both another scene like this."

Tommy saw no more, for he crept back to the hall, looking so
excited and sober that the boys crowded round him to ask what
was being done to Nat.

In a most impressive whisper Tommy told them, and they looked
as if the sky was about to fall, for this reversing the order of things
almost took their breath away.

"He made me do the same thing once," said Emil, as if confessing
a crime of the deepest dye.

"And you hit him? dear old Father Bhaer? By thunder, I'd just like
to see you do it now!" said Ned, collaring Emil in a fit of righteous
wrath.

"It was ever so long ago. I'd rather have my head cut off than do it
now," and Emil mildly laid Ned on his back instead of cuffing
him, as he would have felt it his duty to do on any less solemn
occasion.

"How could you?" said Demi, appalled at the idea.

"I was hopping mad at the time, and thought I shouldn't mind a bit,
rather like it perhaps. But when I'd hit uncle one good crack,
everything he had ever done for me came into my head all at once
somehow, and I couldn't go on. No sir! If he'd laid me down and
walked on me, I wouldn't have minded, I felt so mean," and Emil
gave himself a good thump in the chest to express his sense of