“Oh!” cried Bitzer. “Oh! An’t you one of the rest! An’t you a horse-rider! I never looked at her, sir. I asked her if she would know how to define a horse tomorrow, and offered to tell her again, and she ran away, and I ran after her, sir, that she might know how to answer when she was asked. You wouldn’t have thought of saying such mischief if you hadn’t been a horse-rider?”

“Her calling seems to be pretty well known among ’em,” observed Mr. Bounderby. “You’d have had the whole school peeping in a row, in a week.”

“Truly, I think so,” returned his friend. “Bitzer, turn you about and take yourself home. Jupe, stay here a moment. Let me hear of your running in this manner any more, boy, and you will hear of me through the master of the school. You understand what I mean. Go along.”

The boy stopped in his rapid blinking, knuckled his forehead again, glanced at Sissy, turned about, and retreated.