favorite of Kingsley and when the
superintendent saw him, scared and panting, his tongue half out,
with Jud Carpenter's hand still in his collar, he motioned to Jud to
turn him loose.

"Uh--uh--" grunted Jud "--he will bolt sho!"

Kingsley noticed that Bud's head was bound with a cloth.

"What's the matter, Bud?" he asked kindly.

The slubber never spoke, but glanced at his wife, who stood glaring
at him. Then she broke out in a thin, drawling, daring, poor-white
voice--a ring of impertinence and even a challenge in it:

"I'll tell you'uns what's the matter with Bud. Bud Billings is got
what most men needs when they begin to raise sand about their vittels
for nothin'. I've busted a plate over his head."

She struck an attitude before Kingsley which plainly indicated that
she might break another one. It was also an attitude which asked:
"What are you going to do about it?"

Bud nodded emphatically--a nod that spoke more than words. It was a
positive, unanimous assertion on his part that the plate had been
broken there.

"Ne'ow, Mister Kingsley, you know yo'se'f that Bud is mighty slow
mouthed--he don't talk much an' I have to do his talkin' fur him.
Ne'ow Bud don't intend for to be so mean"--she added a little
softer--"but every month about the full of the moon, Bud seems to
think somehow that it is about time fur him to make a fool of hisse'f
again. He wouldn't say nothin' fur a month--he is quiet as a lam' an'
works steady as a clock--then all to once the fool spell 'ud hit him
an' then some crockery 'ud have to be wasted.

"They ain't no reason for it, Mister Kingsley--Bud cyant sho' the
rappin' of yo' finger fur havin' sech spells along towards the full
of the moon. Bud cyant tell you why, Mister Kingsley, to save his
soul--'cept that he jes' thinks he's got to do it an' put me to the
expense of bustin' crockery.

"I stood it mighty nigh two years arter Bud and me was spliced,
thinkin' maybe it war ther bed-bugs a-bitin' Bud, long towards the
full of the moon. So I watched that pint an' killed 'em all long
towards the first quarter with quicksilver an' the white of an egg.
Wal, Bud never sed a word all that month. He never opened his mouth
an' he acted jes' lak a puf'fec' gentleman an' a dutiful dotin'
husband--(Bud wiped away a tear)--until the time come for the fool
spell to hit 'im, an 'all to once you never seed sech a fool spell
hit a man befo'.

"What you reckin' Bud done, Mister Kingsley? Bud B