Dabney was therefore able, with little difficulty, to take for himself whatever of odd time he might require for putting his new idea into execution.

Mrs. Kinzer herself noticed the rare good sense with which her son hurried through with his dinner, and slipped away, leaving her in undisturbed possession of the table and her lady guests, and neither she nor either of the girls had a thought of following him.

If they had done so, they might have seen him draw a good-sized bundle out from under the lilac-thicket in the back yard, and hurry down through the garden.

A few moments more, and Dabney had appeared on the fence of the old cross-road leading down to the shore.  There he sat, eying one passer-by after another, till he suddenly sprang from his perch, exclaiming,—­

“That’s just the chap!  Why, they’ll fit him, and that’s more’n they ever did for me.”

Dab would probably have had to search along the coast for miles before he could have found a human being better suited to his present charitable purposes than the boy who now came so lazily down the road.

There was no doubt about his color, or that he was all over of about the same shade of black.  His old tow trowsers and calico shirt revealed the shining fact in too many places to leave room for a question, and shoes he had none.

“Dick,” said Dabney, “was you ever married?”

“Married!” exclaimed Dick, with a peal of very musical laughter, “is I married?  No.  Is you?”

“No,” replied Dabney; “but I was very near it, this morning.”

“Dat so?” asked Dick, with another show of his white teeth.  “Done ye good, den; nebber seen ye I look so nice afore.”

“You’d look nicer’n I do if you were only dressed up,” said Dab.  “Just you put on these.”

“Golly!” exclaimed the black boy.  But he seized the bundle Dab threw him, and he had it open in a twinkling.

“Any t’ing in de pockets?” he asked.

“Guess not,” said Dab; “but there’s lots of room.”

“Say dar was,” exclaimed Dick.  “But won’t dese t’ings be warm?”

It was quite likely; for the day was not a cool one, and Dick never seemed to think of getting off what he had on, before getting into his unexpected present.  Coat, vest, and trousers, they were all pulled on with more quickness than Dab had ever seen the young African display before.

“I’s much obleeged to ye, Mr. Kinzer,” said Dick very proudly, as he strutted across the road.  “On’y I dasn’t go back fru de village.”

“What’ll you do, then?” asked Dab.

“S’pose I’d better go a-fishin’,” said Dick.  “Will de fish bite?”

“Oh! the clothes won’t make any odds to them,” said Dabney.  “I must go back to the house.”

And so he did:  while Dick, on whom the cast-off garments of his white friend were really a pretty good fit, marched on down the road, feeling grander than he ever had before in all his life.