ooked in
dumb amazement at the wreck. Miss Morgan saw Bud, and her temper
rose--not at him, but at his adversary. Exhibit A sulkily turned his
face from Exhibit B, and Exhibit B seemed to be oblivious of the
presence of Exhibit A; for the boys it was a scene too shameful for
mutual recognition. Miss Morgan broke the heavy silence with: "Henry,
where on earth have you been?"

"Been t' the circus," replied the boy.

"Henry, did you blacken that little boy's eyes, and tear his clothes
that way?" inquired Miss Morgan when her wits returned.

"Why--no'm--I didn't. But he was one of four fellers that picked on me
comin' home from the circus, and tried to lick me."

"Willie," demanded the head of the attacking posse, "did you pick a
fight with that Perkins boy?"

"Oh, no 'm, no 'm! I was just playin' round the tent, me and
another boy, and Bud he come up and jumped on us." And then to add
verisimilitude to his narrative, he appended: "Him and four other
boys."

"Henry," asked Miss Morgan, as she surveyed the debris of Henry's
Sunday clothes, and her womanly wrath for the destroyer of them began
to boil, "Henry, now tell me honestly, is this little boy telling the
truth? Now, don't you story to me, Henry."

"Honest injun, Miss Morgan, I cross my heart and hope to drop dead
this minute if I ain't tellin' you the way it was. Him and them
North-enders, why they come along and called me names, and he tried to
hit me, and I just shoved him away like this," and Henry executed a
polite pantomime. "And I was swingin' my arms out to keep 'em all from
hittin' me, and he got in the way, and I couldn't help it. And they
was all a pickin' on me, and I told 'em all the time I didn't want to
fight."

But Exhibit A kept looking at his mother and shaking his head in
violent contradiction of Bud, as the story was told.

Miss Morgan asked: "Who scratched your face so, Henry?"

"Him; he's all the time fightin' me."

"No, ma, I didn't. You know I didn't."

Exhibit A and Exhibit B were still back to back. Then Exhibit B
responded: "Miss Morgan, you ast him if he didn't cuss and damn me,
and say he was goin' to pound me to death if I ever come north of
Sixth."

To which the leader of the raiders returned in great scorn: "The very
idea! Just listen at that! Why, Miss Morgan, that Perkins boy is the
bully of this town. Come on, Willie, your pa will see if there is no
law to protect you from such boys as him." Whereupon the war party