complected an' sallow-like, with a bad eye, showin' a lot o' the
white. An eye like that's a bad thing in a horse, an' I reckon 't ain't
a heap better in a man.

"Sez I to Nellie, sez I: 'Nellie, who's yer yaller friend over there by
the windy, which looks like he'd like to make sassage-meat o' my head?'

"Nellie's eyes flashed, an' she answered up right sharp: ''T ain't no
friend of mine. 'T ain't no sort of a _man_ at all. It's only somethin'
the freshet left on the shore, an' the pigs wouldn't eat nohow.'

"You bet I laffed, an' so did Sandy. Ez I heern later on, the chap had
ben a-botherin' roun' Nellie all winter, fur all she'd gin him the
mitten straight an' sent him about his bizness heaps o' times. I reckon
the feller suspicioned we was a-laffin' at him, fur he squinted at me
blacker 'n ever.

"Purty soon Nellie got fussin' roun' the room, over nigh to where the
yaller chap was a-settin', an' he spoke to her, saft-like, so ez we
couldn't hear what he was a-gittin' at. Nellie she jest sniffed kinder
scornful; an' then, _what_ would yez suppose that chap done? He reached
out suddent, grabbed her leetle wrist so hard 'at she cried out, an'
_slapped_ her--yes, slapped her right across the mouth. Nellie jest
stood there white, like a image, an' never said one word; an' I seed the
red marks o' the blackguard's fingers come out acrost her cheek. Next
minit yaller face jumped fur the door,--an' me arter him, you kin bet
yer life! He was a-makin' tracks purty lively, but I kin run a leetle
myself, an' I was onter him 'gin Sandy an' the rest was outer the door.
An' didn't I whale him, now? I twisted his knife outer his hand, an' I
laced him till I was clean tuckered out. But the feller was grit, an'
never hollered oncet. When I quit he laid still a bit. Then he riz up
slowly, started to walk away, turned half round, an' hissed at me jest
like a big snake er 'n old sassy gander:--

"'I'll--pay--_you_!'

"'Git!' sez I, an' he purceeded to git, joggin' along towards Woodstock.

"Well, now, how thet Nellie did look at me, proud an' grateful like,
when I come back to the house; an' sez I to myself, 'Jabez Ephraim,
you've ben an' gone an' put in the big licks there, old feller!' But I
never sed nuthin' about it at all to Nellie, nor Nellie didn't to me.
Now yer a-smilin', boys, so I may remark jest here, to save yez from
interruptin' hereafter, thet I've ben to Old Man Peters's sence, on
several occasions; an' nex' summe