"Where did they see him?" says the old man; and when I looked up to see
how HE come to take an intrust in a little thing like that, his eyes was
just burning into me, he was that eager. It surprised me so it kind of
throwed me off, but I pulled myself together again and says:

"It was when he was spading up some ground along with you, towards
sundown or along there."

He only said, "Um," in a kind of a disappointed way, and didn't take no
more intrust. So I went on. I says:

"Well, then, as I was a-saying--"

"That'll do, you needn't go no furder." It was Aunt Sally. She was boring
right into me with her eyes, and very indignant. "Huck Finn," she says,
"how'd them men come to talk about going a-black-berrying in
September--in THIS region?"

I see I had slipped up, and I couldn't say a word. She waited, still
a-gazing at me, then she says:

"And how'd they come to strike that idiot idea of going a-blackberrying
in the night?"

"Well, m'm, they--er--they told us they had a lantern, and--"

"Oh, SHET up--do! Looky here; what was they going to do with a dog?--hunt
blackberries with it?"