no good. I don’t seem to care for it, somehow, when there ain’t anybody to say I sha’n’t go in. I mean to go home.”

“Oh, shucks! Baby! You want to see your mother, I reckon.”

“Yes, I do want to see my mother — and you would, too, if you had one.

I ain’t any more baby than you are.” And Joe snuffled a little.

“Well, we’ll let the crybaby go home to his mother, won’t we, Huck? Poor thing — does it want to see its mother? And so it shall. You like it here, don’t you, Huck? We’ll stay, won’t we?”

Huck said, “Y-e-s” — without any heart in it.