“Well, Rad, what is it?” asked Tom, with businesslike energy.
“I done heah, Massa Tom, dat yo’ all’s gwine off on a long trip once mo’. Am dat so?”
“Yes, that’s so, Rad.”
“Well, den, I’se come to ast yo’ whut I’d bettah take wif me. Shall I took warm clothes or cool clothes?”
“Well, if you were going, Rad,” answered Tom with a smile, “you’d need cool clothes, for we’re going to a sort of jungle-land. But I’m sorry to say you’re not going this trip.”
“I — — I ain’t gwine? Does yo’ mean dat yo’ all ain’t gwine to take me, Massa Tom?”
“That’s it, Rad. It isn’t any trip for you.”
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-47-
“In certain not!” broke in the voice of Koku, the giant, who entered with a big trunk Tom had sent him for. “Master want strong man like a bull. He take Koku!”
“Look heah!” spluttered Eradicate, and his eyes flashed. “Yo’ — yo’ giant yo’ — yo’ may be strong laik a bull, but ya’ ain’t got as much sense as mah mule, Boomerang! Massa Tom don’t want no sich pusson wif him. He’s gwine to take me.”
“He take me!” cried Koku, and his voice was a roar while he beat on his mighty chest with his huge fists.
Tom, seeing that the dispute was likely to be bothersome, winked at Ned and began to speak.
“I don’t believe you’d like it there, Rad — not where we’re going. It’s a bad country. Why the mosquitoes there bite holes in you — raise bumps on you as big as eggs.”
“Oh, good land!” ejaculated the old colored man. “Am dat so Massa Tom?”
“It sure is. Then there’s another kind of bug that burrows under your fingernails, and if you don’t get ‘em out, your fingers drop off.”