reckon, of the axe and the knife."

"Will you answer my question like a man, and not like a
fool, as you are?" shouted the other, stooping, and
extending his left hand, the fingers of which he insinuated
into the stock already described, while, with a powerful
jerk, he both brought the man to his feet, and the blood
into his usually cadaverous cheek.

Ephraim Giles, half-throttled, and writhing with pain,
made a movement as if he would have used the knife in a
much less innocent manner than whittling, but the quick,
stern eye of his master, detected the involuntary act,
and his hand, suddenly relinquishing its hold of the
collar, grasped the wrist of the soldier with such a
vice-like pressure, that the fingers immediately opened,
and the knife fell upon the hearth.

The violence of his own act, brought Mr. Heywood at once
to a sense of the undue severity he had exercised towards
his servant, and he immediately said, taking his hand:

"Ephraim Giles, forgive me, but it was not intended. Yet,
I know not how it is, the few words you spoke just now
made me anxious to know what you meant, and I could not
repress my impatience to hear your explanation."

The soldier had never before remarked so much dignity of
manner about his Boss, as he termed Mr. Heywood, and this
fact, added to the recollection of the severe handling