y ain' no sense in sich doin's as dat. De
'spute warn't 'bout a half a chile, de 'spute was 'bout a whole chile;
en de man dat think he kin settle a 'spute 'bout a whole chile wid a
half a chile doan' know enough to come in out'n de rain. Doan' talk to
me 'bout Sollermun, Huck, I knows him by de back."

"But I tell you you don't get the point."

"Blame de point! I reck'n I knows what I knows. En mine you, de _real_
pint furder--it's down deeper. It lays in de way Sollermun was raised.
You take a man dat's got on'y one or two chillen; is dat man gwyne to
be waseful o' chillen? No, he ain't; he can't 'ford it. _He_ know how
to value 'em. But you take a man dat's got 'bout five million chillen
runnin' roun' de house, en it's diffunt. _He_ as soon chop a chile in
two as a cat. Dey's plenty mo'. A chile er two, mo' er less, warn't no
consekens to Sollermun, dad fetch him!"

I never see such a nigger. If he got a notion in his head once, there
warn't no getting it out again. He was the most down on Solomon of any
nigger I ever see. So I went to talking about other kings, and let
Solomon slide. I told about Louis Sixteenth that got his head cut off
in France long time ago; and about his little boy the dolphin, that
would 'a' been a king, but they took and shut him up in jail, and some
say he died there.

"Po' little chap."

"But some says he got out and got away, and come to America."

"Dat's good! But he'll be pooty lonesome--dey ain' no kings here, is
dey, Huck?"

"No."

"Den he cain't git no situation. What he gwyne to do?"

"Well, I don't know. Some of them gets on the police, and some of them
learns people how to talk French."

"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?"

"_No_, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said--not a single
word."

"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?"

"_I_ don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a
book. S'pose a man was to come to you and say Polly-voo-franzy--what
would you think?"

"I wouldn' think nuffn; I'd take en bust him over de head--dat is, if
he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat."

"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying, do you know
how to talk French?"

"Well, den, why couldn't he _say_ it?"

"Why, he _is_ a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's _way_ of saying it."

"Well, it's a blame ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo'
'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."

"Look