best. But the top
wouldn't budge. Mitch picked up the poker by the stove and says, "Hit it
with this, Mrs. Ruddy." And she says, "I'll break the jar. Just wait,
I'll set it in some hot water for a bit and then it'll come off." So she
disappeared with the jar. And while she was gone the conductor came in
and yelled, "All aboard." And pa laid down some money and we ran for the
train. Just as we was all on the platform and the train begin to move,
Mrs. Ruddy came to the station door and said somethin'. John began to
snicker and laugh, and says to pa, "Did you hear what she said--by God,
she says it's off--let's go back and have some jell."

This time when we got to Havaner we rode in the bus, Mitch with the
driver in front; and we rode pretty near down to the river's edge. And
there was the _City of Peoria_, all steamed up, smoke comin' out of her
stacks, and ready to go. We got on and there was Colonel Lambkin,
talking to the captain and the same fat man. And when the Colonel see my
pa, he smiled all over his face and got up and came over and shook his
hand, and put his arm around him and says, "You look a little peaked,
Hardy. We'll give you some rations that'll fatten you up. Whar's your
fiddle?" he says to John. John hadn't brought it; but by and by an
orchestra came on board, a man with a guitar and another with a fiddle,
and so we had music all the way. Colonel Lambkin seemed to just own the
boat. We steamed off after a bit and it was moonlight, and Mitch and me
sat on deck and watched the river, and the shores and everything we
could see. By and by Mitch said: "Do you remember when we were here and
lay on top of that shed and I told you about losin' Zueline, and that
there was somethin' else in my mind?"

"Yes," says I.

"Well," says Mitch, "you know what it was now, don't you?"

"I think so," says I.

"Of course it was that Rainey murder and findin' that pistol. And I'd
like to ask you, Skeet, if you think I dreamed that."

"No," says I.

"Well," says Mitch, "that lawyer did twist me around and he did make a
wonderful speech agin me. It sounded like the characters in Shakespeare
where one says something and you think that ends it; and then the other
says something and it has a different look altogether and seems truer
than what the other one said. But I hope to drop dead this minute,
Skeet, and fall into the river and be et by the fish if every word I
said ain't as true as the gospel."

"I know it," says