Her rival advanced, and gave her a push which nearly thrust her from the sidewalk into the street. But he was rather astonished the next moment at receiving a blow in the face from Tom’s fist.
“If you want to fight, come on!” said Tom, dropping her papers and squaring off.
He was not slow in accepting the defiance, being provoked by the unexpected blow, and aimed a blow at Tom’s nose. But Tom, who had some rudimental ideas of boxing, while her opponent knew nothing of it, fended off the blow, and succeeded in getting in another.
“Ho! ho!” laughed another boy, who had just come up; “you’re licked by a gal.”
Bob, for this was the newsboy’s name, felt all the disgrace of the situation. His face reddened, and he pitched in promiscuously, delivering blow after blow wildly. This gave a decided advantage to Tom, who inflicted considerably more damage than she received.
The fight would have gone on longer if a gentleman had not come up, and spoken authoritatively: “What is all this fighting about? Are you not ashamed to fight with a girl?”
“No, I aint,” said Bob, sullenly. “She took my place, and wouldn’t give it up.”
“Is that true?” turning to Tom.
“I’ve got as much right to it as he,” said Tom. “I’ll give it to him if I am a gal.”
“Don’t you know it is wrong to fight?” asked the gentleman, this time addressing Tom.