"What does he mean, Ellis?" he asked at last.
"You'll have to ask him if you want to find out," said Ellis haughtily.
"He knows better than anybody else what he means, I guess."
The boys started homeward presently in a body. Bob Turner and his friends
surrounded Tip, and Bob, who never lost a good opportunity for teasing,
commenced at once:
"Poor little fellow, missed his lesson, so he did. Don't him cry; him
shall have a penny to buy a multiplication-table with."
"Hold your tongue!" answered Tip, too angry to see how foolish it was to
let such words, coming from a boy who didn't know a single line of the
multiplication-table, provoke him.
"_Such_ a pity!" began Bob again; "when it had spelled its lesson all so
nice, and had its face washed and its hair combed so pretty. Mustn't cry
now, to spoil its face. Poor little fellow!"
Tip turned to his tormentor a face perfectly white with rage, and the
boys hardly knew his voice:
"Bob Turner, if you say another word, I'll knock you down and thrash you
within an inch of your life.
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