20 MARTIN RATTLER.

“Oh, spare it! spare it, Bob !—don’t do it—please
don’t, don’t do it!” gasped Martin, as he strove in
vain to run faster.

“There you go!” shouted Bob, with a coarse laugh,
sending the kitten high into the air, whence it fell
with a loud splash into the water.

Tt was a dreadful shock to feline nerves, no doubt,
but that white kitten was no ordinary animal. Its
little heart beat bravely when it rose to the surface,
and before its young master came up it had regained
the bank. But, alas! what a change! It went into
the stream a fat, round, comfortable ball of eider-
down; it came out—a scraggy blotch of white paint,
with its black eyes glaring like two great glass beads!
No sooner did it crawl out of the water than Bob
Croaker seized it, and whirled it round his head, amid
suppressed cries of “Shame!” intending to throw it
in again; but at that instant Martin Rattler seized
Bob by the collar of his coat with both hands, and
letting himself drop suddenly, dragged the cruel boy to
the ground, while the kitten crept humbly away and
hid itself in a thick tuft of grass.

A moment sufficed to enable Bob Croaker, who
was nearly twice Martin’s weight, to free himself
from the grasp of his panting antagonist, whom he

threw on his back, and doubled his fist, intending to