In an instant Old Ironsides was wide awake, and, seeing at a glance what was going on behind, he pricked up his ears, uttered one brief snort, and away went his heels like lightning. Poor Cæsar! When he touched this planet again—for Old Ironsides had sent him up towards the moon, much farther than I should want to go, in that style—he was a lost dog. Old Ironsides, who proved to be as great a hero, in his way, as Cæsar was, had killed him. The great enemy of sheepdom had ceased to breathe.
CHAP. VI[ToC]
"PAYING HIM OFF;"
OR, AN ODD WAY OF SHOWING REVENGE.
Jacob Grumley, who was sometimes nicknamed Grumble, on account of a habit he had of finding fault with every thing and every body, went to the same school with Mike Marble. Now Mike was as remarkable for his cheerful and amiable disposition, as Jacob was for his ill nature. In half of the cases where the latter would get angry, and storm, and rage, and fret, and foam, like a hyena, or a Bengal tiger, the other would remain as cool as a cucumber, or, perhaps, burst out into a hearty laugh.
One day, when several of the schoolboys, including Michael and Jacob, were playing ball on the fine lawn in front of the school house, a dispute occurred between the young grumbler and another boy, and Mike ventured to suggest to Jacob, as kindly as he could, that he was in the wrong.