Brant, an' pass yourself off as an Onondaga?"

"No, I wuzn't," replied the shiftless one thoughtfully, "I've
been wuss scared over little things. I guess that when your life
depends on jest a motion o' your hand or the turnin' o' a word,
Natur' somehow comes to your help an' holds you up. I didn't get
good an' skeered till it wuz all over, an' then I had one fit
right after another."

"I've been skeered fur a week without stoppin'," said Tom Ross;
"jest beginnin' to git over it. I tell you, Henry, it wuz
pow'ful lucky fur us you found them steppin' stones, an' this
solid little place in the middle uv all that black mud."

"Makes me think uv the time we spent the winter on that island
in the lake," said Long Jim. "That waz shorely a nice place an'
pow'ful comf'table we wuz thar. But we're a long way from it
now. That island uv ours must be seven or eight hundred miles
from here, an' I reckon it's nigh to fifteen hundred to New
Orleans, whar we wuz once."

"Shet up," said Tom Ross suddenly. "Time fur all uv you to go to
sleep, an' I'm goin' to watch."

"I'll watch," said Henry.

"I'm the oldest, an' I'm goin' to have my way this time," said
Tom.

"Needn't quarrel with me about it," said Shif'less Sol. "A lazy