"Dere is some bery good pea to eat heah, gentlemans," they said.
The jackie-tars did not require a second invitation, but began tearing the "pods" open. When, however, they got the fluff among their teeth, and the niggers began to laugh, they soon desisted, and the darkies had to fly.
Was it love of fun or love for cash, I wonder, that was to account for the following? The John Crow or Turkey buzzard (Vultur aura) is, like all his race, one of the most filthy and disgusting of birds. But one day, as an Irish merchant skipper was about to sail, a nigger boarded him.
"I sellee you cheap," he said, "some bery good turkey."
The head of this horrid buzzard, I should tell you, is very like that of the turkey, and the nigger had plucked the bodies.
After attempting to beat the man down in his price for a minute or two, the skipper bought these "turkeys," and the nigger came on shore chuckling to himself.
What the end of the story was I cannot say, but I should have liked to see that skipper's face when the buzzards were cooked and served up.
* * * * *
In his pursuit of science—as usual under difficulties—Dr. Reikie and his young friend Jack went once upon a cruise among some small tropical islands. They took with them a nigger who assured them he was an excellent cook.
They took the man on his own recommendation. On the first day this black cook presented them with an excellent fry of sea-gull and pork. I suppose the nigger must have skinned the gulls, for if not so treated they are apt to taste somewhat peculiar.