F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 85
after a shock of paralysis, was inhabited by twenty or more
families, of the Teutonic race, whose numerous progeny, called the
hedge-hogs, were more than a match for the scorpions, and with that
jealousy of each other which animates these races did the scorpions
and hedge-hogs get at war. In the morning the scorpions would crawl
up through holes in the cellar, through broken windows, through the
trap-doors, down the long stairway that wound from the second and
third stories over the broken pavilion, and from nobody could tell
where-for they came, it seems, from every rat-hole, and with rolling
white eyes, marshalled themselves for battle. The hedgehogs
mustering in similar strength, and springing up from no one could
tell where, would set upon the scorpions, and after a goodly amount
of wallowing in the mire, pulling hair and wool, scratching faces
and pommeling noses, the scorpions being alternately the victors and
vanquished, the war would end at the appearance of Hag Zogbaum, who,
with her broom, would cause the scorpions to beat a hasty retreat.
The hedge-hogs generally came off victorious, for they were the
stronger race. But the old hedge-hogs got much shattered in time by
the broadsides of the two Gibraltars, which sent them broadside on
into the Tombs. And this passion of the elder hedge-hogs for getting
into the Tombs, caused by degrees a curtailing of the younger
hedge-hogs. And this falling off in the forces of the foe,
singularly inspirited the scorpions, who mustered courage, and after
a series of savage battles, in which there was a notorious amount of
wool-pulling gained the day. And this is how 'Scorpion Cove' got its
name.
"Hag Zogbaum lived in the cellar of the house with the verandas; and
old Dan Sullivan and the rats had possession of the garret. In the
cellar of this woman, whose trade was the fostering of crime in
children as destitute as myself, there was a bar and a back cellar,
where as many as twenty boys and girls slept on straw and were