I guess he won't trouble us to-morrow." Meanwhile the boy, emboldened by Jack's passiveness, followed, with more abuse of the same sort.

If he had been wiser, he would have seen a storm gathering in the flash of Jack's eye; but he mistook the cause of his forbearance.
The next day, as they were going to school, Ida saw the same boy dodging round the corner with his head bound up.
"What's the matter with him, Jack ?" she asked.
"I licked him like blazes, that's all," said Jack, quietly.

"I guess he'll let us alone after this." Even after Jack left school, and got a position in a store at two dollars a week, he gave a large part of his spare time to Ida.
"Really," said Mrs.Harding, "Jack is as careful of Ida as if he was her guardian." "A pretty sort of a guardian he is!" said Aunt Rachel.

"Take my word for it, he's only fit to lead her into mischief." "You do him injustice, Rachel.

Jack is not a model boy, but he takes the best care of Ida." Rachel shrugged her shoulders, and sniffed significantly.