These boys belonged to a gang over the hill back of where, old
Moody lived, and we was always fightin'. Mitch and Kit had fit
before--and so had Mike and me. Mike licked me once and I licked him
once. But Mitch had given Kit an awful lickin' with no come back. So now
he thought his chance had come with Mike to help after disposin' of me.
So what did they do, both of 'em, but go quick for Mitch, thinkin', I
guess, to get rid of him and then lick me.

"No, you don't," says I; and I grabbed both of Mike's arms with my arms
and held him out for to wrestle. I was awful strong in the back and arms
and rangy, and nobody could trip me, and I could back up until I got a
feller comin' good and then give a swing and land him. So there we was
at it--I holdin' Mike, and Mitch and Kit squared off boxin' like mad. I
gave Mike the swing and tumbled him, and then lay on him and held him
down. But it was awful hard and he was gradually gettin' away from me,
and strikin' me in the chest and sometimes in the face. He had big fists
and an awful punch. Meantime I was watchin' Mitch and Kit as much as I
could and neither of 'em seemed to have much the best of it, when all of
a sudden I heard a voice say, "Stop that," and there was Henry Hill, the
town marshal, drivin' a lot of kids ahead of him. Well, we all stopped
fightin'. And what do you suppose? Jerry Sharp who had a garden near
Fillmore Creek had complained about the boys goin' in swimmin' where his
girls settin' out tomato plants could see. So the marshal had come down
and arrested 'em and was drivin' 'em into town.

He just added Mitch and me and Kit and Mike to the crowd and took us all
in. When we got to the calaboose, he unlocked the door and started to
put us in. Then he laughed and said, "Now go home." And so we hustled
away.

CHAPTER V

It warn't more'n a day or two after this that my pa said that Old
Bender's house had burned down the night before, and he thought maybe
the old feller had set it afire. You see the story still clung about
Nancy Allen, and maybe he'd killed her, and my pa bein' the States
Attorney started to look into it.

Mitch and me and Little Billie were sittin' on the steps listenin' to
Mitch readin' "Tom Sawyer," and my sister was there too. She always
seemed in the way somehow, because she looked so steady with big eyes
and every now and then would ask questions that Mitch couldn't answer or
no one. While we was sittin' there my pa drove up in