s
nursing his wrath against me. He regarded me as a being vastly inferior
to himself, and the decided stand I had taken filled him with the same
kind of indignation which a brutal teamster feels towards his contrary
horse.

"Hold on a minute, Buck; I want to get a drink of water," said Ham, as
we approached a spring by the roadside, half a mile before we reached
Crofton's.

I drew up the black horse, and he jumped out of the wagon. He did not
drink more than a swallow; and I did not think he was very thirsty.

"Go ahead!" said he, leaping into the rear of the wagon, behind the
seat, where I had thrown the mail-bag.

He sat down on the end-board of the wagon, and though I thought it a
little strange that he should take such an uncomfortable seat,
especially when he had on his best clothes, I did not suspect any
mischief. The first thing I knew after I had started the horse, the
mail-bag came down upon my head with a force which made me see more
stars than ever before twinkled in the firmament of my imagination. At
the next instant, Ham seized me by the collar of my coat with both
hands, in such a way that I could not easily move.

"Now, Buck Bradford, we'll settle this business. I'm going to know who's
master, you or I," cried Ham.

"All right, Ham; you shall know in about two minutes and a half," I
replied, choking with wrath, as I hauled in the horse.

Then commenced a struggle which it is impossible to describe. I do not
myself know what I did, only that I thrashed, squirmed, and twisted till
I found myself behind the seat with my antagonist; but he held on to my
coat-collar as though his salvation depended upon the tenacity of his
grip. Finally I doubled myself up, and came out of my coat. In the
twinkling of an eye, I sprang upon him, and tumbled him out of the
wagon, into the dirt of the road. Though he was a year older and two
inches taller than I was, while he had been clerking it in the store, I
had been nursing my muscles with the shovel and the hoe, the pitchfork
and the axe; and I was the stronger and tougher of the two. I could do
more, and bear more, than he. A fight depends as much upon the ability
to endure injury as it does to inflict it.

The rough usage I had given Ham was very disheartening to him; while I,
with the exception of being a little shaky about the head from the blow
of the mail-bag, was as fresh as ever.

"Have you found out who's master yet, Ham?" I demanded, edging up to
him.