“The moment she clapt eyes on him, she called to him for help. ‘Oh,’ sais she, ‘for heaven’s sake, good man, help me up! Jist take hold of my leg and draw me back, will you, that’s a good soul?’ And then she held up fust one leg for him, and then the other, most beseechin’, but nothin’ would move him. He jist stopt, looked back for a moment and then progressed agin.
“Well, it ryled her considerable. Her eyes actilly snapped with fire, like a hemlock log at Christmas: (for nothin’ makes a woman so mad as a parsonal slight, and them little ankles of hern were enough to move the heart of a stone, and make it jump out o’ the ground, that’s a fact, they were such fine-spun glass ones), it made her so mad, it gave her fresh strength; and makin’ two or three onnateral efforts, she got clear back to the path, and sprung right up on eend, as wicked as a she-bear with a sore head. But when she got upright agin, she then see’d what a beautiful frizzle of a fix she was in. She couldn’t hope to climb far; and, indeed, she didn’t ambition to; she’d had enough of that, for one spell. But climbin’ up was nothin’, compared to goin’ down hill without her staff; so what to do, she didn’t know.
“At last, a thought struck her. She intarmined to make that man help her, in spite of him. So she sprung forward for a space, like a painter, for life or death, and caught right hold of his cloak. ‘Help—help me!’ said she, ‘or I shall go for it, that’s sartain. Here’s my puss, my rings, my watch, and all I have got; but oh, help me! for the love of God, help me, or my flint is fixed for good and all.’
“With that, the man turned round, and took one glance at her, as if he kinder relented, and then, all at once, wheeled back again, as amazed as if he was jist born, gave an awful yell, and started off as fast as he could clip, though that warn’t very tall runnin’ nother, considerin’ the ground. But she warn’t to be shook off that way. She held fast to his cloak, like a burr to a sheep’s tail, and raced arter him, screamin’ and screechin’ like mad; and the more she cried, the louder he yelled, till the mountains all echoed it and re-echoed it, so that you would have thought a thousand devils had broke loose, a’most.
“Such a gettin’ up stairs you never did see.
“Well, they kept up this tantrum for the space of two or three hundred yards, when they came to a small, low, dismal-lookin’ house, when the man gave the door a kick, that sent the latch a flyin’ off to the t’other eend of the room, and fell right in on the floor, on his face, as flat as a flounder, a groanin’ and a moanin’ like any thing, and lookin’ as mean as a critter that was sent for, and couldn’t come, and as obstinate as a pine stump.
“‘What ails you?’ sais she, ‘to act like Old Scratch that way? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, to behave so to a woman. What on airth is there about me to frighten you so, you great onmannerly, onmarciful, coward, you. Come, scratch up, this minute.’
“Well, the more she talked, the more he groaned; but the devil a word, good or bad, could she get out of him at all. With that, she stoops down, and catches up his staff, and says she, ‘I have as great a mind to give you a jab with this here toothpick, where your mother used to spank you, as ever I had in all my life. But if you want it, my old ‘coon, you must come and get it; for if you won’t help me, I shall help myself.’
“Jist at that moment, her eyes being better accustomed to the dim light of the place, she see’d a man, a sittin’ at the fur eend of the room, with his back to the wall, larfin’ ready to kill himself. He grinned so, he showed his corn-crackers from ear to ear. She said, he stript his teeth like a catamount, he look’d so all mouth.
“Well, that encouraged her, for there ain’t much harm in a larfin’ man; it’s only them that never larf that’s fearfulsome. So sais she ‘My good man, will you he so kind as to lend me your arm down this awful peak, and I will reward you handsomely, you may depend.’