He asked me if I saw him anywhere the night before. I said I did.
He asked me where I saw him.
I said I saw him coming out of the hen-house, where Gapper Skyblue kept his rabbits. He asked me if I was sure, and I said I was sure.
“And did you tell the master?” says he.
I said, “No.”
“Nor the boys?”
“No.”
Then he told me he had been turned away from one school on account of his bad actions, and he wouldn’t have his father hear of this for anything; and said that, if I wouldn’t tell, he would give me a four-bladed knife, and quite a large balloon, and show me how to send her up, and if I was flogged he would give me a good deal more, would give money,—would give two dollars.
“I don’t believe he’ll whip you,” says he, “for he likes you. And if he does, he wouldn’t whip a small boy so hard as he would a big one.”
I said a little whipping would hurt a little boy just as much as a great whipping would hurt a great boy. But I said I wouldn’t be mean enough to tell or to take pay for not telling.