commit some blood-curdling crime.

When, as sometimes happened, I had
met one of the Bad Madigans on the
road, or down on the village street, my
heart had beaten as if I was face to
face with a company of banditti; but
I cannot say that this excitement was
caused by aversion alone. The truth
was, the Bad Madigans fascinated me.
They stood out from all the others,
proudly and disdainfully like Robin
Hood and his band, and I could not get
over the idea that they said: "Fetch
me yonder bow!" to each other; or,
"Go slaughter me a ten-tined buck!" I
felt that they were fortunate in not be-
ing held down to hours like the rest of
us. Out of bed at six-thirty, at table
by seven, tidying bedroom at seven-
thirty, dusting sitting-room at eight, on
way to school at eight-thirty, was not
for "the likes of them!" Only we,
slaves of respectability and of an inor-
dinate appetite for order, suffered such
monotony and drabness to rule. I knew
the Madigan boys could go fishing
whenever they pleased, that the Madi-
gan girls picked the blackberries before
any one else could get out to them, that