wi'out much blood i'
her."

Now and then Anice caught the sound of their words, but she was used
to being commented upon. She had learned that people whose lives have a
great deal of hard, common discomfort and struggle, acquire a tendency
to depreciation almost as a second nature. It is easier to bear one's
own misfortunes, than to bear the good-fortune of better-used people.
That is the insult added by Fate to injury.

Riggan was a crooked, rambling, cross-grained little place. From the one
wide street with its jumble of old, tumble-down shops, and glaring new
ones, branched out narrow, up-hill or down-hill thoroughfares, edged by
colliers' houses, with an occasional tiny provision shop, where
bread and bacon were ranged alongside potatoes and flabby cabbages;
ornithological specimens made of pale sweet cake, and adorned with
startling black currant eyes, rested unsteadily against the window-pane,
a sore temptation to the juvenile populace.

It was in one of these side streets that Anice met with her first
adventure.

Turning the corner, she heard the sharp yelp of a dog among a group
of children, followed almost immediately by a ringing of loud, angry,
boyish voices, a sound of blows and cries, and a violent scuffle. Anice
paused for a few seconds, looking over the heads of the excited little
crowd, and then made her way to it, and in a minute was in the heart
of it. The two boys who were the principal figures, were fighting
frantically, scuffling, kicking, biting, and laying on vigorous blows,
with not unscientific fists. Now and then a fierce, red, boyish face was
to be seen, and then the rough head ducked and the fight waxed fiercer
and hotter, while the dog--a small, shrewd sharp-nosed terrier--barked
at the combatants' heels, snapping at one pair, but not at the other,
and plainly enjoying the excitement.

"Boys!" cried Anice. "What's the mat-ter?"

"They're feighten," remarked a philosophical young by-stander, with
placid interest,--"an' Jud Bates'll win."

It was so astonishing a thing that any outsider should think of
interfering, and there was something so decided in the girlish voice
addressing them, that almost at the moment the combatants fell back,
panting heavily, breathing vengeance in true boy fashion, and evidently
resenting the unexpected intrusion.

"What is it all about?" demanded the girl. "Tell me."

The crowd gathered close around her to stare, the terrier sat down
breathless, his r