a fac' dat de bacon we done drawed from
de oberseer won't las' de week out for my own folks, let alone giving
you some of it."

"Oh, well, I aint so sot on havin' bacon," replied Bud. "Give me two or
three of them yaller-legged chickens of yourn, an' they will do jest as
well. It's a mighty far ways back to town, an' I do despise walkin'
there in the dark," he continued, seeing that Toby hesitated. "It's
nigher to the great house, an' so I reckon I'll go up an' smoke a pipe
with Riley."

"Set down, Marse Bud," cried Toby hastily. "Set down in dat cheer an'
I'll have de things you want directly. An' say, Marse Bud, when I get
'em, will you give me dat paper?"

"Oh, yes; you can have the paper," said the visitor. And to show that he
meant what he said, he tossed it upon the nearest shakedown.

"Thank you, sah; thank you kindly," said Toby, with the mental
resolution that he would throw that tell-tale paper into the fire as
soon as the visitor took his leave. "If I see dat man agin I'll tell him
I don't want no mo' dat sort of trash to read. I'll be back in jes' a
minute."

Toby was gone a good deal longer than that, but when he returned he
brought with him two meal bags, partly filled, which he placed upon the
floor beside Bud Goble's chair. The latter thrust his arm into them, one
after the other, and found that the first contained corn meal enough to
keep him and his hungry family in hoe-cake until he could earn money
from the committee to buy more, and that there were three chickens and
about a peck of potatoes in the other.

"That's what I'm a-needin'," said he, with a satisfied chuckle. "I bid
you a kind goodnight, you an' your fambly; an' if I hear anybody talk
about takin' you out in the bresh an' lickin' on ye, I won't let 'em."

Toby stood in the door to "shoo off the dogs," and drew a long sigh of
relief when he saw his unwelcome guest disappear in the darkness.

"Dinah," said he, when he returned to the cabin, "de money you've got in
dat stockin' of yourn has got to be buried in de groun' somewhar de
first thing in de mawnin'. Ise dat skeared of having it in de house dat
I can't sleep. I thought sure dat Gobble white trash man gwine ask for
dat money."

Bud was not long in reaching home. He was so highly elated that he
seemed to be treading on air, and the distance was passed over almost
before he knew it. It was the source of great gratification to him to
learn, by actual test, that his relations wi