l sentence if you don't hold your peace."

"You are a wretch!" she screamed.

The sheriff at this moment motioned the crowd to stand back and gave the
signal to his two assistants, who went to the other end of the pole and
seized the rope dangling there.

"You are a white-livered wretch!" the scold again yelled. At this
moment she went soaring off into the air. A piercing shriek came from
her lips as she found herself swinging out over the pond. "I'll scratch
your eyes out!"

"Let her down," commanded the sheriff, and the men holding the rope
allowed it to slip through their hands, and the woman in the chair
darted down toward the water.

"I said it, as I say it yet; she's a hussy! she's a hussy!" shrieked the
woman, whose vocabulary was insufficient for her rage. The chair rapidly
descended until it struck the water with a splash, pushing the waves on
either side and letting the scold down, down into the cold liquid. She
gave utterance to a yell when she found the water coming up over her
breast, almost taking her breath.

She was drawn all dripping from the pond and elevated high in the air so
everybody could see her. A wild yell went up from the crowd, and an
impudent urchin cried:

"Ann Linkon, how like you your bath?"

"I'll scratch your eyes out!" she shrieked, then again began to denounce
her prosecutor as she once more descended, repeating, "She's a hussy!"

Down, down she went into the water, until it came to her chin, causing
her to utter another shriek. Again she was lifted high in the air. The
sheriff, who was superintending the enforcement of the sentence, turned
to his assistants and said:

"You do not dip her under; let the stool go lower."

As Ann Linkon descended for the last time, she seemed to gather up all
her energies and, in a voice overflowing with hate, shrieked:

"It's true! She is a hussy!"

Plunging down, down, down, until ducking-stool and occupant were
completely buried beneath the water, sank the victim, and on the air
came a gurgling sound: "She's a hussy!" The sheriff's assistants gave
the rope a sudden pull, and in an instant the choking, strangling
creature soared up in the air, gasping for breath with the water running
in streams from her garments. She made several efforts to speak, but in
vain. Her mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears were full of water, and she
could only gasp. Poor Ann Linkon was humiliated and crushed. A ducking
was a light punishment, yet the disgrace wh