Andrew was full of that destructive energy so characteristic of the
Western and Southern people.

"Oh! no, don't shoot. Can't you think of some other way?" pleaded Julia.

"Well, yes, I could get the sheriff to come and bag a few of them."

"And that will make trouble for many years. Let me see. Can't we do
this?" And Julia rapidly unfolded to Andrew and Jonas her plan of
operations against the enemy.

"Number one!" said Jonas. "They'll fall into that air amby-scade as sure
as shootin'. That plan is military and Christian and civilized and human
and angelical and tancy-crumptious. It ort to meet the 'proval of the
American Fish-hawk with all his pinions and talents. I'll help to
execute it, and beat the rascals or lay my bones a-bleachin' on the
desert sands of Shady Holler."

"Well," said Andrew to Julia, "I knew, if I took you under my roof,
you'd make a Christian of me in spite of myself. And I _am_ a sort of
savage, that's a fact."

Jonas hurried home and sent Cynthy over to the castle, and there was
much work going on that afternoon. Andrew said that the castle was being
made ready for its first siege. As night came on, Julia was in a perfect
glee. Reddened by standing over the stove, with sleeves above her elbows
and her black hair falling down upon her shoulders, she was such a
picture that August stopped and stood in the door a minute to look at
her as he came in to supper.

"Why, Jule, how glorious you look!" he said. "I've a great mind to fall
in love with you, mein Liebchen!"

"And I _have_ fallen in love with _you_, Caesar Augustus!" And well she
might, for surely, as he stood in the door with his well-knit frame, his
fine German forehead, his pure, refined mouth, and his clear, honest,
amiable blue eyes, he was a man to fall in love with.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE SHIVEREE.

If Webster's "American Dictionary of the English Language" had not been
made wholly in New England, it would not have lacked so many words that
do duty as native-born or naturalized citizens in large sections of the
United States, and among these words is the one that stands at the head
of the present chapter. I know that some disdainful prig will assure me
that it is but a corruption of the French "_charivari,"_ and so it is;
but then "_charivari_" is a corruption of the low Latin "_charivarium_"
and that is a corruption of something else, and, indeed, almost every
word is a corruption of some other word. So that there is no