After that he took Grace by the arm, and bade her get hat and cape and come with him.  ‘For’, says he, ’I will not have thee taught any more by a psalm-singing hypocrite that calls thy father murderer.’  And all the while he kept drawing up closer to Mr. Glennie, until the two stood very near each other.

There was a great difference between them; the one short and blustering, with a red face turned up; the other tall and craning down, ill-clad, ill-fed, and pale.  Maskew had in his left hand a basket, with which he went marketing of mornings, for he made his own purchases, and liked fish, as being cheaper than meat.  He had been chaffering with the fishwives this very day, and was bringing back his provend with him when he visited our school.

Then he said to Mr. Glennie:  ’Now, Sir Parson, the law has given into Your fool’s hands a power over this churchyard, and ’tis your trade to stop unseemly headlines from being set up within its walls, or once set up, to turn them out forthwith.  So I give you a week’s grace, and if tomorrow sennight yon stone be not gone, I will have it up and flung in pieces outside the wall.’

Mr. Glennie answered him in a low voice, but quite clear, so that we could hear where we sat:  ’I can neither turn the stone out myself, nor stop you from turning it out if you so mind; but if you do this thing, and dishonour the graveyard, there is One stronger than either you or I that must be reckoned with.’

I knew afterwards that he meant the Almighty, but thought then that ’twas of Elzevir he spoke; and so, perhaps, did Mr. Maskew, for he fell into a worse rage, thrust his hand in the basket, whipped out a great sole he had there, and in a twinkling dashes it in Mr. Glennie’s face, with a ’Then, take that for an unmannerly parson, for I would not foul my fist with your mealy chops.’

But to see that stirred my choler, for Mr. Glennie was weak as wax, and would never have held up his hand to stop a blow, even were he strong as Goliath.  So I was for setting on Maskew, and being a stout lad for my age, could have had him on the floor as easy as a baby; but as I rose from my seat, I saw he held Grace by the hand, and so hung back for a moment, and before I got my thoughts together he was gone, and I saw the tail of Grace’s cape whisk round the screen door.

A sole is at the best an ugly thing to have in one’s face, and this sole was larger than most, for Maskew took care to get what he could for his money, so it went with a loud smack on Mr. Glennie’s cheek, and then fell with another smack on the floor.  At this we all laughed, as children will, and Mr. Glennie did not check us, but went back and sat very quiet at his desk; and soon I was sorry I had laughed, for he looked sad, with his face sanded and a great red patch on one side, and beside that the fin had scratched him and made a blood-drop trickle down his cheek.  A few minutes later the thin voice of the almshouse clock said twelve, and away walked Mr. Glennie without his usual ‘Good day, children’, and there was the sole left lying on the dusty floor in front of his desk.