m; and he had
to conceal any little fancy he had about this girl or that unless he
wanted to be considered soft by the other fellows. When they were having
fun they did not want to have any girls around; but in the back-yard a
boy might play teeter or seesaw, or some such thing, with his sisters
and their friends, without necessarily losing caste, though such things
were not encouraged. On the other hand, a boy was bound to defend them
against anything that he thought slighting or insulting; and you did not
have to verify the fact that anything had been said or done; you merely
had to hear that it had. It once fell to my boy to avenge such a
reported wrong from a boy who had not many friends in school, a timid
creature whom the mere accusation frightened half out of his wits, and
who wildly protested his innocence. He ran, and my boy followed with the
other boys after him, till they overtook the culprit and brought him to
bay against a high board fence; and there my boy struck him in his
imploring face. He tried to feel like a righteous champion, but he felt
like a brutal ruffian. He long had the sight of that terrified, weeping
face, and with shame and sickness of heart he cowered before it. It was
pretty nearly the last of his fighting; and though he came off victor,
he felt that he would rather be beaten himself than do another such act
of justice. In fact, it seems best to be very careful how we try to do
justice in this world, and mostly to leave retribution of all kinds to
God, who really knows about things; and content ourselves as much as
possible with mercy, whose mistakes are not so irreparable.

The boys had very little to do with the inside of one another's houses.
They would follow a boy to his door, and wait for him to come out; and
they would sometimes get him to go in and ask his mother for crullers or
sugar-cakes; when they came to see him they never went indoors for him,
but stood on the sidewalk and called him with a peculiar cry, something
like "E-oo-we, e-oo-we!" and threw stones at trees, or anything, till he
came out. If he did not come, after a reasonable time, they knew he was
not there, or that his mother would not let him come. A fellow was kept
in that way, now and then. If a fellow's mother came to the door the
boys always ran.

The mother represented the family sovereignty; the father was seldom
seen, and he counted for little or nothing among the outside boys. It
was the mother who could