“I understand it now,” I replied. “Waddie and the other fellows were after me. I saw them around the house about eight o’clock.”
“What do they want of you?” asked my father, whose head had been filled with the other side of the story.
“They were going to punish me, I suppose, for what I said to Waddie and his father, though I apologized to both of them for it.”
“What is to be done with this boy?” interposed my mother, anxiously, as Waddie opened his eyes, and looked wildly around the room. “I think the doctor had better see him.”
I went for the doctor, and came back with him, for he had just returned from a night visit to a distant patient, and his horse was harnessed at the door. When we arrived, Waddie was sitting up in the kitchen. The physician examined his head, and declared that he had sustained no injury that he could perceive. My father, who had been alarmed for the consequences of the blow he had struck, breathed easier after this announcement.
“I’m going home,” said Waddie, rising from the chair, after the doctor had finished his examination. “I’ll bet you haven’t theen the latht of thith thcrape. I thall”—
The scion put his hand up to his mouth, and wondered why he could not speak without lisping. He had fully recovered his senses, under the vigorous treatment of my mother, and with them came back the evil spirit which controlled him.
“What were you doing in my house, Waddie?” asked my father.
“What wath I doing? I wath going to give Wolf fitth for being a traitor and calling me a liar. And I’ll do it yet, if it coths me my life!” replied Waddie, vigorously, as he held one hand on his mouth.
“I didn’t think you’d break into a man’s house in the night,” added my father.