The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle | Page 7

have got to HUMP to catch the widow.
"Now your tie is something like," declared Sam, after a wink from Tom.
"It outshines everything I ever saw."
"I'se got to be a going," answered Aleck. "Much obliged."
"Now, Aleck, hump yourself and you'll get the widow sure along with
her fourteen children."
"She ain't got but two children," returned the colored man, and hurried
away. His appearance, with the hump on his back and the sign, caused
both the Rovers to burst out laughing.
"Come on, I've got to see the end of this," said Tom, and led the way by
a side path to the Widow Taylor's cottage. This was a short cut, but
Aleck would not take it, because of the briar bushes and the dust. As
the boys were in their knockaround suits they did not mind this.
The widow's cottage was a tumbled down affair on a side street of
Dexter's Corners. A stovepipe stuck out of a back window, and the
front door lacked the lower hinge. In the front yard the weeds were
several feet high.
"I don't see why Aleck wants to come and see such a person as this,"
observed Sam. "She may be pretty, as colored widows go, but she is
certainly lazy and shiftless."
"Yes, and she has more than two children and I know it. Why, once I
came past here and I saw her with at least seven or eight."
When the boys came up they saw several colored children hurrying
away from the house. As they did this the widow came to the door and
called after them:
"Now, Arabella, go to the cemetery, jest as I tole yo', an' stay thar!"

"I ain't gwine to stay long," answered Arabella.
"You stay an hour or two," answered the widow. "To morrow, I'll give
yo' money fer lolly pops."
"What is she sending the children to the cemetery for?" asked Tom, in a
whisper.
"Maybe to keep 'em quiet," answered Sam, with a grin.
"Must be wanting to keep them out of Aleck's way."
At that moment the figure of a tall, lanky colored man came down a
side street. The man entered the widow's cottage and received a warm
welcome.
"Glad to see you, Mistah Thomas. Hopes yo' is feelin' fine this ebenin',"
said the widow graciously.
"I'se come fo' to make yo' an offah," said Mr. Thomas. "Yo' said yo'
would mahrry me soon as I had a job. Well, I'se got de job now."
"Is it a steady job?"
"Yes, at de stone quarry dribin' a stone wagon."
"How much yo' gits a week, Peter?"
"Twelve dollahs," was the proud answer.
"Den I closes wid you," said the widow, and allowed the suitor to
embrace her.
Just then Aleck came in sight. As he saw the couple through the open
door he straightened up.
"Maybe yo' didn't look fo' me around, Mrs. Taylor," he said, stiffly.
"Oh, Yes, I did, Mistah Pop," she said, sweetly. "But yo' see--I-- dat

is--" She stopped short. "Wot's dat?" she cried.
"Wot?"
"Dat hump on yo' back?"
"Ain't no hump on my back," answered Aleck.
"Suah da is."
"He's got a sign on, too," put in Peter Thomas. "Look wot it reads, 'I
hab got to hump to cotch de widow.' Hah! hah! hah! Dot's a good one."
"Yo' needn't hump yo'self to cotch me," cried the widow, wrathfully.
"I'se engaged to Mistah Thomas." And she smiled on the individual in
question.
Crestfallen and bewildered, Aleck felt of his back and took off his coat.
He squeezed the rubber rabbit so hard that it exploded with a bang,
scaring himself and the others.
"Dat's a trick on me!" roared the Rover's man, and tore the rabbit from
his coat. "Dem boys did dat!"
"I can't see yo' to night, or any udder night, Mistah Pop," said the
widow. "I'se engaged to Mistah Thomas."
"Den good night," growled Aleck, and turning on his heel he started for
home.
Tom and Sam saw that he was angry, yet they had to roar at the scene
presented. They wondered what Aleck would say when he got back to
the farm.
"We have got to square ourselves," said Tom.
"How are you going to do it?"
"Oh, we'll do it somehow."

They took the short cut, but so did Aleck, and consequently all three
soon met.
"Yo' played dat joke yo' can't go fo' to deny it!" cried the colored man.
"We are not going to deny it, Aleck," said Tom. "But it was no joke.
We did it for your good."
"Huh!"
"We certainly did," put in Sam. "Why, Aleck, we can't bear to think of
your getting married and leaving us."
"Huh!"
"We want you to stay with us," said Tom. "Besides, that widow