even the drawing and quartering; but when it came to
sending all four quarters to the penitentiary for life, what could a
poor devil do but cave in?"

XIII

A week had passed since Steve refused to burden himself longer with
Sarah Maria's care and education. As a matter of course he saw that
the irascible lady was still retained about the place, but he felt
that to be no concern of his so long as their orbits did not cross,
and so far Sarah Maria seemed to appreciate his indifference and to
thrive upon it.

A change of base was effected, however, on the morning of the eighth
day, and it came about in this wise. On going down to his little
corn-field one morning to see how matters were progressing, Steve
found--but perhaps we should first tell how he had, with melancholy
eyes, seen most of the results of his summer's hard work come to
naught; one vegetable after another had gone the way of the flesh--not
a legitimate way, as it should have gone, on the family table, but by
the path of some violence that had cut off its usefulness and ended
its life prematurely.

The corn was about the only article that had escaped such wreckage; it
really had flourished and now bade fair to grace the table before
long. Once in a while, when his spirits needed propping, Steve allowed
himself the comfort of gazing upon the vigorous cornstalks, with their
budding tassels, and this was his intent upon this particular day.
Alas! the sight he beheld was hardly calculated to raise the spiritual
thermometer, so to speak, for Sarah Maria was contentedly munching
what corn she had not already trampled under foot. Now, this was more
than even Steve could endure, and for once his gentleness and quiet
gave way to something resembling a wild storm.

Breaking a stout switch from a tree, he proceeded to use it with such
energy that Sarah started for the barn at a sprinting gait. She did
not mind being sent home--that she expected as a matter of course;
but she hotly resented the manner in which it was done. Reaching the
barn and finding the door closed, she suddenly turned and charged
Steve with such malice and vigor that she was upon him before he had
time to think of escaping or of defending himself. With one blow she
knocked him down, but happily, instead of demolishing him at once, she
stood over him glaring and otherwise torturing him mentally before she
could decide upon the best method by which to b