the wheat, though I tell you fairly I'd minded to do so. I've come
over here, Dr. Parker, me and my missus who's outside, to thank
this young gentleman for having saved the life of my little daughter
Bessy. She was walking along the road when a mad dog, a big brute
of a mastiff, who came, I hear, from somewhere about Canterbury,
and who has bit two boys on the road, to say nothing of other dogs
and horses and such like; he came along the road, he were close
to my Bess, and she stood there all alone. Some of my men with
pitchforks were two hundred yards or so behind; but law, they could
have done nothing! when this young gentleman here jumped all of a
sudden over a hedge and put himself between the dog and my Bess.
The dog, he rushed at him; but what does he do but claps a bag he'd
got at the end of a stick over the brute's head, and there he holds
him tight till the men comes up and kills him with their forks.

"Young gentleman," he said, stepping up to Frank and holding out
his hand, "I owe my child's life to you. There are not many men
who would have thrown themselves in the way of a mad dog, for the
sake of a child they knew nothing of. I thank you for it with all
my heart. God bless you, sir. Now, boys, you give three cheers with
me for your schoolmate, for you've got a right to be proud of him."

Three such thundering cheers as those which arose had never been
heard within the limits of Dr. Parker's school from the day of its
foundation. Seeing that farther work could not be expected from them
after this excitement, Dr. Parker gave the boys a holiday for the
rest of the day, and they poured out from the schoolroom, shouting
and delighted, while Frank was taken off to the parlor to be thanked
by Mrs. Gregson. The farmer closed his visit by inviting Frank,
with as many of his schoolfellows as he liked--the whole school