"I'll catch 'em by the back o' the neck, an' pile-drive 'em a piece. They can suit 'emselves about livin' when I'm through with 'em." "'Shouldn't wonder ef they did," said Rod. The yellow horse had hidden himself very cleverly behind the others as they stood in a group, and was swaying his head close to the ground with a curious scythe-like motion, looking side-wise out of his wicked eyes. You can never mistake a man-eater getting ready to knock a man down. We had had one to pasture the year before. "See that?" said my companion, turning over on the pine-needles. "Nice for a woman walking 'cross lots, wouldn't it be?" "Bring 'em out!" said the yellow horse, hunching his sharp back. "There's no chance among them tall trees. Bring out the - oh! Ouch!" It was a right-and-left kick from Muldoon. I had no idea that the old car-horse could lift so quickly. Both blows caught the yellow horse full and fair in the ribs, and knocked the breath out of him. "What's that for?" he said angrily, when he recovered himself; but I noticed he did not draw any nearer to Muldoon than was necessary. Muldoon never answered, but discoursed to himself in the whining grunt that he uses when he is going down-hill in front of a heavy load. We call it singing; but I think it's something much worse, really. The yellow horse blustered and squealed a little, and at last said that, if it was a horse-fly that had stung Muldoon, he would accept an apology. "You'll get it," said Muldoon, "in de sweet by-and-bye - all de apology you've any use for. Excuse me interruptin' you, Mr. Rod, but I'm like Tweezy - I've a Southern drawback in me hind legs." "Naow, I want you all here to take notice, an' you'll learn something," Rod went on. "This yaller-backed skate comes to our pastur'-" "Not havin' paid his board," put in Tedda. "Not havin' earned his board, an' talks smooth to us abaout ripplin' brooks an' wavin' grass, an' his high-toned, pure-souled horsehood, which don't hender him sheddin' women an' childern, an' fallin' over the dash onter men. You heard his talk, an' you thought it mighty fine, some o' you." Tuck looked guilty here, but she did not say anything. "Bit by bit he goes on ez you have heard." "I was talkin' in the abstrac'," said the yellow horse, in an altered voice. "Abstrac' be switched! Ez I've said, it's this yer blamed abstrac' business that makes the young uns cut up in the Concord; an' abstrac' or no abstrac', he crep' on an' on till he come to killin' plain an' straight - killin' them as never done him no harm, jest beca'se they owned horses." "An' knowed how to manage 'em," said Tedda. That makes it worse." Waal, he didn't kill 'em, anyway," said Marcus. "He'd ha' been half killed ef he had tried."