in his feeling for the boy; and meeting him two days later at the
door of the tobacco barn, he fell at once into a tone of
contemptuous raillery.

"So you let Fred smash you up, eh?" he observed, with a sneer.

Will flushed.

"Oh, you needn't talk like that," he answered; "he's the biggest
man about here except you. By the way, you're a bully friend to a
fellow, you know, and it's not a particle of use pretending you
don't like me, because you can't help hitting back jolly quick
when anybody undertakes to give me a licking."

"Why were you such a fool as to go at him?" inquired Christopher,
glancing up at his evenly hanging rows of tobacco, and then
coming outside to lock the door. "You'll never get a reputation
as a fighter if you are always jumping on men over your own size.
Now, next time I should advise you to try your spirit on Sol
Peterkin."

"Oh, it was all about Molly," explained Will frankly. "I told
Fred that he was a big blackguard to use the girl so, and then he
called me a 'white-livered liar.'"

"I heard him," remarked Christopher quietly.

"Well, I don't care what he says--he is a blackguard. I'm glad
you knocked him down, too; it was no more than he deserved."