“Oh, good land, Massa Tom! Am dat a fact?”
“It sure is. I don’t want to see those things happen to you, Rad.”
Slowly the old colored man shook his head.
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“I don’t mahse’f,” he said. “I — — I guess I won’t go.”
Eradicate did not stop to ask how Tom and Ned proposed to combat these two species of insects.
But there remained Koku to dispose of, and he stood smiling broadly as Eradicate shuffled of.
“Me no ‘fraid bugs,” said the giant.
“No,” said Tom, with a look at Ned, for he did not want to take the big man on the trip for various reasons. “No, maybe not, Koku. Your skin is pretty tough. But I understand there are deep pools of water in the land where we are going, and in them lives a fish that has a hide like an alligator and a jaw like a shark. If you fall in it’s all up with you.”
“Dat true, Master Tom?” and Koku’s voice trembled.
“Well, I’ve never seen such a fish, I’m sure, but the natives tell about it.”
Koku seemed to be considering the matter. Strange as it may seem, the giant, though afraid of nothing human and brave when it came to a hand-to-claw argument with a wild animal, had a very great fear of the water and the unseen life within it. Even a little fresh-water crab in a brook was enough to send him shrieking to shore. So when Tom told of this curious fish,
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which many natives of Central America firmly believe in, the giant took thought with himself. Finally, he gave a sigh and said:
“Me stay home and keep bad mans out of master’s shop.”