Part 13 (1/2)

”Why, de fog!?de fog dat's been aroun' all night En didn't you whoop, en didn't I whoop, tell we got ot los' en t'other one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn' knohah he wuz? En didn't I bust up agin a lot er deit drownded? Now ain' dat so, boss?ain't it so? You answer me dat”

”Well, this is too , nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing I been setting here talking with you all night till you went to sleep about ten ot drunk in that ti”

”Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to drea it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it happen”

”But, Huck, it's all jis' as plain to me as?”

”It don'tin it

I know, because I've been here all the ti for about fiveover it Then he says:

”Well, den, I reck'n I did drea my cats ef it ain't de powerfullest dream I ever see En I hain't ever had no dream b'fo'

dat's tired ht, because a drea so dream; tell me all about it, Jiht through, just as it happened, only he painted it up considerable Then he said he must start in and ”'terpret” it, because it was sent for a warning He said the first towhead stood for a ood, but the current was another s that would come to us every now and then, and if we didn't try hard to make out to understand the us out of it The lot of towheads was troubles as going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we ravate the and into the big clear river, which was the free States, and wouldn't have no more trouble

It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to the raft, but it was clearing up again now

”Oh, well, that's all interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jis stand for?”

It was the leaves and rubbish on the raft and the smashed oar You could see them first-rate now

Jim looked at the trash, and then looked at ot the drea in his head that he couldn't seeain right away But when he did get the thing straightened around he looked at , and says:

”What do dey stan' for? I'se gwyne to tell you When I got all wore out ork, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn' k'yer no' mo' what becoin, all safe en soun', de tears coot down on my knees en kiss yo'

foot, I's so thankful En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie Dat truck dah is _trash_; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's en ot up slow and walked to the a but that But that was enough It et him to take it back

It was fifteen o and huer; but I done it, and I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards, neither I didn't do him no more mean tricks, and I wouldn't done that one if I'd a knowed it would make him feel that way

CHAPTER XVI

WE slept ht, a little ways behind aby as a procession She had four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as wams aboard, wide apart, and an open ca-pole at each end There was a power of style about her It _a a rafts down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got hot The river was very wide, and alled with solid timber on both sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light We talked about Cairo, and wondered whether ould knoe got to it I said likely ouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but about a dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have the a town? Jiether there, that would show But I saidthe foot of an island and coain That disturbed Jim?and me too So the question hat to do? I said, paddle ashore the first ti with a trading-scow, and was a green hand at the business, and wanted to kno far it was to Cairo Jiood idea, so we took a s to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and not pass it without seeing it He said he'd be hty sure to see it, because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he ain and no more show for freedom Every little while he jumps up and says:

”Dah she is?”

But it warn't It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set down again, and went to watching, same as before Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom Well, I can tell you it made me all over treet it through my head that he _was_ et that out ofme so I couldn't rest; I couldn't stay still in one place It hadn't ever co But now it did; and it stayed with me, and scorched me more and more I tried to make out to myself that I warn't to blahtful owner; but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every ti for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told soet around that noway That here it pinched Conscience says to me, ”What had poor Miss Watson done to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you that you could treat her so mean? Why, she tried to learn you your book, she tried to learn you your ood to you every way she knowed how _That's_ what she done”

I got to feeling so eted up and down the raft, abusingup and down past me We neither of us could keep still

Every tih ht if it _was_ Cairo I reckoned I would die of miserableness