rong. I don't
believe they ate up that many children."

"Yes, they did too," championed Jimmy, "'cause it's in the Bible and
Miss Cecilia 'splained all 'bout it to me, and she's our Sunday-School
teacher and 'bout the bullyest 'splainer they is. Them Teddy bears ate
up 'bout a million chillens, which is all the little boys and girls two
Teddy bears can hold at a time."

"I knows a man what ain't got no hair 't all on his head," remarked
Billy; "he's a conjure-man an' me an' Wilkes Booth Lincoln been talkin'
to him ever sence we's born an' he ain't never cuss us, an' I ain't
never got eat up by no Teddy bears neither. Huccome him to be bald? He's
out in the fiel' one day a-pickin' cotton when he see a tu'key buzzard
an' he talk to her like this:

"'I say tu'key buzzard, I say,
Who shall I see unexpected today?'

"If she flop her wings three times you goin' to see yo' sweetheart, but
this-here buzzard ain't flop no wings 't all; she jes' lean over an'
th'ow up on his head an' he been bald ever sence; ev'y single hair come
out."

"Did you-all hear 'bout that 'Talian Dago that works on the section gang
eating a buzzard?" asked Frances.

"Naw," said Billy. "Did it make him sick?"

"That it did," she answered; "he sent for Doctor Sanford and tells
him, 'Me killa de big bird, me eat-a de big bird, de big bird make-a me
seek."'

"Them Dagoes 'bout the funniest talking folks they is," said Jimmy, "but
they got to talk that way 'cause it's in the Bible. They 'sputed on the
tower of Babel and the Lord say 'Confound you!' Miss Cecilia 'splained
it all to me and she's 'bout the dandiest 'splainer they is."

"You may tell your tale now, Jimmy," said Lina.

"I'm going to tell 'bout William Tell 'cause he's in the Bible," said
Jimmy. "Once they's a man name'--"

"William Tell isn't in the Bible," declared Lina.

"Yes, he is too," contended the little boy, "Miss Cecilia 'splained
it to me. You all time setting yourself up to know more'n me and Miss
Cecilia. One time they's a man name' William Tell and he had a little
boy what's the cutest kid they is and the Devil come 'long and temp'
him. Then the Lord say, 'William Tell, you and Adam and Eve can taste
everything they is in the garden 'cepting this one apple tree; you can
get all the pears and bunnanas and peaches and grapes and oranges and
plums and persimmons and scalybarks and fig leaves and 'bout a million
other kinds of fruit if you want to, but don't you