struction of all
our buildings. Clarence and myself went into a flurry, and did a great
many stupid things, so excited that we did not know what we were about.
Father stopped in the midst of the danger to reprove us, and gave us
such a solemn and impressive lesson on the necessity of keeping cool,
that I never forgot it. Then he told us to harness the horses to the
plough. Clarence struck a furrow along the imperilled side of the house;
my father mowed a wide swath through the tall grass, and I raked it
away. Before the fire reached us, we had made a barrier which it could
not pass. We kept cool, and fought the devouring element with entire
success.

I do not mean to say that I never got mad; only that, when I had a fair
chance to think an instant, I nerved myself to a degree of
self-possession which enabled me to avoid doing stupid things. Such was
my frame of mind on the present occasion, and I coolly awaited the
coming of the tyrants. Both of them were boiling over with wrath when
they entered the kitchen, and rushed towards me so fiercely that I
thought they intended to overwhelm me at a single blow.

"What does all this mean, Buck? What have you been doing?" demanded
Captain Fishley, as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the room.

I deemed it advisable to make no answer.

"I'll teach you to insult your betters!" he continued, as he rushed
forward, with arms extended, ready to wreak his vengeance upon me.

I was satisfied that the blow was to come with the word, and I slung the
poker over my shoulder, in the attitude of defence.

"Hold on, Captain Fishley!" I replied.

He had evidently not expected any such demonstration. He had no occasion
to suspect it, for previously I had been uniformly submissive, not only
to him and his wife, but even to Ham, which had always been a much
harder task. The tyrants halted, and gazed at me with a look of
stupefied astonishment.

"What are you going to do with that poker?" asked the captain, after a
long breath, in which much of his wrath seemed to have evaporated.

"Defend myself," I replied.

"Do you mean to strike me with that poker?"

"Not unless you put your hands on me or my sister. If you touch me, I'll
knock you down, if I have to be hanged for it," was my answer,
deliberately but earnestly uttered.

"Has it come to this?" groaned he, completely nonplussed by the
vigorous show of resistance I made.

"Yes, sir."

"I think it is time something was done