"He's sure to feel sore after such a licking." "I say, isn't old Convict a rum one," whispered one of the boys who had been seconds.
"Well, he always was," said the other.

"What do you mean ?" "Why giving Green a licking, and then going to help him like that." The other boy looked at the battered pair, and let them pass on in front, following afterwards with the others.
"It's the proper thing to do, isn't it ?" "Yes, with some fellows," said Tomlins, who was listening.

"I should do it to either of you chaps if I'd licked you." The pair looked at each other and laughed.
"Hark at Mouse Tomlins," said one of them.
"Ah, you wait.

I shall get bigger some day, and then I shall do just as Convict Braydon does; but I shouldn't to old Green.

You see if he don't hit foul before long, and serve poor old Convict out." "Don't you be so fond of calling him Convict; he doesn't like it," said Braydon's second.
"Well, he shouldn't be a convict then," retorted the boy.
"And you shouldn't be a cocky, conceited little donkey," said the elder boy.
"But I'm not," said the little fellow, laughing; and then wincing and crying, "Oh, my leg!" "And he's not a convict." "But Gooseberry Green says his father is, and that he was sent over to Botany Bay, and that's what makes poor old Braydon so mad." "His father and mother are both out there somewhere, because Nic told me so, and he says he's going out there some day; but his father can't be a convict, or else he wouldn't be at a good school like this.