in and
pretty soon we had dinner and went out.

They took us to a ball game. You had to pay to get in. Nobody could look
over or look through the fence. It was all different from what it was at
home. And there was a pitcher there who looked like the pictures of
Edgar Allan Poe, and he could throw a curve clear around the batter
right into the catcher's hand. I saw him. And the score was three to
nothin,' not 18 to 25 as I had seen it at home.

And in the evening there was a torchlight procession for Cleveland, and
bands, and banners, and big pictures of Cleveland. "Look at him," said
John, "can't you see he wears a 18 collar?"

"Yes," says pa, "but no 6-7/8 hat."

"Wal," says John, "they've fixed the picture up." So then we went to
where a man made a speech. I forget his name, but he was a great man.
And he talked for more'n an hour, and finally got down to the fall of
Rome. And he says, "What made Rome fall? They tariff." And John says,
"That ain't the way they tell it to me. They say Caesar made Rome fall.
That's what I've always heard. And I don't believe it was the tariff. It
couldn't be." So pa says, "Listen to him, John." But John was kind of
restless and seemed to get a little mad. Then we went back to the hotel
and went to bed. And the next night the Colonel took all of us to a
minstrel show where they sang "Angel Gabriel." And the next morning we
got on the boat and pulled out. For where do you suppose? Why, up the
Mississippi. Yes, we saw her when we came in, but now we saw her for
miles and miles--wonderful, more'n a mile wide. And Mitch could hardly
speak, nor could I. And where do you suppose we was going? Why, to
Hannibal, to Tom's town. After all our waitin', after trying to run away
to see Tom Sawyer, here we was actually goin' there with our pas, and
John Armstrong, and the Colonel.

It turned out this way. We got to Hannibal, and the Colonel stayed with
the boat and John; and we said good-by and went over into town. The plan
was for us to cross the river from Hannibal over to Illinois, and there
take the Wabash train to Jacksonville and then home from there.

Mitch's pa began to make some inquiries and then we started for some
place. And pretty soon I looked up and saw a big sign "Tom Sawyer."
"Look, Mitch," says I. And he looked and stopped and our pas went on.
This sign was over a butcher shop. And I said: "Can it be true, Mitch,
that Tom Sawyer is keepin' a butcher shop? Is he old enough? And