k in this world. Is Billy
lookin' comf'table?"

Billy answered for himself by a most doleful bray. Indeed, he was
resenting the lads' endeavors to remove his harness. Jim fancied he
could fix it better for the purpose of hauling the Water Lily, but the
animal objected, because that harness had never been taken from his
back since it was put on early in the spring. Then the more ambitious
of the negroes who managed the Colonel's truck-farm had equipped Billy
for ploughing the melon-patch. After each day's work the beast had
seemed tired and the gentleman-farmer had suggested:

"Don't fret him takin' it off. You'll only have to put it on again,
to-morrow."

This saved labor and suited all around; and Billy was trying to
explain to these tormenting lads how ill-at-ease and undressed he
would feel, if he were stripped of his regalia.

"Sounds like he was in trouble, poor Billy. But, of course, he is.
Everybody is. You are. If you had that buried--Pshaw! What's the use!
You ain't, you cayn't, nobody could find it, else things wouldn't
have happened the way they did; and your great-grandfather wouldn't
have forgot where he buried it; and it wouldn't have gone out the
family; and since your great-grandfather's brother married my
great-grandmother's sister we'd all have shared and shared alike. It's
sad to think any man would be so careless for his descendants as to go
and do what your great-grandfather's brother did and then forget it.
But--it's the way things always go in this lop-sided world. Ah! um."

The Colonel's breakfast had made him more talkative than had seemed
possible and because she could do no better for her own amusement,
Dorothy inquired:

"Tell me the story of our great-grand-folks and what they buried.
Please. It would be interesting, I think."

"Very well, child, I'll try. But just keep an eye on Billy. Is he
comf'table? I don't ask if he's happy. He isn't. Nobody is."

"Beg pardon, but you are mistaken about that mule. No matter what the
boys and Captain Hurry try to do with him, he manages to get his nose
back to the ground again and eat--Why, he hasn't really stopped eating
one full minute since he came. That makes me think. Will the man who
owns that grass like to have him graze it that way? Isn't grass really
hay? Don't they sell hay up home at Baltimore? Won't it cost a great
deal to let Billy do that, if hay is worth much?"

"You ask as many questions as--as I've heard your folks always do.