ok
muttering disgusted profanity under his long mustache.

"I want to say, gentlemen," cried Mr. Bickford, utilizing the
interval of waiting to address the throng about him, "that you have
no right to blame my dog. He is a valuable animal and a great family
pet, and he only did what it is his nature to do."

Marengo Todd was edging back into the crowd, his coat off and
something wrapped in the garment.

"Blame no creature for that which it is his nature to do," said Mr.
Bickford. "He was attacked first, and he used the weapons nature
provided."

"Fam'ly pets, then, has a right to do as it is their nature for to
do?" squealed Todd, working nearer.

Mr. Bickford scornfully turned his back on this vulgar railer. The
carriage was at hand.

"How about pets known as medder hummin'-birds?" demanded Todd.

The Cap'n was the first in. Hiram came next, kicking out at the
amiable Hector, who would have preceded him. When the Honorable J.
Percival stepped in, some one slammed the carriage-door so quickly
on his heels that his long-tailed coat was caught in the crack.

Todd forced his way close to the carriage as it was about to start.
His weak nature was in a state of anger bordering on the maniacal.

"Here's some more family pets for you that ain't any dangerouser than
them you're cultivatin'. Take 'em home and study 'em."

He climbed on the wheel and shook out of the folds of his coat a
hornets' nest that he had discovered during his temporary exile under
the grand-stand. It dropped into Mr. Bickford's lap, and with a swat
of his coat Todd crushed it where it lay. It was a coward's revenge,
but it was an effective one.

Mr. Bickford leaped, either in pain or in order to pursue the fleeing
Marengo, and fell over the side of the carriage. His coat-tail held
fast in the door, and suspended him, his toes and fingers just
touching the ground. When he jumped he threw the nest as far as he
could, and it fell under the horses. Hiram endeavored to open the
hack-door as the animals started--but who ever yet opened a hack-door
in a hurry?

Cap'n Aaron Sproul's first impulse was the impulse of the sailor who
beholds dangerous top-hamper dragging at a craft's side in a squall.
He out with his big knife and cut off the Honorable Bickford's
coat-tails with one mighty slash, and that gentleman rolled in the
dust over the hornets' nest, just outside the wheels, as the carriage
roared away down the stretch.

Landlord Parrott was