MINERVA

f the towel, I bet!” “Well, I would. My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it.” “Say, Tom, did you see that box?” “Huck, I didn’t wait to look around. I didn’t see the box, I didn’t see the cross. I didn’t see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the room. Don’t you see, now, what’s the matter with that ha’nted room?” “How?” “Why, it’s ha’nted with whiskey! Maybe _all_ the Temperance Taverns have got a ha’nted room, hey, Huck?” “Well, I reckon maybe that’s so. Who’d ’a’ thought such a thing? But say, Tom, now’s a mighty good time to get that box, if Injun Joe’s drunk.” “It is, that! You try it!” Huck shuddered. “Well, no—I reckon not.” “And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe ain’t enough. If there’d been three, he’d be drunk enough and I’d do it.” There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom said: “Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any more till we know Injun Joe’s not in there. It’s too scary. Now, if we watch every night, we’ll be dead sure to see him go out, some time or other, and then we’ll snatch that box quicker’n lightning.” “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 moment, and Becky took the chief place in the boy’s interest. He saw her and they had an exhausting good time playing “hispy” and “gully-keeper” with a crowd of their schoolmates. The day was completed and crowned in a peculiarly satisfactory way: Becky teased her mother to appoint the next day for the long-promised and long-delayed picnic, and she consented. The child’s delight was boundless; and Tom’s not more moderate. The invitations were sent out before sunset, and straightway the young folks of the village were thrown into a fever of preparation and pleasurable anticipation. Tom’s excitement enabled him to keep awake until a pretty late hour, and he had good hopes of hearing Huck’s “maow,” and of