'Carpenter went to his place, the letters were erased and the lesson
was resumed. I was greatly perplexed; I had acquiesced in a cowardly
falsehood. Carrots was a great friend of mine, and I could not bear
to feel that he was humbugged, so when we were outside I went up to
Carpenter and told him he was an infernal sneak, and we had a
desperate fight, and I licked him, and blacked both his eyes. I did
not know what else to do.'

The company laughed.

'We cannot,' said Madge, 'all of us come to terms after this fashion
with our consciences, but we have had enough of these discussions on
morality. Let us go out.'

They went out, and, as some relief from the straight road, they
turned into a field as they came home, and walked along a footpath
which crossed the broad, deep ditches by planks. They were within
about fifty yards of the last and broadest ditch, more a dyke than a
ditch, when Frank, turning round, saw an ox which they had not
noticed, galloping after them.

'Go on, go on,' he cried, 'make for the plank.'

He discerned in an instant that unless the course of the animal could
be checked it would overtake them before the bridge could be reached.
The women fled, but Frank remained. He was in the habit of carrying
a heavy walking-stick, the end of which he had hollowed out in his
schooldays and had filled up with lead. Just as the ox came upon
him, it laid its head to the ground, and Frank, springing aside,
dealt it a tremendous, two-handed blow on the forehead with his