conveyed no real cheer.

The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with

candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck

still in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with

fever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas came

and took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him,

because, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's,

and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected. The

Welshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said:

"You can depend on it. That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off.

He never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his

hands."

Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into the

village, but the strongest of the citizens continued searching. All the

news that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were

being ransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner

and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one

wandered through the maze of passages, lights were to be seen flitting

hither and thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent

their hollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles. In one

place, far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names

BECKY & TOM" had been found traced upon the rocky wall with

candle-smoke, and near at hand a grease-soiled bit of ribbon. Mrs.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer