“He’s got a sign on, too,” put in Peter Thomas.  “Look wot it reads, ’I hab got to hump to cotch de widow.’  Hah! hah! hah!  Dot’s a good one.”

“Yo’ needn’t hump yo’self to cotch me,” cried the widow, wrathfully.  “I’se engaged to Mistah Thomas.”  And she smiled on the individual in question.

Crestfallen and bewildered, Aleck felt of his back and took off his coat.  He squeezed the rubber rabbit so hard that it exploded with a bang, scaring himself and the others.

“Dat’s a trick on me!” roared the Rover’s man, and tore the rabbit from his coat.  “Dem boys did dat!”

“I can’t see yo’ to night, or any udder night, Mistah Pop,” said the widow.  “I’se engaged to Mistah Thomas.”

“Den good night,” growled Aleck, and turning on his heel he started for home.

Tom and Sam saw that he was angry, yet they had to roar at the scene presented.  They wondered what Aleck would say when he got back to the farm.

“We have got to square ourselves,” said Tom.

“How are you going to do it?”

“Oh, we’ll do it somehow.”

They took the short cut, but so did Aleck, and consequently all three soon met.

“Yo’ played dat joke yo’ can’t go fo’ to deny it!” cried the colored man.

“We are not going to deny it, Aleck,” said Tom.  “But it was no joke.  We did it for your good.”

“Huh!”

“We certainly did,” put in Sam.  “Why, Aleck, we can’t bear to think of your getting married and leaving us.”

“Huh!”

“We want you to stay with us,” said Tom.  “Besides, that widow has a lot of children and is after your money.”

“She ain’t got but two chillen.  She had moah, but she dun told me all but two was in de seminary.”

“The seminary?” queried Tom.  Then a light broke in on him.  “You mean the cemetery.”

“Persackly—­de place da puts de dead folks.”

“Well, they are in the cemetery right enough—­but they are a long way from being dead.”

“Wot yo’ mean, Tom?”

“We saw her send five of them away this evening—­she told ’em to go to the cemetery and stay there awhile.”

“Wot!  Yo’ is fooling dis chile!”

“It is absolutely true,” said Sam.  “I am quite sure she has seven children.”

“Huh!  If dat’s de case dat Thomas nigger can hab her,” grumbled Aleck, and walked on.  “But I ain’t takin’ yo’ word fo’ dis,” he added cautiously.  “I’se gwine to make a few investigations to morrow.”

“Do so—­and you’ll thank us from the bottom of your heart,” answered Tom; and there the subject was dropped.  It may be added here that later on Aleck discovered that the widow had ten children and was head over heels in debt, and he was more than glad that the boys had played the trick on him, and that the other colored man had gained Mrs. Taylor’s hand.

CHAPTER IV