"
"Ah, you have traveled a good deal!" Mr. Goodenough said.
"Yes, sar, me trabel great deal. Me lib in Cuba long time. Den me
lib slave states, what you call Confederate. Den me lib Northern
state, also Canada under Queen Victoria. Me trabel bery much.
Now, sar, dinner come. Time to eat not to talk. After dinner white
gentlemen tell me what they came here for. Me tell dem if they like
about my trabels, but dat berry long story."
The dinner consisted of two fowls cut in half and grilled over a
fire, fried plantains, and, to the astonishment of the travelers,
green peas, followed by cold boiled rice over which honey had been
poured. Their host had placed plates only for two, but they would
not sit down until he had consented to join them.
Two girls waited, both neatly dressed in cotton, in a fashion which
was a compromise between European and negro notions.
After dinner the negro presented them with two large and excellent
cigars, made, as he said, from tobacco grown in his own garden, and
the astonishment of the travelers was heightened by the reappearance
of one of the girls bearing a tray with three small cups of excellent
black coffee.
Their host now asked them for the story of their journey from
the coast, and the object with which they had penetrated Africa.
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