Say? Well, they d just die to be here hey, Hucky!
I reckon so, said Huckleberry; anyways, I m suited. I don t want
nothing better n this. I don t ever get enough to eat, gen ally and here
they can t come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so.
It s just the life for me, said Tom. You don t have to get up,
mornings, and you don t have to go to school, and wash, and all that
blame foolishness. You see a pirate don t have to do _anything_, Joe,
when he s ashore, but a hermit _he_ has to be praying considerable, and
then he don t have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way.
Oh yes, that s so, said Joe, but I hadn t thought much about it, you
know. I d a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I ve tried it.
You see, said Tom, people don t go much on hermits, nowadays, like
they used to in old times, but a pirate s always respected. And
a hermit s got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put
sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and
What does he put sackcloth and ashes on his head for? inquired Huck.
I dono. But they ve _got_ to do it. Hermits always do. You d have to do
that if you was a hermit.
Dern d if I would, said Huck.
Well, what would you do?
I dono. But I wouldn t do that.
Why, Huck, you d _have_ to. How d you get around it?
Why, I just wouldn t stand it. I d run away.
Run away! Well, you _would_ be a nice old slouch of a hermit. You d be
a disgrace.
The Red-Handed made no response, being better employed. He had finished
gouging out a cob, and now he fitted a weed stem to it, loaded it with
98