OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD. 13

"Oh, my poor little ducks !" thought he, and he hastened
forward. Bob Smith and Sam Briggs, two of his best
friends, called after him that they had something to tell
him, but he did not even turn his head; and they,
wondering what could be the matter, followed after
him.
 Willie reached the garden fence just in time to see the
old hen fly over it, calling, in her own way, with all her
might and main, to the young ones to follow. But they,
poor things, could not fly so high; and in attempting to
run under the fence, they were entangled in some currant-
bushes that grew very thickly there, and before they could
extricate themselves, before Willie could get his breath
to plead for them, the captain caught one after the other,
and, wringing their necks, tossed them, gasping, over the
fence; and then, merely saying, I gave you warning,"
he turned and walked back to his house.
 Willie said not one word. It seemed to him as if he
should choke. He took up his darlings, one after the
other, and put them in his apron. They were warm, and
their little breasts yet heaving; and Willie ran towards
his home. He did not stop to hear Sam and Bob, who,
enraged at the captain's cruelty, called him all sorts of
names.
 I'd kill him said Sam.
 "I'd burn down his house for him!" said Bob.
 Not one word said poor Willie; but his cheeks looked
as if the blood would burst from them, and he bit his lips
till they bled. And so he appeared before his mother,
and, dropping his apron, the dead ducks fell at her feet,
and he burst into loud cries,-
 "Captain Stout has killed them all! He is a cruel
wretch! mother, he is! I wish he was dead !-I do wish
he was dead !"
 "Willie !"
 "I can't help it, mother. I do wish so. He is an
awful, hateful man! He might have left me one-just
one;" and then, throwing himself down on the floor, he
took one after the other, stroked down their feathers,