“When they got up dere,” said Toddie, “Abraham made a naltar an’ put little Ikey on it, an’ took a knife an’ was goin’ to chop his froat open, when a andzel came out of hebben, an’ said: ‘Stop a-doin’ dat!’s So Abraham stopped, an’ Ikey skooted. An’ Abraham saw a sheep caught in de bushes, an’ he caught him an’ killed him. He wasn’ goin’ to climb way up a mountain to kill somebody an’ not have his knife bluggy a bit. An’ he burned de sheep up. An’ den he went home again.”
“I’ll bet you Isaac’s mamma never knew what his papa wanted to do with him,” said Budge, “or she’d never let her little boy go away in the mornin’. Do you want to bet?”
“N—no, not on Sunday,” said Mr. Burton. “Now, suppose you little boys go out of doors and play for a while, while uncle tries to get a nap.”
The boys accepted the suggestion and disappeared. Half an hour later, as Mrs. Burton was walking home from church under escort of old General Porcupine, and enduring with saintly fortitude the general’s compliments upon her management of the children, there came screams of fear and anguish from the general’s own grounds, which the couple were passing.
“Who can that be?” exclaimed the general, his short hairs bristling like the quills of his titular godfather. “We have no children.”
“I think I know the voices,” gasped Mrs. Burton, turning pale.
“Bless my soul!” exclaimed the general, with an accent which showed that he was wishing the reverse of blessings upon souls less needy than his own. “You don’t mean——”
“Oh, I do!” said Mrs. Burton, wringing her hands. “Please hurry!”
The general puffed and snorted up his gravel walk and toward the shrubbery, behind which was a fishpond from which direction the sound came. Mrs. Burton followed in time to see her nephew Budge help his brother out of the pond while the general tugged at a large crawfish which had fastened its claw upon Toddies finger. The fish was game, but, with a mighty pull from the general, and a fiendish shriek from Toddie, the fish’s claw and body parted company, and the general, still holding the latter tightly, staggered backward and himself fell into the pond.
