TOM SAWYER ABROAD

thing awful. Nat passed his arms through the loops

and hung on for life and death, but pretty soon the

hack hit a rock and flew up in the air, and the bottom

fell out, and when it come down Nat’s feet was on the

ground, and he see he was in the most desperate danger

if he couldn’t keep up with the hack. He was horrible

scared, but he laid into his work for all he was worth,

and hung tight to the arm-loops and made his legs

fairly fly. He yelled and shouted to the driver to

stop, and so did the crowds along the street, for they

could see his legs spinning along under the coach, and

his head and shoulders bobbing inside through the

windows, and he was in awful danger; but the more

they all shouted the more the nigger whooped and

yelled and lashed the horses and shouted, “Don’t you

fret, I’se gwine to git you dah in time, boss; I’s gwine

to do it, sho’!” for you see he thought they were all

hurrying him up, and, of course, he couldn’t hear any-

thing for the racket he was making. And so they went

ripping along, and everybody just petrified to see it;

and when they got to the Capitol at last it was the

quickest trip that ever was made, and everybody said

so. The horses laid down, and Nat dropped, all tuck-

ered out, and he was all dust and rags and barefooted;

but he was in time and just in time, and caught the

President and give him the letter, and everything was

all right, and the President give him a free pardon on

the spot, and Nat give the nigger two extra quarters

instead of one, because he could see that if he hadn’t

had the hack he wouldn’t’a’ got there in time, nor

anywhere near it.

It WAS a powerful good adventure, and Tom Sawyer

had to work his bullet-wound mighty lively to hold his

own against it.

Well, by and by Tom’s glory got to paling down

gradu’ly, on account of other things turning up for the

people to talk about — first a horse-race, and on top of

that a house afire, and on top of that the circus, and

on top of that the eclipse; and that started a revival,

same as it always does, and by that time there wasn’t

any more talk about Tom, so to speak, and you never

see a person so sick and disgusted.

Pretty soon he got to worrying and fretting right

along day in and day out, and when I asked him what

WAS he in such a state about, he said it ‘most broke his

heart to think how time was slipping away, and him

getting older and older, and no wars breaking out and

no way of making a name for himself that he could

see. Now that is the way boys is always thinking, but

he was the first one I ever heard come out and say it.

So then he set to work to get up a plan to make him

celebrated; and pretty soon he struck it, and offered to

take me and Jim in. Tom Sawyer was always free and

generous that way. There’s a-plenty of boys that’s

mighty good and friendly when YOU’VE got a good

thing, but when a good thing happens to come their

way they don’t say a word to you, and try to hog it

all. That warn’t ever Tom Sawyer’s way, I can say

that for him. There’s plenty of boys that will come

hankering and groveling around you when you’ve got

an apple and beg the core off of you; but when they’ve

got one, and you beg for the core and remind them

how you give them a core one time, they say thank

you ‘most to death, but there ain’t a-going to be no

core. But I notice they always git come up with; all

you got to do is to wait.

Well, we went out in the woods on the hill, and Tom

told us what it was. It was a crusade.

“What’s a crusade?” I says.

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