ong
while. Then he looked at Mitch and back again at me. And he says: "Ain't
you the son of States Attorney Kirby?" He got me so quick I couldn't say
nothin', so I says, "Yes, sir." "Wal," says he, "I thought so. You look
like him. And I believe you boys are runnin' away. I think I'll turn you
over to the policeman."

So I stood there and said to myself, "It's ended--we're done." And I was
so scared I couldn't move. And just then Mitch began to talk, and he
says: "You can't, because we just talked to him ourselves, and asked him
about the boat, and he's gone home to supper, and he knows us and knows
where we're visitin' with my aunt here in Havaner. And if you don't want
to tell us when the boat comes in so we can go down and look at her and
really see a steamboat, all right."

Just then the bus backed up to the hotel and a lot of men got out with
satchels and came hurryin' in and writin' their names in the book and
gettin' rooms and things--and while the clerk was flustered with this
business, we sneaked out.

[Illustration: "Ain't You the Son of States Attorney Kirby?"]

So then we was pretty hungry and we went back to the river, I don't know
just why. But we came to the fisherman's boat again, where the woman was
cookin' supper, and said she, "Did you find out when the boat comes?"
And we said no, but we asked her if we could have some fried fish for a
nickel and she says "yes," and asked us in, and so Mitch and me sat with
the fambly and looked out of the little winder at the river and et all
the cat fish we wanted, with corn bread and onions and things. There was
a baby at the table and his nose kept runnin' and his ma just let it;
and besides there was a little girl with hands as little as a bird's and
black eyes and a pig tail, which made her hair as tight around her head
as a drum; and besides them, two boys and a man who boarded there and
the husband. And we could see the bed to one side and some cots. They
all lived here together, right on the river, with the mosquitoes and the
flies, which was awful. And at supper the man said: "Now ain't it funny
that nobody can tell about the boat! She's comin' in to-night from St.
Louis and will land about 11, like she allus does. And she goes back
to-morrow, or the next day, I forget which. Sometimes she changes her
schedule and don't go back till Saturday--and sometimes they get up an
excursion here to go up to Copperas Creek, and then she don't go back
until that's