ubt about the thing's gender. The log kep
makin' circles as it drifted, an' when the varmint kim round into a
different light, I caught a glimp o' its eyes. I knew them eyes to be
no bar's eyes: they wur painter's eyes, an' no mistake.

"I reckin, strengers, I felt very queery jest about then. I didn't try
to go any nearer the middle o' the log; but instead of that, I wriggled
back until I wur right plum on the eend of it, an' could git no further.

"Thur I sot for a good long spell 'ithout movin' hand or foot. I
dasen't make a motion, as I wur afeard it mout tempt the varmint to
attackt me.

"I hed no weepun but my knife; I hed let go o' my rifle when I slid from
the mar's back, an' it hed gone to the bottom long since. I wan't in
any condition to stand a tussle with the painter nohow; so I 'wur
determined to let him alone as long's he ud me.

"Wal, we drifted on for a good hour, I guess, 'ithout eyther o' us
stirrin'. We sot face to face; an' now an' then the current ud set the
log in a sort o' up-an'-down motion, an' then the painter an' I kep
bowin' to each other like a pair o' bob-sawyers. I could see all the
while that the varmint's eyes wur fixed upon mine, an' I never tuk mine
from hisn; I know'd 'twur the only way to keep him still.

"I wur jest prospectin' what ud be the eendin' o' the business, when I
seed we wur a-gettin' closter to the timmer: 'twan't more 'n two miles
off, but 'twur all under water 'ceptin' the tops o' the trees. I wur
thinkin' that when the log shed float in among the branches, I mout slip
off, an' git my claws upon a tree, 'ithout sayin anythin' to my
travellin' companion.

"Jest at that minnit somethin' appeared dead ahead o' the log. It wur
like a island; but what could hev brought a island thur? Then I
recollects that I hed seed a piece o' high ground about that part o' the
parairy--a sort o' mound that hed been made by Injuns, I s'pose. This,
then, that looked like a island, wur the top o' that mound, sure enough.

"The log wur a-driftin' in sich a way that I seed it must pass within
twenty yards o' the mound. I detarmined then, as soon as we shed git
alongside, to put out for it, an' leave the painter to continue his
voyage 'ithout me.

"When I fust sighted the island I seed somethin' that; hed tuk for
bushes. But thur wan't no bushes on the mound--that I knowd.

"Howsomdever, when we got a leetle closter, I diskivered that the bushes
wur beests. They wur dee