It was Lyman Mertzheimer, his face distorted and swollen, his necktie streaming from one shoulder, where he had torn it in a mad effort to beat off the angry hornets whose nest he had disturbed out of sheer joy in the destruction and an audacious idea that no insect could scare him away or worst him in a fight. He had underestimated the fiery temper of the hornets and their concentrated and persistent methods of defending their home. After he had run wildly through the woods for fifteen minutes and struck out repeatedly the insects left him, just as he reached the berrying party. But the hornets had wreaked their anger upon him; face, hands and neck bore evidence of the battle they had waged. "First time hornets got me!" he said crossly as he neared the little party. "Oh, you needn't laugh!" he cried in angry tones as Charlie snickered. "But you look funny--all blotchy." The stung man allowed his anger to burst out in oaths. "Guess you think it's funny, too," he said to Amanda. "No. I'm sure it hurts," she said, though she knew he deserved no pity from her. "We all know that it hurts," said Martin. But there was scant sympathy in his voice. "Smear mud on," suggested Mary. "Once I got stung by a bumblebee when he went in a hollyhock and I held the flower shut so he couldn't get out, and he stung me through the flower. Mom put mud on and it helped." "Mud!" stormed Lyman, stepping about in the bush and twisting his head in pain. "There isn't any mud in Lancaster County now. The whole place is dry as punk!" "If you had some of the mud you slung at me recently it would come in handy now," Martin could not refrain from saying. Another oath greeted his words. Then the stung young man started off down the road to find relief from his smarts, ignoring the fling. "Well," said Amanda, "well, of all things! For him to tackle a hornets' nest! Just for the fun of it!" "But he got his come-uppance for once! Got it from the hornets," said Martin. "Serves him right." "But that hurts," said Mary sympathetically. "Hornets hurt awful bad!" "Yes," said Martin as they turned homeward. "But he's getting paid for all the mean tricks he's played on other people." "Mebbe God made the hornets sting him if he's a bad man," said Charlie. "We all get what we give out," agreed Martin. "Lyman Mertzheimer will feel those hornet stings for a few days. While I've always been taught not to rejoice at the misfortunes of others I'm not sorry I saw him. I'll call our account square now. You pitied him, didn't you?" he asked Amanda suddenly. "I saw it in your eyes. So did Mary and Katie." "Of course I pitied him," she confessed. "I'd feel sorry for anything or anybody who suffers. I know it serves him right, that he's earned worse than that, and yet I would have relieved him if I could have done so. Nature meant that we should be decent, I suppose." The man was thoughtful for a moment. "Yes, I suppose so. It is a woman's nature." "Would you have us different?"