“Do that again, will you?” he cried, whirling around to glare at Van; “I’ll knock your head off, if you do.”
“Here, here!” exclaimed Jasper, looking up quickly from the corner where he was piling away his school-books till it was time to fly to work on them again. “You’ll march out of this room if you carry on like that, I can tell you. Up and apologize to each other, now, both of you chaps.”
“He’s always pitching into me,” cried Percy, his face getting a lively red, for he hated above all things to miss Jasper’s approval; “and I’m tired of it.”
“Apologize, I say,” commanded Jasper, with a bob of his head that Percy knew meant business, “or out you go. While as for you, Van, I don’t know but what I much better pitch you out neck and heels, as it seems you begun it.”
“Oh! I’ll apologize; I’ll say anything you want, Jappy,” cried Van in alarm; for invitations to Jasper’s den didn’t come often enough to be lightly regarded; and not waiting for a reply, he ran around Percy’s chair, and stuck out his hand. “I’m sorry; but I wish somebody else would pitch into you, for you’re so mean and lazy.”
“Hold on!” roared Jasper at him; “that’s no apology.”
“I don’t mind it,” said Percy carelessly; and he extended his hand with a patronizing air that made Van furious, and sent him back to his work over the seats in anything but a sweet frame of mind.
“How Polly Pepper ever gets along with you, I don’t see,” said Jasper in despair, as he retreated to his corner.
“Oh! we don’t act so before her,” observed Van pleasantly, pulling and pushing some refractory chairs into place.
“Well, I should be ashamed to act worse when she is not by,” retorted Jasper scornfully; “think how dreadfully she would feel to see you chaps going on so.”