in dismay--"what for mus tote de bug way up de tree?--d----n if I
do!"

"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold
of a harmless little dead beetle, why, you can carry it up by this
string--but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I
shall be under the necessity of breaking your head with this
shovel."

"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into
compliance; "always want fur to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was
only funnin anyhow. ME feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?"
Here he took cautiously hold of the extreme end of the string,
and, maintaining the insect as far from his person as
circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend the tree.

In youth, the tulip-tree, or Liriodendron Tulipifera, the most
magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth,
and often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but,
in its riper age, the bark becomes gnarled and uneven, while many
short limbs make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty
of ascension, in the present case, lay more in semblance than in
reality. Embracing the huge cylinder, as closely as possible, with
his arms and knees, seizing with his hands some projections, and
resting his naked toes upon others, Jupiter, after one or two
narrow escapes from falling, at length wriggled himself into the
first great fork, and seemed to consider the whole business as
virtually accomplished. The RISK of the achievement was, in fact,
now over, although the climber was some sixty or seventy feet from
the ground.