uellists, and, relieving them of
their weapons, had with a comprehensive wave of the hand congratulated
them on their courage and urged them to shake hands, which they were
in the act of doing, when the shrubbery parted and Margaret, followed
closely by Rose and by Miss Jemima panting behind, rushed in upon them,
crying at the tops of their voices, "Stop! Stop!"

The two young ladies addressed themselves respectively to Jeff and
Lawrence, and both were employing all their eloquence when Miss Jemima
appeared. Her eye caught the prostrate form of George Washington, who
lay flat on his face kicking and groaning at intervals. She pounced upon
the Major with so much vehemence that he was almost carried away by the
sudden onset.

"Oh! You wretch! What have you done?" she panted, scarcely able to
articulate.

"Done, madam?" asked the Major, gravely.

"Yes; what have you done to _that_ poor miserable creature--_there!_"
She actually seized the Major and whirled him around with one hand,
whilst with the other she pointed at the prostrate and now motionless
George Washington.

"What have I been doing with him?"

"Yes, with _him_. Have you been carrying out your barbarous rite on his
inoffensive person!" she gasped.

The Major's eye lit up.

"Yes, madam," he said, taking up one of the pistols, "and I rejoice that
you are here to witness its successful termination. George Washington
has been selected as the victim this year; his monstrous lies, his
habitual drunken worthlessness, his roguery, culminating in the open
theft to-day of my best coat and waistcoat, marked him naturally as the
proper sacrifice. I had not the heart to cheat any one by selling him
to him. I was therefore constrained to shoot him. He was, with his usual
triflingness, not killed at the first fire, although he appears to be
dead. I will now finish him by putting a ball into his back; observe
the shot." He advanced, and cocking the pistol, "click--click," stuck
it carefully in the middle of George Washington's fat back. Miss Jemima
gave a piercing shriek and flung herself on the Major to seize the
pistol; but she might have spared herself; for George Washington
suddenly bounded from the ground and, with one glance at the levelled
weapon, rushed crashing through the shrubbery, followed by the laughter
of the young people, the shrieks of Miss Jemima, and the shouts of the
Major for him to come back and let him kill him.

That evening, when Margaret, s