He gave it as his solemn opinion that the master was mighty peart, and they would be beat anyhow some way, but he would lick the master fer two cents ef he warn't so slim that he'd feel like he was fighting a baby.
And all that day things looked black.

Ralph's countenance was cold and hard as stone, and Shocky trembled where he sat.

Betsey Short tittered rather more than usual.

A riot or a murder would have seemed amusing to her.
School was dismissed, and Ralph, instead of returning to the Squire's, set out for the village of Clifty, a few miles away.

No one knew what he went for, and some suggested that he had "sloped." But Bud said "he warn't that air kind.