"'Scuse me, Massa Tom," began Eradicate, "but didn't yo' tell
me to spade de garden?"

"I guess I did," admitted Tom Swift.

"An' you tell me help--yes?" questioned Koku.

"Well, I thought it would be a little too much for you, Rad,"
said Tom, gently. "I thought perhaps you'd like help."

"Hu! Not him, anyhow!" declared the colored man in great
disgust. "When I git so old dat I cain't spade a garden, den me
an' Boomerang, we-all gwine to die, dat's all I got to say. I was
a-spadin' my part ob de garden, Massa Tom, same laik Mr. Damon
done tole me to, an' dish yeah big mess ob bones steps on my side
ob de middle an--"

"Him too slow. Koku scatter dirt twice times so fast!" declared
the giant, whose English was not much better than Eradicate's.

"Yes, I see," said Tom. "You are so strong, Koku, that you
finished your part before Eradicate did. Well, it was good of you
to want to help him."

At this the giant grinned at his rival.

"At the same time," went on Tom, winking an eye at Mr. Damon,
"Eradicate knows a little more about garden work, on account of
having done it so many years."