SCHOOL DREAMS. 53
handkerchief into what he calls a snapper, with a knot at the end, and cracking at you with it, very much to the irritation of your spirits, and of your legs.
Sometimes, when he has brought you to an angry burst of tears, he will very graciously force upon you the handkerchief, and insist upon your cracking him in return ; which, as you know nothing about his effective method of making the knot bite, is a very harmless proposal on his part.
But you have still stronger reason to remember that boy. There are trees, as I said, near the school ; and you get the reputation after a time of a good climber. One day you are well in the tops of the trees, and being dared by the boys below, you venture higher higher than any boy has ever gone before. You feel very proudly ; but just then catch sight of the sneering face of your old enemy of the snapper ; and he dares you to go upon a limb that he points out.
The rest say, for you hear them plainly " It won t bear him." And Frank, a great friend of yours, shouts loudly to you, not to try.
" Pho," says your tormentor, "the little coward !"
If you could whip him, you would go
