llow. As it was, standing there in his strange old
costume, his head presenting much the appearance of having been deeply
rolled in sand, his eyelids swollen, the hair hanging over his
forehead, and a dogged sullenness on his features, he presented most the
appearance of an ill-conditioned young buffalo.

"Beloved Lord," cried Tant Sannie, "how he looks! Come in, boy. Couldn't
you come and say good-day to me? Don't you want some supper?"

He said he wanted nothing, and turned his heavy eyes away from her.

"There's a ghost been seen in your father's room," said Tant Sannie. "If
you're afraid you can sleep in the kitchen."

"I will sleep in our room," said the boy slowly.

"Well, you can go now," she said; "but be up early to take the sheep.
The herd--"

"Yes, be up early, my boy," interrupted Bonaparte, smiling. "I am to
be master of this farm now; and we shall be good friends, I trust, very
good friends, if you try to do your duty, my dear boy."

Waldo turned to go, and Bonaparte, looking benignly at the candle,
stretched out one unstockinged foot, over which Waldo, looking at
nothing in particular, fell with a heavy thud upon the floor.

"Dear me! I hope you are not hurt, my boy," said Bonaparte. "You'll have
many a harder thing than that though, before you've gone through life,"
he added consolingly, as Waldo picked himself up.

The lean Hottentot laughed till the room rang again; and Tant Sannie
tittered till her sides ached.

When he had gone the little maid began to wash Bonaparte's feet.

"Oh, Lord, beloved Lord, how he did fall! I can't think of it," cried
Tant Sannie, and she laughed again. "I always did know he was not right;
but this evening any one could see it," she added, wiping the tears of
mirth from her face. "His eyes are as wild as if the devil was in them.
He never was like other children. The dear Lord knows, if he doesn't
walk alone for hours talking to himself. If you sit in the room with
him you can see his lips moving the whole time; and if you talk to him
twenty times he doesn't hear you. Daft-eyes; he's as mad as mad can be."

This repetition of the word mad conveyed meaning to Bonaparte's mind. He
left off paddling his toes in the water.

"Mad, mad? I know that kind of mad," said Bonaparte, "and I know the
thing to give for it. The front end of a little horsewhip, the tip! Nice
thing; takes it out," said Bonaparte.

The Hottentot laughed, and translated.

"No more walking abo