don't you? Well, I don't see how you are going to get it, for if you
fool with any of the students the others will jump on you, sure."

"Not if we whop the traitors," exclaimed Bud.

"Yes, they will. They are as clannish as a drove of wild hogs, and if
one squeals the others will rush to his assistance. You had better take
my advice and pocket the insult Rodney and Dick put upon you when they
sent you to look for that underground railroad. Now I think I will go to
the telegraph office and see if there is anything new from Montgomery.
Keep us posted, for we like to know who our enemies are."

"You bet I will," soliloquized Bud as he turned away, jingling the
silver pieces in his pocket as he went. "But I won't let them two boys
get off easy, nuther. Six hundred niggers on one plantation. They're
wuth eight hundred dollars, I reckon, take 'em big _an_' little, an'
that would make 'em all wuth--"

When Bud reached this point he stopped and shook his head. Finding the
value of six hundred slaves at an average price of eight hundred dollars
was too much arithmetic for him. He was obliged to content himself with
the knowledge that Rodney's father was worth a good deal of money, and
that Rodney would give five hundred and perhaps a thousand dollars,
rather than be whipped as if he were a black boy. A Southern youngster,
no matter how disobedient and unruly he might be, considered it a
disgrace to be whipped, and the school-teacher who ventured upon
corporal punishment was likely to get himself into serious difficulty.
While Bud was turning these things over in his mind, he came within
sight of Elder Bowen's house.

"Riley don't care what I do to this chap," said he to himself. "That
means that I can be as sassy as I please, an' mebbe I'll make up my mind
that I'd better lick him before I leave. I'll wait an' see how he acts
when I ax him for some of the things he's got into his smokehouse. Tell
your moster I want to see him directly," he added, addressing a little
black boy who was playing at the foot of the steps that led to the
porch.

The pickaninny disappeared, but in a few minutes returned with the
announcement--

"Marse Joe workin' in de ga'den, an' he say if you want see him you best
come wha' he is."

"That's an insult that I won't put up with from no babolitionist,"
declared Bud, who was about as angry as he could hold; and one would
have thought, from the vicious way he settled his rifle on his shoulder
a