Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/129

 den. Edward and Alice Ruggles were frequent offenders.

But their reason was different. There was really a sincere attachment between them. And each hankered after the society of the other. Sometimes they exchanged through a knothole choice tidbits from the school luncheons with which their respective mothers had provided them.

On the day of the battle, the Jepson boy had seen Edward receive at the fair and somewhat inkstained hands of Alice, a luscious sandwich of thin bread and apricot jam. In places the jam had soaked through the bread. It was a morsel for the gods.

As Edward raised this delectable sandwich to his ravenous schoolboy mouth, the Jepson boy stepped forward and with a harsh, sibilant, sneering sound knocked it from his hand. Edward recovered the sandwich and looked at it. It had fallen on an ant heap and was a ruin of sand and struggling red ants.

For a moment Edward looked puzzled. He looked puzzled because he was puzzled. He was puzzled at a series of passions the like of which he had never experienced before. One of these passions was for Alice. Through her gift she had been insulted and belittled. His heart swam with