e of the river,
and the duke and the king begun to lay out a plan for working them
towns. Jim he spoke to the duke, and said he hoped it wouldn't take
but a few hours, because it got mighty heavy and tiresome to him when
he had to lay all day in the wigwam tied with the rope. You see, when
we left him all alone we had to tie him, because if anybody happened
on to him all by himself and not tied it wouldn't look much like he
was a runaway nigger, you know. So the duke said it _was_ kind of hard
to have to lay roped all day, and he'd cipher out some way to get
around it.

He was uncommon bright, the duke was, and he soon struck it. He
dressed Jim up in King Lear's outfit--it was a long curtain-calico
gown, and a white horse-hair wig and whiskers; and then he took his
theater paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all
over a dead, dull solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine
days. Blamed if he warn't the horriblest-looking outrage I ever see.
Then the duke took and wrote out a sign on a shingle so:

_Sick Arab--but harmless when not out of his head._

And he nailed that shingle to a lath, and stood the lath up four or
five foot in front of the wigwam. Jim was satisfied. He said it was a
sight better than lying tied a couple of years every day, and
trembling all over every time there was a sound. The duke told him to
make himself free and easy, and if anybody ever come meddling around,
he must hop out of the wigwam, and carry on a little, and fetch a howl
or two like a wild beast, and he reckoned they would light out and
leave him alone. Which was sound enough judgment; but you take the
average man, and he wouldn't wait for him to howl. Why, he didn't only
look like he was dead, he looked considerable more than that.

These rapscallions wanted to try the Nonesuch again, because there was
so much money in it, but they judged it wouldn't be safe, because
maybe the news might 'a' worked along down by this time. They couldn't
hit no project that suited exactly; so at last the duke said he
reckoned he'd lay off and work his brains an hour or two and see if he
couldn't put up something on the Arkansaw village; and the king he
allowed he would drop over to t'other village without any plan, but
just trust in Providence to lead him the profitable way--meaning the
devil, I reckon. We had all bought store clothes where we stopped
last; and now the king put his'n on, and he told me to put mine on. I
done