Part 12 (1/2)

”It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?”

”Course”

”And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from _us_?”

”Why, mos' sholy it is”

”Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a _Frenchman_ to talk different from us? You answer me that”

”Is a cat a man, Huck?”

”No”

”Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man Is a cow a man??er is a cow a cat?”

”No, she ain't either of theot no business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em Is a Frenchman a man?”

”Yes”

”_Well_, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he _talk_ like a man? You answerwords?you can't learn a nigger to argue

So I quit

CHAPTER XV

WE judged that three nights more would fetch us to Cairo, at the bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, and that e was after We would sell the raft and get on a steast the free States, and then be out of trouble

Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled ahead in the canoe, with the line to s to tie to I passed the line around one of thee of the cut bank, but there was a stiff current, and the raft co down so lively she tore it out by the roots and away she went I see the fog closing down, and it e for most a half a ht; you couldn't see twenty yards I jurabbed the paddle and set her back a stroke But she didn't coot up and tried to untie her, but I was so excitedwith theot started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy, right down the towhead That was all right as far as it went, but the towhead warn't sixty yards long, and the minute I flew by the foot of it I shot out into the solid white fog, and hadn't nothan a dead man

Thinks I, it won't do to paddle; first I know I'll run into the bank or a towhead or sohty fidgety business to have to hold your hands still at such a time

I whooped and listened Away down there somewheres I hears a s after it, listening sharp to hear it again The next ti away to the right of it And the next ti on itaround, this way and that and t'other, but it was going straight ahead all the time

I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beat it all the time, but he never did, and it was the still places between the whoops that was , and directly I hears the whoop _behind_ ood now That was somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around

I throwed the paddle down I heard the whoop again; it was behind , and kept changing its place, and I kept answering, till by and by it was in front ofthe canoe's head down-streaht if that was Ji

I couldn't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't look natural nor sound natural in a fog

The whooping went on, and in about a hosts of big trees on it, and the current throwed s that fairly roared, the currrent was tearing by them so swift

In another second or two it was solid white and still again I set perfectly still then, listening to my heart thump, and I reckon I didn't draw a breath while it thuive up then I knohat the one down t'other side of it It warn't no towhead that you could float by in ten ht be five or sixand more than half a mile wide