buried it there, covering it with his hands, and rolling the log back to
its place.

[Illustration: TOBY HIDES THE MONEY.]

"Dar now," said Toby, loud enough to be overheard by the man who was
crouching in the bushes not more than twenty yards away. "Nuffin can't
find it dar 'ceptin' de hogs, an' dey can't eat it."

"That's a fact," soliloquized Goble, chuckling to himself. "But a
two-legged hog like me can eat an' wear the things it will buy. Who
keers for preachers an' storekeepers now? 'Pears like this mornin's work
is goin' to turn out all right after all; don't it to you?"

Through the rails of the fence Bud Goble watched Toby until he
disappeared in the quarter, and then he crept up to the log. In ten
minutes more old Toby's money was tightly buttoned under the breast of
his coat, and Bud, highly elated with the result of his morning's labor
was taking long strides toward his cabin.

"I aint got the dress an' shoes I promised to have for ye when I come
home," said Bud, when he burst in upon his wife, whom he found engaged
in her usual occupation--sitting in front of the fire with her elbows
upon her knees and a cob pipe between her teeth. "Old man Bailey
wouldn't trust me, but Toby wasn't so perticular. He hid this here
stockin' under a log, an' bein' afeared that the hogs might come along
an' root it up an' carry it away, I jest thought I'd take keer on it for
him," added Bud, laughing loudly at his own wit.

The woman's eyes glistened as she thrust her bony arm into the stocking
and brought out a handful of shining silver coin. She would have her
dress now in spite of old man Bailey; and as for Toby--she gave scarcely
a thought to the consternation and alarm that would almost overwhelm him
when he discovered his loss, for a field hand had no business to have a
stocking half-full of money, when white folks did not know where their
next meal was coming from. Her only fear was that Mr. Riley might
somehow learn that Bud had taken the money, and then there would be
trouble.

"You must look out for that yourself," Bud declared. "I've done my part,
an' if you can't hide the stockin' where nobody can't find it, an' keep
a still tongue in your head about our havin' it, you aint the woman I
take you for. Now give me what you think your dress'll cost, an' a
trifle more to put in bacon an' meal, an' I'll go an' get 'em."

His wife complying with the request, Bud hung his rifle upon its hooks
over the fireplace and