"Now, Billy," said Jud patronizingly--"that's nonsense. Bonaparte will eat him alive in two minutes. Now, he bein' my dorg, jes' you put up the coin an' let me in on the ground floor. I'll pay it back--if we lose--" he laughed. "_If_ we lose--it's sorter like sayin' if the sun don't rise." "Dat ees so, Jud, we peek eet oop in de road. But eef we don't peek eet oop, Billy ees pusted!" "Oh," said Jud, "it's all like takin' candy from your own child." The news had spread and a crowd had gathered to see the champion dog of the Tennessee Valley eat up a monkey. All the loafers and ne'er-do-wells of Cottontown were there. The village had known no such excitement since the big mill had been built. They came up and looked sorrowfully at the monkey, as they would look in the face of the dead. But, considering that he had so short a time to live, he returned the grin with a reverence which was sacrilegious. "So han'sum--so han'sum," said Uncle Billy Caldwell, the squire. "So bright an' han'sum an' to die so young!" "It's nothin' but murder," said another. This proved too much for Ozzie B.-- "Don't--d-o-n-'t--let him kill the monkey," he cried. There was an electric flash of red as Archie B. ran around the tree and kicked the sobs back into his brother. "Just wait, Ozzie B., you fool." "For--what?" sobbed Ozzie. "For what the monkey does to Bonaparte," he shouted triumphantly. The crowd yelled derisively: "_What the monkey does to Bonaparte--that's too good?_" "Boy," said Uncle Billy kindly--"don't you know it's ag'in nachur--why, the dorg'll eat him up!" "That's rot," said Archie B. disdainfully. Then hotly: "Yes, it wus ag'in nachur when David killed Goliath--when Sampson slew the lion, and when we licked the British. Oh, it wus ag'in nachur then, but it looks mighty nach'ul now, don't it? Jes' you wait an' see what the monkey does to Bonaparte. I tell you, Uncle Billy, the Lord's on the monkey's side--can't you see it?" Uncle Billy smiled and shook his head. He was interrupted by low laughter and cheers. A villager had drawn a crude picture on a white paste-board and was showing it around. A huge dog was shaking a lifeless monkey and under it was written: "What Bonaparte Done To The Monkey!" Archie B. seized it and spat on it derisively: "Oh, well, that's the way of the worl'," he said. "God makes one wise man to see befo', an' a million fools to see afterwards." The depths of life's mysteries have never yet been sounded, and one of the wonders of it all is that one small voice praying for flowers in a wilderness of thorns may live to see them blossom at his feet. "I've seed stranger things than that," remarked Uncle Billy thoughtfully. "The boy mout be right." And now Jud and Billy were seen coming out of the store, with their hands full of gold. "Eet's robbery--eet's stealin'"--winked Billy at the crowd--"eet's like takin' it from a babe--"