Randall laughed pleasantly, and bowed himself out. In a moment the men in the sitting-room heard him talking to Adelaide in the entry.
"My goodness, little mistiss! A little mo' an' you'd a skeer'd me crooked—an' I ain't right straight now. I had de idee that I was to be the Boogerman, but ef you go on this-a-way, you'll be the Boogerman."
"Oho!" laughed Adelaide; "don't you know that a young lady could never be a Boogerman?"
"Well, I declare!" Randall exclaimed almost joyously; "that certainly is so in these days of tribulation. But that ain't all; I uv got a bigger Boogerman than you uv got. How is Miss Cally-Lou?"
"Oh, shucks!" replied Adelaide, "you don't have to call her miss; she ain't right white. Don't you see her standing here by me?"
"Well, suh!" exclaimed the Boogerman in the tone of one who has just made a remarkable discovery. "Ef I don't, I most does; an' when you git that close to Cally-Lou it's the same as seein' her. She don't look right well to me," said the Boogerman at a venture.
"Then you do see her," remarked Adelaide; "she hasn't been well for a day or two."
"Make her git outdoors, an' take the fresh air," suggested the Boogerman.
This suggestion seemed to meet the views of Adelaide, for she went out into the yard, crying, "Come along, Cally-Lou! Come along!"
Old Jonas stirred uneasily in his chair, "Do you know, Sanders," he said, "that my grandmother had a little mulatto girl named Cally-Lou. As I remember her, she was the smartest little thing that ever ran about on two legs. I wonder——" Old Jonas paused, and Mr. Sanders didn't give him time to straighten out his thought.