This page has been validated.
30
Charity Boys—and the Emeralders—another School then at the bottom of the Penbrae, now styled the Pantheon—met in battle array—which was a thing of every-day occurence—and when they tested their scholastic superiority with sticks and stones and fists, I attempted to negotiate and make peace; but there I learned that in such cases it was better and safer either to retire from the melee or at once take a side and act with firmness, for
“Dangers retreat when boldly they’re confronted.”
The fact is, that on these occasions, speaking poetically,
I was treated with contempt by friends and foes,
And oft retreated from the field with a bloody nose.
