I can remember it as well as anything! Wesley kept yelpin' that whoever mentioned a lady's name in a public place was a pup, and of course I didn't want to hit him for that; a boy's got a reg'lar instinct for tryin' to make out he's on the right side in a scrap, and he'll always try to do something, or say something, or he'll get the other boy to say someting to make it look as if the other boy was in the wrong and began the trouble.

So I told poor ole Wes that my father spoke my mother's name in a public place whenever he wanted to, and I dared him to say my father was a pup.

And all so on.

A boy startin' up a scrap, why, half the time he'll drag his father and mother if there's any chance to do it.

He'll fix up some way so he can say, 'Well, that's just the same as if you called my father and mother a fool,' or something like that.