Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 18, 1925 — page 144: what you’re looking at

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

294 he was white or black. His eyes were great, black, staring orbs, as devoid of expression and intelligence as the glass eyes of a doll. The lips were swollen and parched and black in color. “ Hello, dar!” Pink said in greeting to the stranger, waving at him his “ Book of Etiquette.” The man did not answer. Except that he stopped and kept his unseeing eyes turned in their direction, he did not seem to hear. “T knows whut ails dat man,” Pink said. * He’s done been lost in dese here woods ontil he’s done parted wid his good senses. He’s done fergot how to talk. He acks like he cain’t even see no mo’.” “Slap him over de head wid dat man- ners book,” Ledora chuckled, as she fingered the shotgun still resting across her knees. ‘“He don’t look to me like he’s been raised polite.” Pink stepped from the hub of the wagon wheel and walked to the place where the man was standing. Putting his hand upon his shoulder, he pushed him gently forward to where the little campfire was burning. Sniffing the odor of the cooking food, the man uttered a little hungry whine like a puppy. “Tt don’t make no diffunce how crazy a man am,” Pink said with a grin, “ he’s al- ways got sense enough to eat an’ he always knows when he is hongry.” “ Whut’s dat muddy thing he’s totin’ in his arms?” Ledora demanded from her look- out on the wagon seat. Pink reached out and rubbed the caked mud from the package which the stranger was carrying in his arms like a baby. There was a whine of protest, but Pink announced after his inspection: “Tt’s somepin wropped up in a Canvas bag. I’s knowed a heap of men to git lost in dese here woods an’ dey all picks up somepin or ’nother an’ totes it through de whole trip, an’ takes as good keer of it as ef it wuz a dawg or a baby. Sometimes it ain’t no value a-tall an’ is heavy. Mebbe it’s a rock or a big chunk of wood, but dey don’t lose it an’ dey don’t wanter leave it go.” “Dat bag ain’t got nothin’ in it wuth ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. keepin’,” Ledora remarked. ‘Ef it had somepin in it, he would ’a’ lost dat pack- age fust. Why ain’t you read in yo’ book an’ find out how to ax him to rest his hat an’ set down an’ favor his tired foots an’ gib you somepin to eat outen his bag to he’p you make out yo’ meal? I thought you called yo’se’f bein’ raised polite!” This splatter of talk meant that the two had no conception of the desperate condi- tion of the stranger. Otherwise they would have been helpful and sympathetic in every way they could devise. Their idle and frivolous conversation came to an abrupt conclusion when the man suddenly dropped his precious bundle to the ground and sank down beside it in a dead faint. “Dar now!” Ledora.whooped as she leaped from the seat and slapped the mud of the swamp with her two big flat feet. ‘“* Whut is de properest mournin’ clothes to wear at a fun’ral? How does you tell de bereaved fambly when you don’t know whar dey is at, if any? Whut is de properest fust remark to a dead man’s widder woman? Dat is, ef he’s got a widder?”’ While Ledora was bawling these mock- ing words at her husband, she was bending over the unfortunate man trying to restore him to consciousness. Pink grabbed a bucket and trotted over to a sluggish green- scummed pool and began to bathe the fel- low’s face with water. Then he made a dis- covery. “Looky here, woman!” he bawled. “ Dis ain’t no nigger. Dis here man am white!” “ White folks git lost in dis swamp more frequent dan niggers,” Ledora replied. “ A white man ain’t got no mo’ sense dan to ramble aroun’ in dese woods all by his lone se’f. But a nigger always takes a crowd with him.” For almost an hour they worked with the man before he showed a sign of return- ing consciousness. For a much longer time they continued to bathe his hands and face, giving him trickling drops of water upon a parched and swollen tongue. ‘Then later they fed him drippings from the fat which had been fried in the skillet, slowly nourish- ing a famished body back to normal con- ditions. It was the middle of the night before EOPMICLOOKS (©)