act of throwing down some blades from the loft, Mr. Covey entered the stable with a long rope; and just as I was half out of the loft, he caught hold of my legs, and was about tying me.  As soon as I found what he was up to, I gave a sudden spring, and as I did so, he holding to my legs, I was brought sprawling on the stable floor.  Mr. Covey seemed now to think he had me, and could do what he pleased; but at this moment—­from whence came the spirit I don’t know—­I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose.  He held on to me, and I to him.  My resistance was so entirely unexpected that Covey seemed taken all aback.  He trembled like a leaf.  This gave me assurance, and I held him uneasy, causing the blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers.  Mr. Covey soon called out to Hughes for help.  Hughes came, and, while Covey held me, attempted to tie my right hand.  While he was in the act of doing so, I watched my chance, and gave him a heavy kick close under the ribs.  This kick fairly sickened Hughes, so that he left me in the hands of Mr. Covey.  This kick had the effect of not only weakening Hughes, but Covey also.  When he saw Hughes bending over with pain, his courage quailed.  He asked me if I meant to persist in my resistance.  I told him I did, come what might; that he had used me like a brute for six months, and that I was determined to be used so no longer.  With that, he strove to drag me to a stick that was lying just out of the stable door.  He meant to knock me down.  But just as he was leaning over to get the stick, I seized him with both hands by his collar, and brought him by a sudden snatch to the ground.  By this time, Bill came.  Covey called upon him for assistance.  Bill wanted to know what he could do.  Covey said, “Take hold of him, take hold of him!” Bill said his master hired him out to work, and not to help to whip me; so he left Covey and myself to fight our own battle out.  We were at it for nearly two hours.  Covey at length let me go, puffing and blowing at a great rate, saying that if I had not resisted, he would not have whipped me half so much.  The truth was, that he had not whipped me at all.  I considered him as getting entirely the worst end of the bargain; for he had drawn no blood from me, but I had from him.  The whole six months afterwards, that I spent with Mr. Covey, he never laid the weight of his finger upon me in anger.  He would occasionally say, he didn’t want to get hold of me again.  “No,” thought I, “you need not; for you will come off worse than you did before.”