My c--c--cricket b--ball was up in the st--st--stables.

I was only p--p--playin' marbles." The Captain gave him a little shake.
"Did you lame Mazeppa with the cricket ball ?" he said sternly.
"N--n--no I n--never," Bunty whispered, white to the lips.

Then semi-repentance came to him, and he added: "It just rolled out of my p--p--pocket, and M--Mazeppa was passing and h--h--hit his l-leg on it." "Speak the truth, or I'll thrash you within an inch of your life," the Captain said, standing up, and seizing Esther's whip: "Now then, sir--was it you lamed Mazeppa ?" "Yes," said Bunty, bursting into a roar of crying, and madly dodging the whip.
Then, as the strokes descended on his unhappy shoulders, he filled the air with his familiar wail of "'Twasn't me, 'twasn't my fault!" "You contemptible young cur!" said his father, pausing a moment when his arm ached with wielding the whip.

"I'll thrash this mean spirit of lying and cowardice out of you, or kill you in the attempt." Swish, swish.

"What sort of a man do you think you'll make ?" Swish, swish.
"Telling lies just to save your miserable skin!" Swish, swish, swish, swish.
"You've killed me--oh, you've killed me! I know you have!" yelled the wretched child, squirming all over the floor.