Page:Harris Dickson--Old Reliable in Africa.djvu/265

 each negro sets his mark at five dollars, or ten or twenty."

"Sets his mark?" queried McDonald the inquisitive; "what's that?"

"The negro wants something, and works until he gets money enough to buy it—then he quits. For instance, a picker may set his mark at ten dollars. If I'm paying fifty cents a hundred for picking, he'll pick two thousand pounds and get his ten dollars. But if I should pay ten dollars a hundred, he would only pick one hundred."

"Remarkable! Remarkable!" McDonald squirmed under a situation that he could not understand—nor combat.

"No, it is not remarkable"; the Colonel leaned back in his deep chair, while McDonald leaned forward and listened. "For it's just the same the world over. There isn't a smithereen of difference between this naked negro of the Nile and you—or me. None of us labor beyond our needs. The distinction lies in the extent of those needs. Your necessities are not confined to food and a warm place to sleep. You have ambitions, which he has not; you thirst for reputation, which he does not; you have a thousand necessities of which the black man has never dreamed. Two shillings a day would feed you, and cover your head at night. Then, why are you out here in the Sudan? You work to provide for your