e just
been sneaking along to see if he could overhear anything of Tom's
plans--a trick of which he was frequently guilty. At any rate, Andy
walked, past where Eradicate was whitewashing. The colored man saw
the red-haired lad coming and murmured:

"Dere's dat no 'count white trash! I jest wish Massa Tom was hear
now. He'd jest natchally wallop Andy," and Eradicate moved his
longhandled brush up and down, as though he were coating the Foger
lad with the white stuff.

As it happened, Eradicate was putting some of the liquid on a
particularly rough spot in the fence, a spot low down, and this
naturally made the handle of his brush stick out over the sidewalk,
and at this moment Andy Foger got there.

"Here, you black rascal!" the lad angrily exclaimed. "What do you
mean by blocking the sidewalk that way? It's against the law, and I
could have you arrested for that."

"No, could yo' really now?" asked Eradicate drawlingly for he was
not afraid of Andy.

"Yes, I could, and don't you give me any of your back-talk! Get that
brush out of the way!" and Andy kicked the long handle.

The natural result followed. The other end of the brush, wet with
whitewash, described a curve through the air, coming toward the mean
bully. And as the blow of Andy's foot jarred the brush loose, the
next moment it fell right on Andy's head, the white liquid trickling
down on his clothes, for Eradicate was not a miser when it came to
putting on whitewash.

For a moment Andy could not speak. Then he burst out with:

"Hi! You did that on purpose! I'll have you in jail for that! Look
at my hat, it's ruined! Look at my clothes! They're ruined! Oh, I'll
make you pay for this!"

"Deed, it shore was a accident," said Eradicate, trying not to laugh.
"You done did it yo'se'f!"

"I did not! You did it on purpose; Tom Swift put you in on this!
I'll--I'll--"

But Andy had to stop and splutter for some of the lime ran down off
his hat into his mouth, and he yelled:

"I'll--I'll--Ouch! Phew! Woof! Oof! Oh!"

Then, in his rage, he made a blind rush for Eradicate. Now the
colored man had no fear of Andy, but he did not want the pail of
whitewash to upset, and the said pail was right in the path of the
advancing youth.

"Look out!" cried Eradicate.

"I'll make you look out!" spluttered Andy. "I'll thrash you for
this!"

Eradicate caught up his pail. He did not want to have the trouble of
mixing more of the liquid. Just as he lifted it Andy ai