d at the blow and sight of the blood. The other
boys directly took the alarm, and picking up some stones as large as
that which had done the mischief, they mounted on a high bench, and
discharged such a well-directed volley at the person of Master Random
that he was most violently struck upon the nose, and knocked backwards
into a glass cucumber-frame.

Here he lay in a most pitiable condition, calling upon his mother, while
the wounded boy on the other side joined in the concert of woe.

'Oh, it served you rightly!' exclaimed the young assailants, who were
looking over the wall, and ran away as soon as they saw Mr. Random come
into the garden to inquire the cause of the uproar.

His first concern was to carry Dicky indoors, and then, having wiped
away the blood and tears, he asked him how it happened.

'I was only trying to get a pear for my mother,' said Richard, 'when
these boys threw stones at me, and hit me!'

'That was very cruel,' said his father, 'to meddle with you when you
were doing nothing to them, and if I can find them out they shall be
punished for it.'

Mr. Random immediately set off to the next house, but was met at his own
door by the father of the wounded boy, who was coming with him in his
arms to demand satisfaction. This brought the whole truth out, and the
artful little fellow was found to have concealed a part of the real
case. Instead of saying 'he was only getting a pear,' he should have
said that he was throwing large stones at the topmost pear on the tree,
and that every stone went over the wall, he could not tell where.

'Ah, Richard,' said his father, 'it is little better than story-telling
to conceal a part of the truth. The affair now wears quite a new face.
It was you that gave the first assault, and will have to answer for all
the bad consequences. It is my duty to see that this unoffending boy is
taken care of; but if his leg be so cut or bruised that he cannot get so
good a living when he comes to be a man as he might otherwise have
done, how would you like to make up the deficiency? You cannot doubt
that he has a demand upon you equal to the damage you may have done to
him. He is poor, and his father must send him to the hospital, but it
would be unjust of me to suffer it. No, on the contrary, I shall prevent
this by taking him home and sending you there, where Dr. Hardheart makes
his patients smart before he cures them. Come, get ready to go, for
delays in wounds of the head