.FRESCOES FROM THE PAST. 37
' No,' eays Big Bob,' less get out the paint-pot and paint him a sty blue
all over from head to heel, and then heave him over!'
' Good 1 that's it. Go for the paint, Jimmy.'
When the paint come, and Bob took the brush and was just going to
begin, the others laughing and rubbing their hands, I begun to cry, and that
sort of worked on Davy, and he says—
"Vast there! He's nothing but a cub. 'Ill paint the man that
tetches him!'
So I looked around on them, and some of them grumbled and growled,
and Bob put down the paint, and the others did n't take it up.
6 Come here to the fire, and less see what you're up to here,* says Davy.
* Now set down there and give an account of yourselfc How long have you
been aboard here ? *
' Not over a quarter of a minute, sir,' says L
* How did you get dry so quick ?'
' I don't know, sir. I'm always that way, mostly/
* Oh, you are, are you ? What's your name ? '
I warn't going to tell my name. I didn't know what to say, so I just
says—
< Charles William Allbright, sir.'
Then they roared—the whole crowd; and I was mighty glad I said that,
because maybe laughing would get them in a better humor.
When they got done laughing, Davy says—
- {It won't hardly do, Charles William. You couldn't have growed this
much in five year, and you was a baby when you come out of the bar'l, you
know, and dead at that. Come, now, tell a straight story, and nobodyll
hurt you, if you ain't up to anything wrong. What is your name ? *
* Aleck Hopkins, sir. Aleck James Hopkins/
' Well, Aleck, where did you come from, here ?'
1 From a trading scow. She lays up the bend yonder* I was born on
her. Pap has traded up and down here all his life; and he told me to swim
off here, because when you went by he said he would like to get some of
you to speak to a Mr. Jonas Turner, in Cairo, and tell h™------'
' Oh, come!'
' Yes, sir, it's as true as the world; Pap he says------'
* Oh, your grandmother!'
They all laughed, and I tried again to talk, but they broke in on me and
stopped me.
*Now, looky-here,' says Davy; 'you're scared, and so you talk wild*
Honest, now, do you live in a scow, or is it a lie P'
* Yes, sir, in a trading scow. She lays up at the head of the bend. But
I warn't born in her. It's our first trip/