Well, I m agreed. I ll watch the whole night long, and I ll do it every
night, too, if you ll do the other part of the job.
All right, I will. All you got to do is to trot up Hooper Street a
block and maow and if I m asleep, you throw some gravel at the window
and that ll fetch me.
Agreed, and good as wheat!
Now, Huck, the storm s over, and I ll go home. It ll begin to be
daylight in a couple of hours. You go back and watch that long, will
you?
I said I would, Tom, and I will. I ll ha nt that tavern every night for
a year! I ll sleep all day and I ll stand watch all night.
That s all right. Now, where you going to sleep?
In Ben Rogers hayloft. He lets me, and so does his pap s nigger man,
Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and any
time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can spare it.
That s a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don t ever act as
if I was above him. Sometime I ve set right down and eat _with_ him. But
you needn t tell that. A body s got to do things when he s awful hungry
he wouldn t want to do as a steady thing.
Well, if I don t want you in the daytime, I ll let you sleep. I won t
come bothering around. Any time you see something s up, in the night,
just skip right around and maow.
CHAPTER XXIX
The first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of
news Judge Thatcher s family had come back to town the night before.
Both Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a
177