And as for --"
He forgot he was talking, and went tramping along,
studying. He begun to get excited again, and pretty
soon he says:
"Huck, it'll be the bulliest thing that ever happened
if we find the body after everybody else has quit look-
ing, and then go ahead and hunt up the murderer. It
won't only be an honor to us, but it'll be an honor to
Uncle Silas because it was us that done it. It'll set
him up again, you see if it don't."
But Old Jeff Hooker he throwed cold water on the
whole business when we got to his blacksmith shop and
told him what we come for.
"You can take the dog," he says, "but you ain't
a-going to find any corpse, because there ain't any
corpse to find. Everybody's quit looking, and they're
right. Soon as they come to think, they knowed there
warn't no corpse. And I'll tell you for why. What
does a person kill another person for, Tom Sawyer? --
answer me that."
"Why, he -- er --"
"Answer up! You ain't no fool. What does he kill
him FOR?"
"Well, sometimes it's for revenge, and --"
"Wait. One thing at a time. Revenge, says you;
and right you are. Now who ever had anything agin
that poor trifling no-account? Who do you reckon
would want to kill HIM? -- that rabbit!"
Tom was stuck. I reckon he hadn't thought of a
person having to have a REASON for killing a person be-
fore, and now he sees it warn't likely anybody would
have that much of a grudge against a lamb like Jubiter
Dunlap.
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