tands
me a glass of gin.' Then he, and another man, made a rush, and the
others came double-quick-march on their heels. But as Bob ran at me most
stupidly, not even knowing how to place his hands, I caught him with my
knuckles at the back of his neck, and with all the sway of my right arm
sent him over the heads of his comrades. Meanwhile Dick the wrestler had
grappled me, expecting to show off his art, of which indeed he had some
small knowledge; but being quite of the light-weights, in a second he
was flying after his companion Bob.

Now these two men were hurt so badly, the light one having knocked his
head against the lintel of the outer gate, that the rest had no desire
to encounter the like misfortune. So they hung back whispering; and
before they had made up their minds, I rushed into the midst of them.
The suddenness and the weight of my onset took them wholly by surprise;
and for once in their lives, perhaps, Kirke's lambs were worthy of their
name. Like a flock of sheep at a dog's attack they fell away, hustling
one another, and my only difficulty was not to tumble over them.

I had taken my carbine out with me, having a fondness for it; but the
two horse-pistols I left behind; and therefore felt good title to take
two from the magazine of the lambs. And with these, and my carbine, I
leaped upon Kickums, who was now quite glad of a gallop again; and I
bade adieu to that mongrel lot; yet they had the meanness to shoot at
me. Thanking God for my deliverance (inasmuch as those men would have
strung me up, from a pollard-ash without trial, as I heard them tell
one another, and saw the tree they had settled upon), I ventured to go
rather fast on my way, with doubt and uneasiness urging me. And now my
way was home again. Nobody could say but what I had done my duty, and
rescued Tom (if he could be rescued) from the mischief into which
his own perverseness and love of change (rather than deep religious
convictions, to which our Annie ascribed his outbreak) had led, or
seemed likely to lead him. And how proud would my mother be; and--ah
well, there was nobody else to be proud of me now.

But while thinking these things, and desiring my breakfast, beyond any
power of describing, and even beyond my remembrance, I fell into another
fold of lambs, from which there was no exit. These, like true crusaders,
met me, swaggering very heartily, and with their barrels of cider set,
like so many cannon, across the road, over aga