ney is as wild a secessionist as you ever dare be."

"'Taint so," exclaimed Bud. "I know better."

"And Dick Graham stands ready to go with his State the minute she pulls
down the old flag and runs up the new one," continued Mr. Bailey. "He
said so the other day when he came in here for a pint of goobers
[peanuts]."

"I tell ye it aint so," repeated Bud confidently. "Bein' one of the most
prominent and respected citizens of Barrington, I got a letter tellin'
me all about them chaps an' the docterings they're preachin' up. I was
told that the committee wants me to 'tend to their cases, an' I'm goin'
to do it; an' to your case too. Hear me, don't you?"

"Who wrote that letter?" inquired the storekeeper, who did not think it
necessary to answer the question.

"I don't know. There wasn't no name hitched to it."

"Then the writer was a coward," said Mr. Bailey, in a tone of contempt,
"and you ought not to pay the least attention to it. Somebody wants to
bring those boys into trouble, and hopes to use you as a tool. If you
will take advice you will mind your own business and let those students
alone. Look here, Goble," he added suddenly, "if this State goes out of
the Union, will you go with her?"

"You jest bet I will. I'll go whether she does or not."

"Will you join the army and fight for her?"

"Sartingly."

"Well, we'll see who will go first--you or I."

"You? Why, dog-gone it, you're for the Union."

"Of course I am; always was and always shall be; but as I can't control
my State, I shall have to do as she does. So you see, when you tried to
gouge me out of a pair of shoes and a dress awhile ago, you tried to rob
as good a friend of the South as you are yourself. I'll make it my
business to see some of that committee and find out whether or not they
uphold you in such doings. Now, clear out and don't bother me again."

Almost involuntarily Bud Goble and his friends turned toward the door,
and Mr. Bailey followed them, revolver in hand, to make sure that they
went without trying to "get the drop" on him. As they faced about,
"Elder Bowen's nigger Sam" glided across the porch, but they did not see
him.

We said the negro, who was alarmed by Bud Goble's fiery speech, started
for home, and so he did; but he had not made many steps before he heard
Goble's voice pitched in a high key, and prompted by curiosity, and a
desire to learn something of the nature and purposes of that company of
minute-men of whom Bu