“Where you goin’ this fine Sunday afternoon, Rufus, and carryin’ that big package, too?” demanded Lanky. “Don’t you dare run me down, or somethin’ll happen right quick, understand. Keep off, now, I tell you!” Something did happen, and just as speedily as Lanky had prophesied. Rufus, in his eagerness to slip by, made a miscalculation; and being also unbalanced by the sudden swinging of the large bundle hanging from his handle-bars, he slipped off the road into the shallow ditch that ran alongside. As a natural consequence, boy and wheel came down with a crash. “Oh! that’s too bad, Lanky; you’ve made him take a header!” exclaimed Frank. “I hope he isn’t hurt!” Rufus was struggling to regain his feet, feeling of his left leg at the same time, and apparently hardly knowing whether to cry or get angry. He finally compromised by whimpering. “See what you did, Lanky Wallace, by bein’ mean, and wantin’ to take the whole road?” he exclaimed, for Rufus was red-haired, and had a temper, too, in the bargain. Lanky stepped over to the wheel, and began to lift it out of the ditch. Perhaps he was already sorry for interfering with the lone rider. It had really been none of his business where the younger Kline boy happened to be going on his bicycle. The fact that it was Sunday, and Rufus had a strict mother, who would not on ordinary occasions allow him to use his wheel on that day, might have excited Lanky’s curiosity, but it was no excuse for him to crowd the boy off the road. “I oughtn’t to have done it, Rufus,” Lanky spoke up, with evident contrition in his voice and manner; “it was sure none of my business where you happened to be meanderin’ this Sunday afternoon. The road is free to everybody, gypsy as well as citizens of Columbia. Here’s your wheel; and outside of this bent handle-bar it doesn’t look like there was any damage done. I can straighten that in a jiffy.” This he proceeded to do, after hauling the bicycle up on the road again. “Frank,” he added, immediately afterward, “will you pick up that bundle, and tie it on again to the handle-bar after I get it a little straighter? It went flyin’ when the wheel slipped on the road, and took a flop.” But Rufus sprang forward, and snatched the package out of Frank’s hands. There was almost a fierceness in his manner, that surprised the other very much. “Don’t you dare meddle with my things, Frank Allen!” he cried. “Guess I can tie it up again myself, without any of your help. Next time you fellers better keep to one side, and let a wheel go past without blocking the road. It’s pretty small potatoes to have two big fellers pick on one little boy!” “That’s right, Rufus; and I’m ashamed of myself for botherin’ you,” admitted Lanky; “there you are; and nobody’d ever know that handle-bar had been twisted. It’s weak, anyway, and I reckon this isn’t the first time she’s bent on you. Want me to give you a send-off, Rufus?”