wait a minute. There’s one more thing—a thing that nobody don’t know but me. And that is, there’s a nigger here that I’m a-trying to steal out of slavery, and his name is Jim —old Miss Watson’s Jim.”
He says:
“What! Why, Jim is—”
He stopped and went to studying. I says:
“I know what you’ll say. You’ll say it’s dirty, lowdown business; but what if it is? I’m low down; and I’m a-going to steal him, and I want you keep mum and not let on. Will you?”
His eye lit up, and he says:
“I’ll help you steal him!”
Well, I let go all holts then, like I was shot. It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard—and I’m bound to say Tom Sawyer fell considerable in my estimation. Only I couldn’t believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger-stealer !