"Now then, little toad! Do you want another buffeting?"
"Oh, please, sir, don't stop me!" she cried, beginning to sob loudly. "Father's dying, and mother said I was to run and tell them at the farm. Please let me go by."
"Did I not order you yesterday to keep out of these fields?" asked the tall boy. "The lane and roads are open to you; how dare you come this way? I promised you I'd shake the inside out of you if I caught you here again, and now I'll do it."
"I say," called out at this juncture the lad on the stile, "keep your hands off her."
The child's assailant turned sharply at the sound. He had not seen that any one was there. For one moment he relaxed his hold, but the next appeared to change his mind, and began to shake the girl. She turned her face, in its tears and dirt, towards the stile.
"Oh, Master George, make him let me go! I'm hasting to your house, Master George. Father's lying all white upon the bed; and mother said I was to come off and tell of it."
George leaped off the stile, and advanced. "Let her go, Cris Chattaway!"
Cris Chattaway turned his anger upon George. "Mind your own business, you beggar! It is no concern of yours."
"It is, if I choose to make it mine. Let her go, I say. Don't be a coward."
"What's that you call me?" asked Cris Chattaway. "A coward? Take that!"