Page:Harris Dickson--Old Reliable in Africa.djvu/89

 made one leap an' grabbed them steps. Them Rooshians was goin' to fumigate me."

"Fumigate! Huh! war dat all? White folks in Vicksburg used to fumigate nigger houses continual in time of de yaller fever."

Guinea nodded complacently, as if he were merely letting Zack run on.

"At de fust off-startin' o' de epidemic, niggers tuk on mightily, den got so dey didn't min' it. One smart Aleck of a nigger claim he knowed how to fumigate and kill skeeters too. Twarn't no trick in dat. So he shet all de do's and winders an' pasted paper over de cracks, same as de white folks done. His ole gran'ma had been tuk down wid a misery, an' couldn't git out er bed. Dat nigger 'low twuz all right, jes let her be. He say she could stick 'er head under de kivers. Den he sot fire to dem sulphur pans. Huh! never made nary skeeter cough—but dat fool nigger cost my lodge forty-six dollars to bury ole gran'ma."

Guinea pulled deep on his pipe. "That ain't no way to fumigate. They fixes yo' clock over here, fixes it good and proper. See them fingers?" Zack had been wondering how Guinea lost those three fingers. "That's what they done to me in Alexandria, right where we are going. Made me stick out my tongue and squirted a lot o' stuff down my throat with a hoss-syringe;