tobacco, and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a cloud of
fragrant smoke he was in the full bloom of luxurious contentment. The
other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and secretly resolved to
acquire it shortly. Presently Huck said:
What does pirates have to do?
Tom said:
Oh, they have just a bully time take ships and burn them, and get the
money and bury it in awful places in their island where there s ghosts
and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships make em walk a
plank.
And they carry the women to the island, said Joe; they don t kill the
women.
No, assented Tom, they don t kill the women they re too noble. And
the women s always beautiful, too.
And don t they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver
and di monds, said Joe, with enthusiasm.
Who? said Huck.
Why, the pirates.
Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly.
I reckon I ain t dressed fitten for a pirate, said he, with a
regretful pathos in his voice; but I ain t got none but these.
But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough,
after they should have begun their adventures. They made him understand
that his poor rags would do to begin with, though it was customary for
wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the
eyelids of the little waifs. The pipe dropped from the fingers of the
Red-Handed, and he slept the sleep of the conscience-free and the weary.
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