the Rockabie boys, uncle."

"Hah! And in the face of all that I have said and taught you about your
being different by your birth and education from the young ragamuffin
rout of Rockabie harbour! Cannot you run over there in your boat and do
what business you have to carry out without being mixed up in some
broil?"

"No, uncle."

"Disgraceful, sir! A gentleman's education should teach him that his
weapons are words properly applied, and not tooth and nail, blows and
kicks."

"I never bit or kicked, uncle," said Aleck, sullenly.

"Of course not, sir; and don't retort upon me in that insolent way. You
know perfectly well that I was speaking metaphorically. Did you for a
moment imagine I thought you used your teeth and claws like a savage
dog?"

"No, uncle."

"Then don't reply to me like that. Of course I would know you would use
your fists. Look at your knuckles!" thundered the old man.

Aleck looked at those parts of his person dismally, and they looked bad.
For the skin was damaged in three places, and the nail of his left
thumb was split in a painful way.

"Disgusting," said the old man. "I trusted you to go over there, and
you come back a disreputable wreck. All my teaching seems to be thrown
away upon a pugnacious untrustworthy boy."

"I'm not pugnacious, uncle, if they'd let me alone."

"Bah! You ought to be above noticing the scum of the place."

"I am, uncle, and I don't notice them," pleaded the boy; "it's they who
will notice me."

"How, pray?"

"I can't go into the place without their mobbing me and calling me
names."

"Contemptible! And pray, sir," cried the old man, in harsh, sarcastic
tones, "what do they call you?"

"All sorts of things," replied the boy, confusedly. "I can't recollect
now. Yes, I know; sometimes they shout `Fox' or `Foxy' after me."

"And pray why?"

"Because they say I've just come out of the Den."

"Rubbish."

"At other times it's `Spider.'"

"Spider?"

"Yes, uncle; because I've got such long legs."

"Worse and worse," cried the old man. "To fight for that! It is
childish."

"Oh, I didn't fight for that, uncle!"

"What for, then, pray, sir?"

"Sometimes they lay wait for me and hide behind a smack or the harbour
wall, and pelt me with shells and the nasty offal left about by the
fishermen."

"Disgusting! The insolent young dogs! They deserve to be flogged. So
that is why you fought this morning?"

"Sometimes they throw pebbles a