me what will of it, I'll touch you."

"Who ever said I did Jacob Dobbin any harm?" asked James Courtenay, his
face as pale as ashes; "I never laid a hand upon the brat."

"Brat or no brat," answered Jim Meyers, "you were the death of him; you
made him burst a blood-vessel, and I say you murdered him." This was too
much for James Courtenay to bear, so without more ado, he flew upon Jim
Meyers, intending to pommel him well; but Jim was not to be so easily
pommelled; he stood upon his guard, and soon dealt the young squire such
a blow between the eyes that he had no more power to fight.

"Vengeance! vengeance!" cried the angry youth. "I'll make you pay dearly
for this;" and slinking away, he got upon his pony and rode rapidly
home.

It may be easily imagined that on the young squire's arrival at the
Hall, in so melancholy a plight, the whole place was in terrible
confusion. Servants ran hither and thither, old Aggie went off for some
ice, and the footman ran to the stable to send the groom for the
doctor, and the whole house was turned upside down.

In the midst of all this, James Courtenay's father came home, and great
indeed was his rage when he heard that his son had received this beating
on his own property, and from the hands of a son of one of his own
tenantry; and his rage became greater and greater as the beaten boy gave
a very untrue account of what had occurred. "I was admiring a bantam of
Meyers," said he to his father, "and his son flew upon me like a tiger,
and hit me between the eyes."

Squire Courtenay determined to move in the matter at once, so he sent a
groom to summon the Meyers--both father and son. "I'll make Meyers pay
dearly for this," said the squire; "his lease is out next Michaelmas,
and I shall not renew it; and, besides, I'll prosecute his son."

All this delighted the young squire, and every minute seemed to him to
be an hour, until the arrival of the two Meyers, upon whom ample
vengeance was to be wreaked; and the pain of his eyes seemed as nothing,
so sweet was the prospect of revenge.

In the course of an hour the two Meyers arrived, and with much fear and
trembling were shown into their landlord's presence.

"Meyers," cried the squire, in great wrath, "you leave your farm at
Michaelmas; and as to that young scoundrel, your son, I'll have him
before the bench next bench-day, and I'll see whether I can't make him
pay for such tricks as these."

"What have I done," asked old Meyers,