Part 10 (1/2)
”Your name is Thucydides.”
”Tucydimes!”
”No, Thucydides,” laughed Dan--for we will adopt his suggestion, and call him no longer by his plantation name.
”Hossifus! Hab to git up afore breakfast to speak dat word in season for dinner,” chuckled Cyd.
”You are called Cyd for short, as I am Dan. There is nothing bad about the word.”
”It's a very good name, Cyd,” added Lily.
”Goshus! If you say so, Missy Lily, it's all right. If it suits de fair seck, it suits me,” said Cyd, shaking his fat sides with satisfaction.
”Dis chile don't keer what you calls him, if you only calls him to supper.”
”Now, Cyd, I will answer the questions you asked when we were getting under way.”
”Yes, what ye got all dem boats draggin arter us fur?”
”Don't you see the reason, Cyd?”
The boy scratched his head, but he could not see. As we have before observed, he had not been in the habit of doing his own thinking, and, consequently, he was not skilled in reasoning from effect to cause.
”Suppose we had left the boats, Cyd,” added Dan.
”Den we shouldn't hab em wid us, keepin de boat back.”
”At six o'clock in the morning, Colonel Raybone will be ready to start on his trip. He will go down to the pier, and expect to find us all there.”
”Gossifus! we shan't be dar!” exclaimed Cyd, whose imagination was lively enough to enable him to picture the scene that would ensue.
”What then, Cyd?”
”Golly! Ma.s.sa Kun'l up and rave like he neber did afore,” replied Cyd, who appeared to enjoy the idea.
”Well, what then?”
”Dunno. He can't help hisself,” chuckled Cyd.
”Suppose we had left the boats?”
”Mossifus! He tell four stout boys to git in de club-boat, and streak it down de riber like an alligator arter a possum. Yah! ha, ha!” roared Cyd, holding on to his sides.
”Do you see why I have taken all the boats?”
”Yes, Dandy--Dan; I sees into it jes like a millstone. You'se got a long head, Dan. But what ye gwine to do wid de paint?”
”We shall live in the swamp till the colonel has done looking for us.
This boat is white now, and we will paint her green, so that she can't be seen so easily.”