Seeing that they had already passed their thirteenth birthday, it was a great condescension on their part to play with a boy of ten; and they felt it.

But Wiggins was a favored friend; and the game filled intervals between sterner deeds.
The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly on across the common.

Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth.
Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly spring into the air and proceed by leaps and bounds.
Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, "The game isn't really fair; you're two to one." "You keep very level," said the Terror politely.
"Yes; it's my superior astuteness," said Wiggins sedately.
"Goodness! What words you use!" said Erebus in a somewhat jealous tone.
"It's being so much with my father; you see, he has a European reputation," Wiggins explained.
"Yes, everybody says that.

But what is a European reputation ?" said Erebus in a captious tone.
"Everybody in Europe knows him," said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth.
They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert.

It seemed to them a name both affected and ostentatious.