He was dumbfounded. “Why, I never had a fight in my life!”

She cried out in protest of such prevarication.

“Well, I never did,” he insisted, mildly.

“Why, you had a fight about me!”

“No, I didn't.”

“With Wesley Bender!”

Ramsey chuckled. “That wasn't a fight!”

“It wasn't?”

“Nothing like one. We were just guyin' him about—about gettin' slicked up, kind of, because he sat in front of you; and he hit me with his book strap and I chased him off. Gracious, no; that wasn't a fight!”

“But you fought Linski only last fall.”