master in a loud tone, at
the same time striking the desk violently with his cane.

"Oh, sir, let me out! There's Bob Croaker with my kitten. He's going
to drown it. I know he is; he said he would; and if he does aunty will
die, for she loves it next to me; and I must save it, and--and, if you
_don't_ let me out--you'll be a murderer!"

At this concluding burst, Martin sprang forward and stood before his
master with clenched fists and a face blazing with excitement. The
schoolmaster's gaze of astonishment gradually gave place to a dark frown
strangely mingled with a smile, and, when the boy concluded, he said
quietly--

"You may go."

No second bidding was needed. The door flew open with a bang; and the
gravel of the play-ground, spurned right and left, dashed against the
window panes as Martin flew across it. The paling that fenced it off
from the fields beyond was low, but too high for a jump. Never a boy in
all the school had crossed that paling at a spring, without laying his
hands upon it; but Martin did. We do not mean to say that he did
anything superhuman; but he rushed at it like a charge of cavalry,
sprang from the ground like a deer, kicked away the top bar, tumbled
completely over, landed on his head, and rolled down the slope on the
other side as fast as he could have run down,--perhaps faster.

It would have required sharper eyes than yours or mine to have observed
how Martin got on his legs again, but he did it in a twinkling, and was
half across the field almost before you could wink, and panting on the
heels of Bob Croaker. Bob saw him coming and instantly started off at a
hard run, followed by the whole school. A few minutes brought them to
the banks of the stream, where Bob Croaker halted, and, turning round,
held the white kitten up by the nape of the neck.

"O spare it! spare it, Bob!--don't do it--please don't, don't do it!"
gasped Martin, as he strove in vain to run faster.

"There you go!" shouted Bob, with a coarse laugh, sending the kitten
high into the air, whence it fell with a loud splash into the water.

It was a dreadful shock to feline nerves, no doubt, but that white
kitten was no ordinary animal. Its little heart beat bravely when it
rose to the surface, and, before its young master came up, it had
regained the bank. But, alas! what a change! It went into the stream a
fat, round, comfortable ball of eider-down. It came out a scraggy
blotch of white paint, with it