“Then, anoth’ thing,” continued Williams, in his reflective tone. “If he was all right in his haid I could stan’ it; but, jedge, he’s crazier ’n er loon. Then when he looks like er devil, an’ done skears all ma frien’s away, an’ ma chillens cain’t eat, an’ ma ole ’ooman jes’ raisin’ Cain all the time, an’ ma rent two dollehs an’ er half er month, an’ him not right in his haid, it seems like five dollehs er week——”

The judge’s stick came down sharply and suddenly upon the floor of the porch. “There,” he said, “I thought that was what you were driving at.”

Williams began swinging his head from side to side in the strange racial mannerism. “Now hol’ on a minnet, jedge,” he said, defensively. “’Tain’t like as if I didn’t ’preciate what the docteh done. ’Tain’t that. Docteh Trescott is er kind man, an’ ’tain’t like as if I didn’t ’preciate what he done; but—but——”

“But what? You are getting painful, Alek. Now tell me this: did you ever have five dollars a week regularly before in your life?”

Williams at once drew himself up with great dignity, but in the pause after that question he drooped gradually to another attitude. In the end he answered, heroically: “No, jedge, I ’ain’t. An’ ’tain’t like as if I was er-sayin’ five dollehs wasn’t er lot er money for a man like me. But, jedge, what er man oughter git fer this kinder wuk is er salary. Yesseh, jedge,” he repeated, with a great impressive gesture; “fer this kinder wuk er man oughter git er Salary.” He laid a terrible emphasis upon the final word.

The judge laughed. “I know Dr. Trescott’s mind concerning this affair, Alek; and if you are dissatisfied with your boarder, he is quite ready to move him to some other place; so, if you care to leave word with me that you are tired of the arrangement and wish it changed, he will come and take Johnson away.”

Williams scratched his head again in deep perplexity. “Five dollehs is er big price fer bo’d, but ’tain’t no big price fer the bo’d of er crazy man,” he said, finally.

“What do you think you ought to get?” asked the judge.

“Well,” answered Alek, in the manner of one deep in a balancing of the scales, “he looks like er devil, an’ done skears e’rybody, an’ ma chillens cain’t eat, an’ I cain’t sleep, an’ he ain’t right in his haid, an’——”

“You told me all those things.”

After scratching his wool, and beating his knee with his hat, and gazing off through the trees and down at the ground, Williams said, as he kicked nervously at the gravel, “Well, jedge, I think it is wuth——” He stuttered.

“Worth what?”

“Six dollehs,” answered Williams, in a desperate outburst.

The judge lay back in his great arm-chair and went through all the motions of a man laughing heartily, but he made no sound save a slight cough. Williams had been watching him with apprehension.

“Well,” said the judge, “do you call six dollars a salary?”

“No, seh,” promptly responded Williams. “’Tain’t a salary. No, ’deed! ’Tain’t a salary.” He looked with some anger upon the man who questioned his intelligence in this way.

“Well, supposing your children can’t eat?”

“I——”