“Wal, strenger, my idee war this. I hed noticed thet the eagles war both big birds, an’ strong i’ the wing. Everybody knows thet much. It thurfore occurred to me that I mout make them wings do me a sarvice,—otherways thet they mout carry me out o’ the tree.
“In coorse I didn’t intend they shed take me up i’ the air. There warn’t much danger o’ that. I only thort they mout sarve to break my fall like one o’ them things, parryshoots I b’lieve they call ’em, an’ the which I myself had seed onest in Noo Orleans, sent up into the air wi’ a cat and a coon in it.
“Arter I’d got my plan tol’ably well traced out, I sot about trappin’ the old eagles.
“In less ’n an hour’s time I hed both o’ ’em in my keepin’, wi’ thar beaks spliced to keep ’em from bitin’ me, an’ thar claws cropped clur off wi’ my bowie.
“I then strengthened the cord I hed used to draw up the canes, by doublin’ it half a dozen times, until it war stout enuf to carry my weight. One eend o’ it I looped round the legs o’ the eagles, gatherin’ all four into a bunch, whilst the other eend I made fast around my own karkiss, jess under the armpits.
“I did all this upon the lowest limb o’ the cyprus, whar I had fetched down the eagles.
“When all war ready, I drew my bowie from its sheath, and with its sharp peint I pricked both the baldies at the same time, so as to set them a-floppin. As soon as I seed thar four wings in full play, I slid off o’ the branch, directin’ myself torst the groun’ underneath.
“I ant very sartin as to what follered. I only recollex bein’ dragged through the branches o’ the cyprus, an’ the minnit arter plungin’ cochuck into the waters o’ the Massissippi. I shed most sartinly a been drowned ef that ere cord had broken, or the eagles had got loose. As it war, the birds kep’ beatin’ the water wi’ thar big wings, and in thet way hindered Zeb Stump from goin’ under.
“I’ve heerd o’ a woman they called Veenis bein’ drawed through the sea by a kupple o’ swans; but I don’t b’lieve they kud a drawed her at a quicker rate o’ speed than I war carried over the buzum o’ the Massissippi. In less than five minnits from the time I hed dropped out o’ the tree, I seed myself in the middle o’ the river and still scufflin’ on. I seed that the baldies war boun’ for the Arkansaw shore, an’ knowin’ that my life depended on thar reachin’ it, I offered no opposition to thar efforts, but lay still an’ allowed them to continue thar career.
“As good luck wud hev it, they had strength enuf left to complete the crossin’; an’ thar war another bit o’ good luck in the Arkansaw bank bein’ on a level wi’ the surface o’ the water; so that in five minnits arter, I foun’ myself among the bushes, the baldies still flutterin’ about me, as ef determined to carry me on over the great parairas o’ the West.