birched four times a week for
merely tripping on a word, and have nothing to show for it but stripes.
If I must take a threshing, I'll have my good day's game out first."

"But wilt thou truly go to Coventry, Nick?" asked Robin Getley,
earnestly, for he liked Nick more than all the rest.

"Ay, truly, Robin--that I will"; and, turning, Nick walked swiftly away
toward the market-place, never looking back.




CHAPTER IV


OFF FOR COVENTRY