Part 24 (2/2)

When we struck the boat she was about done loading, and pretty soon she got off The king never said nothing about going aboard, so I lostmade ot ashore and says:

”Now hustle back, right off, and fetch the duke up here, and the new carpet-bags And if he's gone over to t'other side, go over there and git hi, now”

I see what _he_ was up to; but I never said nothing, of course When I got back with the duke we hid the canoe, and then they set down on a log, and the king told hi fellow had said it?every last word of it And all the tilishman; and he done it pretty well, too, for a slouch I can't i to try to; but he really done it pretty good Then he says:

”How are you on the deef and duewater?”

The duke said, leave him alone for that; said he had played a deef and dumb person on the histronic boards So then they waited for a steamboat

About the , but they didn't co one, and they hailed her She sent out her yawl, and ent aboard, and she was froo four or five , and said they wouldn't land us But the king was ca'entlemen kin afford to pay a dollar a mile apiece to be took on and put off in a yawl, a steamboat kin afford to carry 'em, can't it?”

So they softened down and said it was all right; and e got to the village they yawled us ashore About two dozen , and when the king says:

”Kin any of you gentlelance at one another, and nodded their heads, as much as to say, ”What d' I tell you?” Then one of theentle:

”I'm sorry sir, but the best we can do is to tell you where he _did_ live yesterday evening”

Sudden as winking the ornery old cretur went an to sainst the man, and put his chin on his shoulder, and cried down his back, and says:

”Alas, alas, our poor brother?gone, and we never got to see him; oh, it's too, too hard!”

Then he turns around, blubbering, and ns to the duke on his hands, and bla If they warn't the beatenest lot, theathered around and sys to thes up the hill for the all about his brother's last ain on his hands to the duke, and both of them took on about that dead tanner like they'd lost the twelve disciples Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I'h to make a body ashamed of the human race

CHAPTER XXV

THE neas all over town in twodown on the run fro on their coats as they come Pretty soon as in thewas like a soldier march The s and dooryards was full; and every minute somebody would say, over a fence:

”Is it _the would answer back and say:

”You bet it is”

When we got to the house the street in front of it was packed, and the three girls was standing in the door Mary Jane _was_ red-headed, but that don't make no difference, she was most awful beautiful, and her face and her eyes was all lit up like glory, she was so glad her uncles was co he spread his arms, and Mary Jane she jumped for them, and the hare-lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it!

Everybody ain at last and have such good ti he hunched the duke private?I see him do it?and then he looked around and see the coffin, over in the corner on two chairs; so then him and the duke, with a hand across each other's shoulder, and t'other hand to their eyes, walked slow and soleive the ”sh!+” and all thetheir heads, so you could a heard a pin fall And when they got there they bent over and looked in the coffin, and took one sight, and then they bust out a-crying so you could a heard them to Orleans, most; and then they put their ar their chins over each other's shoulders; and then for three minutes, or maybe four, I never see twothe sa like it Then one of theot on one side of the coffin, and t'other on t'other side, and they kneeled down and rested their foreheads on the coffin, and let on to pray all to themselves Well, when it co like it, and everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud?the poor girls, too; and every wo a word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead, and then put their hand on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the tears running down, and then busted out and went off sobbing and swabbing, and give the next wo

Well, by and by the king he gets up and comes forward a little, and works himself up and sobrs out a speech, all full of tears and flapdoodle about its being a sore trial for him and his poor brother to lose the diseased, and tojourney of four thousand mile, but it's a trial that's sweetened and sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and these holy tears, and so he thanks them out of his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out of theirtoo weak and cold, and all that kind of rot and slush, till it was just sickening; and then he blubbers out a pious goody-goody A fit to bust

And the minute the words were out of his mouth somebody over in the crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their ood as church letting out Music is a good thing; and after all that soul-butter and hogwash I never see it freshen up things so, and sound so honest and bully

Then the king begins to work his jaw again, and says how hilad if a few of the main principal friends of the fa, and help set up with the ashes of the diseased; and says if his poor brother laying yonder could speak he knoho he would name, for they was names that was very dear to him, and mentioned often in his letters; and so he will name the same, to wit, as follows, vizz:?Rev Mr Hobson, and Deacon Lot Hovey, and Mr Ben Rucker, and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell, and Dr Robinson, and their wives, and theBartley