ld of Mary's controlling
influence, leaving Master Teddy more and more to himself, with no one in
authority to look after him.

Under these circumstances, the vicar, acting on Doctor Jolly's advice,
sent him to a small private school in the village where the farmers'
sons of the vicinity were taught the rudiments of their education, Teddy
going thither every morning and afternoon in company with his sisters
Liz and Cissy, who received lessons from a retired governess dwelling
hard by--the three children returning home in the middle of the day for
their dinner, and again on the termination of their tasks in the
evening.

Miss Conny, who had passed through the same curriculum, had grown too
old for her teacher, and now remained at the vicarage, installed as her
father's housekeeper and head of the family in his absence.

This arrangement worked very well for a time, although Teddy did not
make any very rapid progress at his studies, his mind being more turned
to outdoor sports than book lore; but the association with others made
him, if more manly, less tractable, developing his madcap propensities
to a very considerable extent, if merely from his desire to emulate his
companions.

One day, when going homewards with Liz and Cissy across the fields from
Endleigh, the trio came upon a group of the idle boys of the village who
were assembled in front of an inclosed paddock containing Farmer Giles's
brindled bull, a savage animal, whose implacable viciousness was the
talk of the place; not even the ploughman, with whom he was more
familiar than anyone else, daring to approach him without the protection
of a long-handled pitchfork.

Neither Farmer Giles nor any of his men were about, and the boys, taking
advantage of the opportunity, were baiting the bull by shying clods at
him and otherwise rousing his temper, when Teddy and his sisters came
along.

Teddy fired up at once at the sight.

"You cowards!" he cried; "you stand there behind the fence pelting the
poor animal, but none of you have the pluck to go inside and do it!"

"No more have you, Meaister," retorted one of the biggest of the boys, a
rustic lout of sixteen. "You ain't got the plook t' go inside yoursen!"

"Haven't I?" said Teddy in answer to this taunt; and before his sisters
could prevent him he had darted over to where the boys were standing,
and climbing over the stout five-barred gate that gave admittance to the
inclosure, let himself down into th