into smithereens ?" But she didn't or couldn't or wouldti't 

 see, until one of our men threatened to put a charge of 

 shot into the old horse unless she hiirried him out of the 

 way. The threat seemed to improve her eyesight, for at 

 once she commenced whipping up old ' ' Rosinante ' ' and 

 in a little while both had disappeared in the distance. 

 And so had the geese. The flock on seeing her had 

 swerved by us a quarter of a mile away, and nothing now 

 could he done but wait for the next and largest fli2:ht, 

 which in fifteen minutes we heard coming toward us, 

 fully a couple of miles off. We had just time to ask our- 

 selves whether there was going to be any further meddling 

 with our liliss when the answer showed up for itself. 

 This time it was in the shape of a woman, evidently 

 Bo-peep's mother, accompanied b}- the rider of the black 

 horse. The girl had ridden home, told her mother we 

 had threatened to shoot her, and now the old lady was 

 here, with the martial fires of her fatherland Inirning 

 fiercely wathin her and her blood up to the boiling point. 

 When she got within shouting distance she opened her 

 batteries. She would listen to neither explanation nor 

 defence, and actually charged us with having frightened 

 her sheep away by having a retriever with us, and vowed 

 vengeance. We entreated her, implored her to leave us, 

 to go away, anywhere, so the geese wouldn't see her;, 

 that after they had passed she might come back again and 

 we would try to accommodate her with all the ven- 

 geance she wanted. But no, there she stood, working 

 her jaws and hurling her brimstone at us, and waving 

 her arms that flew around her head like the sails of a 

 windmill. 



86 



