hen Ralph left the school-house he felt mean. There were Bud and Shocky
gone on an errand of mercy, and he, the truant member of the Church of
the Best Licks, was not with them. The more he thought of it the more he
seemed to be a coward, and the more he despised himself; so, yielding as
usual to the first brave impulse, he leaped nimbly over the fence and
started briskly through the forest in a direction intersecting the path
on which were Bud and Shocky. He came in sight just in time to see the
first conflict of the Church in the Wilderness with her foes.

For Shocky's little feet went more swiftly on their eager errand than
Bud had anticipated. He got farther out of Bud's reach than the latter
intended he should, and he did not discover Pete Jones until Pete, with
his hog-drover's whip, was right upon him.

Shocky tried to halloo for Bud, but he was like one in a nightmare. The
yell died into a whisper which could not have been heard ten feet.

I shall not repeat Mr. Jones's words. They were frightfully profane. But
he did not stop at words. He swept his whip round and gave little Shocky
one terrible cut. Then the voice was released, and the piercing cry of
pain brought Bud down the path flying.

"You good-for-nothing scoundrel," growled Bud, "you're a coward and a
thief to be a-beatin' a little creetur like him!" and with that Bud
walked up on Jones, who prudently changed position in such a way as to
get the upper side of the hill.

"Well, I'll gin you the upper side, but come on," cried Bud, "ef you
a'n't afeared to fight somebody besides a poor little sickly baby or a
crippled soldier. Come on!"

[Illustration: Bud Means comes to the rescue of Shocky.]

Pete was no insignificant antagonist. He had been a great fighter, and
his well-seasoned arms were like iron. He had not the splendid set of
Bud, but he had more skill and experience in the rude tournament of
fists to which the backwoods is so much given. Now, being out of sight
of witnesses and sure that he could lie about the fight afterward, he
did not scruple to take advantages which would have disgraced him
forever if he had taken them in a public fight on election day or at a
muster. He took the uphill side, and he clubbed his whip-stalk, striking
Bud with all his force with the heavy end, which, coward-like, he had
loaded with lead. Bud threw up his strong left arm and parried the blow,
which, however, was so fierce that it fractured one of the bones o