That was all right as far asit went, but the tow-head warn't sixty yards long, and theminute I flew bythe foot of it I shot out into the solid whitefog, and hadn't no more idea which way I was going than adead man.Thinks I, it won't do to paddle;first I know I'll run intothe bank or a tow-head or something;I got to set still andfloat, and yet it's mighty fidgety business to have to hold yourhands still at such a time.I whooped and listened.Away downthere, somewheres,I hears a small whoop, and up comes myspirits.I went tearing after it, listening sharp to hear it again.The next time it come, I see I warn't heading for it but head-ing away to the right of it.And the next time, I was head-ing away to the left of it-and not gaining on it much, either, for I was flying around, this way and that and 'tother but it was going straight ahead all the time.

　　I did wish the fool would think to beat a tin pan, and beatit all the time, but he never did, and it was the still placesbetween the whoops that was making the trouble for me.Well, I fought along, and directly I hears the whoops behind me.Iwas tangled good, now.That was somebody else's whoop.orelse I was turned around.I throwed the paddle down.I heard the whoop again;itwas behind me yet, but in a different place;it kept coming, and kept changing its place, and I kept answering, till by-and-by it was in front of me again and I knowed the current hadswung the canoe's head down stream and I was all right, ifthat was Jim and not some other raftsman hollering.I could-n't tell nothing about voices in a fog, for nothing don't looknatural nor sound natural in a fog.

　　The whooping went on, and in about a minute I come a boomingdown on a cut bank6 with smoky ghosts of big treeson it, and thecurrent throwed me off to the left and shot by, amongst a lot of snags that fairly roared, the current was tear-ing by them so swift.In another second or two it was solid white and still again.I set perfectly still, then, listening to my heart thump, and Ireckon I didn't draw a breath while it thumped a hundred.I just give up, then.I knowed what the matter was.Thatcut bank was an island, and Jim had gone down 'tother sideof it.It

　　warn't no tow-head, that you could float by in tenminutes.It had the big timber of a regular island;it mightbe five or six mile long and more than a half a mile wide.

　　I kept quiet, with my ears cocked, about fifteen minutes,Ireckon.I was floating along, of course, four or five mile anhour;but you don't ever think of that.No, you feel like youare laying

　　dead still on the water;and if a little glimpse of a snap slips by, you don't think to yourself how fast you're go-ing, but you catch your breath and think my!how that snag'stearing along.lf

　　you think it ain't dismal and lonesome outin a fog that way, by yourself, in the night, you try it once- you'll see.

　　Next, for about a half an hour, I whoops now and then;atlast I hears the answer a loog ways off, and tries to follow it, but I couldn't do it, and directly I judged I'd got into a nestof

　　towheads, for I had little dim glimpses of them on bothsides of me, sometimes just a narrow channel between;andsome that I couldn't see, I knowed was there, because I'd hearthe wash of the current against the old dead brush and trashthat hung over the banks.Well, I warn't long losing thewhoops, down amongst the towheads;and I only tried to chasethem a little while, anyway, because it was worse than chas-ing a Jack-o-lantern.You never knowed a sound dodge aroundso, and swap places so quick and so much.

　　I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively, four or fivetimes, to keep from knocking the islands out of the river;andso I judged the raft must be butting into the bank every nowand

　　then, or else it would get further ahead and clear out ofhearing-it was floating a little faster than what I was.

　　Well, I seemed to be in the open river again, by-and-by, butouldn't hear no sign of a whoop nowheres.I reckonedJim had fetched up on a snag, maybe, and it was all up withhim.I was good and tired, so I laid down in the canoe andsaid I wouldn't bother no more.I didn't want to go to sleep, of course;but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it;so I thoughtI would take just one little cat-nap.But I reckon it was more than a cat-nap, for when I wakedup the stars was shining bright, the fog was all gone, and Iwas spinning down a big bend stern first.First I didn't knowwhere I was;I thought I was dreaming;and when things be-gun to come back to me, they seemed to come up dim out oflast week.

　　It was a monstrous big river here, with the tallest and thethickest kind of timber on both banks;just a solid wall, aswell as I could see, by the stars.I looked away down stream, and seen a blacK speck on the water.I took out after it;butwhen I got to it it warn't nothing but a couple of saw-logsmade fast together.Then I see another speck, and chasedthat;then another,and this time I was right.It was the raft.

　　When I got to it Jim was setting there with his head downbetween his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging overthe steering oar.The other oar was smashed off, and the raftwas littered up with leaves and branches and dirt.So she'dhad a rough time.I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on the raft, and begun to gap, 7 and stretch my fists out against Jim, andsays：

　　"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep?Why didn't you stir meup?"