bottom, and the bricks were rapidly made, and burnt,
and some were even delivered; these bricks were carted from the yard to
the building site by one Harris, who had nothing to do with the quarrel;
he was a carter by profession, and wheeled bricks for all the world.

One night this poor man's haystack and stable were all in flames in a
moment, and unearthly screams issued from the latter.

The man ran out, half-naked, and his first thought was to save his good
gray mare from the fire. But this act of humanity had been foreseen and
provided against. The miscreants had crept into the stable, and tied the
poor docile beast fast by the head to the rack; then fired the straw.
Her screams were such as no man knew a horse could utter. They pierced
all hearts, however hard, till her burnt body burst the burnt cords, and
all fell together. Man could not aid her. But God can avenge her.

As if the poor thing could tell whether she was drawing machine-made
bricks, or hand-made bricks!

The incident is painful to relate; but it would be unjust to omit it. It
was characteristic of that particular Union; and, indeed, without it my
reader could not possibly appreciate the brickmaking mind.

Bolt went off with this to Little; but Amboyne was there, and cut
his tales short. "I hope," said he, "that the common Creator of the
four-legged animal and the two-legged beasts will see justice done
between them; but you must not come here tormenting my inventor with
these horrors. Your business is to relieve him of all such worries, and
let him invent in peace."

"Yes," said Little, "and I have told Mr. Bolt we can't avoid a
difficulty with the cutlers. But the brickmakers--what madness to go and
quarrel with them! I will have nothing to do with it, Mr. Bolt."

"The cutlers! Oh, I don't mind them," said Bolt. "They are angels
compared with the brickmakers. The cutlers don't poison cows, and
hamstring horses, and tie them to fire; the cutlers don't fling little
boys into water-pits, and knock down little girls with their fists,
just because their fathers are non-Union men; the cutlers don't strew
poisoned apples and oranges about, to destroy whole families like rats.
Why, sir, I have talked with a man the brickmakers tried to throw into
boiling lime; and another they tried to poison with beer, and, when he
wouldn't drink it, threw vitriol in his eyes, and he's blind of an eye
to this day. There's full half a dozen have had bottles of gunpo