{{huckfp144.jpg}}

head to it. There warn't no frivolishness about him, not a bit, and he warn't

ever loud. He was as kind as he could be -- you could feel that, you know, and

so you had confidence. Sometimes he smiled, and it was good to see; but when

he straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, and the lightning begun to flicker

out from under his eyebrows you wanted to climb a tree first, and find out what

the matter was afterwards. He didn't ever have to tell anybody to mind their

manners -- everybody was always good mannered where he was, Everybody

loved to have him around, too; he was sunshine most always -- I mean he made

it seem like good weather. When he turned into a cloud-bank it was awful

dark for a half a minute and that was enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong

again for a week. ssssssssss

When him and the old lady come down in the morning, all the family got up

out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again till they

had set down. Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where the decanters

was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and he held it in his

hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and then they bowed and said

"Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and they bowed the least bit in the world

and said thank you, and so they drank, all three, and Bob and Tom poured a

spoonful of water on the sugar and the mite of whisky or apple brandy in the

bottom of their tumblers, and give it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old

people too. ssssssssss

Bob was the oldest, and Tom next. Tall, beautiful men with very broad

shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes. They dressed

in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and wore broad

Panama hats. ssssssssss

Then there was Miss Charlotte, she was twenty-five, and tall and proud and

grand, but as good as she could be, when she warn't stirred up; but when she

was, she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, like her father.

She was beautiful. ssssssssss

So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind. She was gentle

and sweet, like a dove, and she was only twenty

Each person had their own nigger to wait on them -- Buck, too. My nigger

 [144]