Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

Gx ye am” . ) ry ‘ W Y ne \G PD _) eS 4i¢ a) By E. INK DUCK and his wife, Ledora Duck, were driving through the Lit- tle Moccasin Swamp on their way to Tickfall. It was a difficult journey, for they traversed that great jungle on a road so heavily overgrown with brush that they followed a “ trail”’; and the trail was not on the ground at their feet nor blazed upon the trees. They located the road only by noting that above their he&ds the limbs of the trees did not interlock, indicating that some of the timber had been cut out for the passage of vehicles. As they journeyed, Pink Duck was labo- riously reading a book. It was a volume he had cherished for many days, and he had kept this book at hand after he had transferred all his household goods from his rude mud hut to his dilapidated wagon to move his earthly possessions to town. “ Dis here is a good book, Ledora,” Pink averred for the thousandth time, as the fat sun-bonneted wife tried to precipitate him from his seat by colliding with a vine- covered stump to the menace of the front wheel. “ Huh!” Ledora grunted. K. MEANS “It say words like dis:” Pink declared, reading slowly and giving an Ethiopian pronunciation to his words. “ ‘ Eve’y day people judge us by whut we do an’ say.’ ” ‘Dar, now!” Ledora snorted. “ Dat’s how come I proclamate so frequent dat you is de low-downest, no-’countest nigger—” “Shut up, Ledora!” Pink commanded. “You done got off de subjeck. Listen: ‘ Dey carry away wid dem an im-pres-sion of us as ill-bred or well-bred.’ ” “You ain’t bred up no way,” Ledora re- marked. ‘“ You is pure scrub.” ““* Sometimes it is a mis-ta-ken im-pres- sion,’’’ Pink read on, “ ‘ because of little un-sus-pec-ted blunders, we are mis-jud-ged, under-es-ti-ma-ted.’ ” “Git up here, mule!’’ Ledora bawled. ‘Now dis book is right,” Pink declared, as he diverted his attention from its pages while Ledora and the mule struggled with a mess of slick, miry “ gumbo” in their way. “ Me, I wuz raised polite. My maw learnt me. ‘ Take off yo’ hat!’ Say, ‘ Yes’m,’ ‘ Yessuh,’ say, ‘ ’Scuse me, please!’ Dem wuz advices I got. My maw raised me.” ‘“My maw raised me,” Ledora snapped. 292 COPNICLOOOKS (E@)