HARRY RUSHED UP BEHIND THE BULLY AND SEIZED HIS ARM.
“You?” And, after standing for several seconds, during which he looked Harry over from the top of his head to his feet, the bully burst into laughter. “So you, whom I could pick up and carry on one finger, are going to stop my doing anything I want to, eh? That is a good one. Why, kiddo, there is enough of me to make three of you and then some.”
The tone in which Pud spoke sent the color flushing to Harry’s face.
“Where I come from, it isn’t so much the size that counts as it is the heart!” he retorted. “And a fellow who will snowball an aged man can’t have very much real heart!”
An instant the bully glowered at Harry, then made a rush toward him.
“You’re getting altogether too fresh, young feller!” he hissed. “Because of you, I’m getting into all sorts of trouble—and I’m not going to stand it! If I want to snowball or do anything else to old Jed Brown, I’m going to, understand?” And as though to give more force to his words, Pud stooped down to pick up one of the missiles the new student had knocked from his arm.
Before he could reach it, however, Harry threw out his foot and crushed the snowball, then with more quick movements demolished the others.
Never had anyone so thwarted the Rivertown bully before and, for the moment, the big hulk of a boy stood gazing at his discomfiter in amazement. But only for a moment.
With a snarl, he shook his fist under Harry’s nose.