ach other like
girls at a boarding-school, by hugging and kissing, and 'dearing' and
'ducking' at every spare moment; no, boys show their love after a
different fashion, and kisses with them go for very little, and are
considered rather a nuisance than otherwise. If he had a shilling,
half of it was mine; I might use his books, pencils, marbles, bat,
ball, or, for that matter, anything that was his, and he in his turn
was welcome to anything I possessed. If he saw a big boy bullying me,
he wasted no words in useless remonstrances, but instead, off with his
jacket and fought him at once. You must not think him a quarrelsome
boy, who always wanted to be fighting; nothing of the sort, but he
cherished a firm conviction--and I don't think he was far wrong--that
big, hulking bullies deserved no better treatment than that contained
in good, hard, knockdown blows, and these he never hesitated to give,
did the occasion warrant it. Of course, he sometimes got the worst of
it, but he never minded an atom, not he; he would pick himself up on
such occasions, spitting the blood and dirt from his mouth, and
cheerily say, as he saw my look of concern: 'All right, Archie, not
dead yet; better luck next time!' And his jacket would be on, and he
walking by my side as calmly as possible, without once alluding to
his wounds and bruises.

"Yes, Ned was a brave fellow. I remember his coming home one afternoon
with a fearfully nasty bite in his left arm, some stingy, big brute of
a cur had given him, because he would not let it worry a little girl
carrying a big basket, whom it was terrifying into convulsions with
yelping and snarling, and making sudden and ferocious grabs at her
bare little legs. He gave the beast a kick, and it turned and fastened
its long yellow-looking teeth in his arm, and almost bit it through.
Our mother was in a terrible way, and wanted to have the dog killed,
but nobody knew whose it was, or where it had gone. The doctor burned
the wound; and although he turned pale, our Ned did not cry out, but
stood it, as the doctor admiringly said, 'like a hero.' When it was
bandaged up he put on his jacket, saying, 'Well, that's over.' Mother
did not appear to think so; she looked troubled and anxious, shook her
head doubtfully, and said, 'I am afraid not.' Then brushing back his
hair caressingly with her hand, kissing his forehead, and looking into
his dark brown, honest, and fearless eyes, added, half chidingly,
half admiring