fairly mum when you're around."

Hugh chuckled, as though the recollection might not be wholly
displeasing; though, truth to tell, that was the only fight he had
been in since coming to Scranton. Even it would not have taken place
only that he could not stand by and see the big bully thrash most
cruelly a weaker boy than himself.

"Oh! no, you're away off in your guess, Thad," he replied
immediately. "Fact is, instead of threats, Nick was asking a favor
of me, for once in his life."

"You don't say!" ejaculated Thad. "Well, now you've got me excited
there's nothing left but to tell me what sort of a favor Nick would
want of you, Hugh."

"It seems that for a long time he's been admiring those old hockey
skates of mine," continued the other. "In fact, they've grown on
Nick so that he even condescended to ask me to _sell_ them to him for
a dollar, which he said he'd earned by doing odd jobs, just in order
to buy my old skates. He chanced to hear me say once that my mother
had promised to get me the best silver-plated hockey skates on the
market, for my next birthday, which is now only a few days off.
That's all there was to it, Thad."

"Well," commented Thad, "we all know that Nick is a boss skater, even
on the old runners he sports, and which mebbe his dad used before
him, they're that ancient. He can hold his own with the next one
whenever there's any ice worth using. And as to hockey, why, if Nick
would only play fair, which he never will, it seems because his