ck, though he was but a
few months younger, and his great wistful eyes held a frightened look,
as of some animal that is hunted. He too had been compelled by poverty
to go into the cruel breaker, and try to win from it a few loaves of
bread for the many little hungry mouths at home, which the miner father
and feeble mother found it so hard to feed.

For a long time the rude boys of Raven Brook had teased and persecuted
"Polly Evert," as they called him, on account of his humped back and
withered leg, and for a long time Derrick Sterling had been his stanch
friend and protector. While the even-tempered lad used every effort to
avoid quarrels on his own behalf, he would spring like a young tiger to
rescue Paul Evert from his persecutors. Many a time had he stood at bay
before a little mob of sooty-faced village boys, and dared them to touch
the crippled lad who crouched trembling behind him.

On this very day, during the noon breathing-spell, he had been compelled
to thrash Bill Tooley, the village bully, on Paul's behalf. Bill had
been a mule-driver in the mine, but had been discharged from there a few
days before, and taken into the breaker. He now sat beside Paul, and
during the whole morning had steadily tormented him, in spite of the
lad's entreaties to be let alone and Derrick's fierce threats from the
other side.

That Derrick had not escaped scot-free from the noon-hour encounter was
shown by a deep cut on his upper lip. That Bill Tooley had been much
more severely punished was evident from the swollen condition of his
face, and from the fact that he now worked in sullen silence, without
attempting any further annoyance of the hump-backed lad beside him. Only
by occasional glances full of hate cast at both Derrick and Paul did he
show the true state of his feelings, and indicate the revengeful nature
of his thoughts.

This was Paul's first day in the breaker, where he had been given work
by the gruff boss only upon Derrick Sterling's earnest entreaty. Derrick
had promised that he would initiate his friend into all the details of
the business, and look after him generally. He had his doubts concerning
Paul's fitness for the work and the terrible life of a breaker boy, and
had begged him not to try it.

Paul's pitiful "What else can I do, Derrick? I have got to earn some
money somehow," completely silenced him; for he knew only too well that
in a colliery there is but one employment open to a boy who cannot dri