really seemed they would whack ’em through.

But she got so toughened and callous and hard,

and the stiffened frame of her mortised bones

Formed such an excellent armor-plate against

the broadsides of sticks and stones,

That they “pounded” her then in a different

way—in the village pound—whose walls

would hold

The breachiest cow that ever strayed—and the

notice was posted as I have told.