Page:The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).pdf/441

418 wher' 'tis. Don't tell me, s'I; there wus help, s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a plenty help, too, s'l; ther's ben a dozen a-helpin' that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on this place, but I'd find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s’I—"

"A dozen says you!—forty couldn't a done everything that's been done. Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been made; lock at that bed-leg saved off with 'm, a week's work for six men; look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed, and look at—"

"You may well say it, Brer Hightower! It's jist as I was a-sayin' to Brer Phelps, his own self. S'e, what do you think of it, Sister Hotchkiss, s'e? think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I? think o' that bed-leg kawed off that a way, s'e? think of it, s'I? I lay it never sawed itself off, s'I—somebody sawed it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it or leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my opinion, s'I, 'n' if anybody k’n start a better one, s'I, let him do it, s'I, that's all. I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I—"

"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there every night for four weeks, to a done all that work, Sister Phelps. Look at that shirt—every last inch of it kivered over with secret African writ'n done with blood! Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all the time, amost. Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' as for the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lush 'm t'll—"

"People to help him, Brother Marples! Well, I reckon you'd think so, if you'd a been in this house for a while back. Why, they've stole everything they could lay their hands on—and we a watching, all the time, mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that sheet they made the rag ladder out of ther' ain't no telling how many times they didn't steal that; and flour, and candles, and candlesticks, and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand things