head,
To reign or to triumph o'er man;
She was not took out of his feet,
By man to be tramped upon:
With my fol-de-rol, tooral-i-lay!

But she was took out of his side,
His equal and partner to be:
Though they be yunited in one,
Still the man is the top of the tree!
With my fol-de-rol, tooral-i-lay!

"Well, and what's wrong wi' that?" Hancock wound up, feeling for his
courage again.

"Get along with 'ee, you ninth-part-of-a-man! _Me_ took out of
_your_ side!"

"Be that as it may, the 'Fish and Anchor' is no place for discussing
of it," the man answered, very dignified. "Enough said, my dear!
We'll be getting along home." He stood up and knocked the ashes out
of his pipe.

But Sally was not to be budged. "I knew how 'twould be," she spoke
up, facing the company. "I took that preacher-fellow 'pon the ground
hop, as I thought, and stopped his nonsense; but something whispered
to me that 'twas a false hope. Evil communications corrupt good
manners, and now the mischief's done. There's no peace for Saltash
till you men learn your place again, and I'm resolved to teach it to
'ee. You want to know how? Well, to start with, by means of a board
and a piece o' chalk, same as they teach at school nowadays."

She stepped a pace farther into the room, shut home the door behind
her, and cast her eye over the ale-scores on the back of it.
There were a dozen marks, maybe, set down against her own man's name;
but for the moment she offered no remark on this.

"Mr. Oke," says she, turning to the landlord, "I reckon you never go
without a piece o' chalk in your pocket. Step this way, if you
please, and draw a line for me round what these lords of creation owe
ye for drink. Thank'ee. And now be good enough to fetch a chair and
stand 'pon it; I want you to reach so high as you can--Ready?
Now take your chalk and write, beginning near the top o' the door:
'I, Sarah Hancock--'"

Landlord Oke gave a flourish with his chalk and wrote, Sally
dictating,--

"'I, Sarah Hancock--do hereby challenge all the men in Saltash
Borough--that me and five other females of the said Borough--will row
any six of them any distance from one to six statute miles--and will
beat their heads off--pulling either single oars or double paddles or
in ran-dam--the stakes to be six pound a side. And I do further
promise, if beaten, to discharge all scores below.'

"Now the date,