A boy, much larger than himself, had offended him. David decided not
to attack him near the school-house, lest the master might separate
them.

He therefore slipped out of school, just before it was dismissed,
and running along the road, hid in a thicket, near which his victim
would have to pass on his way home. As the boy came unsuspectingly
along, young Crockett, with the leap of a panther, sprang upon his
back. With tooth and nail he assailed him, biting, scratching,
pounding, until the boy cried for mercy.

The next morning, David was afraid to go to school, apprehending the
severe punishment he might get from the master. He therefore left
home as usual, but played truant, hiding himself in the woods all
day. He did the same the next morning, and so continued for several
days. At last the master sent word to John Crockett, inquiring why
his son David no longer came to school. The boy was called to an
account, and the whole affair came out.

John Crockett had been drinking. His eyes flashed fire. He cut a
stout hickory stick, and with oaths declared that he would give his
boy an "eternal sight" worse whipping than the master would give
him, unless he went directly back to school. As the drunken father
approached brandishing his stick, the boy ran, and in a direction
opposite from that of the school-house. The enraged father pursued,
and the unnatural race continued for nearly a mile. A slight turn in
the road concealed the boy for a moment from the view of his
pursuer, and he plunged into the forest and hid. The father, with
staggering gait, rushed along, but having lost sight of the boy,
soon gave up the chase, and returned home.