, you shall march with Jock Winter, too," said Captain Willy,
exasperated with the throbbing pain in his head--the first he had ever
felt in his life. "Pretty doings, if you are going to set up and say, 'I
will' and 'I won't!'"

While the captain and the private were shooting sharp words back and
forth, and Fred was busy drawing cider, Isaac Lovejoy, the rogue of the
company, was very busy with his own mischief.

"Look here, Fred," said Joshua Potter, going up to the stall with a
twinkle in his eye; "they don't ask but three cents a mug, round at the
other end of the barrel!"

"What do you mean by that?" cried the young cider merchant, looking up
just in time to see Isaac Lovejoy marching off with the pitcher he had
been filling from a hole in the barrel made with his jack-knife.

"Stop thief! Stop thief!" cried Fred.

"That's right," said one of the big boys from over the river. "Ike's
selling your cider to the men for three cents a glass."

Perhaps this was one of Isaac's jokes, and he intended to give back the
money; we will hope so. But, be that as it may, Fred was terribly angry;
as angry, mind you, as if he was an honest boy himself, and had a
perfect right to all the coppers jingling in his own pockets!

He ran after Ike, and caught him; and there was a scuffle, in which the
pitcher was broken. Mr. Chase came up to inquire into it.

"Tut, tut, Isaac!" said he; "aren't you ashamed? You know that cider was
a present to the Never-Give-Ups."

The boys were astonished, and Fred's face crimsoned with shame. As soon
as Mr. Chase had gone away, Willy exclaimed, with a sudden burst of
wrath,--

"Well, boys, if you are going to stand such a mean lieutenant as that, I
won't! If he stays in lieutenant, I won't stay captain--so there!"

"Three cheers for the captain!" cried the boys; and there was another
uproar.

And how did Fred feel towards the fearless, out-spoken Willy? Very
angry, of course; but, if you will believe me, he respected him more
than ever. Pompous boys are often mean-spirited and cowardly; they will
browbeat those who are afraid of them; but those who look down on them
and despise them, they hold in the highest esteem. Willy had never
scrupled to tell Fred just what he thought of his conduct; and for that
very reason Fred liked him better than any other boy in town.

But the Never-Give-Ups were growing decidedly noisy. After they learned
that the cider was their own, they must drink more of i