Malcolm had doubts, but he was willing to try.
William was alert, because as many another "newsy" he had known these boys
in the park; so when the rush came, a movement too quick for untrained
eyes to follow swung him around a newel post, while both boys bumping,
screaming, rolled to the first landing and rebounded from a wall harder
than they. When no one hastened at their screams to pick them up, they
arose fighting each other. The tutor passed and James tried to kick him,
merely because he could. He was not there either, but he stopped for this
advice to the astonished boy: "If I were you I wouldn't do that. This is a
free country, and if you have a right to kick me, I have the same right to
kick you. I wouldn't like to do it. I'd rather allow mules and vicious
horses to do the kicking; still if you're bound to kick, I can; but my
foot is so much bigger than yours, and if I forgot and took you for a
football, you'd probably have to go to the hospital and lie in a plaster
cast a week or so. If I were you, I wouldn't! Let's go watch the birds
till breakfast is called, instead.
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