'most all the time, and it's such a heavy load for a person. I
hate them newspapers; and I hate letters; and if I had my way I wouldn't
allow nobody to load his troubles on to other folks he ain't acquainted
with, on t'other side of the world, that way. Well, up in a balloon
there ain't any of that, and it's the darlingest place there is.

We had supper, and that night was one of the prettiest nights I ever
see. The moon made it just like daylight, only a heap softer; and once
we see a lion standing all alone by himself, just all alone on the
earth, it seemed like, and his shadder laid on the sand by him like a
puddle of ink. That's the kind of moonlight to have.

Mainly we laid on our backs and talked; we didn't want to go to sleep.
Tom said we was right in the midst of the Arabian Nights now. He said
it was right along here that one of the cutest things in that book
happened; so we looked down and watched while he told about it, because
there ain't anything that is so interesting to look at as a place that a
book has talked about. It was a tale about a camel-driver that had lost
his camel, and he come along in the desert and met a man, and says:

"Have you run across a stray camel to-day?"

And the man says:

"Was he blind in his left eye?"

"Yes."

"Had he lost an upper front tooth?"

"Yes."

"Was his off hind leg lame?"

"Yes."

"Was he loaded with millet-seed on one side and honey on the other?"

"Yes, but you needn't go into no more details--that's the one, and I'm
in a hurry. Where did you see him?"

"I hain't seen him at all," the man says.

"Hain't seen him at all? How can you describe him so close, then?"

"Because when a person knows how to use his eyes, everything has got a
meaning to it; but most people's eyes ain't any good to them. I knowed a
camel had been along, because I seen his track. I knowed he was lame in
his off hind leg because he had favored that foot and trod light on it,
and his track showed it. I knowed he was blind on his left side because
he only nibbled the grass on the right side of the trail. I knowed he
had lost an upper front tooth because where he bit into the sod his
teeth-print showed it. The millet-seed sifted out on one side--the ants
told me that; the honey leaked out on the other--the flies told me that.
I know all about your camel, but I hain't seen him."

Jim says:

"Go on, Mars Tom, hit's a mighty good tale, and powerful interestin'."

"That's all," T