So it went on till the child was four years old.
"One day it was running across the court to its mother as she came out from the prison.

Two of the men were what you call skylarking, and running one way while the child was running the other.

One of them knocked it down heavily.

It was an accident, and if he had picked it up and been sorry, there would have been an end of it; but instead of that the brute burst into a loud laugh.

By this time I was as fond of the child as if it had been my own, and I rushed furiously at him and knocked him down.