“‘Serve you right!’ said I.
“‘Send out your beastly black man to haul it down!’ growled the third.
“‘Do you good,’ I observed.
“They didn’t seem to see the point of my answers, for the first one that had spoken broke out into a terrific volley of imprecations, that was enough to raise the hair up off my head, only it didn’t! And then he ordered me to have the flag lowered.
“‘You’re another!’ I said.
“Then all three began to curse and swear in a horrible manner. And I began to sing as loud as I could:
“‘Three blind mice! they all ran after the farmer’s wife!’
“Then, still cursing and swearing, like a crew of pirates in a sea fight, they went to the flagpole and began to climb it. Seeing which, I went and got father’s gun, examined it and found it all right. It was a double-barreled gun; and I carried it to the window and rested it on the sill and pointed its muzzle toward the top of the pole. The three men had reached it then, and were tearing away at the flag to get it loose.
“‘Come down!’ I shouted, ‘or as sure as I live I will fire!’
“They answered me with curses. Now, I am no sharpshooter, so what followed was all owing to chance. Using the window sill as a rest, I trained the gun as well as I could, pointed it toward them, and pulled the trigger. And simultaneously with the flash and the report one of the men uttered a fierce yell, and fell to the ground. Oh, Heaven, Minie, what a tremendous revulsion of feeling I experienced when I thought that I had killed a man! I do not know whether I could have fired again. However, the two others did not wait for the discharge of the second barrel. They slid down that pole like monkeys, and ran off like quarter horses, leaving their wounded upon the field. Then I laughed. I could not help it; I sung out: