The kid marched straight up to the steps and up onto the porch and pushed the button. “That’s one thing you have to learn when you’re a scout,” he called down, “not to be afraid.”
All of a sudden the front door opened and, g-o-o-d night, magnolia! There was the biggest colored man I ever saw. He was about six feet tall and eight feet in circumference, or maybe it was the other way round, I don’t know which. His face was so black that it would make a blackboard look pale. You could have written on that man’s face with chalk, dandy. He had on a kind of a uniform with brass buttons and his elbows stuck out on each side of him.
“Good night,” Hunt said; “that’s one mountain we didn’t figure on.”
I said, “I guess that’s one of the Black Hills. I wonder how it got out of my geography.”
Pee-wee looked like a kewpie doll in front of that man. The man just glared at him and then he said, good and loud, “Whatchue want here, you?”
Pee-wee said, “We—eh—we—does Mr. Smith live here—please?”
The big man said, “No, he don’t. Whatchue want here?” He just glared down at the poor kid as if he were going to eat him.
Pee-wee said, kind of hesitating, “If—if we’d be willing to wipe our feet—maybe—would you be willing to let us go through this house—maybe?”
The big man glared down at him and then he said in a great big deep voice, “Looker here, you youngster! You want to get arrested, do you? You clear out of this! Whatchue mean comin’ to folks’ houses and say you like to go through, eh? You clear out of here, double quick, or I’ll have you in de lockup!”