Mitch Miller | Page 4

says Mitch, "Jack Plunkett, who was town marshal here once,
and Ruddy Hedgpeth are goin' to have a fight to see which can whip the
other."

"Where?" says I.
"Down near Old Salem," says Mitch, "on the flat sand by the river,
clost to the mill. And I want to see it, and so do you."
"You bet I want to see it," I said.
So Mitch went on to tell me that Jack Plunkett had never been whipped
and neither had Ruddy Hedgpeth. They had whipped everybody but
each other. And each said he could whip the other. And last Saturday
Ruddy was in town and went around the square sayin' he could whip
Jack, and Jack heard it and sent back word he'd fight him a week off,
on a Saturday, and this is the Saturday. And Mitch said we'd better
hurry so as to get there before the fight was over, Old Salem bein' about
a mile from town.
By this time Shadder had walked out of the orchard and was pretty near
to the house and Mitch said, "Now he's gone, let him go, and come on.
If he ever says you left him, you can say he left you, for he did."
It was a spring day--it was April--and we walked as fast as we could,
runnin' part of the time. Mitch was wild about the country, about trees,
birds, the river and the fields. And he whistled and sang. On the way
out he began to talk to me about "Tom Sawyer," and asked me if I had
read the book. This was one of the books I had read; so I said so. And
Mitch says, "Do you know we can do exactly what Tom Sawyer and
Huck Finn did?"
"What's that?" I said.
"Why, find treasure. It's just as surely here as anything. Of course there
ain't no caves around here, at least I don't know of any. But think of the
old houses--look at that old house down there by the ravine that goes
into the river across from Mr. Morris' wagon shop. Think of those old
houses clost to the Baptist Church; and think of the dead limbs on the
trees in Montgomery's woods. But of course if we go into this, no one
must know what we are doin'. We must keep still and if they catch us
diggin', we must lie. If you don't know how to lie very well, Skeet, just

listen to me and foller the story I tell."
I agreed to this. And Mitch went on.
"And by and by, we'll find treasure and divide it, for I have taken you
for my chum and half of mine is yours, and a half of yours is mine."
[Illustration: Looking down on the Sand Bank]
By this time we had come to a pretty high bank about a hundred yards
from the mill. We heard voices and looked down on the sand bank, and
there were about fifty men sittin' or standin' around. And there was my
pa. So I says, "I can't go down there, Mitch, my pa will whip me or
drive me away. I know for certain he wouldn't want me to see this."
"Well," says Mitch, "what's the difference? We're not more'n 75 feet
away from 'em and can see everything and hear everything if there's
anything to hear. So let's just lie down here in the grass and take it easy,
and look down on 'em and watch it." So we did. There seemed to be
some arrangin' of things. My pa seemed to be standin' clost to Ruddy
Hedgpeth and talkin' to him and kind of advisin' him or takin' care of
him. And George Montgomery was doin' the same for Jack Plunkett.
Mitch says, "They're the seconds."
"What's that?" says I.
"Why," says Mitch, "seconds see that everything is fair, and no foolin'."
We could hear most everything they said, and they were talkin' about
whether Jack Plunkett could choke Ruddy Hedgpeth if he got him. My
pa said not; and Jack Plunkett said it was a fight to see who could whip
the other, and if he got Ruddy so he could lay his hands on him and
choke him until he gave up, that was fair and he insisted on it. Then
Ruddy and my pa stepped to one side and talked secret; and then my pa
said out loud that it was all right, and chokin' would not be barred; but
of course what one could do, the other could. Jack Plunkett laughed at
this an awful mockin' laugh, because he was the most terrible choker in
the county and felt he could get the best of anybody in a chokin' match.

Then Jack and Ruddy began to undress,