“Yes’m, an’ One-eye Beljus said it was the only one that would fit
Willie, an’ One-eye Beljus told Willie that suit was worth fourteen
dollars, an’ Willie said he didn’t have any money, but he’d like to
trade something else for it. Well, an’ so One-eye Beljus said this was
an awful fine suit an’ the only one he had that had b’longed to a white
gentleman. Well, an’ so they bargained, an’ bargained, an’ bargained,
an’ _bargained_! An’ then, well, an’ so at last Willie said he’d go
an’ get everything that b’longed to him, an’ One-eye Beljus could pick
out enough to make fourteen dollars’ worth, an’ then Willie could have
the suit. Well, an’ so Willie came home an’ put everything he had that
b’longed to him into those two baskets, mamma--that’s just what he
did, ’cause Genesis says he told One-eye Beljus it was everything that
b’longed to him, an’ that would take two baskets, mamma. Well then,
an’ so he told One-eye Beljus to pick out fourteen dollars’ worth, an’
One-eye Beljus ast Willie if he didn’t have a watch. Well, Willie took
out his watch, an’ One-eye Beljus said it was an awful bad watch but
he would put it in for a dollar; an’ he said, ‘I’ll put your necktie
pin in for forty cents more,’ so Willie took it out of his necktie; an’
then One-eye Beljus said it would take all the things in the baskets to
make I forget how much, mamma, and the watch would be a dollar more,
an’ the pin forty cents, an’ that would leave just three dollars and
sixty cents more for Willie to pay before he could get the suit.”
Mrs. Baxter’s face had become suffused with high color, but she wished
to know all that Genesis had said, and, mastering her feelings with an
effort, she told Jane to proceed--a command obeyed after Jane had taken
several long breaths.
“Well, an’ so the worst part of it is, Genesis says, it’s because that
suit is haunted.”
“What!”
“Yes’m,” said Jane solemnly; “Genesis says it’s haunted. Genesis says
everybody over on the avynoo knows all about that suit, an’ he says
that’s why One-eye Beljus never could sell it before. Genesis says
One-eye Beljus tried to sell it to a colored man for three dollars,
but the man said he wouldn’t put it on for three hunderd dollars, an’
Genesis says he wouldn’t either, because it belonged to a Dago waiter
that--that--” Jane’s voice sank to a whisper of unctuous horror: she
was having a wonderful time! “Mamma, this Dago waiter, he lived over
on the avynoo, an’ he took a case-knife he’d sharpened--_an’ he cut a
lady’s head off with it_!”
Mrs. Baxter screamed faintly.
“An’ he got hung, mamma! If you don’t believe it you can ask One-eye
Beljus--I guess _he_ knows! An’ you can ask--”
“Hush!”
“An’ he sold this suit that Willie wants to One-eye Beljus when he was
in jail, mamma. He sold it to him before he got hung, mamma.”
“Hush, Jane!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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