THE REV. JOHN RUSSELL. 9 



which the junior fully hoped he would have 

 done ; but off he started, as fast as his legs 

 could carry him, to tell Dr. Richards, whom he 

 accosted with a torrent of tears, as he met him 

 returning on his brown cob from his daily ride 

 in the country lanes. 



"What are you crying for?" inquired the 

 really kind-hearted doctor, touched bv the boy's 

 distress, and exhibiting a weakness he rarely 

 showed within the precincts of the school. 



"My rabbits, sir," replied Hunter, still 

 blubbering aloud ; " Russell has killed them all 

 with his ferrets," 



"Killed your rabbits," responded the doctor, 

 gravely; "and with ferrets, too? Are they his 

 own ferrets, did you say?" 



"Oh yes, sir, his own; he keeps a lot of 

 them," added Hunter, observing that a storm 

 was brewing which would break with awful 

 effect on Russell's head. 



On arriving at the school-house the culprit 

 was instantly sent for by Dr. Richards. 



"Now, sir,' he said, in a voice of thunder, 

 "what right have you to kill Hunter's rabbits, and 

 what reason can you give for committing so gross 

 an outrage on your schoolfellow's property?" 



"It was your own order, sir," pleaded 

 Russell, fearlessly, "that all the rabbits should 

 be killed ; and as Hunter did not seem inclined 

 to kill his, I did it for him." 



