34 WILD 8POET8 IN THE SOUTH. 



This retort was hailed with a volley of applause, and 

 even Mike smiled at the Doctor's discomfiture. 



Scip, evidently elated with his success, continued : " I 

 knows alligator from time I picaninny. I knows alliga- 

 tor tail's good to eat. Course he sucks 'em. Alligator's 

 science varmint, and when he roars in de springtime 

 he knows what he roarin' bout ; ain't no fool, nud- 

 der, and makes speech wiser'n the judge in 'lection 

 times." 



" What does he say, Scip ?" 



" Maussa ask ole Aunty Foko what he say. She's got 

 witch roots, and she knows how to talk alligator. She 

 stay out all night in Oke'fnokee swamp, alligator neber 

 so much as looks to her. She tell me what alligator say 

 to his picaninnies." 



" Don't, maussa, ketch me tellin' bout alligator and 

 them little alligators layin' there wid ears wide open. 

 'Morrow mornin they'll be in the ribber, and ole alliga- 

 tors know all bout me." 



" Well we will stop that, by carrying them away." 

 So the little eavesdroppers were taken by the tails and 

 dropped into the nearest watercourse, and the super- 

 stitious negro looked all about him with suspicious 

 glance, rolled over to a more comfortable attitude, and 

 commenced his story : 



" You see Aunty Foko 's Guinea nigger, cum ober 

 from Cuba, but after her boy he gin out, she don't work 

 any more, and tuck to de swamp. She be older'n Csesar 

 an me, boff togedder, and her hair a'mos' white. She 



