But for now, he [jim] was a slave. not far from the big house of the slaveowner was a pond. jim liked to sit beside it and think. someone had told him that animals used to talk. and jim dreamed that someday some animal would talk to him and tell him how to get his freedom. . . . and he thought one day that if he let his owner meet the cooter, he might get his freedom that way. after all, a talkin cooter was a wonderful thing to hear. which statement best describes jim’s viewpoint in the story? he is doubtful that he will ever live as a free man. he believes that his owner is a fair and honest person. he thinks that the cooter is trying to deceive him. he is hopeful that he will eventually escape slavery.

“dear sir: it is with great reluctance, i trouble you on a subject, which does not fall within your province; but it is a subject that occasions me more distress, than i have felt, since the commencement of the war; and which loudly demands the most zealous exertions of every person of weight and authority, who is interested in the success of our affairs. i mean the present dreadful situation of the army for want of provisions, and the miserable prospects before us, with respect to futurity. it is more alarming than you will probably conceive, for, to form a just idea, it were necessary to be on the spot. for some days past, there has been little less, than a famine in camp. a part of the army has been a week, without any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their sufferings, to a general mutiny or dispersion. strong symptoms, however, discontent have appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most acitive efforts every where can long avert so shocking a catastrophe.” what’s the central idea?