"
"Where did you get that song, Sam?" asked Harry--they had already fallen
into the easy habit of calling one another by their first names.
"From a travelin' feller that wandered up into our mount'ins. He could
play it an' sing it most beautiful, an' I took to it right off. It
grips you about the heart some way or other, an' it sounds best when you
are out at night on a river like this. Harry, I know that you're goin'
through our mountins to git to Richmond an' the war. Me an' that
lunkhead Ike, my nephew, hev took a likin' to you. Now, what do you
want to git your head shot off fur? S'pose you stop up in the hills
with us. The huntin's good thar, an' so's the fishin'."
Harry shook his head, but he was very grateful.
"It's good of you to ask me," he said, "but I'm bound to go on."
"Wa'al, if you're boun' to do it I reckon you jest have to, but we're
leavin' the invite open. Ef you change your mind on the trip all you've
got to do is to say so, an' we'll take you in, ain't that so, Ike?"
Ike grinned and nodded. His uncle looked at him admiringly.
"Ike's a lunkhead," he said, "but he's great to travel with. You kin
jest talk an' talk an' he never puts in, but agrees with all you say.
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