We told him all he'd got to do was to keep still,
and it wouldn't be long till the whole thing would blow
over and be forgot. We all said there wouldn't any-
body ever suspect Uncle Silas, nor ever dream of such
a thing, he being so good and kind, and having such a
good character; and Tom says, cordial and hearty, he
says:
"Why, just look at it a minute; just consider.
Here is Uncle Silas, all these years a preacher -- at his
own expense; all these years doing good with all his
might and every way he can think of -- at his own ex-
pense, all the time; always been loved by everybody,
and respected; always been peaceable and minding his
own business, the very last man in this whole deestrict
to touch a person, and everybody knows it. Suspect
HIM? Why, it ain't any more possible than --"
"By authority of the State of Arkansaw, I arrest
you for the murder of Jubiter Dunlap!" shouts the
sheriff at the door.
It was awful. Aunt Sally and Benny flung themselves
at Uncle Silas, screaming and crying, and hugged him
and hung to him, and Aunt Sally said go away, she
wouldn't ever give him up, they shouldn't have him,
and the niggers they come crowding and crying to the
door and -- well, I couldn't stand it; it was enough to
break a person's heart; so I got out.
They took him up to the little one-horse jail in the
village, and we all went along to tell him good-bye;
and Tom was feeling elegant, and says to me, "We'll
have a most noble good time and heaps of danger some
dark night getting him out of there, Huck, and it'll be
talked about everywheres and we will be celebrated;"
but the old man busted that scheme up the minute he
whispered to him about it.
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