THE STORY THAT AMUSED MARK TWAIN.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8783, 10 April 1907, Page 4

THE STORY THAT AMUSED MARK TWAIN.

Mis 3 Pamela Oolman Smith, wl O made such a success in London a year or two ago as a storyteller, ;s now enchanting America with her quaint art. She recently entertained Mark Twain, and ho was so do- , lighted that he laughed like a child the whole time.

In the weird dialect of the Jamaican negroes —a sort of cockney Eug-. lish with Spanish colouring, rhythmic rising inflection at the end of each sentence, and barbaric words and idi-rn; spriukled through it that must have come directly from the vodoo worshippers of the African jungle —she tells fairy folk-tales of "do long-ago before time, when. Queen Victoria didn' t yet rule over iwe."

This is her story of "De Six j Poach Eggs,'' which tickled the author of '' The Jumping Frog.'' "A man stop at a cookshop fe someting to eat, an' dey bring him six poach eggs, an' ho eat dem, an' he say him don' got any money to pay fe dem; but would come back i an, pay when he find him fortune.

So after twelve j T ears him stop an' pay sixpence fe de eggs he had eat twelve years before. But de keeper of de cookshop safy it was not enough, dat if do man had not oaten the eggs dey would have

grown iip to chickens, an' do chickens would grow up to hens, an,' de hens would lay more eggs, and dey would grow to chickens, an' dat de six eggs would be worth more dan sixty pounds, not six pennies !. De man say he would not pay any more dan sixpence. An' de cookshopkeeper say he mus' ! An' so he take the man to the de judge, an' do judge didn't know what to say. While he was t'inkin' a little boy came into de courthouse. An' him hab a bag under him arm, an' de judge say 'What you got?' An'de boy say, 'Parch peas, sah.' 'What you goin' to do wid itV An' do boy say 'Plant it', sah.' An' de 'judge say 'An' poach eggs won't

liatch!!' De man didn't have to

pay. De boy got his reward, though, an' was rich before him go away with Death. Dis story prove that "No catchee, no habio.' Miss Smith was born in London of American parents, and was brought up as a young girl in Kingston, Jamaica.