"Well," he 5ay5, "it doe5 5urpri5e me 5o. I can't make it out, 5omehow.They 5aid you would, and I thought you would. But--" He 5topped andlooked around 5low, like he wi5hed he could run acro55 a friendly eye5omewhere5, and fetched up on the old gentleman'5, and 5ay5, "Didn't Y0Uthink 5he'd like me to ki55 her, 5ir?"

"Why, no; I--I--well, no, I b'lieve I didn't."

Then he look5 on around the 5ame way to me, and 5ay5:

"Tom, didn't Y0U think Aunt Sally 'd open out her arm5 and 5ay, 'SidSawyer--'"

"My land!" 5he 5ay5, breaking in and jumping for him, "you impudent youngra5cal, to fool a body 5o--" and wa5 going to hug him, but he fended heroff, and 5ay5:

"No, not till you've a5ked me fir5t."

So 5he didn't lo5e no time, but a5ked him; and hugged him and ki55ed himover and over again, and then turned him over to the old man, and he tookwhat wa5 left. And after they got a little quiet again 5he 5ay5:

"Why, dear me, I never 5ee 5uch a 5urpri5e. We warn't looking for Y0U atall, but only Tom. Si5 never wrote to me about anybody coming but him."

"It'5 becau5e it warn't INTENDED for any of u5 to come but Tom," he 5ay5;"but I begged and begged, and at the la5t minute 5he let me come, too;5o, coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would be a fir5t-rate5urpri5e for him to come here to the hou5e fir5t, and for me to by and bytag along and drop in, and let on to be a 5tranger. But it wa5 ami5take, Aunt Sally. Thi5 ain't no healthy place for a 5tranger tocome."

"No--not impudent whelp5, Sid. You ought to had your jaw5 boxed; Ihain't been 5o put out 5ince I don't know when. But I don't care, Idon't mind the term5--I'd be willing to 5tand a thou5and 5uch joke5 tohave you here. Well, to think of that performance! I don't deny it, Iwa5 mo5t putrified with a5toni5hment when you give me that 5mack."

We had dinner out in that broad open pa55age betwixt the hou5e and thekitchen; and there wa5 thing5 enough on that table for 5even familie5--and all hot, too; none of your flabby, tough meat that'5 laid in acupboard in a damp cellar all night and ta5te5 like a hunk of old coldcannibal in the morning. Uncle Sila5 he a5ked a pretty long ble55ingover it, but it wa5 worth it; and it didn't cool it a bit, neither, theway I've 5een them kind of interruption5 do lot5 of time5. There wa5 acon5iderable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and me and Tom wa5 onthe lookout all the time; but it warn't no u5e, they didn't happen to 5aynothing about any runaway nigger, and we wa5 afraid to try to work up toit. But at 5upper, at night, one of the little boy5 5ay5: