aying field than a boy flung a handful of mud and cried out "mad
Irishman." I hit him several times on the face without being hit, till the
boys round said we should make friends. I held out my hand in fear; for I
knew if we went on I should be beaten, and he took it sullenly. I had so
poor a reputation as a fighter that it was a great disgrace to him, and
even the masters made fun of his swollen face; and though some little boys
came in a deputation to ask me to lick a boy they named, I had never
another fight with a school-fellow. We had a great many fights with the
street boys and the boys of a neighbouring charity school. We had always
the better because we were not allowed to fling stones, and that compelled
us to close or do our best to close. The monitors had been told to report
any boy who fought in the street, but they only reported those who flung
stones. I always ran at the athlete's heels, but I never hit anyone. My
father considered these fights absurd, and even that they were an English
absurdity, and so I could not get angry enough to like hitting and being
hit; and then too my friend drove the enemy before him. He had no doubts
or speculations to lighten his fist upon an enemy, that, being of low
behaviour, should be beaten as often as possible, and there were real
wrongs to avenge: one of our boys had been killed by the blow of a stone
hid in a snowball. Sometimes we on our side got into trouble with the
parents of boys. There was a quarrel between the athlete and an old German
who had a barber's shop we passed every day on our way home, and one day
he spat through the window and hit the German on his bald head--the
monitors had not forbidden spitting. The German ran after us, but when the
athlete squared up he went away. Now, though I knew it was not right to
spit at people, my admiration for my friend arose to a great height. I
spread his fame over the school, and next day there was a fine stir when
somebody saw the old German going up the gravel walk to the head-master's
room. Presently there was such a noise in the passage that even the master
had to listen. It was the head-master's red-haired brother turning the old
German out and shouting to the man-servant "see that he doesn't steal the
top-coats." We heard afterwards that he had asked the names of the two
boys who passed his window every day and been told the names of the two
head boys who passed also but were notoriously gentlemanly in their
manne