“And how am I to send my quails away?  That man said the charges must be paid.”

“Ah! that’s a more serious matter,” said Don, placing his hands on his hips, and looking down at the floor.

“It is all serious to me,” said David, brushing the tears from his eyes, “but I’ll work through somehow.  I’ll go home now and think about it, and if I don’t earn that money in spite of all my bad luck, it will not be because I don’t try.”

“That’s the way to talk,” said Don, giving David an encouraging slap on the back.  “That’s the sort of spirit I like.  Bert and I will see you again, perhaps this afternoon.  In the meantime we’ll talk the matter over, and if we three fellows are not smart enough to beat the two who are opposing us, we’ll know the reason why.”

David hurried out of the barn, in order to hide his tears, which every instant threatened to break forth afresh, and Don, turning to the hostler, ordered him to put the saddles on the ponies again.  “Father is down in the field,” said he, to his brother, “and it may be two or three hours before he will come to the house.  I can’t wait so long, so we’ll ride down there and talk the matter over with him.  He hasn’t forgotten that he was a boy once himself, and he will tell us just what we ought to do.”

The ponies were led out again in a few minutes, and Bert, having assisted his brother into the saddle, mounted his own nag, and the two rode down the lane toward the field.  Of course they could talk about only one thing, and that was the ill-luck that seemed to meet their friend David at every turn.  The longer Bert thought and talked of the trick that had been played upon himself and his brother, the more indignant he became; while Don, having had time to recover a little of his usual good nature, was more disposed to laugh over it.  He declared that it was the sharpest piece of business he had ever heard of, and wondered greatly that Godfrey and Dan, whom he had always believed to be as stupid as so many blocks, should have suddenly exhibited so much shrewdness.  Bert declared that it was a wicked swindle; and the earnestness with which he denounced the whole proceeding made Don laugh louder than ever.  Of course the latter did not forget that the trick which so highly amused him, had been the means of placing David in a very unpleasant situation, but still he did not think much about that, for he believed that his father would be able to make some suggestions, which, if acted upon, would straighten things out in short order.

“Well, Don, how does it seem, to find yourself in the saddle again?  You appear to enjoy the exercise, but Bert doesn’t.  He looks as though he had lost his last friend.”

This was the way General Gordon greeted his boys, when they rode up beside the stump on which he was seated, superintending the negroes who were at work in the field.  Bert brightened up at once, but replied that he thought he had good cause to look down-hearted, and with this introduction he went on and told David’s story just as the latter had told it to him and his brother.  The General listened good-naturedly, as he always did to anything his boys had to tell him, and when Bert ceased speaking, he pulled off a piece of the stump and began to whittle it with his knife.  The boys waited for him to say something, but as he did not, Bert continued: