has one great advantage; but it has an
equally important disadvantage--the combatant cannot see to aim; on
the other hand, he cannot see to dodge. And all the while Penrod
was receiving two for one. He became heavy with mud. Plastered,
impressionistic and sculpturesque, there was about him a quality of the
tragic, of the magnificent. He resembled a sombre masterpiece by Rodin.
No one could have been quite sure what he was meant for.

Dinner bells tinkled in houses. Then they were rung from kitchen doors.
Calling voices came urging from the distance, calling boys' names into
the darkness. They called and a note of irritation seemed to mar their
beauty.

Then bells were rung again--and the voices renewed appeals more urgent,
much more irritated. They called and called and called.

THUD! went the mud balls.

Thud! Thud! Blunk!

"OOF!" said Penrod.

... Sam Williams, having dined with his family at their usual hour,
seven, slipped unostentatiously out of the kitchen door, as soon as he
could, after the conclusion of the meal, and quietly betook himself to
the Schofields' corner.

Here he stationed himself where he could see all avenues of approach
to the house, and waited. Twenty minutes went by, and then Sam became
suddenly alert and attentive, for the arc-light revealed a small,
grotesque figure slowly approaching along the sidewalk. It was brown in
colour, shaggy and indefinite in form; it limped excessively, and paused
to rub itself, and to meditate.

Peculiar as the thing was, Sam had no doubt as to its identity. He
advanced.

"'Lo, Penrod," he said cautiously, and with a shade of formality.

Penrod leaned against the fence, and, lifting one leg, tested the
knee-joint by swinging his foot back and forth, a process evidently
provocative of a little pain. Then he rubbed the left side of his
encrusted face, and, opening his mouth to its whole capacity as
an aperture, moved his lower jaw slightly from side to side, thus
triumphantly settling a question in his own mind as to whether or no a
suspected dislocation had taken place.

Having satisfied himself on these points, he examined both shins
delicately by the sense of touch, and carefully tested the capacities of
his neck-muscles to move his head in a wonted manner. Then he responded
somewhat gruffly: "'Lo!" "Where you been?" Sam said eagerly, his
formality vanishing.

"Havin' a mud-fight."

"I guess you did!" Sam exclaimed, in a low voice. "What you goi