Part 23 (2/2)

”She never done it; jis' stood dah, kiner shty loud, I says:

”'Doan' you hear me? Shet de do'!'

”She jis stood de same way, kiner smilin' up I was a-bilin'! I says:

”'I lay I _make_ you mine!'

”En wid dat I fetch' her a slap side de head dat sont her a-sprawlin'

Den I went into de yuther rooone 'bout ten minutes; en when I come back dah was dat do' a-stannin' open _yit_, en dat chile stannin'

ht in it, a-lookin' down and mournin', en de tears runnin' down

My, but I _wuz_ wyne for de chile, but jis' den?it was a do' dat open innerds?jis' den, 'long come de wind en slam it to, behine de chile, ker-BLAM!?en my lan', de chile never move'! My breff mos'

hop outer me; en I feel so?so?I doan' know HOW I feel I crope out, all a-tremblin', en crope aroun' en open de do' easy en slow, en poke my head in behine de chile, sof' en still, en all uv a sudden I says POW!

jis' as loud as I could yell _She never budge!_ Oh, Huck, I bust out a-cryin' en grab her up in !

De Lord God Aive hisself as long's he live!' Oh, she was plumb deef en dumb, Huck, plumb deef en dumb?en I'd ben a-treat'n her so!”

CHAPTER XXIV

NEXT day, towards night, we laid up under a little head out in the e on each side of the river, and the duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them towns Jim he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take but a few hours, because it got hty heavy and tiresowam tied with the rope You see, e left him all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened on to him all by himself and not tied it wouldn't look er, you know So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard to have to lay roped all day, and he'd cipher out soht, the duke was, and he soon struck it He dressed Jiown, and a white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days Blae I ever see Then the duke took and wrote out a sign on a shi+ngle so:

Sick Arab?but harmless when not out of his head

And he nailed that shi+ngle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or five foot in front of the a tied a couple of years every day, and tre all over every time there was a sound The duke told him toaround, he wam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl or two like a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and leave hie man, and he wouldn't wait for him to howl Why, he didn't only look like he was dead, he looked considerable more than that

These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was so ed it wouldn't be safe, becausedown by this time They couldn't hit no project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he reckoned he'd lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he couldn't put up so he allowed he would drop over to t'other village without any plan, but just trust in Providence to lead hi the devil, I reckon We had all bought store clothes where we stopped last; and now the king put his'n on, and he told 's duds was all black, and he did look real swell and starchy I never knowed how clothes could change a body before Why, before, he looked like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but nohen he'd take off his nehite beaver and ood and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, and maybe was old Leviticus hiotat the shore away up under the point, about threeon freight Says the king:

”Seein' how I'm dressed, I reckon maybe I better arrive down fro place Go for the steae on her”

I didn't have to be ordered twice to go and take a steamboat ride

I fetched the shore a half athe bluff bank in the easy water Pretty soon we co on a log swabbing the sweat off of his face, for it was powerful eather; and he had a couple of big carpet-bags by hi I done it ”Wher' you bound for, youngto Orleans”

”Git aboard,” says the king ”Hold on a s Ju me, I see

I done so, and then we all three started on again The young chap was e such weather

He asked the king where he was going, and the king told hie thisup a fewfellow says:

”When I first see you I says tohere in tiain, 'No, I reckon it ain't hi up the river' You _ain't_ hiett?_Reverend_ Elexander Blodgett, I s'pose I must say, as I'm one o' the Lord's poor servants