e to work this morning to get the master put out
at the end of the term. Mr. Ball didn't know that Columbus was kin to
the Lanhams, or he'd have let him alone, like he does the Lanhams and
the Weathervanes. There is going to be a big row, and everybody'll want
to know who put the powder in the stove. We want you to be quiet about
it."

"You _do_?" said Jack, with a sneer. "_You_ do?"

"Yes, we do," said Riley, coaxingly.

"You do? _You_ come to _me_ and ask me to keep it secret, after letting
me and that poor little baby take your whipping! You want me to hide
what you did, when that poor little Columbus lies over there sick abed
and like to die, all because you sneaking scoundrels let him be whipped
for what you did!"

"Is he sick?" said Riley, in terror.

"Going to die, I expect," said Jack, bitterly.

"Well," said Ben Berry, "you be careful what you say about us, or we'll
get Pewee to get even with you."

"Oh, that's your game! You think you can scare me, do you?"

Jack grew more and more angry. Seeing a group of school-boys on the
other side of the street, he called them over.

"Look here, boys," said Jack, "I took a whipping yesterday to keep from
telling on these fellows, and now they have the face to ask me not to
tell that they put the powder in the stove, and they promise me a
beating from Pewee if I do. These are the two boys that let a poor
sickly baby take the whipping they ought to have had. They have just as
good as killed him, I suppose, and now they come sneaking around here
and trying to scare me in keeping still about it. I didn't back down
from the master, and I won't from Pewee. Oh, no! I won't tell anybody.
But if any of you boys should happen to guess that Will Riley and Ben
Berry were the cowards who did that mean trick, I am not going to say
they weren't. It wouldn't be of any use to deny it. There are only two
boys in school mean enough to play such a contemptible trick as that."

Riley and Berry stood sheepishly silent, but just here Pewee came in
sight, and seeing the squad of boys gathered around Jack, strode over
quickly and pushed his sturdy form into the midst.

"Pewee," said Riley, "I think you ought to pound Jack. He says you can't
back him down."

"I didn't," said Jack. "I said _you_ couldn't scare me out of telling
who tried to blow up the school-house stove, and let other boys take
the whipping, by promising me a drubbing from Pewee Rose. If Pewee wants
to put himself i