Major Tommy Toppleton was at the head of the column. He had nearly recovered from his broken leg; but he was not able to walk much yet, and was mounted on a medium-sized pony. The moment he saw me, he halted his battalion, and urged his steed almost upon me.
“You villain, Wolf Penniman!” said he, still urging on his pony, as though he intended to crush me under the iron hoofs of the little charger.
“Sha’n’t I hold your horse for you?” interposed Tom Walton, with his inimitable good-nature, as he seized the bridle-rein of the animal.
“Let him alone!” roared Major Tommy, striking my friend a sharp blow on the back with the flat of his sword.
I was indignant, and inclined to pull the bantam major from his horse; but I remembered his broken leg, or perhaps I should have done so.
CHAPTER XVII.
TOMMY TOPPLETON THREATENS.
Tom Walton always had a pleasant way of doing an unpleasant thing. I suppose he thought Tommy Toppleton intended to ride over me, or at least intimidate me by the movements of his high-spirited little charger, and, as a friend, he considered it his duty to do something in my defense. This was the reason why he asked if he should not hold the little major’s horse.
I had hardly seen Tommy since he had broken his leg; but I had no difficulty in believing that he hated me. He was haughty, tyrannical, and overbearing, even to a greater degree, when incensed, than my new-made friend Waddie Wimpleton. He seemed to think I had no business to live, and move, and have my being, after I had ceased to be serviceable to him. He wanted to crush me, and the demonstration of his pony was only suggestive of what the rider really desired to do.
Tom Walton was a tough fellow, and not at all thin-skinned, in the literal signification of the term. He did not mind the blow which Tommy had given him; but, putting himself on the left of the horseman, and out of the convenient reach of his weapon, he backed the pony out into the middle of the street.
“Let him alone!” shouted the major, struggling to hit, and then to punch, my friend with the sword.