The farther south we traveled, the hotter the temperature was and the wider the river became.
At times, it was almost two kilometers from one shore to the other.
At night, we lay on our raft and looked at the stars.
Sometimes we saw a shooting star streaking across the sky.
One morning, as we were tying up the raft on the riverbank, I saw an old canoe.
I paddled it up a little creek to look for berries.
Suddenly I saw two men running toward the creek.
When they saw me, they begged me to rescue them.
Men and dogs were chasing them, they said.
I let them get aboard, and I paddled away as fast as I could until we got back to the raft.
Jim and I and our passengers traveled on the raft a little way down the river.
Then we tied up the raft on shore under some cottonwood trees, where all of us were hidden and safe.
One of the men looked about seventy years old.
He wore a battered hat, ragged blue jeans stuffed into his boots, and an old blue coat with brass buttons.
The other man was probably about thirty years old, but his clothes were just as shabby as the old man's.
Both of them carried worn-out suitcases.
After we had breakfast and began to talk, I found out the two men didn't really know each other well.
They had met as they were running away from two different towns.
The old man said that he had been giving speeches in a small town.
He had charged the townspeople ten cents each to hear him warn against the evils of drinking alcohol.
Then someone saw him sneaking a drink himself, and the angry townspeople realized he was a fraud.
That's when they chased him out of town.
The young man had been in another town selling a medicine that was supposed to clean people's teeth.
When people used it, however, they found that it damaged their teeth.
That's why he had been chased out of town.
Jim and I listened in amazement as the two men described all the different kinds of work they had done.
The young man had been an actor, a printer, and a singing teacher.
The older man claimed that he had cured people of diseases just by placing his hands on their bodies.
"I think we should go into business together!" the younger man said eagerly to the older one.
But then his face became sad. "I can't believe that I have sunk so low in the world."
"Why, what's wrong with my company?" the older man said, sounding insulted.
"Nothing—it's what I deserve now," the younger man replied.
"But, at one time, my life was very different.
I trust all of you, so I will tell you my secret.
My father came from England—I am the Duke of Bridgewater!
But my wealth and title were stolen from me."
Jim and I felt very sorry for him.
He told us that if we wanted to make him feel better, we should call him "Your Grace" or "Your Lordship."
We should also serve him his meals. That was easy enough, so Jim and I did it.
By dinnertime, I could see that the older man wasn't too happy with all the attention we were giving the duke.
Finally, he said, "Can I trust you?"
We all assured him that he could. And then he said, "You see before you the poor wandering, unhappy king of France."
He began to cry, and Jim and I asked him how we could cheer him up.
He said that we should bow when we spoke to him and call him "Your Majesty." Jim and I said that we would.
The duke now looked annoyed. When the king noticed, he said, "It's not our fault that one of us was born a duke and the other a king.
Let's shake hands and be friends." The duke agreed.
The two men were curious about Jim and me.
They asked if Jim was a runaway slave.
"Goodness, no!" I said. "Would we be going south if he was a runaway?"
I made up a story, telling them that my father and brother had been killed in a steamboat accident and that Jim was now my slave.
I said that many people didn't believe me and thought Jim must be running away from his owner.
We traveled at night, I explained, so that we wouldn't have any trouble.
The duke and the king seemed to accept my story.
It rained hard that night.
Jim and I gave the two men our beds in the hut on the raft while we slept out in the rain, but it was so warm that we didn't mind.
In fact, we were treating the king and duke so well that they decided to keep traveling with us.
When we stopped along the river, they planned to go into towns and earn money.
The king began to teach the duke speeches from Shakespeare's plays.
He said they could charge people money to see them acting.
He even had some shabby costumes in his suitcase.
I had already decided that the two men were liars and cheats, not royalty.
But I wanted peace on the raft, so I didn't say anything, even to Jim.
Living with Pap had taught me that when you are with difficult people, it is better to stay quiet.