"'Now,' he says, more quiet than ever--I can see him now, with his big
eyes blazin' black out o' his white face and his little hands that seemed
to me scarce more'n a baby's clenched tight at his side--'Now, I guess, I
got to lick you!'
"An' he did!"
"He beat him?" cried Mollie excitedly. "Oh, weren't you proud?"
"I guess I was!" answered the little old woman, her eyes snapping with the
memory. "That was the day my boy showed what was in him, an' after that
the other boys never called him any more names.
"But, o' course," she added, while the old cloud erased the glow from her
face, "that didn't keep the boys from wantin' to get even.
"Well, then came the awful day when Abner Conway's barn burned an' Abner
himself came over to accuse my Willie of havin' started the fire,
bringin' with him two or three o' the boys who had tried to call Willie
names to swear they'd seen him do it.
"O' course Willie denied it an' I backed him up by sayin'--an' there never
was truer word spoken--that Willie was with me before an' at the time the
barn took fire.
"But it didn't do any good. Abner was ragin' because it meant considerable
loss to him, an' so much blame had been laid at Willie's door by the other
boys that he declared this time he was goin' to have him punished.
"'I'll have the law on him!' he shouted, rampagin' round my kitchen like a
wild animal. I'll show that boy o' yours if he can go round settin' folks'
barns on fire an' not get come up with! I'll give him a taste o' what it
feels like to be behind bars.
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