Part 3 (2/2)
”I'se gwine to make a little call, dat's all.”
”He's after the widow Taylor,” put in Tom. ”He knows she's got ten thousand or so in the bank.”
”Ma.s.sa Tom, you dun quit yo' foolin',” expostulated Aleck.
”If you are going to make a society call you want your necktie on straight,” said Sam. ”It's a fine tie, but it's no good the way you have it tied. Here, let me fix it,” and he pulled the tie loose.
”I did hab a lot ob trubble wid dat tie,” agreed the colored man.
”It's too far around,” went on Sam, and gave the tie a jerk, first one way and another. Then he began to tie it, shoving Aleck again as he did so.
In the meantime Tom had gotten behind the colored man and was blowing up the rubber rabbit. As the rubber expanded Aleck's coat went up with it, until it looked as if the man was humpbacked. Then Tom fastened the hose, so the wind could not get out of it. Next the youth brought out a bit of chalk and in big letters wrote on the black coat as follows:
_I have got to_ HUMP _to catch the_ _widow._
”Now your tie is something like,” declared Sam, after a wink from Tom.
”It outs.h.i.+nes everything I ever saw.”
”I'se got to be a-going,” answered Aleck. ”Much obliged.”
”Now, Aleck, hump yourself and you'll get the widow sure--along with her fourteen children.”
”She ain't got but two children,” returned the colored man, and hurried away. His appearance, with the hump on his back and the sign, caused both the Rovers to burst out laughing.
”Come on, I've got to see the end of this,” said Tom, and led the way by a side path to the Widow Taylor's cottage. This was a short cut, but Aleck would not take it, because of the briar bushes and the dust. As the boys were in their knockaround suits they did not mind this.
The widow's cottage was a tumbled-down affair on a side street of Dexter's Corners. A stovepipe stuck out of a back window, and the front door lacked the lower hinge. In the front yard the weeds were several feet high.
”I don't see why Aleck wants to come and see such a person as this,”
observed Sam. ”She may be pretty, as colored widows go, but she is certainly lazy and s.h.i.+ftless.”
”Yes, and she has more than two children and I know it. Why, once I came past here and I saw her with at least seven or eight.”
When the boys came up they saw several colored children hurrying away from the house. As they did this the widow came to the door and called after them:
”Now, Arabella, go to the cemetery, jest as I tole yo', an' stay thar!”
”I ain't gwine to stay long,” answered Arabella.
”You stay an hour or two,” answered the widow. ”To-morrow, I'll give yo' money fer lolly-pops.”
”What is she sending the children to the cemetery for?” asked Tom, in a whisper.
”Maybe to keep 'em quiet,” answered Sam, with a grin.
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