"You are the meanest set of cowards I ever saw in my life," exclaimed Nevers, bitterly, when the enterprise appeared to be fully nipped in the bud.
"Grant is right," several of the boys replied.
"Grant!" sneered Nevers, angrily. "He wasn't always so nice as he is now."
"That's so," said Redman, as he placed himself by the side of the bully. "We know a thing or two about Grant, before he became pious."
"What do you mean by pious?" demanded Richard, stepping up to the speaker; and as he did so, his fists were involuntarily clinched.
"Watermelons!" replied Redman, vindictively.
"Watermelons!" added Nevers.
"Watermelons!" responded a dozen or more of the large boys, who had gathered around Redman.
"Do you walk in your sleep any now, Grant?" said Redman, with a mocking laugh. "You wasn't pious then."
Richard was so mortified and confused by these taunts that he wished the earth might open and hide him from the exulting gaze of his assailants. His blood boiled with shame and indignation, and more than ever before he realized that "the way of the transgressor is hard." His first impulse was to rush upon his dastardly foes, and crush them beneath the weight of his strong arm.