k knew ma, and bein' disorderly himself, didn't care what he did, or
whether he finished anything. So he kept saying, "Yes'm," "Yes'm," and
workin' away. So every time Dick got near us, we'd talk to him and get
him to tell us about his father which was a slave, or about Kentucky.
Little Billie was playin' near us, for Mitch was makin' him a little
onion bed, and Dick was ridin' Little Billie on his shoulder, and he was
as gay as a jay-bird and singin'. One of his songs was:

Oh, said a wood-pecker settin' on a tree,
I once courted a fair ladee.
She proved fickle and from me fled,
And ever since then my head's been red.

And "Babylon is Fallin'" was another of his songs, and "Angel Gabriel."
Mitch would rather be around where Nigger Dick was than any one. He
almost laughed himself sick that mornin'.

Well, we told Nigger Dick about catchin' Doc Lyon; and we took him
around to where I had been let down by the sheet, and showed him how I
had run and jumped the fence to get away. Nigger Dick began to act
awful mysterious and say, "You can't fool this nigger," and he kept
goin' back and forth from the window to the fence, lookin' at the
ground. And by and by he went and asked ma if he could go down town. He
wanted to see my pa about somethin'. So he went off, and Mitch and I
went on makin' garden, till ma came and set us to work buildin' a flower
bed. That was one trouble with ma, you no sooner got started on one
thing than she changed her mind and wanted you to do somethin' else.
"Never mind," said Mitch, "we're havin' fun, whatever it is. But what do
you suppose your pa meant by sayin' that that hill above the Old Salem
mill had given up more treasure than any place in the world? Who got it?
Now pa says that Linkern lived there onct and kept store, but he didn't
get it. He was so poor that he used to have welts on his legs from
wearin' the same buckskin pants. That's what pa says. So if he didn't
get the treasure, who did? It couldn't be Mr. Branson, for he got his
start raisin' onions and peddlin' 'em here in town. All the same, your
pa must have meant somethin'. But I tell you, Skeet, we've lost this
Saturday, and it's too far to go after school. So I say let's go out
there next Saturday--start early and prospect around as they say--look
the land over. And keep goin' till we clean the place up, like we did
Montgomery's woods."

Just then pa and Nigger Dick drove up. Pa had a shoe in hi