dewalk. His hands were uplifted as
if to throw the weights. The grocer had not come up to the boy who
shouted in a burst of fear and anger,--

"I'll pay for your chicken, I say. Now you keep away from me!"

[Illustration: "_I'll pay for your chicken, I say. Now you keep away
from me_."]

The grocer hesitated, dismayed for a second by the threatening weights
in the boy's hand. But pride urged the man on. He stepped up quickly,
and planted a smarting blow on Jimmy's leg. It was well for the grocer
that he ducked his head; for when the paddle struck, the boy did not
flinch, but let drive one weight after another, and cried before each
crash of glass that the flying irons made inside the store, "Yes, you
will!" and again, "Yes, you will!"

He forgot the ache in his cramped heel and the burning in his bruised
toe as he ran to the middle of the street.

"You old coward, why don't you pick on some one your size?"

The tears were rising to his eyes; he had to run to escape from the
tide. Just as he turned, he caught a glimpse of his father joining the
gathering crowd. After that his feet grew wings.

A freight train stood on the track in front of the boy, a quarter of a
mile away. A mad impulse came to him as he ran, and he yielded to it.
A boy with a grievance, or a boy with a sore toe, or a boy with fear
at his back, cannot fashion his conduct after the beautiful principles
laid down in Mr. Herbert Spencer's "Data of Ethics." So when Jimmy
Sears came to the freight train that blocked his flight, he darted
down the track until he was out of sight of any possible pursuers in
the street. He clambered breathlessly into a coal car, and snuggled
down into a corner inside a little strip of shade, and panted like a
hunted rabbit. A sickening pain throbbed up from his toe. The train
moved slowly at first, and Jimmy knew that he could not hide from the
train men in a coal car. On a banter from Piggy Pennington and Bud
Perkins Jimmy had ridden on the brake-beam while the switch engine was
pulling freight cars about the railroad yards. He had a vague idea
that midway of the train, between two box cars, would be a safe place.
When the train began to increase its speed, Jimmy climbed up the side
of a cattle car and ran along the roof. He had gone three car-lengths
and was about to make his third jump, when he saw the angry face of
his father, who appeared on the depot platform. Instinctively the boy
darted to the other side of the