were out
of his brave yet trembling lips our own tramp leaped like an antelope
from the ditch and said:

"Now then, what's up?"

The biggest of the three men immediately knocked him down. He lay still.

The biggest then said, "Come on--any more of you? Come on!"

[Illustration: "OSWALD ACTUALLY HIT OUT AT THE BIG MAN"]

Oswald was so enraged at this cowardly attack that he actually hit out
at the big man--and he really got one in just above the belt. Then he
shut his eyes, because he felt that now all was indeed up. There was a
shout and a scuffle, and Oswald opened his eyes in astonishment at
finding himself still whole and unimpaired. Our own tramp had artfully
stimulated insensibleness, to get the men off their guard, and then had
suddenly got his arms round a leg each of two of the men, and pulled
them to the ground, helped by Dicky, who saw his game and rushed in at
the same time, exactly like Oswald would have done if he had not had his
eyes shut ready to meet his doom.

The unpleasant boys shouted, and the third man tried to help his
unrespectable friends, now on their backs, involved in a desperate
struggle with our own tramp, who was on top of them, accompanied by
Dicky. It all happened in a minute, and it was all mixed up. The dogs
were growling and barking--Martha had one of the men by the trouser leg
and Pincher had another; the girls were screaming like mad and the
strange boys shouted and laughed (little beasts!), and then suddenly our
Pig-man came round the corner, and two friends of his with him. He had
gone and fetched them to take care of us if anything unpleasant
occurred. It was very thoughtful, and just like him.

"Fetch the police!" cried the Pig-man in noble tones, and H. O. started
running to do it. But the scoundrels struggled from under Dicky and our
tramp, shook off the dogs and some bits of trouser, and fled heavily
down the road.

Our Pig-man said, "Get along home!" to the disagreeable boys, and
"Shoo'd" them as if they were hens, and they went. H. O. ran back when
they began to go up the road, and there we were, all standing breathless
and in tears on the scene of the late desperate engagement. Oswald gives
you his word of honor that his and Dicky's tears were tears of pure
rage. There are such things as tears of pure rage. Any one who knows
will tell you so.

We picked up our own tramp and bathed the lump on his forehead with
lemonade. The water in the zinc bath had been upset i