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"Yes'm -- she" ssssssssss

"Don't say yes'm -- say Aunt Sally. Where'd she get aground?"

I didn't rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether the boat

would be coming up the river or down. But I go a good deal on instinct; and

my instinct said she would be coming up -- from down towards Orleans. That

did'nt help me much, though; for I didn't know the names of bars down that way.

I see I'd got to invent a bar, or forget the name of the one we got aground on --

or -- Now I struck an idea, and fetched it out:

"It warn't the grounding -- that didn't keep us back but a little. We blowed

out a cylinder-head." ssssssssss

"Good gracious! anybody hurt?"

"No'm. Killed a nigger."

"Well, it's lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. Two years ago

last Christmas, your uncle Silas was coming up from Newrleans on the old Laity

Rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man. And I think he

died afterwards. He was a Babtist. Your uncle Silas knowed a family in Baton

Rouge that knowed his people very well. Yes, I remember, now he did die.

Mortification set in, and they had to amputate him. But it didn't save him. Yes,

it was mortification -- that was it. He turned blue all over, and died in the hope

of a glorious resurrection. They say he was a sight to look at. Your uncle's

been up to the town every day to fetch you. And he's gone again, not more'n

an hour ago; he'll be back any minute, now. You must a met him on the road,

didn't you? -- oldish man, with a" ssssssssss

"No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sally. The boat landed just at daylight, and

I left my baggage on the wharf-boat and went looking around the town and out

a piece in the country, to put in the time and not get here too soon; and so I

come down the back way." ssssssssss

"Who'd you give the baggage to?"

"Nobody." ssssssssss

"Why, child, it'll be stole!"

"Not where I hid it I reckon it won't," I says.

"How'd you get your breakfast so early on the boat?"

ssssssssss

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