{{huckfp089.jpg}}

"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum. If I'm in the way,

here, I'll" ssssssssss

"No, you won't. Set down and stay where you are. I ain't going to hurt

you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther. You just tell me your secret, and

trust me. I'll keep it; and what's more, I'll help you. So'll my old man, if you

want him to. You see, you're a runaway 'prentice -- that's all. It ain't any-

thing. There ain't any harm in it. You've been treated had, and you made up

your mind to cut. Bless you, child, I wouldn't tell on you. Tell me all about

it, now -- that's a good boy." ssssssssss

So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I would just

make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she mustn't go back on her

promise. Then I told her my father and mother was dead, and the law had

bound me out to a mean old farmer in the country thirty mile back from the

river, and he treated me so bad I couldn't stand it no longer; he went away to

be gone a couple of days, and so I took my chance and stole some of his daugh-

ter's old clothes, and cleared out, and I had been three nights coming the thirty

miles; I traveled nights, and hid day-times and slept, and the bag of bread and

meat I carried from home lasted me all the way and I had a plenty. I said I

believed my uncle Abner Moore would take care of me, and so that was why I

struck out for this town of G-oshen," ssssssssss

"Goshen, child? This ain't Goshen. This is St. Petersburg. Goshen's ten

mile further up the river. Who told you this was Goshen?"

"Why, a man I met at day-break this morning, just as I was going to turn

into the woods for my regular sleep. He told me when the roads forked I must

take the right hand, and five mile would fetch me to Goshen."

"He was drunk I reckon. He told you just exactly wrong."

"Well, he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't no matter now. I got to be

moving along. I'll fetch Goshen before day-light."

"Hold on a minute. I'll put you up a snack to eat. You might want it."

So she put me up a snack, and says:

"Say -- when a cow's laying down, which end of her gets up first? Answer

up prompt, now -- don't stop to study over it. Which end gets up first?"

"The hind end, mum."

ssssssssss

 [89]