and the little negro,
who was quickly helped to the balance of the bacon and coffee.

As the two munched away, the captain and Charley plied them with
questions which the hungry newcomers answered between mouthfuls.

"How was you gettin' along when that thar letter of mine reached you,
Walt," asked the captain, gravely.

"Good and bad both," said the youth, draining his cup with a sigh of
satisfaction. "Some time before I had bought up the mortgage on the
farm without saying a word to father or mother. I was selfish, I
guess, but I wanted the pleasure of their surprise." His eyes sparkled
moistly. "My! it was great. It was worth every cent, although it took
nearly every dollar of my little pile. You had ought to have been up
there to see them the morning the mortgage fell due. Their faces were
sad, enough to have made you cry. Thirty years they had worked and
lived on that farm, and I guess there is no spot on earth quite the
same to them. When mother lifted up her plate and saw the canceled
mortgage underneath, it was some time before she grasped its meaning,
and then she just broke down and cried. There were tears of joy in
father's eyes, too, and I began to feel a lump in my throat, so I just
got up and streaked it out for the barn, where I stayed until things
calmed down a bit. But I am making a long story out of how my money
went. I went to work in a store after that, but it wasn't long before
I began to run down and the doctor would have long talks with father
and mother. Then your letter came, and--well, here I am."

"And Chris, how did he happen to come?" inquired Charley.

"Trace chains couldn't have held him back when he heard I was coming
back to join you. They wouldn't give him a vacation, but they would
not keep him in the school after he began to have regular violent
fits," said Walter, dryly.

"Fits," exclaimed Charley, with a glance at the grinning ebony face,
the very picture of health. "He never had a real fit in his life."

"Maybe not, Massa Charley," admitted the vain little darky, "but,
golly, I couldn't let you chillens go off alone widout Chris to look
after you. Dey was powerful like real fits, anyway. I used to get
berry sick, too, chewin' up de soap to make de foam. Reckon dis nigger
made a martyr of hisself just to come along and look out for you-alls."

Charley turned to the captain to hide his grin. "It's your turn now,
Captain. We've all showed our colors, even t