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see, I knowed was there, because I'd hear the wash of the current
against the old dead brush and trash that hung over the banks.
Well, I warn't long losing the whoops, down amongst the
tow-heads; and I only tried to chase them a little while, anyway,
because it was worse than chasing a Jack-o-lantern. You never
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knowed a sound dodge around so, and swap places so quick and so
much.
I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively, four or five
times, to keep from knocking the islands out of the river; and so I
judged the raft must be butting into the bank every now and then,
or else it would get further ahead and clear out of hearing- it was
floating a little faster than what I was.
Well, I seemed to be in the open river again, by-and-by, but I
couldn't hear no sign of a whoop nowheres. I reckoned Jim had
fetched up on a snag, maybe, and it was all up with him. I was
good and tired, so I laid down in the canoe and said 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 thought I would take just one little
cat-nap.
But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I waked up
the stars was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was
spinning down a big bend stern first. First I didn't know where I
was; I thought I was dreaming; and when things begun to come
back to me, they seemed to come up dim out of last week.
It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the
thickest kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well 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; but when I got to it
warn't nothing but a couple of saw-logs made fast together. Then I
see another speck, and chased that; then another, and this time I
was right. It was the raft.
When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down
between his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the
steering oar. The other oar was smashed off, and the raft was
littered up with leaves and branches and dirt. So she'd had a rough
time.
I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and
begun to gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says:
"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep? Why didn't you stir me up?"
"Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain' dead- you
ain'drownded- you's back again? It's too good for true, honey, it's
too good for true. Lemme look at you, chile, lemme feel o' you.
No, you ain' dead! you's back again, 'live en soun', jis de same ole
Huck- de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!"
"What's the matter with you, Jim? You been a drinking?"
"Drinkin'? Has I ben a drinkin'? Has I had a chance to be a
drinkin'?"
"Well, then, what makes you talk so wild?"
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"How does I talk wild?"
"How? why, hain't 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 in de eye.
Hain't you ben gone away?"
"Gone away? Why, what in the nation do you mean? I hain'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 I wants to know?"
"Well, I think you're here, plain enough, but I think you're a
tangle-headed old fool, Jim."
"I is, is I? Well you answer me dis. Didn't you tote out de 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 de line pull
loose en de raf' go a hummin' down de river, en leave you en de
canoe behine in de fog?"
"What fog?"
"Why de fog. De fog dat's ben aroun' all night. En didn't you
whoop, en didn't I whoop, tell we got mix' up in de islands en one
un us got los' en 'tother one was jis' as good as los', 'kase he didn'
know whah he wuz? En didn't I bust up again a lot er dem islands
en have a turrible time en mos' git drownded? Now ain'dat so,
boss- ain't it so? You answer 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 setting here talking
with you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and
I reckon I done the same. You couldn't a 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 minutes?"
"Well, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didn't any of it
happen."
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