Page:Stringer - Lonely O'Malley.djvu/158

 enemy, already shod against the stubble and thistles of berry-picking, would try kicking.

The boys swarmed across the street, and circled in about the two squared-up opponents. Piggie Brennan had the advantage of a longer reach, and a good twenty pounds in weight, but there had been enough whispering about as to the circus prowess and gymnastic feats of the New Boy to make the outcome sufficiently uncertain.

In the mean time, and after a fashion quite unknown to the youth of Chamboro, Lonely had begun dancing and jumping agilely round and round the heavier Piggie, very much as a delirious bantam cock might. In fact Piggie was just marveling at this performance, hitherto unknown to him, when he felt a sudden sting between the eyes, and for the first time realized that he had been hit.

This caused no consternation among his followers, for the amount of punishment which the rotund Piggie could stand had long since become proverbial. Piggie only grunted his surprise, swung about, and a moment later the fight had begun.

Now, Lonely had never earned the name