He preferred to undergo the ignominy of being worsted in fight by a little boy rather than take the risk of being pounced upon again with such preternatural fury.

When he entered school, having washed his face, he was quite pale, and walked with shaking knees.

Rather physical than moral courage had 'Lisha Robinson, and it was his moral courage, after all, which had been tested, as it is in all such unequal combats.
As for Jerome, he had to stand in the middle of the floor, a spectacle unto the school, folded in his father's coat, which had, alas! two buttons torn off, and a three-cornered rag hanging from one tail, which fluttered comically in the draught from the door; but nobody dared laugh.

There was infinite respect, if not approbation, for Jerome in the school that day.

Some of the big boys scowled, and one girl said out loud, "It's a shame!" when the teacher ordered him to stand in the floor.