“I’m poisoned!” Org gargled.
“My Gawd! I’m p’isoned!” Little Bit squalled.
Simultaneously with the startling advent of the children in the dining-room, there came a scream, so shrill, so terror-fraught, so penetrating, that all the guests sprang to their feet in consternation.
From the kitchen, Dazzle Zenor’s voice sounded like a steam whistle:
“Oh, my Gawd! A alligator is tryin’ to git in dis kitchen!”
Almost instantly in the reception room there was a sound like the delivery of a ton of coal——
Skeeter Butts had fallen down-stairs!
Hopey Prophet, hearing all the commotion, started from the pantry to see what it was about; glancing across the back hall into Colonel Tom Gaitskill’s office, she beheld a strange negro man with a broad grin on his black face, hugging a Hallelujah Ham to his bosom!
She hurled herself into the dining-room among the astounded guests, her fat arms stretched up toward the ceiling, her dough-like face ashen with fright as she bawled at the top of her voice:
“Fer Gade ’lmighty’s sake, white folks! Dar’s a big nigger man in Marse Tom’s library!”