an' Frank hadn't come up when we did."

Willy stepped back abashed. His heart accused him and told him the
charge was true. Still he ventured one more question:

"Hadn't you better take the hens out?"

"Nor; 'tain' no use to teck nuttin' out dyah. Ef he comes to, he know
we got 'im, an' he dyahson' trouble nuttin'."

And the old man pushed to the door and fastened the iron hasp over the
strong staple. Then, as the lock had been broken, he took a large nail
from his pocket and fastened it in the staple with a stout string so
that it could not be shaken out. All the time he was working he was
talking to the boys, or rather to himself, for their benefit.

"Now, you see ef we don' find him heah in the mornin'! Willy jes' gwi'
let you get 'way, but a _man_ got you now, wha'ar' been handlin'
horses an' know how to hole 'em in the stalls. I boun' he'll have to
butt like a ram to git out dis log hen-house," he said, finally, as he
finished tying the last knot in his string, and gave the door a
vigorous rattle to test its strength.

Willy had been too much abashed at his mistake to fully appreciate all
of the witticisms over the prisoner, but Frank enjoyed them almost as
much as Unc' Balla himself.

"Now y' all go 'long to bed, an' I'll go back an' teck a little nap
myself," said he, in parting. "Ef he gits out that hen-house I'll give
you ev'y chicken I got. But he am' _gwine_ git out. A _man's_ done
fasten him up dyah."

The boys went off to bed, Willy still feeling depressed over his
ridiculous mistake. They were soon fast asleep, and if the dogs barked
again they did not hear them.

The next thing they knew, Lucy Ann, convulsed with laughter, was
telling them a story about Uncle Balla and the man in the hen-house.
They jumped up, and pulling on their clothes ran out in the yard,
thinking to see the prisoner.

Instead of doing so, they found Uncle Balla standing by the hen-house
with a comical look of mystification and chagrin; the roof had been
lifted off at one end and not only the prisoner, but every chicken was
gone!

The boys were half inclined to cry; Balla's look, however, set them to
laughing.

"Unc' Balla, you got to give me every chicken you got, 'cause you said
you would," said Willy.

"Go 'way from heah, boy. Don' pester me when I studyin' to see which
way he got out."

"You ain't never had a horse get through the roof before, have you?"
said Frank.

"Go 'way from here, I tell you," said the o