n miles distant and there wasn't any more creeks to cross before
he got there, and then saw him disappear in the woods. He stood for some
moments gazing at the place where he had last been seen, and then
shouldered his axe and turned away.

"Dat's a mighty slick little rascal," said he, as he wended his course
back to his camp--"a mighty slick little rascal. I don't reckon I'd best
say anything to moster about it; and as for Pomp--I won't say anything
to him, either. He'll leave me to cut rails alone if I do dat."

"My first adventure," muttered Tom, as he hastened along the narrow
ridge that led him toward the Mississippi. "That old darky believes, as
much as he believes anything, that the little money I had in my boot was
the cause of my being spilled into the drink; but it is all honest
money, every bit of it."

The sun grew hot as he went along, and by changing his coat and vest
from one arm to the other, and by turning his money over in his hands to
keep the wet bills on the outside, he gradually removed the effects of
his cold plunge, so that long before he arrived at the point where the
negroes were chopping he could tell them that he had started for the
landing on horseback, but that his nag had thrown him and he was obliged
to continue his journey on foot. He also tried to eat a little of the
lunch with which the darky had provided him, but the johnny cake and
bacon were wet, and after a few mouthfuls he dropped the remainder
behind the log on which he was sitting.

The negroes who were cutting wood for the supply of steamers that were
plying up and down the river belonged to the man who owned the yard. As
there were probably a dozen of them in all engaged in chopping wood all
the time, their employer could afford a white man to oversee their work
and the teams, but he seemed to have nothing to do but to sit on a log
and whittle a stick. He listened good-naturedly to Tom's story, and told
him where he could go to find the camp. The largest house in it was his,
and he would probably find books and papers enough to amuse him until he
came in from his work. The _Jennie June_ would probably be the next
steamer that would stop at the landing for wood, and she would be along
some time during the night.

"I think that books and papers occupy the most of your time," said Tom
to himself, as he started away in obedience to these instructions. "If I
were a negro, I don't know any better job than having you for an
ove