Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/74

 hould fear

this negro. Reason would have told me it was not in his power to harm me ; but I had not then grown to use my reason.

There are people who follow instinct and impulse, much as a horse or dog, all through rather eventful lives, and, in some things, make fewer mistakes than men who act only from reason.

A woman follows instinct more than man does, and hence is keener to detect the good or bad in a face than man, and makes fewer real mistakes.

When I had descended and turned hastily and half blinded to the door, there stood the one-eyed negro, glaring at me with his one eye ferociously.

" What the holy poker have you been a doin up there? Stealin my eggs, eh? Now look here, you better git. Do you hear?" And he came toward me, keeping between me and the door as I tried to pass. " I know you; do you hear? I know d you stole dat hoss, I did. Now you git."

Here he stepped aside, levelled his one eye at me like a single-barrelled shot-gun as I fled past him, half expecting he would take me on the wing.

What should I do? What did I do? I ran! A boy s legs, like a mule s heels, answer many argu ments. They are his last resort, and often his first. Deprive him of everything else, but leave him his legs, and he will get on.

I was not strong. I was not used to making my way through a crowd, and got on slowly. I ran against men coming down the street with picks