and every holiday time was sure to have days of grief because he had gone off with bob well there was no hope for it he was gone now and could think of no comfort but to sit down by the or wander by the and fancy it was all different her little world into just what she should like it to be s was a life and this was the form in which she took her meanwhile tom forgetting au about and the sting of reproach which he had left in her heart was hurrying along with bob whom he had met accidentally to the scene of a great rat catching in a neighboring bam bob knew all about this particular affair and spoke of the sport with an enthusiasm which no one who is not either of all manly feeling or ignorant of rat catching can fail to imagine for a person suspected of wickedness bob was really not so very looking there was even something agreeable in his face with its close curled border of red hair but then his were always rolled up at the knee for the convenience of on the slightest notice and his virtue supposing it to exist was virtue in rags which on the authority even of philosophers who think all well dressed merit is likely to remain perhaps because it is seen so seldom i know the chap as owns the said bob in a hoarse voice as he along keeping his blue eyes fixed on the river like an animal who foresaw occasion for darting in he s up the yard at s � he does he s the biggest rot any where � he is i d sooner be a rot nor any thing � would the is nothing to the but you ha dogs is no good why there s that dog now bob continued pointing with an air of disgust toward he s no more the mill ok thb fl s good wi a rot nor i see it i did � at the i your s bam feeling the withering influence of this scorn tucked his tail in and shrank close to tom s leg who felt a little hurt for him but had not the courage to seem with bob in contempt for a dog who made so poor a figure no no he said s no good at sport i ll have regular good dogs for rats and every thing when i ve done school tom said bob eagerly � them white wi pink eyes you might catch your own an you might put a rot in a cage wi a an see em fight � you might that s what i d do i know an it ud be better fun a most nor two fight � if it wasn t them as sell cakes an at the fair as the things flew out o their baskets an some o the cakes was smashed but they tasted just as good added bob by way of note or after a moment s pause but i say bob said tom in a tone of deliberation are nasty biting things they ll bite a fellow without being set on why that s the on em if a chap lays hold o your he won t be long before he hollows out a good un � he won t at this moment a striking incident made the boys pause suddenly m their walk it was the plunging of some small body in the water from the neighboring � if it was not a water rat bob that he was ready to undergo the most unpleasant consequences � i there he is said tom clapping his hands as the little black made its course to the opposite bank seize him lad seize him agitated his ears and wrinkled his brows but declined to plunge trying whether barking would not answer the purpose just as well u i you coward tom and kicked him over feeling as a to possess so poor spirited an animal bob from remark and passed on choosing however to walk in the shallow edge of the overflowing river by way of change he s none so full now the isn t said bob as he kicked the water up before him with an agreeable sense of being insolent to it why last ear the meadows wa one sheet o water they was ay but said tom whose mind was prone to see an opposition between statements that were really quite but there was a big flood once when the round pool was thb mill ok ths made i know there was father say so and the sheep and cows were all drowned and the boats went all over the fields ever such a way z don t care about a flood said bob i don t mind the water no more nor the land i d swim � z would ah but if you got nothing to eat for ever so long said tom his imagination becoming quite active under the of that dread when i m a man i shall make a boat with a wooden house on the top of it like s ark and keep plenty to eat in it � and all ready and then if the flood came you know bob i shouldn t mind and i d take you in if i saw you swimming he added in the tone of a benevolent patron i aren t said bob to whom hunger did not appear so appalling but i d get in an knock the on th head when you wanted to eat em ah and i should have and we d play at heads and tails said tom not contemplating the possibility that this might have fewer charms for his mature age i d divide fair to begin with and then we d see who d win 