“Dame Datchett! Missus! Murder! Yah! Boohoo! The little varment be a throttling I.”
But Mrs. Datchett was deaf. Also, she not unnaturally considered that, in looking after “the young varments” in school-hours, she fully earned their weekly pence, and was by no means bound to disturb herself because they squabbled in the street.
Meanwhile Jan gradually got the upper hand of his lubberly and far from courageous opponent, whose smock he had nearly torn off his back. He had not spent any of his breath in calling for aid, but now, in reply to the boy’s cries for mercy and release, he shouted, “What be my name, now, thee big gawney? Speak, or I’ll drottle ’ee.”
“Jan Lake,” said his vanquished foe. “Let me go! Yah! yah!”
“Whose son be I?” asked the remorseless Jan.
“Abel Lake’s, the miller! Boohoo, boohoo!” sobbed the boy.
“And what be this, then, Willum Smith?” was Jan’s final question, as he brought his thumb close to his enemy’s eye.
“It be the miller’s thumb thee’s got, Jan Lake,” was the satisfactory answer.
CHAPTER XV.
WILLUM GIVES JAN SOME ADVICE.—THE CLOCK FACE.—THE HORNET AND THE DAME.—JAN DRAWS PIGS.—JAN AND HIS PATRONS.—KITTY CHUTER.—THE FIGHT.—MASTER CHUTER’S PREDICTION.