n it for me, please, sah."

"Why, parson, you're rich," said Marcy, reaching through the fence and
"hefting" the stocking in his hand. "Is this all silver? Where did you
get so much?"

"I earn it ebery cent, an' sabe it, too," answered Toby, with some pride
in his tones. "It's all mine, but I 'fraid I aint gwine be 'lowed to
keep it, now dat de wah comin'."

"I think myself that it will bring you trouble sooner or later. You
ought never to have told anybody that you had it."

"Who? Me, sah? I never tol' de fust livin' soul in dis world. It got
round de quarter some way, I dunno how, an' some of dem fool niggahs had
to go an' blab it. Will you take keer on it for ole Toby, sah?"

"If I were going to stay in this part of the country I would do it in a
minute," answered Marcy. "But I am liable to leave here at an hour's
notice, and what should I do with it if I did not have time to take it
to your cabin? Give it to your master, and ask him to take care of it
for you."

"Oh, laws! Marse Riley secession de bigges' kind," exclaimed Toby, with
a gesture which seemed that such a proposition was not to be entertained
for a moment.

"No matter for that," replied Marcy. "He's honest, and what more do you
want? He is a kind master, the best friend you have in the world, and
you don't want to keep anything from him. Come to think of it, I
wouldn't take the money, even if I were going to stay here. Go to Mr.
Riley with it."

"You won't take keer on it for de ole niggah?" said Toby, who was very
much disappointed. "Den I reckon I'd best bury it somewhars in de
ground."

"You will surely lose it if you do that," protested Marcy. "Does Bud
Goble know you've got it? Well, if he gets after you, he'll thrash you
till you will be glad to tell where you have concealed it; but if you
can tell him that it is in Mr. Riley's hands, he'll not bother you or
the money, either. Now run along, parson. I see a uniform over there
among the trees, and I shouldn't be surprised if the corporal was inside
of it."

The old negro hastened into the woods, hiding the stocking somewhere
about his patched clothes as he went, and Marcy brought his piece to
"support arms," and paced his beat while waiting for the corporal to
come up. It wasn't the corporal, after all, but a private like himself,
who had come out to study his lesson and roll about on the grass. He did
not speak to the sentry, but he was so close to him that Marcy could not
have held a