Joel Ham knew so well how to inflict. Dick was
rather superior to little girls; his tender sentiment was usually
lavished on ladies ten or twelve years his senior; but he could not hide
from himself the fact that Kitty Grey's affection, however hopeless it
might be, was at times most gratifying. Once he had resented its
manifestations with bitterness, imagining that they were likely to bring
him into contempt and undermine his authority; and when she interfered in
his memorable fight with Bill Cole and fiercely attacked his opponent
with a picket, cutting his head and incapacitating him for fighting for
the rest of the day, he felt that he could never forgive her. She had
violated the rule of battle and outraged the noble principle of fair
play; and, worse and worse, had disgraced him in the eyes of the world by
making him appear as a weakling seeking protection behind a despised
petticoat. He reviled Kitty for that action in such overwhelming language
that the poor girl fled in tears, and next day it was only with the
greatest difficulty that she persuaded him to accept two pears and a
blood-alley as a peace offering.
Dolf Belman came later with a little comfort.
'Gotter junk o' rosum,' he said, fumbling in his school-bag.
'Hoo! have you though?' said Parrot Cann. 'Rosum's great. Put some on my
hand oust when I went to ole Pepper's school at Yarraman, an' near died
laughin' when he gave me twenty cuts fer copy-in' me sums.
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