own so much dread. It took away his desire to go upon the roof; it
kept him awake long into the night, tugging at his hair, twisting and
turning upon his mattress, sighing, even weeping a little out of sheer
helplessness. Having his normal amount of the reserve, dignity and pride
that is childhood's, his dread was not that Big Tom, when he returned to
meet Mr. Perkins, would be rude to the scoutmaster (it did not occur to
him that the longshoreman would dare to go that far); it was that, in
the presence of the new friend whose good opinion Johnnie longed to
keep, Barber would order him around, jerk him by a sleeve, or shove him
rudely--treat him, in fact, with that lack of respect which was usual,
and thus mortify him.

The full moon was again lifting above the city and touching all the
roofs with silver. From where he lay he looked out and up, trying to
forget his wretchedness, but living the coming encounter again and
again. His ears grew hot as Barber seized one of them and wrung it, or
brushed his face with a hard, sweaty hand. Imagining insult upon insult,
his chest heaved and his wet eyes burned.

"Oh, One-Eye!" he whispered to a dear image that seemed to fill the
morris chair, "if _you_ was only here! Gee, Big Tom never dast treat me
bad before you!" It was not that he felt for a moment that the cowboy
was the better friend of the two whom he revered and loved; they held
equal places in his affections. But Mr. Perkins was too much of a
gentleman to be awe-inspiring. The Westerner, in his big hat and his
hairy breeches, was the man to be feared!

At breakfast he was given no chance to talk matters over with Cis. And
she neither saw his signals nor heard them, though he arranged both the
stove and the table to warn her that something had happened, and coughed
croupily till Barber told him roughly to shut up. He comforted himself
with reflecting that it would have done him no good had they threshed
the coming crisis out.

It was a shaken, hollow-eyed, miserable, unbathed little boy that
greeted Mr. Perkins when the scoutmaster rapped. And the sight of the
latter only made Johnnie's spirits sink lower. He had hoped with all his
heart that the leader would come in all the grandeur and pride of his
uniform; and here was Mr. Perkins in a light suit, a straw hat, and
white socks. The fact that he had on a lavender tie and was carrying
brown gloves made things just that much worse. Steadily, during the past
fortnight,