n in, nor him,
neither, for it was colder'n sin. We was good and tired. Broad
sun-up when we woke.

"Percival, he flew around like a cock-sparrer. Happy! The Lord
save us! He sung little hymns, and trotted every step he took, his
sun-burnt little nose gleamin' with joy. It done you good to look
at him. I took as much pride in him as though he was my sister's
eldest--taught him to do this and that, till he was fit to bust
with the glory of bein' such a camper. And forty times a day he'd
explain to me how glad he was that I'd been his guide; how much
he'd have missed otherwise. I suppose them yarns I told him had
added to his romantic ideas about living uncomfortably
out-of-doors, but every time he said it I felt mean again.

"Still, Satan mischief always finds for idle hands to do. After
about five days of loafin' I turned the conversation to the
uncertainty of things in general; we talked a good deal about it.
I gradual come to particulars, and producin' a pack of
playin'-cards, proceeded to show Percival how odd five of 'em dealt
at a time would come out. He was interested, and I suggested that
he sh'd take five, too, and he did; and the first thing you know I
had everything that Percival owned, owin' to his misjudging the way
them cards would fall. Then we divided again and went at it. At
the end of the next week I was proud of Percival. He fronted me
out of a plump jackpot without a tremble of a gray whisker, but, to
save me, I couldn't get him to play cards. He said it was wicked
and led to gamblin'--I dunno but what he's right at that. We had
lots of fun with the Uncertainty of Things, anyhow, and saved our
morals.

"At the end of three weeks us two was twin brothers. Old Percy
told me in confidence he hadn't had a real friend for years before.
And I liked him, you bet. We all has got our faults--why, even
Mrs. Scraggs isn't free from 'em--but you scratch them off the top
of Percival and you found a white man--the most trusting little
critter in God and man, the kindest-hearted and the best-natured
that ever lived. Honest, I couldn't sleep nights sometimes,
thinking of the lies I told him, and if I'd never slept I couldn't
'a' quit--it was like leaving a starvin' nigger in charge of a
hencoop.

"So things ambled along--not a jar. No rain, no crawling thing to
spoil our fun, till one day just before dinner--Percy and me
sittin' there with the blankets between us and our beans counted
out