L. Cut! What do you mean by cut?
R. By cutting, I mean not recognizing an individual. When a boy who knows you passes you without speaking or bowing, he cuts you.
L. I thank you for the explanation. And I am to understand that I must either give up the acquaintance of my friend Frank, or submit to the terrible mortification of being “cut” by Mr. Ralph Burton and his companions!
R. Certainly. Frank is a boy of no spirit—in short, a coward.
L. How has he shown it?
R. Why, a dozen boys have dared him to fight, and he refuses to do it.
L. And is your test of courage a willingness to fight? If so, a bull-dog is the most courageous of gentlemen.
R. I am serious, Laura; you must give him up. Why, the other day Tom Harding put a chip on a fellow’s hat, and dared Frank Sterling to knock it off. But Sterling folded his arms and walked off, while we all groaned and hissed.
L. You did? You groaned and hissed? Oh, Ralph, I did not believe you had so little of the true gentleman about you!
R. What do you mean? Come, now, I do not like that.