Tom, sitting up in bed.

Koku paused in the doorway, bulking almost to the top of the door. His
right arm was drawn back, displaying his mighty biceps, and he poised a
ten foot spear with a copper head that he had seized from a nest of
such implements which was a decoration of the lower hall.

Had the giant ever flung that spear at poor Rad's back, half the length
of the staff might have passed through his body. Little wonder that
the colored man, having roused the giant's rage to such a pitch, had
given small consideration to the order of his going, but had gone at
once!

"You want to scare Rad out of half a year's growth?" Tom pursued
sternly, slipping out of bed and reaching for his robe and slippers.
"And he's broken that window to smithereens."

"Koku come make report, Master," said the giant.

"You go put that spear back where you found it and come up properly,"
commanded the young fellow, with difficulty hiding his amusement. "Go
on now!"

He shuffled into the bathroom while the giant disappeared. He peered
out of the broken window. It was a wonder Rad had not carried the sash
with him! The broken glass was scattered all about the roof of the
porch and the old colored man lay groaning there.

"What did you do this for, Eradicate?" demanded Tom. "You act worse
than a ten-year-old boy."

"I's done killed, Massa Tom!" groaned Rad with confidence. "I's blood
from haid to foot!"

There was a scratch on his bald crown from which a few drops of blood
flowed. But with all his terror, Eradicate had put both arms over his
head when he made his dive through the window, and he really was very
little injured.

"Come in here," repeated Tom. "Fix something over this broken window so
that I can take my bath. And then go and put something on that scratch.
Don't you know better yet, than to cross Koku when he is excited?"

"Dat crazy ol' cannibal!" spat out Rad viciously. "I'll fix him yet.
I'll pizen his rations, dat's what I'll do."

"You wouldn't be so bad as that, Rad!"

"Well, mebbe not," said the colored man, crawling in through the
bathroom window. "It would take too much pizen, anyway, to kill that
giant. Take as much as dey has to give an el'phant to kill it. Anyways,
I's bound to fix him proper some time, yet."

These quarrels between Eradicate and Koku were intermittent. They
almost always arose, too, because of the desire of the two servants to
wait upon Tom or his father. They were very jealous of