The warm air was heavy and languorous and now Shif'less Sol confessed.
"I'm gittin' too much o' it, even fur a lazy man," he said. "'Pears to me
I'm always wantin' to sleep. Now, I like about sixteen hours sleepin' out
o' the twenty-four, but when it comes to keepin' awake jest long enough to
eat three meals a day I ain't in favor o' it."
"It must be a rich country, though," said Tom Ross. "No wonder them
Spaniards want to keep it."
That day they passed at some distance three canoes containing Indians, but
the canoes showed no wish to come near and investigate. Henry said that
the Indians in them looked sprawling and dirty, unlike the alert,
clean-limbed natives of the North.
"They probably belong," said Paul, "to the Natchez tribe who were beaten
into submission long ago by the French, and who doubtless lack energy
anyhow."
The Indian canoes went lazily on, and soon were lost to sight. Now a
serious problem arose. They were approaching the settled parts of
Louisiana. It is true, it was only the thinnest fringe of white people
extending along either shore of the river a short distance above New
Orleans, but they were coming to a region in which they would be noticed,
and they might have to explain their presence before they wished to do so.
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