The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-02-04

"Sa-ay, Billy, done git mad; 1 done
say yer wus skeart Nv him."
"Then what?''
Say, Billy, tibet chaps had a pow'ful
eddication, amt he? Vase, that's it.
self, but his eddication. Sa-ay' BillYR H xer
kin !i-ik him sure if yer warn't skeart Nv
his book larnin'"
l stared at him in establishment. at first
about to make some contemptuous re-
joiner, but slowly there crept over me a
vague suspicion that there was some
truth in what he said, so I only an
swered: "Well, what then?"
"Sa-ay, Billy, you're kind'r shamed Nv
me cause l amt had no eddication and
amt got no city manners an done know
nawthin', but sa-ay, Billy, amt skeart
him, sure"
"You can make me lick him?'
"Sure, that's wot I sed. l done know
much about ettiket an that, but kin
do wot sez."
well, l don't know what you are try
ing to get at, but if your are so clever
why didn't you make me lick him to-
nightT
had 'ev, we'll, next time you went to his
house an seed all his fine furnertnr'
you'd git skeart agin, but if you Wuzn't
shamed Nv me an nd take me along
next time yer'd li-ik' Their he'd off'uv him
l done know nawthin', but l kin do
what l sez." Wv
More than this l couldn't get out of
him, but during the next two DAYS he
persisted in informing me on every con-
ceivable occasion that II cud H-ik ther
he'd off'uv that chap"
Shortly after l met Hart, who asked
me up to the house as usual, and when
]! pleaded my company he wouldn't
told Clara about him and she told me-
to bring him up. She's great at study
ing character, and your friends bird"
50, despite my remonstrances, he. MS
usual, had his way and we arrived. the
old gentleman and /, one evening in time
for late dinner. How 1 ever cot
through that meal I don't know. Every
moment was torture. Hart seemed to
take the greatest, delight in leading the
Hottentot, and my modification was
complete. Even after we adjourned to
the library for our usual 'interyieW'' I
was still on the rack, so much so that 7
forgot entirely all about the old fellows
mysterious assertions in my fear of some
still more glaring contretemps. But he
sat quite quiet, huddled in an arm chair
mumDllnS an unuSnteu cigar between his
toothless old gums and apparently taking
very little notice of our preparations.
The next moment Hart was at me, and
a smart biff on the ear recalled my wan
dering attention. The blow was not re-
ally hard, one, but it seemed to sting
something to sudden life; a man had
struck me, carelessly, half contemptuous-
~, and suddenly my blood began to boil.
The room seemed to swim for mo-
ment before me; then all my fear, all
my hero-worship and my sense Of the
mans superiority was lost in the blur,
and only one fact, a shameful one, stood
out in bold relief-the blow-and it
seemed that till that was avenged I
could not breathe; and there right in
front of me stood the man who had put
this insult on me, no longer the revered
friend, the educated gentleman, but
man like myself and an enemy.
e Another singing blow OH the cheek,
then sprang forward, determined, furi-
GUS, yet strangely, almost contenptuously
confident. 3. 's
Slowly + forced him back, and crowded
him fercely, despite perfect hail Of
blows that battered sme aud whose only
effect seemed to be to fill me with stiil
z6ercer exhilaration. AT last I not III, aud
as he was reeling across the floor, some.
beast within me growlet out q hars1,
'sp;a!Ellng laugh " Of tFipn,ph