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166 "Wrestling."

"What kind?" asked Alberto.

"Any kind," said Ralph, recklessly. "Come on, and I 'll show you whether I'm too fat or not."

"It's all good-natured, you know?" said Alberto, in a questioning tone.

"Any way you like," said Ralph. Alberto threw off his coat and advanced toward Ralph. "Are you ready?" he asked. "Ready," said Ralph.

When Ralph got up he looked around him in a dazed way, and then asked curiously, "How did you do that?"

"That's what they call the Greco-Roman style," replied Alberto, who did not seem to have moved at all, so far as Ralph could remember.

"Are your other styles like that?"

"Something like that," replied his cool antagonist.

"Then I don't care to see any more," replied Ralph very frankly, and with much more good-nature than most boys would have shown after having been thrown to the ground like an empty sack. The boys around laughed, and Tom Cromwell said: "That's a smart cousin of yours, Plunkett!"

"Yes, he's pretty quick," replied Plunkett, very soberly, and with more modesty than was entirely natural under the circumstances.

"Are you Plunkett's cousin?" asked Ralph, suspiciously.

"I have always called myself so ever since I first knew him," replied Signor Alberto, turning away. Plunkett laughed; he could not help it.

Ralph was much chagrined, but even yet did not completely realize his downfall or have sense enough to stop where he was.