just
as we left the yard?"

"No was he, though?"

"I am sure of it."

"Then he must have seen all the row."

"Shouldn't wonder."

"No, he didn't," broke in Adams, "or he would have stopped it short
metre; but I guess be saw you pitching into the pump which you did
uncommonly strong--and of course be smelt mischief directly."

"Well, it can't be helped now," I reflected.

"--As the monkey said when he fell out of the cocoanut tree," added
Charley Marden, trying to make me laugh.

It was early candle-light when we reached the house. Miss Abigail,
opening the front door, started back at my hilarious appearance. I
tried to smile upon her sweetly, but the smile, rippling over my
swollen cheek, and dying away like a spent wave on my nose, produced an
expression of which Miss Abigail declared she had never seen the like
excepting on the face of a Chinese idol.

She hustled me unceremoniously into the presence of my grandfather in
the sitting-room. Captain Nutter, as the recognized professional warrior
of our family, could not consistently take me to task for fighting
Conway; nor was he disposed to do so; for the Captain was well aware of
the long-continued provocation I had endured.

"Ah, you rascal!" cried the old gentleman, after hearing my story. "Just
like me when I was young--always in one kind of trouble or another. I
believe it runs in the family."

"I think," said Miss Abigail, without the faintest expression on her
countenance, "that a table-spoonful of hot-dro--" The Captain interrupted
Miss Abigail peremptorily, directing her to make a shade out of
cardboard and black silk to tie over my eye. Miss Abigail must have been
possessed with the idea that I had taken up pugilism as a profession,
for she turned out no fewer than six of these blinders.

"They'll be handy to have in the house," says Miss Abigail, grimly.

Of course, so great a breach of discipline was not to be passed over by
Mr. Grimshaw. He had, as we suspected, witnessed the closing scene
of the fight from the school-room window, and the next morning, after
prayers, I was not wholly unprepared when Master Conway and myself
were called up to the desk for examination. Conway, with a piece of
court-plaster in the shape of a Maltese cross on his right cheek, and
I with the silk patch over my left eye, caused a general titter through
the room.

"Silence!" said Mr. Grimshaw, sharply.

As the reader is already familiar with the leading points