Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

“atter we gits Ses: I ain’t givin’ nothin’ to ~ nobody an’ nobody’ s credick ain’t wuckin’, _ but I promises dat eve’y cullud brudder ‘Wears one of my suits when he hears whut —— eS I offers.” They walked slowly back to town. Whip- -__ poorwills called in the woods with such sim- —_ larity of tone that they seemed to be fol- lowed for miles by just one vociferous bird. A black wolf galloped out of the marsh grass and came toward them with the easy familiarity of a dog, then sniffed contempt- - _wuously, leaped a pool of water and barked ~~ at them from a distant knoll as they passed. -» A buzzard floundered awkwardly along a = — = wines and rose clumsily upon its wings—indicat- = ing where the wolf had made a kill. All -_ ef which was the occasion of heap big talk = = Ba the four colored people. ___ When they arrived, Tickfall had drowsed im the sun for hours. A little incident woke it up. A sleeping negro in a buggy drove ~— @ sleepy mule down the street to where a Sleeping cow dozed im the center of Tick- _ als main thoroughfare. The front wheel ~ -ef the buggy passed over the cow’s rump. - ‘The cow woke up and got up—rump first— the buggy tipped and the negro fell out and went down—the same way. ‘The buggy turned over. The mule SX stopped. Then the mule looked around and ~_ gaw the shape the buggy was in. He had ~__ fever seen a thing like that hitched to him before, so with a bawl of fright he ran away from there. Several sleeping animals, ~~ aroused by the shouting and the tumult, —___proke loose from their hitching posts and 2S started after the runaway. - At the moment of greatest excitement, a giant negro, black as coal-tar, stood in an empty farm wagon and drove two young mules out of an alley into the highway down which the frightened animals were -yunning. One hand held the lines; with the other, he had rolled a cigarette and was -__ just raising it to his lips to wet the paper — with his tongue. His nervous young mules - felt the urge to flight in the general panic. Their young feet beat a resounding tattoo upon the dirt road. But the giant black - was undisturbed. He held the quivering animals in their tracks by the grip of his ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. _ woodsy path, bobbing its ugly red head, mighty arm upon the lines, and with a slid- ing motion of his left hand, licked the paper of his cigarette. “Qh, you, Hitchie!” Figger Bush whooped admiringly. “ You is de big ripe blackberry of Tickfall!” The driver bowed his acknowledgment of the adulation, placed his cigarette be- tween his lips, flicked the head of a match into flame with his thumbnail, and drove on, followed by a thin gray trail of smoke. “Who in de name of mud is dat?” Jim Golly demanded, “ Dat’s Hitch Diamond,” Pap Curtain told him. ‘‘ He’s gran’ exalted Head Chop- per of de Nights of Darkness lodge.” I. ““Bruppers, I offers de goodest bargain in clothes dat ever wus knowed in Tick- fall,” Jim Golly announced smoothly as he faced the assembled members of the Nights of Darkness lodge. “I axes you to answer me dis question: kin you buy a whole suit fer fo’ dollars an’ fo’ bits in any sto’ in dis town?” ~ “ Naw, suh!” “Dat’s whar I shines wid my bargain, u Golly smiled. “Fer de mere an’ simple sum of fo’ dollars an’ fifty cents, I rigs you out wid a plum’ new suit apiece fer each so dat yo’ lodge kin hab a proper regalia.” With a dramatie gesture, he opened his big book of samples and holding it so that it rested upon the table and was visible to the crowd of men, he said: “ I now invites you to perspect dese here samples, seleck yo’ favoryte colors, an’ gib me yo’ measures.” “Gib us a leetle mo’ talk about de money prices,” Skeeter Butts requested. “De terms is simple,” Jim Golley re- pled. ‘ You selecks de kind of clothes you wants. You bestows me wid de sum of two dollars per each. You gives me yo’ measures, so I'll know yo’ shape an’ you’ size. I sends de ordah to Saint Louee wid de fust payment of two dollars per each. When de clothes comes, I delivers ’em out, collecks two dollars an’ fifty cents per mem-_ ber, an’ eve’body gits satisfaction.” “ I moves we takes him up,” Figger Bush — oO Eomicbooks.