Turk! Eat him up!"

The owner of the opposing dog was one Steve Gobel. 'Twixt him and Will
a good-sized feud existed. Steve was also on the scene, with a defiant,
"Sic 'em, Nigger!" and the rest of the school followed in his wake.

Of the twisting, yelping bundle of dog-flesh that rolled from under the
schoolhouse it was difficult to say which was Turk and which Nigger.
Eliza and I called to Turk, and wept because he would not hear. The
teacher ordered the children back to their studies, but they were
as deaf as Turk; whereat the enraged pedagogue hopped wildly about,
flourishing a stick and whacking every boy that strayed within reach of
it.

Nigger soon had enough of the fight, and striking his tail-colors, fled
yelping from the battle-ground. His master, Steve Gobel, a large youth
of nineteen or twenty years, pulled off his coat to avenge upon Will
the dog's defeat, but the teacher effected a Solomon-like compromise by
whipping both boys for bringing their dogs to school, after which the
interrupted session was resumed.

But Gobel nursed his wrath, and displayed his enmity in a thousand small
ways. Will paid no attention to him, but buckled down to his school
work. Will was a born "lady's man," and when Miss Mary Hyatt complicated
the feud 'twixt him and Steve, it hurried to its climax. Mary was older
than Will, but she plainly showed her preference for him over Master
Gobel. Steve had never distinguished himself in an Indian fight; he was
not a hero, but just a plain boy.

Now, indeed, was Will's life unendurable; "patience had had its perfect