in my left hand, to prevent him from
making any further use of it, leaving my right to manipulate the whip. I
felt that I had disarmed and overpowered him; but I was not yet quite
content with his frame of mind, and I continued my favorite exercise for
some time longer. I did not actually punish him any more; I only cracked
the whip in unpleasant proximity to his tender extremities. He hopped
and leaped like a Winnebago chief in the war-dance.

"Quit, Buck Bradford!" cried he, in tones of anguish.

"You have got enough of it--have you, Ham Fishley?" I replied,
suspending the exercise.

"We'll settle this another time," howled he.

"No, we won't; we'll settle it now. You began it, and I want it finished
now," I added, cracking the whip once more in the neighborhood of his
pedal extremities.

"Quit--will you!"

"I will quit when you say you have had enough of it."

"You won't hear the last of this very soon, I can tell you!"

"What are you going to do about it, Ham?"

"I'll pay you off for it yet!"

"Will you!" I continued, startling his sensibilities again with the
noise of the snapper.

"Yes, I will!" snarled he, passionately.

If the calf of his left leg had been a maple leaf at that moment, I
should have taken a piece out of it as big as a dime.

"Mind out, Buck Bradford!"

"Have you had enough?" I demanded.

"Yes, I have!"

"O, well, if you are satisfied, I am, though you are not very
good-natured about it. Next time you want to hit me over the head with
the mail-bag, just remember that when I am awake I keep my eyes open," I
replied, coiling up the lash of my whip. "When I told you I had stood
this thing long enough, I got myself ready for anything that might come.
I'm ready for anything more, and I shall be ready the next time you want
to try it on."

"You had better go along with the mail," snapped he, in a tone so like
his mother's that I could not have told who spoke if I had not seen Ham
before me.

"I made this stop to accommodate you, not myself. After what has
happened, I want to tell you once more, that I am ready to do my work
like a man, and to treat you and everybody else like gentlemen, if you
use me decently. If you know how to behave like a gentleman, I'd like to
have you try it on for a few days, just to see how it would seem. If you
will only do that, I promise you shall have no reason to complain of me.
That's all I've got to say."

"You've said enough, and you had better