Before he had tried it ten minutes he could do fifty things with it that would almost scare the livers out of those nasty old foxes that were taking every one's geese, Dorking roosters, and even baby lambs and pigs.

Of course people couldn't stand that; something had to be done! Even in the Bible it says, "Beware of the little foxes that spoil the vines," and geese, especially blue ones, Dorking roosters, lambs, and pigs were much more valuable than mere vines; so Leon made that awful thing to scare the foxes from their holes that's in the Bible too, about the holes I mean, not the scaring.

I wanted Leon to slip to the back door and make the dumb-bell--that's what he called it; if I had been naming it I would have called it the thunder-bell--go; but he wouldn't.

He said he didn't propose to work as he had, and then have some one find out, and fix one like it.

He said he wouldn't let it make a sound until the night before the chase, and then he'd raise the dead.