He fought like everything to save himself, and never let out so much as a cry.

The girls did all the yelling.
You ought to be proud of his grit." "That's right, you had, Sarah," added Thad, thinking it his duty to "put in an oar" so as to save Brutus from the "smacking" he seemed to be dreading.
This sort of talk mollified the mother.

She even looked proudly around at the clustering neighbors, for by now every denizen of Darktown had apparently been drawn to the spot, all wild to hear what had happened.
Her look was in the shape of a challenge.

It seemed to say: "Dere now, what do yuh good-for-nothin' coons think of my Brutus, after hearin' dese white boys say as how he's a real hero?
Don't any ob yuh ebber ag'in ask me why I gives him dat name.

Guess I knows my history, an' didn't I see it in him when he was a little baby?
Dar ain't another hero in dis whole place, dat's right!" She turned to Hugh again.