he tormentor. "_Darn_ you, Darn, why can't you let him be!"

There it was! Just what Jerry wanted to show Darn he couldn't scare him.
His oozing courage flamed up in a final flare of desperation. Through
his tears and the choke in his throat he cried:

"_Darn_ Darn Darner! Darn! Darn! Darn! _Darn_ Darn Darner!"

"That's about enough from you, Jerry Elbow!" shouted Darn. He gave Jerry
a resounding slap in the face. "No kid like you can call me that without
takin' the biggest lickin' he ever got."

"No, you don't!" cried Danny and quick as a flash he rushed at Darn and
began pounding him over the head and shoulders with his fists. Chris and
Nora went to Danny's aid and the three pairs of fists caused Darn to
duck and run a short distance.

Jerry slumped down into the dust of the road, weeping bitterly, and
Celia Jane flopped down by him, hugging him tight and mingling her tears
with his.

Danny and Chris and even the usually gentle Nora, but for once with all
her gentleness vanished, gave vent to their feelings against Darn by
making a chant out of his name.

"_Darn_ Darn Darner! Darn! Darn! Darn! _Darn_ Darn Darner! Darn! Darn!
Darn!"

Into that chant boiled over all their pent-up dislike for him which had
been simmering under cover for so long. Darn started back towards them,
angry through and through, but stopped as they rushed to meet him, fists
doubled up ready for battle. He had fought many boys bigger than
himself, but he fled before the numerical strength of the present enemy,
flinging back over his shoulder from a safe distance, "Blue-eyed beauty!
Ole Danny dumb-head! Blue-eyed beauty! Ole Danny dumb-head! Yah! You'll
_hafta_ go to the poor farm if you want to see Jerry Elbow after
Wednesday."

Upon hearing Darn's words Jerry stretched out at full length in the road
and his voice rose in a quavering wail of anguish. Celia Jane emitted a
thinner, shriller wail. Nora came back to comfort them and was caught by
the contagion so that she too plumped down in the road and wept.

Danny and Chris, being boys, were ashamed to give vent to their emotions
in a similar way and stood looking down at the huddled forms in the
road. Chris, after a time, found himself weeping in sympathy and openly
rubbed away the tears with his shirt sleeve. Even Danny swallowed hard
and dabbed at his eyes.

"Well, I'll be horn-swoggled!" exclaimed a startled, mystified voice
back of the children.

Jerry opened his eyes on a blurr