“Well, what did come of it, Jim?”
“Nuffn never come of it. I couldn’
manage to k’leck dat money no way; en Balum
he couldn’. I ain’ gwyne to len’
no mo’ money ’dout I see de security.
Boun’ to git yo’ money back a hund’d
times, de preacher says! Ef I could git de ten
cents back, I’d call it squah, en be glad
er de chanst.”
“Well, it’s all right anyway, Jim, long
as you’re going to be rich again some time or
other.”
“Yes; en I’s rich now, come to look at
it. I owns mysef, en I’s wuth eight hund’d
dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn’
want no mo’.”
I wanted to go and look at a place right about
the middle of the island that I’d found when
I was exploring; so we started and soon got to it,
because the island was only three miles long and a
quarter of a mile wide.
This place was a tolerable long, steep hill or ridge
about forty foot high. We had a rough time getting
to the top, the sides was so steep and the bushes
so thick. We tramped and clumb around all over
it, and by and by found a good big cavern in the rock,
most up to the top on the side towards Illinois.
The cavern was as big as two or three rooms bunched
together, and Jim could stand up straight in it.
It was cool in there. Jim was for putting our
traps in there right away, but I said we didn’t
want to be climbing up and down there all the time.
Jim said if we had the canoe hid in a good place,
and had all the traps in the cavern, we could rush
there if anybody was to come to the island, and they
would never find us without dogs. And, besides,
he said them little birds had said it was going to
rain, and did I want the things to get wet?
So we went back and got the canoe, and paddled up
abreast the cavern, and lugged all the traps up there.
Then we hunted up a place close by to hide the canoe
in, amongst the thick willows. We took some fish
off of the lines and set them again, and begun to
get ready for dinner.
The door of the cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead
in, and on one side of the door the floor stuck out
a little bit, and was flat and a good place to build
a fire on. So we built it there and cooked dinner.
We spread the blankets inside for a carpet, and eat
our dinner in there. We put all the other things
handy at the back of the cavern. Pretty soon
it darkened up, and begun to thunder and lighten; so
the birds was right about it. Directly it begun
to rain, and it rained like all fury, too, and I never
see the wind blow so. It was one of these regular
summer storms. It would get so dark that it
looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the
rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees
off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby; and
here would come a blast of wind that would bend the
trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves;
