On this he ſtretched out his ſooty arms towards the infant.
As a brood hen, aware of the hawk hovering high over head in the air, or alarmed at an attack from the wanton ſpaniel in the court-yard, firſt warns her chickens by anxious chuckling to retire into the ſtrong hold of the pen, then raiſes her feathers, ſpreads her wings, and prepares for an unequal combat with the ſtronger foe—ſo our intrepid mother darted her clinched fiſt, quick as lightening, into the collier’s beard, reſolutely exclaiming, ‘Monſter! thou ſhalt firſt tear the mother’s heart out of this body, before thou robbeſt me of my child!’ Number-Nip Was not prepared for ſo reſolute an aſſault; he ſtarted back as if afraid: indeed he had never met with ſo rough an experiment in the whole courſe of his ſtudy of mankind. ‘There is no occaſion to put thyſelf in a paſſion,’ ſaid he, with a friendly ſmile, ‘I am no cannibal, as thou imagineſt, neither will I do thee or thy children the
‘leaſt
