If you hear an odd noise, don't hide your head
like a hyena or an ostrich, whichever it is, but hunt it up. If you
happen to see a ghost, skip up and attack it."

Now the words of Solomon were always prized as gold. The boys reverenced
Solomon, who could repeat the whole of a Latin verb, and was, moreover,
"pitcher" on "the nine."

So the "babes" had made a solemn compact that if any one of them was
ever "scared," he should step boldly out and "wrench forth the serpent's
fang." Should he be too great a coward so to do, he should wear a huge
letter =C= pinned on his jacket for a fortnight, and be subject to all
the taunts which could be imagined at his expense.

No wonder the boys grew brave. They dared not be otherwise.

Philemon's special bugbear had been a dark cellar, filled to overflowing
with shadows. Down into this cellar he had gone with a beating heart,
and had forced himself to search out every crack and cranny, even to the
coal-bin. Of course he found nothing to fear, and now it was Philemon
who was always ready to go down for apples in the winter evenings, and
that too without even a candle.

As for Elias, he had stood in much awe of a grove over the hill, and was
obliged to spend the greater part of a whole month wandering solitary
among the trees before he could snap his fingers at their shadows.

And now Romeo Augustus's turn had come. His poor little heart was filled
with dismay when he found that he was in mortal fear of the clock. He
felt sure that he should have to search the matter to the very bottom.

For a week he had been trying to bring himself up to the pitch of
requisite boldness. More than once he had marched up to the enemy, and
then marched back again, vanquished. He dared not breathe a word to
Philemon. The big letter =C= was all ready to cling to his back, and how
could he bear such disgrace? No sympathy could he expect from any
brother. His work must be done, and done alone.

How loudly the clock called out from below! Could it be actually
stalking up stairs?--so sharply did its tones ring in Romeo Augustus's
wide-open ears.

"Tick-tock--tick-tock.
'Tis ten--o'clock.
Make haste--don't waste
Minutes--in fits
Of fear.--Come here!
'Tis ten--o'clock.
Tick-tock--tick-tock."

Romeo Augustus put one bare foot out of bed; he drew it back; he half
rose, and sank on the pillows again. Then, with a mighty effort, he gave
a bound, and stood shivering in the middle of the f