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??I was away below the ferry now. I rose up and there was Jackson's

Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy-timbered and standing

up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like a steamboat

without any lights. There warn't any signs of the bar at the head -- it was

all under water, now. ssssssssss

It didn't take me long to get there. I shot past the head at a ripping

rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and landed

on the side towards the Illinois shore. I run the canoe into a deep dent in

the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow branches to get in;

and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe from the outside.

I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island and looked

out on the big river and the black driftwood, and away over to the town,

three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling. A monstrous

big lumber raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, with a

lantern in the middle of it. I watched it come creeping down, and when it

was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern oars, there!

heave her head to stabboard!" I heard that just as plain as if the man was

by my side. ssssssssss

There was a little gray in the sky, now; so I stepped into the woods and

laid down for a nap before breakfast. ssssssssss

ssssssssss

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