his clothes, and seemed to think more about
them than that his life had been in deadly peril."

"Bless yuh, honey, I ain't meanin' to do the leastest thing to dat
sweet chile. Clothes kin be boughten agin, but I never'd be able to
git anudder Brutus. But if he goes out to dat drefful mill-pond agin,
I'm feared I'll have to skin him, and dat's a fact."

So the two chums strolled on, heading for another part of the town.
Both of them had been highly edified by what they saw and heard in the
colored settlement.

"I'd like to ask you one thing, though, Thad; what were you chuckling
at while we were in that cabin that shares the honors of a wash-house
with Brutus and his wonderful collection of toys?"

"Oh! something struck me as funny, that's all, Hugh. The fact is, just
when Sarah was prophesying all those wonderful things that might be in
store for Brutus, from being a great soldier, or an eloquent parson who
could frighten people into repenting of their sins, I took stock of all
that junk the boy's gone and collected, and do you know, I was thinking
that the chances were he'd make a successful hustler in the 'rags, old
iron, old clothes' line, when he grew up."

Hugh also laughed on hearing that.

"Nobody can tell," he went on to say. "The veil of the future hides
such things from our mortal eyes, as Dominie Pettigrew said the other
Sunday. Brutus may turn out to be a wonder; and again there's a chance
of his being only an ordinary day laborer."

"Well, if he keeps on taking risks just to show off before the girls,"
observed Thad, drily, "I rather guess he won't grow up at all, but die
young. But I'll leave you here, Hugh, as I have a date with some one
for half-past four this afternoon."

"Oh! is that so?" chuckled the other; "well, go along, and don't bother
making excuses. I wouldn't have you break an appointment with Ivy for
anything."

"You're away off this time, Hugh, for it happens that it isn't Ivy
Middleton, or any other slip of a girl," Thad hastened to say.

He did not offer to explain, and the other thought he looked somewhat
mysterious; but while his curiosity may have been slightly aroused,
Hugh did not feel justified in making any further inquiries. If Thad
did not wish to tell him, it was all right; even between chums there
may be little secrets.

"I may see you later on, though," Thad added, as he was turning away;
"that is, if I'm successful in my errand."

Which remark further a