“Yes, sir.  I ain’t had much to eat to-day,” replied Hannibal cautiously.

“I can offer you food then.  What do you say to cold fish?” the judge smacked his lips to impart a relish to the idea.  “I dare swear I can find you some corn bread into the bargain.  Tea I haven’t got.  On the advice of my physician, I don’t use it.  What do you say—­shall we light a fire and warm the fish?”

“I ’low I could eat it cold.”

“No trouble in the world to start a fire.  All we got to do is to go out, and pull a few palings off the fence,” urged the judge.

“It will do all right just like it is,” said Hannibal.

“Very good, then! " cried the judge gaily, and he began to assemble the dainties he had enumerated.  “Here you are!” he cleared his throat impressively, while benignity shone from every feature of his face.  “A moment since you allowed me to think that you were solvent to the extent of fifty cents—­” Hannibal looked puzzled.  The judge dealt him a friendly blow on the back, then stood off and regarded him with a glance of great jocularity, his plump knuckles on his hips and his arms akimbo.  “I wonder”—­and his eyes assumed a speculative squint “I wonder if you could be induced to make a temporary loan of that fifty cents?  The sum involved is really such a ridiculous trifle I don’t need to point out to you the absolute moral certainty of my returning it at an early date—­say to-morrow morning; say to-morrow afternoon at the latest; say even the day after at the very outside.  Meantime, you shall be my guest.  The landlady’s son has found my notarial seal an admirable plaything—­she has had to lick the little devil twice for hooking it—­my pens and stationery are at your disposal, should you desire to communicate to absent friends; you can have the run of my library!” the judge fairly trembled in his eagerness.  It was not the loss of his money that Hannibal most feared, and the coin passed from his possession into his host’s custody.  As it dropped into the latter’s great palm he was visibly moved.  His moist, blue eyes became yet more watery, while his battered old face assumed an expression indicating deep inward satisfaction.  “Thank you, my boy!  This is one of those intrinsically trifling benefits which, conferred at the moment of acute need, touch the heart and tap the unfailing springs of human gratitude—­I must step down to the tavern—­when I return, please God, we shall know more of each other.”  While he was still speaking he had produced a jug from behind the quilt that screened his bed, and now, bareheaded, and with every indication of haste, took himself off into the night.