up his mind which one
for Jim to scrabble onto the wall, they was all so good; but at last
he allowed he would let him scrabble them all on. Jim said it would
take him a year to scrabble such a lot of truck onto the logs with a
nail, and he didn't know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he
would block them out for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do
but just follow the lines. Then pretty soon he says:

"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log
walls in a dungeon: we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock. We'll
fetch a rock." Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it
would take him such a pison long time to dig them into a rock he
wouldn't ever get out. But Tom said he would let me help him do it.
Then he took a look to see how me and Jim was getting along with the
pens. It was most pesky tedious hard work and slow, and didn't give my
hands no show to get well of the sores, and we didn't seem to make no
headway, hardly; so Tom says:

"I know how to fix it. We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and
mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock.
There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it,
and carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it,
too."

It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a
grindstone nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it. It warn't quite
midnight yet, so we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work. We
smouched the grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a
most nation tough job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep
her from falling over, and she come mighty near mashing us every time.
Tom said she was going to get one of us, sure, before we got through.
We got her halfway; and then we was plumb played out, and most
drownded with sweat. We see it warn't no use; we got to go and fetch
Jim. So he raised up his bed and slid the chain off of the bed-leg,
and wrapt it round and round his neck, and we crawled out through our
hole and down there, and Jim and me laid into that grindstone and
walked her along like nothing; and Tom superintended. He could
out-superintend any boy I ever see. He knowed how to do everything.

Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the
grindstone through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big
enough. Then Tom marked out them things on it with the nail, and set
Jim to work on them, with the