Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

162 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. The author is happiest when he is laughing with the colored folk, for he knows as no other writer knows their quaint superstitions, their spontaneous gayeties, their religious emotionalism, their stalwart loyalties—all the phases of their happy-go- lucky lives. If Buckety does not tickle your ribs with ready laughter, if the Rev. Vinegar Atts, Figger Bush, Pap Curtain, Dee Bester, and Skeeter Butts do not ring true, then negro life will never be revealed in print. And as for the white people, grown-ups, growing ups, and just started, you'll find these same people in every town. But may you never encounter, even in dreams, that sinister skulker, the Swamp Cat! In Tickfall Mr. Means has created a Southern village that is as palpably real as any that may be found on a large scale map. And he has done it, not with the lengthy, laborious description of the prosy realist, but with the light, brief touches of one who knows the soul of the place. All the salient features of Tickfall are there. You know that town, but how Mr. Means has revealed it to you without interrupt- ing the swift, gripping course of the story is something only he can tell you. His is the real South, a South teeming with action, adventure, comedy, under a deceptive cloak of humdrum, easy-going existence. And as you read, his whimsical magic will translate you, body and mind, to Tickfall, you’ll act, not read, the happenings that began by the old town well. CHAPTER LI. —AND A MONKEY. monkey. [ began with two dogs, two boys, and a The star in the village comedy was the monkey. Facing a dog, he stood at the foot of a telephone pole, snarling his con- tempt in simian language, emphasizing his speech by certain strikingly human ges- tures which indicated that in his estimation a dog was a dog and that was all there was to him. The dog resented this and promptly rushed to battle. But the organ grinder’s pet was not there to fight. He climbed up the telephone pole and walked along the wires and climbed down the next pole that he came to, while the dog stood insanely barking up the first pole he had climbed. At the foot of the other pole the monkey stood, surveying his assailant with an atti- tude of contempt only comparable to the action of the ill-bred boy who puts his thumb to his nose and twiddles his fingers. The frantic dog ran across the. intervening space, the monkey shinned up the pole’a fraction of a second in advance of the ca- nine’s snapping teeth, and then walked along the wire and climbed down the other pole to repeat the performance, while the dog stood clawing at the base of the pole he had just climbed, searching his soul for sounds to express his impotence and his fury. This was not a new thing. Every dog in Tickfall had been annoyed by this mon- key’s capers. While the dog was rushing from his pole to make another attack upon his tormentor, unexpected canine reénforce- ments arrived. A cur sneaked around a corner in a rear attack. The monkey, taken by surprise, was caught between two poles, and was compelled to flee across the street with both dogs in hot pursuit. A crowd had collected to watch the old familiar comedy. A white boy and a negro boy, owners of the two dogs, were ki-yi-ing and earnestly hoping for the monkey’s ex- termination. The little animal sprang upon the curb of the old town well. The two dogs plunged at him, snapping their jaws within an inch of his face. Involuntarily he leaped backward and fell into the well! He struck the water with a loud spat, uttered a fright- ened squall, received loud applause from the Tickfall loafers, and, fortunately, found a friend. A tall young man named Manse Verdell ran to the well curb and began to lower a bucket suspended on a chain. The mon- key did not wait to be drawn up, but climbed the chain and leaped out, standing again upon the well curb. He shivered, shook himself vigorously, slapped his hands across his breast in a perfect imitation of a CORNICGLOO SJ (C@