' lost it, Archie B., lost
it, my son. Oh, I mus' teach you how sinful it is to gamble."

Archie B. replied by running his hand deep down into his pocket and
bringing up a handful of gold--five eagles!

His father dropped the switches and stared. His mother sat down
suddenly in a chair and Patsy reached out, took it and counted it
deliberately:--

"One--two--three--fo'--five--an' all gold--my gracious, Maw!"

"That's jes' ha'f of it," said Archie B. indifferently. "I gave the
old Bishop five of 'em--fur--charity. Here's his note."

The Deacon read it and rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "That's a
different thing," he said after a while. "Entirely different
proposition, my son."

"Yes, it 'pears to be," said his mother counting the gold again.
"We'll jes' keep three of 'em, Archie B. They'll come in handy this
winter."

"Put on yo' coat, my son," said the Deacon gently.

"Patsy, fetch him in the hot waffles an' syrup--the lad 'pears to be
a leetle tired," said his mother.

"How many whippings did you git, Archie B.?" whispered his brother as
Archie B., after entertaining the family for an hour, all about the
great fight, crawled into bed: "I got three," went on Ozzie B.
"Triggers fust, then paw, then maw."

"None," said Archie B., as he put his two pieces of gold under his
pillow.

"I can't see why that was," wailed Ozzie B. "I done nothin'
an'--an'--got all--all--the--lickin'!"

"You jes' reaped my whirlwind," sneered his brother--"All fools do!"

But later he felt so sorry for poor Ozzie B. because he could not lie
on his back at all, that he gave him one of his beautiful coins to go
to sleep.

CHAPTER XXVI

BEN BUTLER'S LAST RACE

It was the last afternoon of the fair, and the great race was to come
off at three o'clock.

There is nothing so typical as a fair in the Tennessee Valley. It is
the one time in the year when everybody meets everybody else. Besides
being the harvest time of crops, of friendships, of happy interchange
of thought and feeling, it is also the harvest time of perfected
horseflesh.

The forenoon had been given to social intercourse, the display of
livestock, the exhibits of deft women fingers, of housewife skill, of
the tradesman, of the merchant, of cotton--cotton, in every form and
shape.

At noon, under the trees, lunch had been spread--a bountiful lunch,
spreading as it did from the soft grass of one tree to that of
another--as family after family spread their