Neither of the boys were daunted.  Dudley shouted out,

“Let us by at once, or we’ll make you!  You’d better look out how you cheek us!”

And Roy in a moment had his jacket off, and was rolling up his shirt sleeves.

“Come on, Dudley, we’ll lick him into shape, if he dares to touch us!”

What might have befallen our two little heroes cannot be told, for at this critical juncture the rector came up, and in stern, commanding tones ordered the man on.

“That stamp of man is a pest in the place,” he said; “he won’t be influenced for good but hangs about the ale-houses and lives on the proceeds of his begging.  If people only knew the harm they do in giving him money instead of a little honest work!  Well, boys, run along home, it’s a good thing I came up to stop a free fight.  How do you think you two atoms could have got the better of a man like that?  ’Discretion is the better part of valor’ remember.  Keep your fists for a good cause.  And never entice a drunken man to fight.  It is a degrading spectacle.”

Saying which Mr. Selby passed on, and Roy and Dudley walked home without saying a word to each other.

By the time they had finished their tea, they recovered their spirits, and were in the midst of an exciting game of cricket in a field adjoining the house with the old coachman and the stable-boy, when a summons came to them from the house to come in at once to their aunt.

“What’s up, I wonder!” exclaimed Dudley, as he raced Roy up to the front door; “Aunt Judy never sends for us at dinner time.”

They found their aunt in the library.  She was in her dinner dress and the dinner gong was sounding in the hall, but her face was puzzled as she turned from a woman talking to her, to the boys.

“My nephews are little gentlemen; you must be mistaken,” she was saying.

Roy and Dudley recognized the woman immediately.  It was Mrs. Cullen, and their hearts sank.

“Come here, boys,” Miss Bertram said; “I have been hearing a strange story from Mrs. Cullen, of two boys breaking into her house while she was away this afternoon, frightening her dying husband so much that the doctor fears he won’t outlive the night, and breaking, and stealing things from her pantry.  She insists upon it that it was you; her husband told her so, but I cannot believe it.  You would have no object in behaving so wickedly.”

Dudley’s cheeks were crimson, and he hung his head in shame.  Roy, as usual, was not daunted.

“It’s all a great mistake, Aunt Judy, we never stole a thing; we went to see him and take him some pudding and do him good.  We had to get in at the pantry window because the doors were all locked, and we did spill some milk and some soup, and broke a few plates.  We couldn’t make him understand we weren’t robbers, so we came away again—­and we’re very sorry.”

Mrs. Cullen turned furiously upon them, and her language was so abusive, that Miss Bertram sent the boys away, and brought the poor woman to reason by quiet, persuasive words.