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　　From ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

　　Chapter 15

　　We judged that three nights more Would fetch us to Cairo, 1at

　　the bottom of Illinois, where the Ohio River comes in, andthat was

　　what we was after.We would sell the raft and get on a steamboat

　　and go way up the Ohio amongst the free States, and then be out of

　　trouble.2

　　Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for

　　a tow-head to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in fog；

　　but when I paddled ahead i n the canoe, with the line, to make fast,

　　there warn't anything but little saplings totie to.I passed the

　　line around one of them right on the edge of the cut bank, but there

　　was a stiff current, and the raft come booming down so lively she

　　tore it out by the roots and away she went.I see the fog closing

　　down, and it made meso sick and scared I couldn't budge for most

　　a half a minuteit seemed to me—and then there warn't no raft in

　　sight；you couldn't see twenty yards.3 I jumped into the canoe

　　and runback to the stern and grabbed the paddle and set her back a

　　stroke.But she didn't come, I was in such a hurry Ihadn't untied

　　her.I got up and tried to untie her, but I was so excited my hands

　　shook so I couldn't hardly do anything with them.

　　As soon as I got started I took out after the raft, hot and heavy,

　　right down the tow-head.4 That was all right as far asit went,

　　but the tow-head warn't sixty yards long, and theminute I flew by

　　the foot of it I shot out into the solid whitefog, and hadn't no

　　more idea which way I was going than adead man.

　　Thinks I, it won't do to paddle；first I know I'll run intothe

　　bank or a tow-head or something；I got to set still andfloat, and

　　yet it's mighty fidgety business to have to hold yourhands still

　　at such a time.I whooped and listened.Away downthere, somewheres,

　　I hears a small whoop, and up comes myspirits.I went tearing after

　　it, listening sharp to hear it again.The next time it come, I see

　　I warn't heading for it but head-ing away to the right of it.And

　　the next time, I was head-ing away to the left of it—and not gaining

　　on it much, either, for I was flying around, this way and that and

　　'tother, 5but it was going straight ahead all the time.

　　I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beatit

　　all the time, but he never did, and it was the still placesbetween

　　the whoops that was making the trouble for me.Well, I fought along,

　　and directly I hears the whoops behind me.Iwas tangled good,

　　now.That was somebody else's whoop.orelse I was turned around.

　　I throwed the paddle down.I heard the whoop again；itwas behind me yet, but in a different place；it kept coming,

　　and kept changing its place, and I kept answering, till by-and-by

　　it was in front of me again and I knowed the current hadswung the

　　canoe's head down stream and I was all right, ifthat was Jim and

　　not some other raftsman hollering.I could-n't tell nothing about

　　voices in a fog, for nothing don't looknatural nor sound natural

　　in a fog.

　　The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a booming

　　down on a cut bank6 with smoky ghosts of big treeson it, and the

　　current throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of

　　snags that fairly roared, the current was tear-ing 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 Ireckon

　　I didn't draw a breath while it thumped a hundred.

　　I just give up, then.I knowed what the matter was.Thatcut

　　bank was an island, and Jim had gone down 'tother sideof it.It

　　warn't no tow-head, that you could float by in tenminutes.It had

　　the big timber of a regular island；it mightbe five or six mile

　　long and more than a half a mile wide.

　　I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes,

　　Ireckon.I was floating along, of course, four or five mile anhour；

　　but you don't ever think of that.No, you feel like youare laying

　　dead still on the water；and if a little glimpse of a snap slips

　　by, you don't think to yourself how fast you're go-ing, but you

　　catch your breath and think my！how that snag'stearing along.lf

　　you think it ain't dismal and lonesome outin a fog that way, by

　　yourself, in the night, you try it once— you'll see.

　　Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then；atlast

　　I hears the answer a loog ways off, and tries to follow it, but

　　I couldn't do it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nestof

　　towheads, for I had little dim glimpses of them on bothsides of

　　me, sometimes just a narrow channel between；andsome that I couldn't

　　see, I knowed was there, because I'd hearthe wash of the current

　　against the old dead brush and trashthat hung over the banks.Well,

　　I warn't long losing thewhoops, down amongst the towheads；and I

　　only tried to chasethem a little while, anyway, because it was worse

　　than chas-ing a Jack-o-lantern.You never knowed a sound dodge

　　aroundso, and swap places so quick and so much.

　　I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively, four or

　　fivetimes, to keep from knocking the islands out of the river；

　　andso I judged the raft must be butting into the bank every nowand

　　then, or else it would get further ahead and clear out ofhearing—

　　it was floating a little faster than what I was.

　　Well, I seemed to be in the open river again, by-and-by, butouldn't hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.I reckonedJim had

　　fetched up on a snag, maybe, and it was all up withhim.I was good

　　and tired, so I laid down in the canoe andsaid I wouldn't bother

　　no more.I didn't want to go to sleep, of course；but I was so sleepy

　　I couldn't help it；so I thoughtI would take just one little cat-nap.

　　But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I wakedup

　　the stars was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and Iwas

　　spinning down a big bend stern first.First I didn't knowwhere I

　　was；I thought I was dreaming；and when things be-gun to come back

　　to me, they seemed to come up dim out oflast week.

　　It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and

　　thethickest kind of timber on both banks；just a solid wall, aswell

　　as I could see, by the stars.I looked away down stream, and seen

　　a blacK speck on the water.I took out after it；butwhen I got to

　　it it warn't nothing but a couple of saw-logsmade fast

　　together.Then I see another speck, and chasedthat；then another,

　　and this time I was right.It was the raft.

　　When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head downbetween

　　his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging overthe steering

　　oar.The other oar was smashed off, and the raftwas littered up

　　with leaves and branches and dirt.So she'dhad a rough time.

　　I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and

　　begun to gap, 7 and stretch my fists out against Jim, andsays：

　　“Hello, Jim, have I been asleep？Why didn't you stir meup？”

　　“Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck？En you ain'dead—you

　　ain'drowned—you's back agin？It's too good fortrue, honey, it's

　　too good for true.Lemme look at you, chile, lemme feel o'you.No,

　　you ain'dead？you's back agin, 'liveen soun', jis de same ole

　　Huck—de same ole Huck, thanksto goodness！”

　　“What's the matter with you, Jim？You been a drinking？”

　　“Drinkin'？Has I ben a drinkin'？Has I had a chance tobe a

　　drinkin'？”

　　“Well, then, what makes you talk so wild？”

　　“How does I talk wild？”

　　“How？why, haint you been talking about my coming back, and

　　all that stuff, as if I'd been gone away？”

　　“ Huck — Huck Finn, you look me in de eye ；look me inde

　　eye.Hain't you ben gone away？”

　　“Gone away？Why, what in the nation do you mean？Ihain't been

　　gone anywheres.Where would I go to？”

　　“Well, looky here, boss, dey's sumf'n wrong, dey is.Is I me,

　　or who is I？Is I heah, or whah is I？Now dat's what Iwants to

　　know？”

　　“Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you'reatangle-headed old fool, Jim.”

　　“I is, is I？Well you answer me dis.Didn't you tote outde

　　line in de canoe, fer to make fas'to de tow-head？”

　　“No, I didn't.What tow-head？I hain't seen no tow-head？”

　　“You hain't seen no tow-head？Looky here—didn't deline pull

　　loose en de raf'go a hummin'down de river, enleave you en de canoe

　　behine in de fog？”

　　“What fog？”

　　“Why de fog.De fog dat's ben aroun'all night.En didn'tyou

　　whoop, en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix'up in de is-lands en one

　　un us got los'en 'tother one was jis'as goodas los', 'kase he

　　didn'know whah he wuz？En didn't I bustup agin a lot er dem islands

　　en have a turrible time en mos'git drownded？Now ain'dat so, boss—

　　ain't it so？You an-swer me dat.”

　　“well, this is too many for me, Jim.I hain't seen no fog,

　　nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing.I been settlinghere

　　talking with you all night till you went to sleep aboutten minutes

　　ago, and I reckon I done the same.You couldn'ta got drunk in that

　　time, so of course you've been dreaming.”

　　“ Dad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten

　　min-utes？”

　　“Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn'tany

　　of it happen.”

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

　　“It don't make no difference how plain it is, there ain't

　　noth-ing in it.I know, because I've been here all the time.”

　　Jim didn't say nothing for about five minutes, but set

　　therestudying over it.Then he says：

　　“Well, den, I reck'n I did dream it, Huck；but dog mycats ef

　　it ain't de powerfullest dream I ever see.En I hain'tever had no

　　dream b'fo'dat's tired me like dis one.”

　　“Oh, well, that's all right, because a dream does tire abody

　　like everything, sometimes.But this one was a staving8dream—

　　tell me all about it, Jim.”

　　So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing rightthrough,

　　just as it happened, only he painted it up consider-able.Then he

　　said he must start in and“'terpret”it, becauseit was sent for

　　a warning.He said the first tow-head stoodfor a man that would

　　try to do us some good, but the cur-rent was another man that would

　　get us away from him.Thewhoops was warnings that would come to

　　us every now and

　　then, and if we didn't try hard to make out to understandthem

　　they'd just take us into bad luck, 'stead of keeping usout of it.The

　　lot of tow-heads was troubles we was going toget into withquarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded

　　our business and didn't talk back and ag-gravate them, we would

　　pull through and get out of the fog 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 onto the raft,

　　but it was clearing up again, now.

　　“Oh, well that's all interpreted well enough, as far as it

　　goes, Jim, ”I says；“but what does these things 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 me, and back at

　　the trash again.He had got the dream fixed so strong in his head

　　that be couldn't seem to shake it loose and get the facts back into

　　its place again, right away . But when he did get the thing

　　straightened around, he looked at me steady, without ever smiling,

　　and says：

　　“What do dey stan'for？I's gwyne to tell you.When I got all

　　wore out wid work, 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

　　become er me en de raf'.En when I wake up en fine you back agin',

　　all safe en soun', de tears come en I could a got 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 people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren's

　　en makes 'em ashamed.”

　　Then he got up slow, and walked to the wigwam, 9 and went in

　　there without saying anything but that.But that was enough.It

　　made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to

　　take it back.

　　It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and

　　hombre myself to a n nigget—but I done it .and I warn't ever sorry

　　for it afterwards.neither.I didn't do him no moremear onwould

　　make him feel that way.