And then supposin' other children came around, and finally you went out
on to a sidewalk and saw lots of houses, and by and by ran away and saw
stores all around a lovely square and a great court house in the center.
And supposin' you found out that there was a river just under the hills
you could see beyond the railroad, and by and by you heard your folks
say Petersburg; and by and by you knew that was the name of this town.
And sometimes you could see more of the town, because your grandpa and
grandma came with a carriage and drove clear through the town so as to
get to the country and out to the farm where they lived.
And then supposin' one day all the things in the house was loaded on a
wagon and you rode with your ma up the hill to a better house and a
bigger yard with oak trees, and the things were put in the house and
you began to live here, and saw different houses around, and different
children came to play; and supposin' there was a girl named Cooster
McCoy that used to come to the fence and make faces and say awful words
which your ma told you was wicked and would make God punish you if you
said 'em: and then supposin' you began to hear your pa and ma talk of
Mr. Miller and what a wonderful man he was, and Mrs. Miller and what a
good woman she was, and about the Miller girls, how funny and smart they
was, and about Mitch Miller, the wonderfulest boy in town. And supposin'
you went with your ma to visit 'em and when you got there you saw Mr.
Miller readin' to Mrs. Miller, and you saw the Miller girls playin', and
you saw Mitch Miller chewin' gum and readin' a book, and was so taken
with the book he wouldn't play with you, but finally said he'd read to
you, and so began to read from a book which he said was "Tom Sawyer,"
which was all about a boy just our age. And supposin' you got the book
after a while and you read it too, but you understood it only because
after a while Mitch explained it to you.
Well, this is the way it began: first the room, then the house--then the
town in a way--and then Mitch--but I got acquainted with him really and
he became my friend as I tell about after a while. Only now I just tell
how things began to clear up as I came out of sleep, as you might say.
And onct when I was up to Mr. Miller's and he was readin' from
Shakespeare to Mrs. Miller he came to a place where it says, "Our little
life is rounded by a sleep." I remember this because Mr. Miller stopped
and began to talk about it; and Mitch looked up from readin' "Tom
Sawyer," and I began to think about the sleep I came out of, and how
things at first seemed kind of double and like you had taken so-and-so's
cure for consumption which ma says has opium in it. For when I took it
for a cold, things kind of swum around me like a circular looking-glass,
that you could see through somehow, and everything seemed kind of way
off and funny and somethin' to laugh at and not treat as real.