e window, he perceived a neighbor flying down
the road, with Sarah Maria in his wake. The latter had lowered her
head--not in shame, I grieve to say, but with malicious intent, as was
abundantly evidenced by the height of her tail.

Happily Nannie had seen this procession of two as it passed the house,
and giving chase with swift steps, had caught Sarah Maria's long rope
and wound it several times around a large tree, thus checking her mad
career and saving a worthy citizen for the republic.

The excitement attendant upon all this was very great, especially as
the neighbor was for a time firmly resolved to bring action, not being
satisfied with the action Sarah Maria had brought, but by dint of much
persuasion, both from Steve and also from Randolph Chance, who came to
the rescue, he was at length called off, and Steve was so relieved
that he was able to note the destruction of his peas with scarce a
ripple of emotion.

The calm of the succeeding twenty-four hours was but that which
precedes the storm, and the glassy placidity of Steve's life for that
one day proved to be the deceitful stillness of deep waters. Upon his
return from the city he was again greeted with the welcome
intelligence that Sarah Maria had raised her head, adjusted her hind
legs, whose hinges, owing to much kicking, had been reversed of late,
and betaken herself to parts unknown. Worn out as he was with the
events of the past week, Steve was unequal to a discreet concealment
of his feelings, and the satisfaction he evinced in Nannie's news was
stoutly resented by that singular young person. Indeed, she became so
wrought up--crying, upbraiding, and lamenting--that Steve was obliged
to console her by promising to advertise the errant beast if she were
not found at her usual trysting-place--the railroad track. This he
did, repeating the dose daily for a week, at the end of which time he
received word that Sarah Maria had temporarily located herself on a
farm some forty miles inland. Not being well disposed to a walk of
that length, enlivened by Sarah Maria's society, Steve sent word to
forward the lady by freight.

Owing to some mistake her car was switched off about ten miles from
the proper station, and thinking that he could bridge that distance,
Steve set out on a train early the next evening, and soon found
himself in reach of the missing member of his household. She was
looking out of the freight car when he arrived, and he noted with a
sec