original art by Justin Williams * Fort Worth, Texas
"I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep. When I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute. I set up and looked around, a little scared. Then I remembered. The river looked miles and miles across. The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from the shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and SMELT late. You know what I mean--I don't know the words to put it in."
"I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start when I heard a sound way over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I made it out. It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night. I peeped through the willow branches, and there it was--a skiff, away across the water. I couldn't tell how many was in it. It kept a-coming, and when it was abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it. Thinks I, maybe it's pap, though I warn't expecting him. He dropped below me with the current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. Well, it WAS pap, sure enough--and sober, too, by the way he laid his oars."
"I didn't lose no time. The next minute I was a-spinning down stream soft but quick in the shade of the bank. I made two mile and a half, and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and people might see me and hail me. I got out amongst the driftwood, and then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking away into the sky; not a cloud in it. The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!"
*** This is an excerpt from 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'
written by none other that my favorite author- Mark Twain ***
The book was first published in England in December 1884
and, then in the United States in 1885
The illustration was done by a friend of ours, Justin Williams, on a wall in his garage. Justin graciously emailed me the picture, and, I am pleased to incorporate the drawing into my celebration of the birth of Mark Twain.
***
Samuel L. Clemens, aka Mark Twain
Born in Hannibal, Missouri November 30, 1835
Died in Redding, Connecticut April 21, 1910
Died in Redding, Connecticut April 21, 1910
Thank You:
Yahoo
http://online-literature.com
http://twainquotes.com
Wikipedia
Huckleberry Finn
a 'special thanks' to Justin Williams
Thank you so much for stopping by. We're about to embark on the Thanksgiving for the year of 2012, and, my wish for you is to have a joyful, AND, thankful holiday!
Are we thankful enough? I'm always finding more to be thankful for...just waking up is a blessing to me! And, I am thankful for my family, friends, and, you! Please stop by anytime, even if I don't have a new post...visit an old post just to say HI! We will all be busy with the holidays coming up, and I look forward to seeing what you present on your blogs for them...'White Christmas' perhaps?
***
"You see, in our house there was a sort of family prejudice against going fishing if you hadn't permission. But it would frequently be bad judgement to ask. So I went fishing secretly, as it were--way up the Mississippi."
~Mark Twain * Speech March 7, 1906
be safe, see you soon!
