out of it. Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right, I hope."

Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed such

a suspicious excitement, for he had dropped the idea that the parcel

brought from the tavern was the treasure, as soon as he had heard the

talk at the widow's stile. He had only thought it was not the treasure,

however--he had not known that it wasn't--and so the suggestion of a

captured bundle was too much for his self-possession. But on the whole

he felt glad the little episode had happened, for now he knew beyond

all question that that bundle was not THE bundle, and so his mind was

at rest and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to be

drifting just in the right direction, now; the treasure must be still

in No. 2, the men would be captured and jailed that day, and he and Tom

could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear of

interruption.

Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door. Huck

jumped for a hiding-place, for he had no mind to be connected even

remotely with the late event. The Welshman admitted several ladies and

gentlemen, among them the Widow Douglas, and noticed that groups of

citizens were climbing up the hill--to stare at the stile. So the news

had spread. The Welshman had to tell the story of the night to the

visitors. The widow's gratitude for her preservation was outspoken.

Don't say a word about it, madam. There's another that you're more

beholden to than you are to me and my boys, maybe, but he don't allow

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer