more. "Tell 'em. You're a friend of mine, ain't you?"
"Well, if you're a friend of Tom Nash thar," he drawled, jerking his head towards the grocer, "I don't mind talkin', but I ain't much set on unloadin' my own business on strangers. And what's more, I say nobody ain't goin' to get their hands on this boat unless they can prove it b'longs to 'em. That's whar I stand. The way I come across it was this way. Less'n two weeks ago I was out dredgin' my oyster beds 'bout two shouts and a fling from hyuh and the tongs got hold o' sumpin' that felt powerful funny. Me and my son, we jerks and jerks, but couldn't move it a peg. Then I gets a boy to dive down and feel of it, and the boy, says he, 'It's a boat, a rowboat.' Then me and my son gets a big iron hook and a chain and hitches on to that boat in 'bout fifteen feet o' water and hauls it over to the shallow marsh and drags it asho' and with that thar hole stove in it. I asked everybody I seed, and nobody don't know nary a thing 'bout whar it come from. Then I says, it's mine till somebody can prove a claim to it, that's what I says."
