with his lips closed, while he moved his head slowly from side to
side. "I tell you my name is Jack Rogers--Now!"

The bully did not say a word. He looked as if he would have liked to
have hit, but Paddy Adair had followed his new friend, and was evidently
about to join in the fray if it was once begun; so the big boy thought
better of it. He would gain no credit for attacking a little fellow the
first day of his coming. There were many witnesses of the scene, and
Jack was unanimously pronounced to be a plucky little chap. Pigeon,
defeated in one direction, turned his attention to the first-named boy,
who had scarcely moved since he entered the playground, but kept looking
round with his large black eyes on the scene before him, which was
evidently strange to his sight.

"What are you called, I should like to know?" he asked in a rude tone.

"Alick Murray," was the answer, in a quiet, gentlemanly voice.

"Then you come from Scotland, I suppose?" said the bully.

"Yes, I do," replied the former.

"Oh! I wonder your mamma would let you go away from her," observed the
big boy, with a sneer.

"My mamma is just dead," answered Murray, in a mild tone, a tear
springing to his eye.

"Shame! shame!" shouted the voices of several boys who had come up;
among them that of Jack Rogers was the loudest.

"I didn't mean to say anything to hurt him," said the bully, sneaking
away. "I'll pay you off for this some day," he muttered as he passed
Jack.

Jack looked after him and laughed.

"He'll have two to fight if he tries it, mind that," said Adair to his
new friend.

Jack thanked him, but said that he should soon be able to tackle him, if
he could not just now. He would try at all events.

"That's it," cried Terence enthusiastically. "That's just what I like.
If you are knocked down you can but get up again and try once more."

"So my papa says," observed Jack. "He's a first-rate father, let me
tell you. He never would let any of us give in except to himself. He
used to throw us into a pond, and tell us to swim, and unless we had
actually been drowning, nothing would have made him help us; so we all
very soon learned, and now there isn't a chap of my size I wouldn't swim
against. We live down in Northamptonshire. My papa has a place there.
We are all very jolly. There are a number of us, sisters and brothers.
You must come down and see them some holidays. You'll like them, I
know. There's no nonsense ab