tain?"

"Givin' this boy a duckin'; an' if I told ye what for, I donno but ye'd
be for takin' of him up," answered the captain, disregarding all
considerations of parental or family pride. "If ye fin' me a meaner one
nor he is in this big town, I'll duck him, too, an' keep him under till
he begs an' swears he'll mend his ways.--Now, git along home, sir," to
the shaking Theodore. "I'd willin' pay for two suits of clo's to have
the satisfaction of givin' ye yer desarvins, though I don't know as
ye've got 'em yet. Git!"

Theodore, only too glad to obey, sped away like the wind; while the
captain, as the policeman was about to interfere further, turned to the
officer, and, taking him by the arm, as if he were going to arrest
_him_, repeated in a friendly tone, "He's had no more than his
desarvin's,--young scamp; an' them's my opinions. I'll tell ye."

"But what are you about, ducking that boy in a public fountain?" asked
the officer, doubtful what course to pursue with the old original.
"Don't you know such a thing is a breach of the public peace?"

"I don't know nothin' about your breaches," said the old veteran, no
whit disturbed; "but I knows I got a right to duck that boy where'er
I've a min' to. He's my gran'son,--more shame to me,--an' a little
water ain't goin' to hurt him. His fam'ly's used to water,--good salt
water, too," with a contemptuous look at the fluid in the fountain
basin, "an' if I could wash the meanness outer him, I'd duck him a
dozen times a day. Come along."

And still with his hand upon the policeman's arm, the captain turned
away with him, soon satisfying the guardian of the peace that this was
no case for arrest. Barney agreed that he had the right to take the law
into his own hands, although this was hardly the place for him to do
so.

Of course Theodore's thefts, and the story of the grandfather's summary
punishment, went the rounds of the school the next morning, and it soon
reached the ears of the teachers and principal; and Theodore was called
up again before the latter, this time to receive a far sterner
reprimand than had been bestowed upon Jim. As the offence had been
committed out of school bounds and school hours, the punishment for it
did not lie within the jurisdiction of Mr. Rollins; but, in addition to
that which he had received from his grandfather, it was meted out to
him on the school premises. From that time he acquired the _sobriquet_
of "Peanuts,"--a name which, short as