grow so! An' ain't they the nippin'est little creatur's you ever see?"

"They're fightin'-cocks," answered Caleb, tolerantly.

"Fightin'-cocks? You don't mean to tell me they're trained up for
that?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Well, I never heard o' such a thing in a Christian land! never! Whose
be they? I'll give him a piece o' my mind, if I live another minute!"

"You better let other folks alone," said Caleb, stolidly.

"'Mandy," returned Aunt Melissa, in a portentous undertone, "be you
goin' to stan' by an' see your own aunt spoke to as if she was the dirt
under your feet?"

Amanda had once in her life asserted herself at a crucial moment, and
she had never seen cause to regret it. Now she "spoke out" again. She
made her slender neck very straight and stiff, and her lips set
themselves firmly over the words,--

"I guess Caleb won't do you no hurt, Aunt Melissa. He don't want you
should make yourself a laughin'-stock, nor I don't either. There's
Uncle Hiram, over lookin' at the pigs. I guess he don't see you. Caleb,
le's we move on!"

Aunt Melissa stood looking after them, a mass of quivering wrath.