388 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 
\June, 
clothes with his master, and sent him away out of the 
house ; the master then blacked his face, and made 
himself as much like the old nigger as he could. On 
the evening appointed Death came. ‘ Good evening, 
Comadre,’ said he ; ‘ where is my compadre ? — I’m 
obliged to take him with me.’ ‘ Oh ! Compadre,’ said 
she, 'he didn’t at aU expect you, and is gone on some 
business into the village, and won’t be back till late.’ 
'Now I’m in a pretty mess,’ said Death ; ' I did not ex- 
pect my compadre would have treated me so; it’s very 
ungentlemanly of him to get me into this scrape after all 
I’ve done for him. However, I must take somebody ; — 
who is there in the house?’ The woman was rather 
alarmed at this question, for she expected he would im- 
mediately have started off to the village in search of her 
husband : however, she considered it best to be civil,' 
so replied, 'There’s only our old nigger, that’s in the 
kitchen, getting supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, 
and take a bit, and then perhaps my husband will be in ; 
I’m very sorry he should give you so much trouble.’ 
' No, I can’t stay,’ said Death ; ' I’ve got a long way to 
go, and must take somebody, so let’s see if the old nig- 
ger will do ? ’ and he walked into the kitchen, where the 
man was pretending to be busily engaged over the fire. 
' Well, if Compadre won’t come, I suppose I must take 
the old nigger,’ said Death ; and before the wife could 
speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell 
her husband a corpse. 
"So you see,” said the old woman to me, " when a 
man’s time is come he must go : neither doctors nor 
anything else can stop him, and you can’t cheat Death 
! 
