"But there was a man named Hardwick up to the 'cademy, an' he was a whacker. The boys called him Hardwhack, and I guess that kinder described him. Seems though he tuk a great dislike to Phil, cos he outspelled and outrecited everybody. He give him some terrible lickings, and I tell you didn't Alice Thompson riz right out of a sick-bed, and go down to the 'cademy, and give it to Hardwhack jest, you bet, before the hull school, for licking them boys, and she tuk Phil away. Sez she, 'Mr. Hardwick, I have been a teacher, an' I know that cruelty is not necessary. I see amongst your pupils some of my former scholars, and although they were big boys when they attended my school, I never hed any difficulty with them. Is not that so, boys?' An', by George! if them boys didn't git up and give her three cheers. And Hardwick he turned as white as a turnip, and sez he, 'Miss Thompson,' sez he, 'you're severe; your son deserved chastisement.'
"Sez she, 'No words, Mr. Hardwick. I hope my son will return good for evil.'
"Wa'al, after that Hardwick he hedn't no show at all; the hull village riz agen him, and he was turned out; and next we heard of him he hed been a-sittin' of his own four-year-old onto a hot stove, and he licked his wife, and he was as cruel as a meat-axe, and they tarred and feathered him, and rid him on a rail out of town.
"That was the year old Stewart was murdered down to Crooked Forks, and the last man it was seen with him was Hardwick.
"Wa'al, the hull county turned out to find Hardwick, and he jest warn't to be found. Put yer finger onto a flea, and 'tain't there.
"Sez I to the Sheriff, sez I, 'Hardwick didn't do that murder; he hain't the courage. Takes a bigger-sized man,' sez I, 'to commit a murder than a man as whops boys and burns up children. He's a white-livered coward, sez I.'
"'Oh, yes, he did, Slack,' sez he. 'Circumstantial evidence,'sez he.
"Wa'al, naow here's where the story comes in," said Slack, laying down the water-level, and rising to the occasion. "Philip he got to be a good-sized lump of a boy, and he tended saw-mill fust rate. Timothy Thompson he hed to go off up to the quarry, and some days Phil was there all alone, and Alice she used to come out and sit in the sun. She was dreadful weakly all that year, but she and Phil hed solid comfort together. Wa'al, she'd jest gone in to get him a meal o' vittles one day, when there came out o' the woods the awfulest-looking man ye ever see. Why, this hat o' mine is a John Jacob Astor fust-class satin beaver compared to what he hed on, and he was all beard and whiskers, and dirt and rags. Oh, he looked awful.
"Sez he, 'Philip, save me!' And who was it but that Hardwhack, that hed licked him 'most to death!