was in a sweat to get away; but
nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands
and knees, and play something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good
while, everything was so still and lonesome.

As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden
fence, and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other
side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and
hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he
didn't wake. Afterward Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him
in a trance, and rode him all over the state, and then set him under
the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And
next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and,
after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by
and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to
death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud
about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers.
Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more
looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would
stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was
a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the
kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all
about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know
'bout witches?" and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back
seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a
string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own
hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches
whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never
told what it was he said to it. Niggers would come from all around
there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that
five-center piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had
had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant, because he got
stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches.

Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away
down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling,
where there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling
ever so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile
broad, and awful still and grand. We went down th