A constant feud prevailed between the scholars who attended it and the lads who studied under our master.

No one could tell how the war broke out, but for many years there had been a standing quarrel between the two, which resulted in skirmishes, sallies, and ambuscades, with now and then a pitched battle.

No great harm was done in these encounters, for the weapons were usually snowballs in winter and pine-cones or clods of earth in the summer.

Even when the contest got closer and we came to fisticuffs, a few bruises and a little blood was the worst that could come of it.

Our opponents were more numerous than we, but we had the advantage of being always together and of having a secure asylum upon which to retreat, while they, living in scattered houses all over the parish, had no common rallying-point.