Part 9 (1/2)
We had to keep the congregation off with the revolver, or they would 'a'
took a hand in the proceedings and helped
We carved off a supply from both, and saved the skins, and hove the rest overboard Then we baited some of the professor's hooks with the freshWe stood over the lake just a convenient distance above the water, and catched a lot of the nicest fish you ever see It was a er steak, fried fish, and hot corn-pone I don't want nothing better than that
We had soot it out of the top of a monstrous tall tree It was a very slim tree that hadn't a branch on it from the bottom plumb to the top, and there it bursted out like a feather-duster It was a pa'm-tree, of course; anybody knows a pa'm-tree the minute he see it, by the pictures We went for cocoanuts in this one, but there warn't none There was only big loose bunches of things like oversized grapes, and Tom allowed they was dates, because he said they answered the description in the Arabian Nights and the other books
Of course they ht be poison; so we had to wait a spell, and watch and see if the birds et the good
By this tiun to come and settle on the dead animals They was plucky creturs; they would tackle one end of a lion that was being gnawed at the other end by another lion If the lion drove the bird away, it didn't do no good; he was back again thebirds come out of every part of the sky--you could lass while they was still so far away you couldn't see them with your naked eye Tom said the birds didn't find out theit Oh, but ain't that an eye for you! Tom said at the distance of five er than a person's finger-nail, and he couldn't i so far off
It was strange and unnatural to see lion eat lion, and we thought maybe they warn't kin But Ji was fond of her own children, and so was a spider, and he reckoned h ht likely a lion wouldn't eat his own father, if he knohich was him, but reckoned he would eat his brother-in-law if he was uncory, and eat hisYou can reckon till the cows coive it up and let it drop
Generly it was very still in the Desert nights, but this time there wasyelpers that Tom alloas jackals, and roached-backed ones that he said was hyenas; and all the whole biling of them kept up a racket all the tiht that was more different than any picture I ever see We had a line out and made fast to the top of a tree, and didn't stand no watch, but all turned in and slept; but I was up two or three times to look down at the ani a front seat at a , which I hadn't ever had before, and so it seehtn't ever have such a chance again
We went a-fishi+ng again in the early dawn, and then lazied around all day in the deep shade on an island, taking turn about to watch and see that none of the ani around there after erronorts for dinner We was going to leave the next day, but couldn't, it was too lovely
The day after, e rose up toward the sky and sailed off eastward, we looked back and watched that place till it warn't nothing but just a speck in the Desert, and I tell you it was like saying good-bye to a friend that you ain't ever going to see anyto himself, and at last he says:
”Mars Tom, we's mos' to de end er de Desert now, I speck”
”Why?”
”Well, hit stan' to reason we is You kno long we's been a-skimmin' over it Mus' be mos' out o' san' Hit's a wonder toas it has”
”Shucks, there's plenty sand, you needn't worry”
”Oh, I ain't a-worryin', Mars Toot plenty san', I ain't doubtin' dat; but newyne to WAS'E it jist on dat account; en I allows dat dis Desert's plenty big enough now, jist de way she is, en you can't spread her out no ! we ain't much more than fairly STARTED across this Desert yet The United States is a pretty big country, ain't it? Ain't it, Huck?”
”Yes,” I says, ”there ain't no bigger one, I don't reckon”
”Well,” he says, ”this Desert is about the shape of the United States, and if you was to lay it down on top of the United States, it would cover the land of the free out of sight like a blanket There'd be a little corner sticking out, up at Maine and away up northwest, and Florida sticking out like a turtle's tail, and that's all We've took California away froo, so that part of the Pacific coast is ours now, and if you laid the Great Sahara doith her edge on the Pacific, she would cover the United States and stick out past New York six hundred miles into the Atlantic ocean”
I say:
”Good land! have you got the docuht here, and I've been studying them You can look for yourself From New York to the Pacific is 2,600 miles From one end of the Great Desert to the other is 3,200 The United States contains 3,600,000 square miles, the Desert contains 4,162,000 With the Desert's bulk you could cover up every last inch of the United States, and in under where the edges projected out, you could tuck England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, and all Germany Yes, sir, you could hide the hoht under the Great Sahara, and you would still have 2,000 square miles of sand left”
”Well,” I says, ”it clean beats me Why, Tom, it shows that the Lord took as much pains makin' this Desert as makin' the United States and all them other countries”
Jim says: ”Huck, dat don' stan' to reason I reckon dis Desert wa'n't made at all Now you take en look at it like dis--you look at it, and see ef I's right What's a desert good for? 'Taint good for nuthin' Dey ain't no way to make it pay Hain't dat so, Huck?”