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no sign of a whoop nowheres. I reckoned Jim had fetched up on a snag, maybe, and it was all up with him. I was good and tired, so I laid down in the canoe and said I wouldnā€™t bother no more. I didnā€™t want to go to sleep, of course; but I was so sleepy I couldnā€™t help it; so I thought I would take jest one little catnap.

But I reckon it was more than a catnap, for when I waked up the stars was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down a big bend stern first. First I didnā€™t know where I was; I thought I was dreaming; and when things began to come back to me they seemed to come up dim out of last week.

It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and the thickest kind of timber on both banks; just a solid wall, as well as I could see by the stars. I looked away downstream, and seen a black speck on the water. I took after it; but when I got to it it warnā€™t nothing but a couple of sawlogs made fast together. Then I see another speck, and chased that; then another, and this time I was right. It was the raft.

When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head down between his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering-oar. The other oar was smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves and branches and dirt. So sheā€™d had a rough time.

I made fast and laid down under Jimā€™s nose on the raft, and began to gap, and stretch my fists out against Jim, and says:

ā€œHello, Jim, have I been asleep? Why didnā€™t you stir me up?ā€

ā€œGoodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ainā€™ deadā ā€”you ainā€™ drowndedā ā€”youā€™s back agin? Itā€™s too good for true, honey, itā€™s too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel oā€™ you. No, you ainā€™ dead! youā€™s back agin, ā€™live en sounā€™, jis de same ole Huckā ā€”de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!ā€

ā€œWhatā€™s the matter with you, Jim? You been a-drinking?ā€

ā€œDrinkinā€™? Has I ben a-drinkinā€™? Has I had a chance to be a-drinkinā€™?ā€

ā€œWell, then, what makes you talk so wild?ā€

ā€œHow does I talk wild?ā€

ā€œHow? Why, hainā€™t you been talking about my coming back, and all that stuff, as if Iā€™d been gone away?ā€

ā€œHuckā ā€”Huck Finn, you look me in de eye; look me in de eye. Hainā€™t you ben gone away?ā€

ā€œGone away? Why, what in the nation do you mean? I hainā€™t been gone anywheres. Where would I go to?ā€

ā€œWell, looky here, boss, deyā€™s sumfā€™n wrong, dey is. Is I me, or who is I? Is I heah, or whah is I? Now datā€™s what I wants to know.ā€

ā€œWell, I think youā€™re here, plain enough, but I think youā€™re a tangle-headed old fool, Jim.ā€

ā€œI is, is I? Well, you answer me dis: Didnā€™t you tote out de line in de canoe fer to make fasā€™ to de towhead?ā€

ā€œNo, I didnā€™t. What towhead? I hainā€™t see no towhead.ā€

ā€œYou hainā€™t seen no towhead? Looky here, didnā€™t de line pull loose en de rafā€™ go a-humminā€™ down de river, en leave you en de canoe behine in de fog?ā€

ā€œWhat fog?ā€

ā€œWhy, de fog!ā ā€”de fog datā€™s been arounā€™ all night. En didnā€™t you whoop, en didnā€™t I whoop, tell we got mixā€™ up in de islands en one un us got losā€™ en tā€™other one was jisā€™ as good as losā€™, ā€™kase he didnā€™ know whah he wuz? En didnā€™t I bust up agin a lot er dem islands en have a turrible time en mosā€™ git drownded? Now ainā€™ dat so, bossā ā€”ainā€™t it so? You answer me dat.ā€

ā€œWell, this is too many for me, Jim. I hainā€™t seen no fog, nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing. I been setting here talking with you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon I done the same. You couldnā€™t a got drunk in that time, so of course youā€™ve been dreaming.ā€

ā€œDad fetch it, how is I gwyne to dream all dat in ten minutes?ā€

ā€œWell, hang it all, you did dream it, because there didnā€™t any of it happen.ā€

ā€œBut, Huck, itā€™s all jisā€™ as plain to me asā ā€”ā€

ā€œIt donā€™t make no difference how plain it is; there ainā€™t nothing in it. I know, because Iā€™ve been here all the time.ā€

Jim didnā€™t say nothing for about five minutes, but set there studying over it. Then he says:

ā€œWell, den, I reckā€™n I did dream it, Huck; but dog my cats ef it ainā€™t de powerfullest dream I ever see. En I hainā€™t ever had no dream bā€™foā€™ datā€™s tired me like dis one.ā€

ā€œOh, well, thatā€™s all right, because a dream does tire a body like everything sometimes. But this one was a staving dream; tell me all about it, Jim.ā€

So Jim went to work and told me the whole thing right through, just as it happened, only he painted it up considerable. Then he said he must start in and ā€œā€Šā€™terpretā€ it, because it was sent for a warning. He said the first towhead stood for a man that would try to do us some good, but the current was another man that would get us away from him. The whoops was warnings that would come to us every now and then, and if we didnā€™t try hard to make out to understand them theyā€™d just take us into bad luck, ā€™stead of keeping us out of it. The lot of towheads was troubles we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and all kinds of mean folks, but if we minded our business and didnā€™t talk back and aggravate them, we would pull through and get out of the fog and into the big clear river, which was the free States, and wouldnā€™t have no more trouble.

It had clouded up pretty dark just after I got on to

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