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Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again;

and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned

rabbit and set it and catch a cat-fish that was as big as a man, being six foot two

inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him,

of course; he would a flung us into Illinois. We just set there and watched him

rip and tear around till he drownded. We found a brass button in his stomach,

and a round ball, and lots of rubbage. We split the ball open with the hatchet,

and there was a spool in it. Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to coat it

over so and make a ball of it. It was as big a fish as was ever catched in the

Mississippi, I reckon. Jim said he hadn't ever seen a bigger one. He would a

been worth a good deal over at the village. They peddle out such a fish as that

by the pound in the market house there; everybody buys some of him; his

meat's as white as snow and makes a good fry.

Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a

stirring up, some way. I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and find out

what was going on. Jim liked that notion; but he said I must go in the dark

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