ischief was done; all that remained was
to save a remnant of his self-respect, and make an occasional dash for
liberty.

He did all his errands with his usual care, dropping a blue ribbon for
Doxy Morton's Sunday hat, four cents' worth of gum-camphor for Almira
Berry, a spool of cotton for Mrs. Wentworth, and a pair of "galluses"
for Living Bean. He finally turned into the "back-nippin'" road from
Bonny Eagle to Limington, and when he was within forty rods of his own
house he stopped to water his horses. If he feared a scene he had good
reason, for as the horses climbed the crest of the long hill the lady in
green was by his side on the box. He looked anxiously ahead, and there,
in a hedge of young alder bushes, he saw something stirring, and, unless
he was greatly mistaken, a birch broom lay on the ground near the hedge.

Notwithstanding these danger signals, Jerry's arm encircled the plump
waist of the lady in green, and, emboldened by the shades of twilight,
his lips sought the identical spot under the white "fall veil" where
her incendiary mouth might be supposed to lurk, quite "fit for treasons,
stratagems, and spoils." This done, he put on the brake and headed his
horses toward the fence. He was none too soon, for the Widder Bixby,
broom in hand, darted out from the alders and approached the stage with
objurgations which, had she rated them at their proper value, needed
no supplement in the way of blows. Jerry gave one terror-stricken
look, wound his reins round the whipstock, and, leaping from his seat,
disappeared behind a convenient tree.

At this moment of blind rage Mrs. Todd would have preferred to chastise
both her victims at once; but, being robbed of one by Jerry's cowardly
flight, her weapon descended upon the other with double force. There was
no lack of courage here at least. Whether the lady in green was borne up
by the consciousness of virtue, whether she was too proud to retreat,
or whatever may have been her animating reason, the blow fell, yet she
stood her ground and gave no answering shriek. Enraged as much by her
rival's cool resistance as by her own sense of injury, the Widder
Bixby aimed full at the bonnet beneath which were the charms that
had befuddled Jerry Todd's brain. To blast the fatal beauty that had
captivated her wedded husband was the Widder Bixby's idea, and the broom
descended. A shower of seeds and pulp, a copious spattering of pumpkin
juice, and the lady in green fell resistl