We and the World, Part I

ore, and lost all.

ill habit, and ye

h Pro

gayer than when the dog-roses were out; for not only were the leaves of all kinds brighter than many flowers, but the berries (from the holly a

green coronets off, so that they were smooth and glossy, and egg-shaped, and crimson on one side and yellow on the other; and then he got an empty chaffinch's nest close by and put the five

inter because of the berries being so fine, and the hard winter never came, and

it's coming!" but the snow melted away and left no bones behind. In January the snow lay longer, and left big bones on the moors, and Jem and I made a slide to school on the pack track,

to fighting with the rough lads of the village. There was a standing subject of quarrel, which is a great thing for either tribes or individuals who have a turn that way. A pond at the corner of the lower paddock was fed by a stream which also fed the mill-dam; and the mill-dam was close by, though, as it happened, not on my father's p

iving your cast-off clothes to some shivering family, and you will not have to wait long for an eloquent essay on their shabbiness, or for an outburst of sincere indignation if you venture to reserve a warm jacket for a needy relative. Prescriptive rights, in short, grow faster than pumpkins, which is amongst the many warnings life affords us to b

pendent of other people; if he would live he must let live, and throw a little civility into the bargain. But boys of an age when their parents found meals and hobnailed boots f

s we had, but they had their dinner at twelve o'clock, whilst we had ours at one, so that any young roughs who wished to damage our pond were ju

e to us that they were taking the stones off our wall and pitching them down on to the soft ice below, to act as skaters' stumbling-blocks for the rest of that hard winter which we expected, Jem's indignation was not greater than mine. My father was not at home, and indeed, when we had complained before, he rather snubbed us, and said that we could not want the whole of the pond to ourselves, and that he had always lived quietly with his neighbours and we must learn to do the

were called to battle, I should have liked to do so in this instance; but as some of the Academy boys

that was on the other side of our wall, and had hidden ourselves in various corners of a cattle-shed, where a big cart and some sail-cloth and a turnip heap provided us with ambush. By and by certain fa

y?" we heard the sexton's son sa

reply. "It's no

urch. I yeard it as we

always hafe-an-hour

is

t

e to go by, anyhow," the

nd guffa

when thee feyther shifts t' time back'ards an

t t' ringers, ye mean!"

a punch in the back, and the two lads came cuffing and struggling up the

y had with some difficulty disengaged a very heavy stone. As we were turning our heads to watch the two lads fighting near our hiding-

!" I wh

it's frosted in," cried Bob Furniss

or thee feyther next spring, fettling up

e. Th' ice is as soft as loppered milk, and i' ten minutes, I'll fill y

!" I

at explosion point. We took them by surprise and in the rear. They had had some hard exercise, and we were panting to begin. As a matter of

three several times on this occasion, I heard him say very stiffly and distinctly (he

n men fight with men less civilized than themselves; and we had learnt before now that when we snowballed each other or snowballed the rougher "lot" of village boys

nnot say we felt comfortable, though we resolved to be courageous. Meanwhile, the thaw continued, which suspended operations, and gave time, which is good for heal

of the intended attack on us, for it never took place, and we knew of interviews which he had with John Binder and others of our neighbours; and when the frost came in January, we found that the stones had been taken out of the pond, and my father gave us a sharp lecture against being quarrelsome and giving ourselves airs, and it ended with-"The pond is mine. I wish you to remember it, because it makes it your duty to be hospitab

our dismissal,

ld tales to you to get out

I heard. It came to the sexton's ear

be bullying. But Jem and I kept our tempers, and by and by my father came down to see us, and headed a long slide in which we and our foes were combined. As he left he pinched Jem's frost

of the day. A word from my father went a long w

the end of the month we all went a good deal upon the mill-dam, and Mr. Wood (assisted by me as far as watching, handing tools and asking questions went) made a rough sledge, in which he pushed Charlie before hi

an once, when "the island" in the middle of the pond was a very fairyland of hoar-frosted twigs and snow-plumed larches, I have seen its white loveliness rudely shaken, and skating round to discover the