as bad as that, though Bill did say that there are
awful fights and rows going on there of an evening, and even down here
if there is a row there is sure to be a cropper in it. Still you see
there are some good ones; look at Luke Marner, that's the man we saw in
church, see how kind he has been to his niece."

"There are good men of all sorts, and though the croppers may be rough
and given to drink, we must not blame them too severely; they are wholly
uneducated men, they work hard, and their sole pleasure is in the
beer shop. At bottom they are no doubt the same as the rest of their
countrymen, and the Yorkshire men, though a hard headed, are a soft
hearted race; the doctor tells me that except that their constitutions
are ruined by habitual drinking he has no better patients; they bear
pain unflinchingly, and are patient and even tempered. I know he loves
them with all their faults, and I consider him to be a good judge of
character."

CHAPTER IV: THE WORMS TURN

"I say, it's a shame, a beastly shame!" Ned Sankey exclaimed
passionately as the boys came out from school one day.

Generally they poured out in a confused mass, eager for the fresh air
and anxious to forget in play the remembrance of the painful hours in
school; but today they came out slowly and quietly, each with a book in
his hand, for they had tasks set them which would occupy every moment
till the bell sounded again.

"Every one says they know nothing about the cat. I don't know whether
it's true or not, for I am sorry to say some of the fellows will tell
lies to escape the cane, but whether it is so or not he's no right to
punish us all for what can only be the fault of one or two."

That morning the cat, which was the pet of Mr. Hathorn and his wife,
had been found dead near the door of the schoolhouse. It had been most
brutally knocked about. One of its eyes had been destroyed, its soft fur
was matted with blood, and it had evidently been beaten to death. That
the cat was no favorite with the boys was certain. The door between the
schoolroom and the house was unfastened at night, and the cat in her
pursuit of mice not unfrequently knocked over inkstands, and the ink,
penetrating into the desks, stained books and papers, and more than one
boy had been caned severely for damage due to the night prowlings of the
cat.

Threats of vengeance against her had often been uttered, and when the
cat was found dead it was the general opinion in