This last was for my benefit; I had not shown as much readiness to enter the gate as had my companion.
"Come right in."
So I went in. The next remark of the old man did much to put everything on an agreeable footing.
"Do you boys like peaches?"
We did like peaches, and we said so.
"Well, just wait till I pull up two or three of these plantains, an' we'll go round to the side of the house an' see if there's any on the tree.... There ... now come on."
We followed him around the corner of the house. A black cat with a white breast came running to meet his master.
"Hullo, here's Nickerdemus; I told him to watch the peaches. Did yer keep the bees away, Nickerdemus?"
Nicodemus yawned and gave every sign of having been asleep, after the manner of his kind when there is no personal advantage in keeping awake.