“Well, I’ve hinted it to him,” replied Tom, “but I haven’t asked him outright.  He said he wouldn’t mind going to a hot country though.  Here he comes now.  Guess I’ll see how he takes it.”

The colored man shuffled up with a hammer and nails, for he had been putting covers on packing boxes.

“Then you are coming with us to South America; aren’t you, Rad?” asked Tom, winking at Ned.

“Souf America?  Am dat de hot country yo’-all was referencin’ to?” asked Eradicate.

“That’s it, Rad.  It’s nice and warm there.  All you have to do is to lie under a tree and cocoanuts will drop off into your mouth.”

“Cocoanuts in mah mouf, Massa Tom!  ‘Scuse me!  I doan’t want t’ go to no sich country as dat.  Cocoanuts in mah mouf!  Why I ain’t got but a few teef left, an’ a cocoanut droppin’ offen a tree would shorely knock dem teef out, shorely!”

“Oh, Rad, I didn’t mean cocoanuts!  I meant oranges and bananas—­ they’re soft,” and Tom glanced quickly at Ned, for he saw that he had made a mistake.

“Oh, well, den dat’s diffunt, Massa Tom.  I jes lubs oranges an’ bananas, an’ ef yo’-all is shore dat I’ll find some, why, I’ll come along.”

“Find ’em?  Of course you will!” cried Ned.

“And cocoanuts, too,” added Tom.  “Only, Rad, I meant to say that the monkeys would throw the cocoanuts down to you from the trees.  That breaks the hard shells you see, and all you have to do is to take out the meat, and drink the milk.  Then the monkeys throw you down a palm leaf fan to cool yourself off, while you’re eating it.  Oh, I tell you, Rad, South America is the place to go to have a good time.”

“I believe you, Massa Tom.  When do we-all start?”

“Pretty soon now.”

“An’ what all am yo’ gwine arter, Massa Tom?”

The young inventor thought a moment.  In times past he had not hesitated to confide in his colored helper, but of late years Eradicate had become somewhat childish, and he talked more than was necessary.  Tom wondered whether it would be safe to trust the giant secret to him.  After a moment’s thought he realized that it would not be.  But, at the same time, he knew that if he did not give some kind of an answer Eradicate would become suspicious, and that would be worse.  The colored helper had been with Tom on too many trips not to know that his master never went without some object.

“Well, Rad, we’re after big game this time,” Tom said.  “I don’t know what it will be that we’ll get, whether animals or plants, and—­”

“Oh, I knows, Massa Tom.  Yo’-all means dem orchard plants that lib on air—­dem big orchard plants.”  Eradicate meant orchids, of which many rare and beautiful kinds are found in South America.

“Yes, Rad, I guess we will get some big orchids,” agreed Tom.

“An’ I shorely will help climb de trees arter ’em.  Or maybe we kin git de monkeys to frow em down, same as dey will de cocoanuts.”