CHAPTER V
First Victories
'Please, sir, may I speak to you?'
Mr. Upton was coming out of church after a choir practice, when Teddy accosted him.
He smiled when he saw the boy. 'You may walk home with me and speak to me as much as you like.'
And so they sauntered up the shady lane, the old rector with his head bent and his hands crossed behind him, and the boy all eager excitement and motion, with suppressed importance in his tone.
'I want you to give me a name for my enemy, please, sir.'
Mr. Upton looked amused. 'Have you had any battles with him yet?'
'I think I had one yesterday. May I tell you? Granny was very angry with me because I had made Uncle Jake's best handkerchief into a banner of love. I didn't really think it was naughty. I wrote "Love" in ink right across it; and I took such pains, for I wanted to show it to Nancy. And when I got home granny was so angry that she took me by the collar and she locked me into the back kitchen; and mother was out, and I cried, I was so miserable. Granny said I would come to the workhouse; she called me the wickedest, mischievousest boy she'd ever seen, and said she would like to give me a good whipping. And at last I got tired of being miserable, and I looked about, and I saw the window was partly open, so I climbed up, and then I thought I would jump out and run away across the fields till mother came home. And I was very happy then, and I jumped right out, and then I remembered, but I didn't want to go back again.'
'And then the fight began?' suggested the rector, as the boy paused.