Rainbow Valley by Lucy Maud Montgomery (rooftoppers txt) 📖

“You are a coincidence!” said Walter scornfully, turning still whiter. He had only a very hazy idea what a coincidence was, but Dan had none at all and thought it must be something peculiarly opprobrious.

“Yah! Cowardy!” he yelled gain. “Your mother writes lies—lies—lies! And Faith Meredith is a pig-girl—a—pig-girl—a pig-girl! And she’s a rooster-girl—a rooster-girl—a rooster-girl! Yah! Cowardy—cowardy—cust—”

Dan got no further. Walter had hurled himself across the intervening space and knocked Dan off the fence backward with one well-directed blow. Dan’s sudden inglorious sprawl was greeted with a burst of laughter and a clapping of hands from Faith. Dan sprang up, purple with rage, and began to climb the fence. But just then the school-bell rang and Dan knew what happened to boys who were late during Mr. Hazard’s regime.

“We’ll fight this out,” he howled. “Cowardy!”

“Any time you like,” said Walter.

“Oh, no, no, Walter,” protested Faith. “Don’t fight him. I don’t mind what he says—I wouldn’t condescend to mind the like of HIM.”

“He insulted you and he insulted my mother,” said Walter, with the same deadly calm. “Tonight after school, Dan.”

“I’ve got to go right home from school to pick taters after the harrows, dad says,” answered Dan sulkily. “But to-morrow night’ll do.”

“All right—here to-morrow night,” agreed Walter.

“And I’ll smash your sissy-face for you,” promised Dan.

Walter shuddered—not so much from fear of the threat as from repulsion over the ugliness and vulgarity of it. But he held his head high and marched into school. Faith followed in a conflict of emotions. She hated to think of Walter fighting that little sneak, but oh, he had been splendid! And he was going to fight for HER—Faith Meredith—to punish her insulter! Of course he would win—such eyes spelled victory.

Faith’s confidence in her champion had dimmed a little by evening, however. Walter had seemed so very quiet and dull the rest of the day in school.

“If it were only Jem,” she sighed to Una, as they sat on Hezekiah Pollock’s tombstone in the graveyard. “HE is such a fighter—he could finish Dan off in no time. But Walter doesn’t know much about fighting.”

“I’m so afraid he’ll be hurt,” sighed Una, who hated fighting and couldn’t understand the subtle, secret exultation she divined in Faith.

“He oughtn’t to be,” said Faith uncomfortably. “He’s every bit as big as Dan.”

“But Dan’s so much older,” said Una. “Why, he’s nearly a year older.”

“Dan hasn’t done much fighting when you come to count up,” said Faith. “I believe he’s really a coward. He didn’t think Walter would fight, or he wouldn’t have called names before him. Oh, if you could just have seen Walter’s face when he looked at him, Una! It made me shiver—with a nice shiver. He looked just like Sir Galahad in that poem father read us on Saturday.”

“I hate the thought of them fighting and I wish it could be stopped,” said Una.

“Oh, it’s got to go on now,” cried Faith. “It’s a matter of honour. Don’t you DARE tell anyone, Una. If you do I’ll never tell you secrets again!”

“I won’t tell,” agreed Una. “But I won’t stay to-morrow to watch the fight. I’m coming right home.”

“Oh, all right. I have to be there—it would be mean not to, when Walter is fighting for me. I’m going to tie my colours on his arm—that’s the thing to do when he’s my knight. How lucky Mrs. Blythe gave me that pretty blue hair-ribbon for my birthday! I’ve only worn it twice so it will be almost new. But I wish I was sure Walter would win. It will be so—so HUMILIATING if he doesn’t.”

Faith would have been yet more dubious if she could have seen her champion just then. Walter had gone home from school with all his righteous anger at a low ebb and a very nasty feeling in its place. He had to fight Dan Reese the next night—and he didn’t want to—he hated the thought of it. And he kept thinking of it all the time. Not for a minute could he get away from the thought. Would it hurt much? He was terribly afraid that it would hurt. And would he be defeated and shamed?

He could not eat any supper worth speaking of. Susan had made a big batch of his favourite monkey-faces, but he could choke only one down. Jem ate four. Walter wondered how he could. How could ANYBODY eat? And how could they all talk gaily as they were doing? There was mother, with her shining eyes and pink cheeks. SHE didn’t know her son had to fight next day. Would she be so gay if she knew, Walter wondered darkly. Jem had taken Susan’s picture with his new camera and the result was passed around the table and Susan was terribly indignant over it.

“I am no beauty, Mrs. Dr. dear, and well I know it, and have always known it,” she said in an aggrieved tone, “but that I am as ugly as that picture makes me out I will never, no, never believe.”

Jem laughed over this and Anne laughed again with him. Walter couldn’t endure it. He got up and fled to his room.

“That child has got something on his mind, Mrs. Dr. dear,” said Susan. “He has et next to nothing. Do you suppose he is plotting