"You little meddlesome dunce!" said Jacob, all in a blaze of anger, "I'll teach you to mind your own business, and let other people's quarrels alone." And, suiting his action to his words, he struck Mike in the face so hard that the blood ran from his nose in a stream.
Well, what do you think Mike did, then? I know what some boys would have done, if they had been in his place. They would have struck Jacob, at any cost. That is the way they would have taken their revenge. That is the way, indeed, that Mike's school-fellows advised him to take his revenge. Half a dozen of them, at least, surrounded him, and urged him to flog Jacob.
"I'd pay him off for it," said one.
"The rascal!" said another. "I'd make him smart for it."
"And we'll all stand by you," said one, "if you'll flog him."
"Mike wasn't a bit to blame, either," added another. "If I were in his place, if I wouldn't make Jake see stars, then—"
The remainder of the speech was lost to every body but the speaker, as all the boys, by this time, were talking at once. It is a wonder to me that they did not take the matter altogether into their own hands, and give Jake the flogging which they thought he so richly deserved; for Michael was a great favorite among them, and they could not bear to see him abused. But I believe they contented themselves with letting off ever so many vials of wrath, in the shape of words; and Jake Grumble, finding how matters stood, walked sulkily away.
"Now, Mike, what are you going to do?" asked one of the boys.
"Do about what?" asked the injured boy.
"About the bloody nose that Jake gave you," was the reply.