the ropes all straight again and started off. The boy never said a word,
except when the man asked him what did it. Then he told him, "The mule
didn't like the looks of that baby boy there on the canal bank." The man
shook his fist at me, and I called, "Gimme my cap." And the boy said,
"Wait till we come back"; and he made an awful face as they went away,
turning round and riding backwards to do it.

I knew then that he was the same boy that made a face at me when I was
in the train.

Well, I had to tell Aunty Edith, and she looked very severe, and gave
me my second-best cap and said, "William, do be careful, this time." But
I only told her that the boy threw my cap into the water. I didn't tell
that he said he was coming back.

But I talked to Mr. Taylor about it, and he agreed that when I saw the
boy again, I'd have to have it out with him, and he'd stand referee to
see that there was no unfair advantage took of me or him.

"For," says he, "you can't be called baby darling free and often by them
boat boys, and neither can you eel them boat boys and scare their mules.
All things being equal, you ask him his intentions next time and come
to some mew-tual feeling on the matter, which won't reach the ears of
your Aunty Edith. The ears of your Aunty May," say she, "could be
reached and enjyed by them fine, if took alone, and without t'other
Aunty present."

Well, every day I kept a watch-out for that boy, and for a whole week I
didn't see him.