“Kunnel,” Hitch said earnestly, “us niggers wants to show you somepin an’ ax you how come!” “What is it?” Gaitskill smiled. Pap laid a silver dollar on the floor of the porch, Hitch Diamond placed a copper cent on top of it, and Prince Total laid a worm on top of the cent. “Now, Kunnel, fer Gawd’s sake, tell us how come dat worm cain’t crawl offen dat cent?” Gaitskill laughed. “That is a simple demonstration in experimental electricity, men,” he said. “When the worm’s damp body which is in contact with the copper touches the silver it starts a current of electricity that gives it a shock. Of course the current thus produced is very slight, but it is quite enough for the worm, and the worm finds it more comfortable to stay on the copper coin.” “Dat shore is a strange an’ expensive fack, Marse Tom,” Hitch Diamond remarked gloomily. “De nigger whut bets his dollars on dat exper’ment ain’t gwine git no slight shock,” Pap Curtain declared. “An’ he ain’t gwine hab even a copper cent to stan’ on!” Prince Total concluded. X RATTLESNAKE. All of Shin Bone’s victims were sitting in the grandstand when Shin rode on the track that afternoon to exhibit his newly purchased horse. “Hello, Shinny!” Hitch Diamond yelled. “Whar you git dat plug?” “Marse Tom sold him to me fer fawty dollars,” Shin grinned. “You all he’ped me to pay fer him when you bit like suckers at dat fishin’ worm!” “Is you gwine race him?” Pap whooped. “Suttinly. He goes in de las’ race.” “Is you gwine bet on him?” Prince Total squealed. “I bets eve’y cent I’m got,” Shin grinned. “Dis hoss’s name is Rattlesnake, an’ he’s pure p’ison.” Shin trotted his horse down the track, and the negroes watched the stiff hind leg of the animal and noticed that the horse never raised it far enough above the ground to prevent it making a long mark upon the turf. Shin galloped back in front of his friends, and the crippled horse awkwardly dragged his stiff leg, making a longer and deeper mark upon the track. “I wonder ef dat nigger really means whut he say?” Pap remarked as he sat back in his seat. “Whut race is you in, Pap?” Hitch Diamond asked. “I starts Nigger Blackie in de las’ race,” Pap told him. “I bet Doodlebug yistiddy an’ lost him, but I speck he’s gwine in dat race, too. Of co’se Nigger Blackie kin beat Doodlebug--he done it yistiddy.” “I thought Nigger Blackie b’longed to Skeeter Butts,” Hitch said. “Naw, suh. I winned Nigger offen Skeeter yistiddy.” “How many hosses in dat las’ race?” Prince Total asked. “Gawd knows,” Pap sighed. “It’s de las’ race of de fair. It’s a free-fer-all scramble, an’ eve’y nigger in dis parish kin git in wid a race-hoss ef he wants to.” “I tells you whut, niggers,” Hitch Diamond suggested. “Shin Bone is done robbed us of a heap of money; now less go down an’ bet agin him an’ his hoss an’ rob him of all de chink he’s got. Dat stiff-leg Rattlesnake cain’t run--any hoss kin beat him as fur as you kin shoot a gun.”