ague for the time at
least."

"That time, then, shall not be long," answered Tom, "for I am coming."

"Stop him! stop him!" cried James. "Here, Will--and you, Hodge,"
speaking to the young carter, "have at him, he shan't come out so soon
as he wishes;" and giving a whoop and a shout, the three boys, James,
William, and Hodge, set to to drive Tom back again whenever he
attempted to get out of the heap of mire upon the dry ground.

There were three against one, and Tom had the disadvantage of very
slippery footing, so that he was constantly driven back at every
attempt, and so very roughly too, that he was thrown down more than
once; but he fell on soft ground, and got no harm beyond being covered
with mire from head to foot.

The whole yard rang with the shouts and screams of the boys; and this
might have lasted much longer if an old labouring servant had not come
into the yard, and insisted that there was enough of it, driving Hodge
away, and crying shame on his young masters. When Tom was let loose, he
walked away into the house, as Henry supposed, to get himself washed;
and James and William, being very hot, called Henry to go with them
across the field into the barn, in one corner of which they had a
litter of puppies. They were a long time in this barn, for after they
had looked at the puppies they had a game at marbles, and Henry was
much amused.

William Burke was generally the quietest of the family, and almost all
strangers liked him best; but he had his particular tempers, and as
those tempers were never kept under by his parents, when they broke out
they were very bad. James did something in the game which he did not
think fair, so he got up from the ground where they were sitting or
kneeling to play, kicked the marbles from him, told his brother that he
was cheating, in so many plain words, and was walking quietly away,
when James followed him, and seized his arm to pull him back.

William resisted, and then the brothers began to wrestle; and from
wrestling half playfully, they went on to wrestle in earnest. One gave
the other a chance blow, and the other returned an intended one, and
then they fought in good earnest, and did not stop till William had got
a bloody nose; and perhaps they might not have stopped then, if Henry
Fairchild had not begun to cry, running in between them, and begging
them not to hurt each other any more.

"Poor child!" cried James, as he drew back from William, "don't you
kno