f or others, and without any calculation as to the odds
for or against him, he would plunge himself into the thick of the fray;
and but for Rex, who was always ready to back up Ted, I daresay he would
often have come off worse than he did. As it was, many were the wounds
that fell to his share, and yet he managed, by his quickness and
nimbleness, to escape more serious damage.

"What have you been doing with yourself, my boy?" his mother said one
day not long after the grand doing-up of the museum, when Ted appeared
in her room on his return from school, to beg for some sticking-plaister
and arnica lotion. He really looked rather an object, and he could not
help laughing as he caught sight of his face in the glass; for one eye
was very much swollen, and a long scratch down his nose did not add to
his beauty.

"I _am_ a fright," he said. "But there's not much the matter, mother. It
was only a scrimmage--we were all quite good friends."

"But really, Ted," said his mother, "I think you must curb your warlike
tastes a little. Some day you may really get hurt badly."

"No fear, mother," he said. "Besides, after all, a boy wouldn't be worth
much who couldn't fight sometimes, would he?"

"_Sometimes_," said his mother. "Where was Rex to-day--wasn't he beside
you?"

Ted's face clouded a little.

"Rex was in a bad humour to-day. He wouldn't play," Ted replied.

"Rex in a bad humour!" repeated his mother. "Surely that's very
uncommon."

Ted did not reply, and his mother did not ask him any more, but she
noticed that the cloud had not entirely disappeared, and the next
morning it was not quite with his usual springing steps that the boy set
off to school. Rex's house was on the same road; most days the boys met
each other at the gate and went on together, but this time no Rex was to
be seen. Either he had taken it into his head to go very early, or he
was not yet ready. Ted cast a glance towards the path, down which he
was used to see his friend running, satchel over his shoulders, to join
him--then he walked on slowly.

"I'm not going to wait for him if he doesn't care to come," he said to
himself; and when he got to school he was glad he had not done so, for
there was Rex already in the schoolroom, and at his desk busy writing,
though it wanted some minutes to school-time.

"Good morning, Rex," said Ted.

"Good morning," replied Rex; but that was all. Whether or not he had
been in a bad humour the day before, he