"By the appearance of his face I should say he had. It is strange boys will fight in such a place as this!"
"Why, what has happened to you, Jack dear?" the little woman asked anxiously as she lifted the boy's head by placing her hand under his chin.
Jack said nothing, and Aunt Nancy asked, as the crimson spots appeared on her cheeks,—
"Has William Dean been troubling you again?"
"I had rather tell you some other time," Jack replied in a whisper, as he slipped down from his seat at the table and went toward the scene of the little woman's culinary operations.
She followed him at once, and the good but rather inquisitive deacon craned his neck in vain to hear what passed between the two.
"It was Bill Dean; but don't say anything about it now, for I've just seen Farmer Pratt," Jack said in a low tone; and as Aunt Nancy started in surprise, a cry of distress came from Deacon Downs's lips.
At the moment Jack spoke, the little woman was in the act of removing the coffee pot from the stove, for fear its contents should boil over, when it fell to the ground.
Neither Aunt Nancy nor the hunchback paid any attention to this catastrophe; but the deacon was so angry he even threatened that Jack should not be allowed near the tent again.
It is doubtful if his words were heard by the two who were in such distress of mind.