Tick slowly retreated from the room, and Skeeter promptly reached for his own hat and started in the same direction.
“Dat po’ fool nigger mought need a little back-up-ance,” said Skeeter, grinning to himself.
In the shadow of the Shoofly church Tick Hush waited, his anxious eyes fixed upon a bench under a sycamore tree where he was to meet and make the final matrimonial arrangements with Limit Lark.
Sometimes there comes out of the swamp into Tickfall a negro so simple that his life has consisted of eating, sleeping, and working. Having lived far from civilization, his innocence and ignorance are amazing. He is a joy to the planter, for he works hard and does just as he is told to do. Coming into contact with the negro social life of Tickfall, he is also a joy to his colored friends--he contributes so largely to the funny side of life.
Skeeter knew that Tick Hush was sure to contribute much to the gaiety of the negro inhabitants of Tickfall, and he had already tipped off his friends to be ready to help him when he needed them.
So Tick waited at the church, peering across the yard in the dim light of a young moon, feeling more nervous and panicky as the moments passed, repeating with dry lips the instructions of Skeeter Butts:
“Ax her did she git de letter--ax her to marry me--grab her!”
Then a sudden weakness overcame him and he sat down upon the ground so forcibly that he nearly jarred his head loose from the rest of his anatomy.
A woman dressed in white had moved quickly across the churchyard and had seated herself upon the bench under the sycamore tree. Tick experienced about the same sensation that might come to a war spy backed up against a church wall and facing a firing squad. Tick knew he was facing his fate.
“I guess I’m got to make de riffle,” he sighed as he started slowly across the churchyard.
“Hello, Limit!” Tick began. “Did you git my letter?”
She was a tall, neatly dressed woman, with typical African features and skin as black as coal. In the dim moonlight she began to look good to the embarrassed Tick Hush.
Tick felt his courage oozing away, so he began to speak in a loud voice:
“Hush!” Limit whispered. “Some nigger woman is comin’ dis way--she mought hear us!”