“i done got ’em bottled up! i done got ’em bottled up!” shouted gogo, the little colored teenie weenie, as he ran panting up to the general’s tent.
“what’s bottled up? what’s all the excitement about?” asked the general, popping his head through the opening of his tent.
“why i-i-i done ketched one of the wild men and turned him ovah to the guard and i done got three mo’ corked up in a bottle.”
“great guns! this is exciting. tell me about it,” cried the general.
“well, you see it’s dis way,” said gogo, sitting down on a pebble and mopping his head with his tiny handkerchief. “i done took a walk out beyond the picket lines yonder. i knew i had no business wanderin’ out dere, but i jus’ kept on and pretty soon i run across a big bottle a-layin’ on its side.
“i was kind of ’spicious about dat bottle, fo’ i done see through de glass where some dry grass had done been fixed up fo’ a bed, mighty like some one been sleepin’ dere.
“‘gogo,’ i says to myself, ‘some one been sleepin’ heah in dis bottle and it ain’t none of de teenie weenies, fo’ none of dem has been out heah dis far.’ den i made up my mind that it mus’ be some of dem scalawag wild men and i reckon dey mus’ stayed in dis bottle when dey was on guard duty watchin’ our army.
“‘but why did dey-all stay in dis heah bottle?’ i says to myself. ‘it’s not cold nights.’ but jus’ den a big mosquito cam’ a-buzzin’ and a-buzzin’ round and den i knew dat the wild men been a-stayin’ in dat bottle fo’ to keep de mosquitoes from bitin’ ’em.
“i says to myself, ‘some of dese wild men will be comin’ ’round heah pretty soon and maybe i can done cotch ’em and extinguish myself.’”
“distinguish yourself,” corrected the general.
“yes, sah,” continued the little colored fellow. “well, i done crawl under a leaf and waited. i done wait fo’ a long time, but pretty soon i done see fo’ of de wild men come sneakin’ along and pretty soon dey done make right fo’ de bottle. three of ’em done crawl in de bottle and one of ’em done squat down outside by de openin’ of de bottle kinda like he was guardin’.
“‘by de great corn pone,’ i says, ‘if a couple of de teenie weenies was heah we could done cotch dese scalawags.’
“pretty soon i thought to myself, ‘why don’t you ketch ’em yourself?’ so i done sneaked out up behind de wild man what was guardin’ de mouth of de bottle and done cracked him on de head with de butt of my gun. i didn’t hit very hard—just hard enough to stun him a little—and den i grabbed a cork dat was layin’ near by and stuffed it into de bottle and braced it with a stick of wood so the scalawags couldn’t get out. i then picked up de wild man i had knocked down and brought him into camp and dat’s all.”
“a very brave deed, sergeant,” said the general. “and i will immediately send out a squad of men to bring your prisoners into camp.”
the old soldier was ordered to take a squad of men and go after the prisoners, while the doctor was sent to dress the bump on the head of the wild man that gogo had knocked down. after a great deal of work the soldiers managed to pull the three wild men out of the bottle and when they were brought into camp they were securely tied to a strong blade of grass.
