A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 100: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“1100 _. A. MERRITT’S FANTASY go: ‘from. morning till night. One minute school if Wilf hadn’t passed me the an- e was up a palm tree identifying the swers. Ain’t he the smart one, though? leaves. Next minute he was in some Hai- Took me to Africa with him on his first ‘tian hut asking questions about native expedition, an’ we've been together ever medicine. I told him the jungles were dan-_ since. All of us been friends since kids. gerous as anything and that a Marine had Mrs. Peabody, too.” been butchered in the bush; but he paid He said it casually, about as much attention as he might’ve I'd been wondering where Jenny Louise paid a well-meaning but over-anxious came in. Friends since kids. And she’d traffic cop. admired Wilf, too, for his college degrees. Off by himself he’d go, grubbing after Why else would she have married a spin- traces of his precious Arawaks, looking dle-shaped bug hunter like Peabody? . for his miniature mummies. Meantime he Yes, and through all my official worry collected butterflies and animals. No jungle over those three, I’d been wondering some- patch was too thorny, no swamp too fe- thing else. In a close-bunched little: com- verish for Peabody when he thought he munity like an outpost in the jungle, you spotted some rare specimen. What @ learn more about people in a week than guy! Every time he picked up some new you would in a city in five years. After bug: or bat he’d come hollering into camp a week at Morne Noir under my nose, I _as if the Cacos were after him, wildly ex- learned something about Peabody and Mc- cited over his latest find. He just didn’t (Coy and Mrs. Peabody. Mrs. Peabody realize that a war was going on. It was all was crazy about McCoy. I could do to get him to carry a gun. She wore it on her sleeve. She dreamed McCoy was more responsible. He was_ it in her eyes. She said it with flowers. the taxidermist of the outfit; stuffed the Poor Jenny Louise. It was her job to specimens that Peabody fetched in. Pea- cook the meals and house-clean the tents. body declared he was a greater taxidermist She and Peabody shared the big tent, and than fukeley, and I guess Peabody was McCoy had the one next door. It was Mc- right. Coy’s tent that got the house-cleaning. It _. That Bishan was certainly an artist. was McCoy who got the first dish of stew. He could skin a pig with a penknife. His It was McCoy’s boots she’d be shining all mounted animals and birds were so life- afternoon, his shirt she’d be mending so like they looked on the point of moving, tenderly, his temperature she tried to take and he rigged up a tarantula that looked all the time. so natural it scared the Haitian camp-boy “Terrence!” The way she’d say it; like half out of his wits. a sigh. Not that she didn’t look after her That Irish lad had other accomplish- husband. But her eyes would be on Mc- ments, too. He’d hunted big game in Coy when the two returned from the jun- Africa and he was'a whacking good shot gle after dark. with a rifle, the match of any Marine in Well, I could see how it was. She’d the outpost. Nights around Peabody’s married brains, but she just couldn’t help campfire he sang a fine brogue tenor; he it about brawn. Then the three had trav- could hold his rum without getting too eled around the world together, and with- braggy, and I saw he knew how to handle out quite realizing it, Jenny Lou’s heart men—and women. had got the better of her good intentions. He kept Peabody’s black boys jumping, McCoy was handsome and smart and and: he knew how to handle Peabody. the muscles on his arms were like rip- Treated the absent-minded professor like pling mahogany. He had Irish charm; he a father. Got him to eat his meals and could sing like a County Cavin thrush; he wear his rubbers when it rained. Fetched was gallant, witty and gay. Her husband him out of the jungle after dark and was only interested in fauna and midget watched over him generally. He sort of mummies; but it was her husband’s best took a humorous, tolerant attitude toward friend who complimented her on her cook- Peabody. ing or Sunday frock. You can see how | “Sure, we was friends together as small Jenny Louise would fall for a Terrence . ee: he told me. “I’d never got through McCoy. - ;