e. I never see a dog in such a boiling
passion, and yet never making no sound at all but blood-curdlin' grunts.
An' I don't see how the rodder would 'a' got his ladder at all if the
dog hadn't made an awful jump at him, and jerked the ladder down. It
just missed your geranium-bed, and the rodder, he ran to the other end
of it, and began pullin' it away, dog an' all. 'Look-a-here,' says I,
'we can fix him now; and so he cooled down enough to help me, and I
unlocked the front door, and we pushed the bottom end of the ladder
in, dog and all; an' then I shut the door as tight as it would go, an'
untied the end of the rope, an' the rodder pulled the ladder out while I
held the door to keep the dog from follerin', which he came pretty near
doin', anyway. But I locked him in, and then the man began stormin'
again about his wagon; but when he looked out an' see the boy comin'
back with it,--for somebody must 'a' stopped the horse,--he stopped
stormin' and went to put up his ladder ag'in. 'No, you don't,' says I;
'I'll let the big dog loose next time, and if I put him at the foot of
your ladder, you'll never come down.' 'But I want to go and take down
what I put up,' he says; 'I aint a-goin' on with this job.' 'No,' says
I, 'you aint; and you can't go up there to wrench off them rods and make
rain-holes in the roof, neither.' He couldn't get no madder than he was
then, an' fur a minute or two he couldn't speak, an' then he says, 'I'll
have satisfaction for this.' An' says I, 'How? 'An' says he, 'You'll see
what it is to interfere with a ordered job.' An' says I, 'There wasn't
no order about it;' an' says he, 'I'll show you better than that;' an'
he goes to his wagon an' gits a book. 'There,' says he, 'read that.'
'What of it? 'says I 'there's nobody of the name of Ball lives here.'
That took the man kinder aback, and he said he was told it was the only
house on the lane, which I said was right, only it was the next lane he
oughter 'a' gone to. He said no more after that, but just put his ladder
in his wagon, and went off. But I was not altogether rid of him. He left
a trail of his baleful presence behind him.

"That horrid bull-dog wouldn't let me come into the house! No matter
what door I tried, there he was, just foamin' mad. I let him stay till
nearly night, and then went and spoke kind to him; but it was no good.
He'd got an awful spite ag'in me. I found something to eat down cellar,
and I made a fire outside an' roasted some