I tore the black draperies down, and searched for a place where my mother might be--in bed I expected to find her, if at all; but she was not there.

I tried the cellar, but it was nothing but a vegetable cave, dug in the earth, with no walls, and dark as a dungeon when the girl shut down the trap-door and stood on it: from which I threw her by putting my back under it and giving a surge.

When I came up she was staggering to her feet, and groaning as she felt of her head for the results of some suspected cut or bump from her fall.

Rucker was following me about calling me Jacob and Jakey, a good deal as a man will try to smooth down or pacify a vicious horse or mule; and after I had looked everywhere, I faced him, took him by the throat, and choked him until his tongue stuck out, and his face was purple.
"My God," said the girl, who had grown suddenly quiet, "you're killing him!" I looked at his empurpled face, and my madness came back on me like a rush of fire through my veins--and I shut down on his throat again until I could feel the cords draw under my fingers like taut ropes.
She laid her hand rather gently on my breast, and looked me steadily in the eye.
"Fool!" she almost whispered.

"Your mother's dead! Will it bring her back to life for you to stretch hemp ?" I guess that by that action she saved my life; but it has been only of late years that I have ceased to be sorry that I did not kill him.