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Show 8-! Till!) ADVENTURES OF IIUCKLEBERRl~ FIN.. \.- .-_ way myself, though I've alway· reckoned that looking aL the new moon over your left shoulder i one of the careles e t and fooli ·best things a body can do. Old IIank Bunker done it once, and bragg d about it; and in less than two year: he got drunk and £ ll off of th~ shot tower and spread him elf out 0 that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him eclgeway between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried hitn so, o they say, bnt I eli ln't see it Pap told 1ne. But anyvv·ay, it all co1n of looking at the n1oon that way, like a fool. ,, ... ell, the days went along, and tho river \vent down bet, veen it bank again ; and about the fir t thing we done was to bait one ()f the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a cat-fish that was as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pouncl '· \Ye ,c,oTu l•d n't handl hi1n, of conrse; he would a flu nO' us into lllinoi . b e JUSt set there and watched hitn rip and tear around till he drownded. 'y e found a bra button in his stomach, and a round ball, and lot of rubbagc. 'y e ~plit the ball open with the hatchet, and there was a spool iu it. Jim said he'cl had it there a long time, to coat it over .'O and 1nake a ball of it. Tt was as big a fi 'h as 'vas ever catched in the l\1ississippi I reckon · J 1· m al·( l 11 e l1 ad n ' t ever seen a b1· gger one. He would n. been worth a good deal over at the village. They pechlle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market hou.·e there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as ·now and makes a good fry. Next morning I said it was g tting slow and dull, and I wanted t? get a stirring up, so1ne wa;r. I said I reckoned 1 'v.o uld. shp over the rive r an d fi n d out what was going on. J 1m hked that notion '· but h e sa1' d I must go 1. n the dark and look sharp. Then he studied it over and said, Couldn't I put on some of lliem old things and dress up like a girl ? That J ..V. DISG UL 'h"'. '8J was a good notion, too. So \Ve shortened up one of the calico gowns and I turned up 1ny trow er-legs to my knees and got into it. Jim hitched it behind \vith the hooks, and it wa. a fair fit. I put on the sun-bonnet and tied it und r my chin, and then for a body to look in and s e my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe. Ji1n said nobody would know 1ne, even in the daytime, hardly. I practi ·ed around Hll dny to g t -~ _ .. ! ~~ ' 1 , ' I /' \VI ·'A FALl~ Jo'lT." the hang of the things, a11d hy-and-hy I could do pretty \Yell in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britch pocket. I took notice, and done b tt r. I started up the Illinois shor in the canoe ju L after dark. I . tarted aero s to th town fro1n a little below the f rry landing, and the drift of th nrrent fetch d me in at the |
