At present the General, as I sometimes call him, is in hospital. He was
seriously wounded at the battle of The Little Go-Cart, on the 9th
instant. On returning from my office yesterday evening, I found that
scarred veteran stretched upon a sofa in the sitting-room, with a patch
of brown paper stuck over his left eye, and a convicting smell of
vinegar about him.

"Yes," said his mother, dolefully, "Johnny's been fighting again. That
horrid Barnabee boy (who is eight years old, if he is a day) won't let
the child alone."

"Well," said I, "I hope Johnny gave that Barnabee boy a thrashing."

"Didn't I, though?" cries Johnny, from the sofa. "_I_ bet!"

"O Johnny!" says his mother.

Now, several days previous to this, I had addressed the General in the
following terms:--

"Johnny, if I ever catch you in another fight of your own seeking, I
shall cane you."

In consequence of this declaration, it became my duty to look into the
circumstances of the present affair, which will be known in history as
the battle of The Little Go-Cart. After going over the ground very
carefully, I found the following to be the state of the case.

It seems that the Barnabee Boy--I speak of him as if he were the Benicia
Boy--is the oldest pupil in the Primary Military School (I think it
_must_ be a military school) of which Johnny is a recent member. This
Barnabee, having whipped every one of his companions, was sighing for
new boys to conquer, when Johnny joined the institution. He at once
made friendly overtures of battle to Johnny, who, oddly enough, seemed
indisposed to encourage his advances. Then Barnabee began a series of
petty persecutions, which had continued up to the day of the fight.

On the morning of that eventful day the Barnabee Boy appeared in the
school-yard with a small go-cart. After running down on Johnny several
times with this useful vehicle, he captured Johnny's cap, filled it with
sand, and dragged it up and down the yard triumphantly in the go-cart.
This made the General very angry, of course, and he took an early
opportunity of kicking over the triumphal car, in doing which he kicked
one of the wheels so far into space that it has not been seen since.

This brought matters to a crisis. The battle would have taken place then
and there; but at that moment the school-bell rang, and the gladiators
were obliged to give their attention to Smith's Speller. But a gloom
hung over the morning's exercises,--a gloom that