"At least, not unless you're really hunting trouble." "This is the meanest crowd I ever saw," declared Hen Dutcher stiffly.
"And you started it all, Dave Darrin, by nicknaming me 'Anvil Chorus!'" "You're at it again, Hen," sighed Dick.

"Why can't you stop saying disagreeable things ?" Toby Ross, who had skated close enough to hear this last, now skated away again to join a crowd of boys a little way off.

Toby spoke to them laughingly.

Then, over the ice, came a mocking chorus: "Oh, you Anvil!" "There, you see," muttered Dutcher angrily, "you've gone and fastened the nickname on me!" "Anvil! Anvil!" yelled other tormentors.
"You're all of you about the meanest crowd of fellows I ever saw," grunted Hen, as he started slowly to skate away.
"And that's all the thanks you get, Dick, for trying to use him a bit decently," jeered Greg Holmes.
"Oh, well, I'm sorry for the fellow," muttered Prescott.

"Hen is one of those fellows who are never popular with any crowd and can never understand why." Harry Hazelton and Dan Dalzell now skated up from town and joined their chums.