dder. "Oh!" thought Dicky,
"if I can get it down and present it to my mother, how pleased she
will be!" So, when he was alone, he picked out some large stones and
threw at it, but without any success. The next day he renewed his
attack in the evening, and to insure a better chance employed several
large pieces of brick and tile.

Now all these dangerous weapons went over into a poor man's garden,
where his son and some other boys were weeding it. One of them fell
upon the little fellow's leg, and cut it in so desperate a manner that
he cried out, quite terrified at the blow and sight of the blood. The
other boys directly took the alarm, and picking up some stones as
large as that which had done the mischief, they mounted on a high
bench, and discharged such a well-directed volley at the person of
Master Random that he was most violently struck upon the nose, and
knocked backwards into a glass cucumber-frame.

Here he lay in a most pitiable condition, calling upon his mother,
while the wounded boy on the other side joined in the concert of woe.

"Oh, it served you rightly!" exclaimed the young assailants, who were
looking over the wall, and ran away as soon as they saw Mr. Random
come into the garden to inquire the cause of the uproar.

His first concern was to carry Dicky indoors, and then, having wiped
away the blood and tears, he asked him how it happened.

"I was only trying to get a pear for my mother," said Richard, "when
these boys threw stones at me, and hit me!"

"That was very cruel," said his father, "to meddle with you when you
were doing nothing to them, and if I can find them out they shall be
punished for it."

Mr. Random immediately set off to the next house, but was met at his
own door by the father of the wounded boy, who was coming with him in
his arms to demand satisfaction. This brought the whole truth out, and
the artful little fellow was found to have concealed a part of the
real case. Instead of saying "he was only getting a pear," he should
have said that he was throwing large stones at the topmost pear on the
tree, and that every stone went over the wall, he could not tell
where.

"Ah, Richard," said his father, "it is little better than
story-telling to conceal a part of the truth. The affair now wears
quite a new face. It was you that gave the first assault, and will
have to answer for all the bad consequences. It is my duty to see that
this unoffending boy is taken care of; but if h