Nor did I neglect to seek out the pair of blacks and enter into an
agreement with them to assist in staffing my place. I had feared that
the male black might have resolved to return to his adventurous life
of outlawry after leaving the employment of Belknap-Jackson, but I
found him peacefully inclined and entirely willing to accept service
with me, while his wife, upon whom I would depend for much of the
actual cooking, was wholly enthusiastic, admiring especially my
colour-scheme of reds. I observed at once that her almost exclusive
notion of preparing food was to fry it, but I made no doubt that I
would be able to broaden her scope, since there are of course things
that one simply does not fry.
The male black, or raccoon, at first alarmed me not a little by reason
of threats he made against Belknap-Jackson on account of having been
shopped. He nursed an intention, so he informed me, of putting
snake-dust in the boots of his late employer and so bringing evil upon
him, either by disease or violence, but in this I discouraged him
smartly, apprising him that the Belknap-Jacksons would doubtless be
among our most desirable patrons, whereupon his wife promised for him
that he would do nothing of the sort. She was a native of formidable
bulk, and her menacing glare at her consort as she made this promise
gave me instant confidence in her power to control him, desperate
fellow though he was.
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