I think you'd better go and fix it, before you do something
you'll be sorry for."
"Don't you worry your old head!" answered Ted, determinedly. "I'm watching
to see who comes along. Do you suppose I'd let Mrs. Burton, or the rector
tumble into the tub? What d'you take me for, you old duffer?"
"Well," said Will, good-humoredly, "whom do you expect to catch?"
"Is your head so taken up with scientific musings that you haven't
noticed how, lately, Will Hen Baizley has taken to going home this way
every afternoon, instead of by the short cut over the back road?
I expect he's got a girl down at the corners, or he wouldn't be coming
such a long way round. Anyway, when he gets to the top of the hill
he always sits down on our seat, and fills up his pipe. I've been
looking for a chance at him this long while!"
Will Hen Baizley was the most objectionable "tough" that Frosty Hollow
could boast. He was a bad-tempered bully, cruel in his propensities,
and delighting to interfere in all the innocent amusements of the
village youngsters. He was a loutish tyrant, and Ted had suffered
various petty annoyances at his hands for several years. In fact, the
boy was looking forward to the day when he might, without presumption,
undertake to give the bully a thrashing and deliver the neighbourhood
from his thraldom. As Will Hen, however, was about twenty years of age,
large, and not unskillful with his fists, Ted saw some years of waiting
yet ahead of him. Such suspense he could not endure.
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