window on his head, during one of Maria Flathers' absent-minded
moments. This apparently did not affect his head, but in time it
seriously affected his speech. The fact that he had so much to say,
without being able to say it, resulted in a dammed-up current that
sometimes overflowed in temper and viciousness. He talked a great
deal, but nobody was able, or took the pains to try, to understand
him. That is, not until Skeeter Sheeley gave him his nickname and
became his official interpreter.

Their friendship dated from a memorable day when Skeeter had for the
first time heard of the incubator incident, and had promptly accosted
the Flathers' foundling as "Chicken." The insult had been instantly
resented in a battle so fierce and so bloody, that the details of it
became historic in the annals of Billy-goat Hill. Chick, though of
lighter weight, and feeble muscle, was armed with righteous
indignation. He observed no rules, but fought with arms, legs, teeth
and nails. The odds were against him however, and he had to be
assisted from the field, a vanquished hero.

From that time on, by one of those mysterious laws that govern boydom,
the two were inseparable companions, waging open war on all adjoining
neighborhoods, engaging in predatory expeditions in their own, and,
when interest in life flagged, fighting each other.

Skeeter interpreted all that Chick said, interpreted it freely, and
with imagination, and Chick apparently considered himself honor bound
to accept the interpretation and stand for it, no matter how far it
came from expressing his meaning.

Eleven years of wickedness had thus been swaggered through when Chick