Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 3 — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

_ oe THE GIFT HOUSE. meeded some money to start me orrde high road to doin’ right an’ bein’ good, an’ she donated dis little dab of dough.” “‘ Did she b’lieve all dat?” Skeeter asked. “Naw. You cain’t slick dat ole jinx. She’s a iron-jawed woman, an’ she jawed me all kinds of names. She said de white fotks had done neglected hangin’ me fer a long time. Ole maw kim blimblam when she gits good started. But she let me hab de money, an’ dat wus ail I wanted.” “Y reckin you’ll hang around de town til you git it well spent,” Skeeter remarked, remembering that Dixo had been a good customer at intervals in the past. “Naw. No use hangin’ aroun’ a used- to-wus saioon dat sells chillun an’ misses’ size in ladylike drinks. I leaves town fer- - ever,” Dixo said sadly. “My maw gived | me my walkin’ paper, an’ I ain’t even turn- in’ to look back. I sets my foots in de road an’ my feet-tracks won't never p’int but jes’ One way.” “TI hopes you hab luck,” Skeeter mur- mured. ‘“* Accawdin’ to maw, I don’t need to look fer no luck but lynchin’,” Dixo grinned. “ Dat muss hab been some session you had wid dat ole she-bd&s of de boardin’- house,’”’ Skeeter remarked. “ She fotch out a little tin box whut she had dis money in an’ turned it down- side up an’ poured all de money in my hat. She tole me dat wus de Ias’ money I would ever git offen her. *“‘ She spoke dat she didn’t hab nothin’ left but de house dat she lived in, an’ she wus gwine gib dat house to charity or some yuther noble cause when she died.” “ Give it to which?” Skeeter exclaimed. “‘ She didn’t say which,” Dixo answered. “She said she might leave it to de Shoofly ‘Chu’ch, or she might leave it to de nigger lodge, or she might leave it to de nigger lift-up sawsiety. ‘She talked so much dat a feller like me couldn/t keep up wid her. All I’m real shore of is dat I’m suttinly got all I’m ever gwine to git.” - A few minutes Jater Dixo told Skeeter good-by and started down the road toward the depot. “Ole Ginny Babe ain’t gwine live tong, 6A 369 Skeeter,” he said on departing. ‘She'll soon talk herself to death. Mebbe ef youl pay her a little mind, she’ll remember you in her will. i’m shore she won’t inherit me no more money.” . Skeeter watched the man until he disap- peared from sight down the read, the last he saw being his ragged garments fluttering in the dust stirred up by the Gulf breeze. Then Dixo’s farewell remark became pre- dominant, in Skeeter’s mind. ‘Ef Ginny Babe aims to feave her house to some noble institution, mebbe I kin git her to will it to de Nigger Uplift. I’s presi- dent of dat club of lift-uppers, an’ de proper pusson to ‘vestigate about dat.” CHAPTER II. SKEETER OF THE UPLIFT. KEETER hastened to the. home of Ginny Babe Chew and feund that vicious old woman in a state of fury. He had to listen far an hour while she relieved her mind of ali the expressions of scorn and contempt she could devise to apply to her worthless son. For a while Skeeter tried to cal her turbulent spirit by interposing kindly re- marks about Dixo. When he found this merely fanned the flame of fury, he re- versed his method and agreed with all that Ginny Babe said, adding a few choice epithets of his own. Thereupon Ginny wanted to know who he was to sit in judgment upon her wander- mg boy, and, without pausing for a reply, she told Skeeter what she thought he was. , At the conclusion of the indictment Skeeter knew that Dixo had nothing on him. — When the storm had thus swept over the ground and left a clear space for action, Skeeter brought up the matter on which he had come. “ Dixo tells me dat you wus aimin’ to leave yo’ house to some charity an’ noble institution. Now you has been pres’dunt of de Nigger Uplift Sawsiety, an’ you knows whut a noble wuck dat club does fer de po’, oppressed cullud race. I thinks it would be a noble charity ef you would gib _ yo’ home to de Uptifters when you dies.” Original fre ] aS JOO S C@ lV THE OHIO STATE | ING on