fterwards, I thought the best thing to do would be to let
'em fight it out, when there was nothin' else for 'em to do. So I fixed
up things for the combat."

"Why, Pomona!" cried Euphemia, "I didn't think you were capable of such
a cruel thing."

"It looks that way, ma'am, but really it aint," replied the girl. "It
seemed to me as if it would be a mercy to both of 'em to have the
thing settled. So I cleared away a place in front of the wood-shed and
unchained Lord Edward, and then I opened the kitchen door and called the
bull. Out he came, with his teeth a-showin', and his blood-shot eyes,
and his crooked front legs. Like lightnin' from the mount'in blast, he
made one bounce for the big dog, and oh! what a fight there was! They
rolled, they gnashed, they knocked over the wood-horse and sent chips
a-flyin' all ways at wonst. I thought Lord Edward would whip in a minute
or two; but he didn't, for the bull stuck to him like a burr, and they
was havin' it, ground and lofty, when I hears some one run up behind me,
and turnin' quick, there was the 'Piscopalian minister, 'My! my! my!'
he hollers; 'what a awful spectacle! Aint there no way of stoppin' it?'
'No, sir,' says I, and I told him how I didn't want to stop it, and the
reason why. Then says he, 'Where's your master?' and I told him how you
was away. 'Isn't there any man at all about?' says he. 'No,' says
I. 'Then,' says he, 'if there's nobody else to stop it, I must do it
myself.' An' he took off his coat. 'No,' says I, 'you keep back, sir. If
there's anybody to plunge into that erena, the blood be mine;' an' I
put my hand, without thinkin', ag'in his black shirt-bosom, to hold him
back; but he didn't notice, bein' so excited. 'Now,' says I, 'jist wait
one minute, and you'll see that bull's tail go between his legs. He's
weakenin'.' An' sure enough, Lord Edward got a good grab at him, and was
a-shakin' the very life out of him, when I run up and took Lord Edward
by the collar. 'Drop it!' says I, and he dropped it, for he know'd he'd
whipped, and he was pretty tired hisself. Then the bull-dog, he trotted
off with his tail a-hangin' down. 'Now, then,' says I, 'them dogs will
be bosom friends forever after this.' 'Ah me!' says he, 'I'm sorry
indeed that your employer, for who I've always had a great respect,
should allow you to get into such habits.' That made me feel real bad,
and I told him, mighty quick, that you was the last man in the world to
let me do anything like