assy."

"Yes, my boy, we'll build up your house, and give you a plenty to go
upon for a year. You shall have potatoes enough for your lifetime, if
you will show us how to come upon Guy Rivers to-night. He _is_ a bad
fellow, as you say; and we won't let him trouble you any more, if you'll
only show us where he is to be found."

"Well--I reckon I can," was the response, uttered in a confidential
whisper, and much more readily given than was the wont of the speaker.
"Chub and Guy talked together to-night, and Guy wanted Chub to go with
him into his house in Wolf's Neck. But Chub don't love the wolf, and he
don't love the Wolf's Neck, now that Miss Lucy's gone away from it. It's
a mighty dark place, the Wolf's Neck, and Chub's afear'd in the dark
places, where the moon and stars won't shine down."

"But you needn't be afraid now, little Chub. You're a good little
fellow, and we'll keep with you and follow close, and there shall be no
danger to you. We'll fight Guy Rivers for you, so that he can't hurt you
any more."

"You'll fight Guy! You! Guy kin fight to kill!"

"Yes, but we'll kill _him;_ only you show us where he is, so that we can
catch him and tie him, and he'll never trouble Chub any more."

"What! you'll tie Guy? How I'd like to see anybody tie Guy! You kain't
tie Guy. He'd break through the ropes, he would, if he on'y stretched
out his arms."

"You'll see! only show us how to find him, and we'll tie him, and we'll
build you a new house, and you shall have more potatoes and corn than
you can shake a stick at, and we'll give you a great jug of whiskey into
the bargain."

"Now will you! And a jug of whiskey too, and build a new house for
Chub's mother--and the corn, and the 'tatoes."

"All! you shall have all we promise."

"Come! come! saftly! put your feet down saftly, for Guy's got great
white owls that watch for him, and they hoot from the old tree when the
horses are coming. Saftly! saftly!"

There is an idiocy that does not lack the vulgar faculty of mere
shrewdness--that can calculate selfishly, and plan coolly--in short, can
show itself cunning, whenever it has a motive. Find the motive for the
insane and the idiotic, always, if you would see them exercise the full
extent of their little remaining wits.

Chub Williams had a sagacity of this sort. His selfishness was appealed
to, and all his faculties were on the alert. He gave directions for the
progress of the party--after his own manner, it is