One immensely tall and large woman at my right, head and shoulders above the group of sisters by whom she was surrounded, with an indescribable bonnet of the largest old-time pattern and a dress of home-made woolsey, in the excess of her excitement and rage, jumped up and down, whirling completely around and jerking her head like a snapping-turtle, and shouted at the top of her voice, which rang sharp and shrill above the general roar,
"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"
My friend with the fiery black eyes leaped at a single bound from his perch on the window-sill to the Judge's seat, and seizing the intruder by the collar, jerked him in an instant to the floor below, where he was reënforced by other zealous brethren, among them my host, who was sitting at the opposite end of the room, and together they "snaked" him out of the house in much quicker time than I had ever seen such a feat performed before. The quickness of the whole transaction was wonderful. A part of them took him to the jail, which was but a few yards distant, where he was locked up. Order being again restored, the hats were passed, and I received a collection amounting to about five dollars.
As soon as I pronounced the benediction, the people crowded around me and expressed their intense mortification and sorrow at these occurrences.
"We've got a pretty bad name here anyway," said one, "and if any such thing happens, it is always sure to be when there is a stranger here from a long way off."
"I don't want to fight," said my friend with the fiery black eyes, "any more."
The reverend Judge and the brethren and sisters, one after another, gave expression to their deep humiliation, and my fiery friend kept stepping about nervously, and repeating over and over, half to himself and half to me:
"I don't want to fight any more."
At length, shutting his fist, and bringing it down emphatically, he said:
"I don't want to fight any more. But I won't see religion abused anyway. I will fight for my Master."