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diff --git a/7103.txt b/7103.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5565081 --- /dev/null +++ b/7103.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2232 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 4 +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 4 + Chapters XVI. to XX. + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: June 27, 2004 [EBook #7103] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN, PART 4. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +By Mark Twain + +Part 4. + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +WE slept most all day, and started out at night, a little ways behind a +monstrous long raft that was as long going by as a procession. She had +four long sweeps at each end, so we judged she carried as many as thirty +men, likely. She had five big wigwams aboard, wide apart, and an open +camp fire in the middle, and a tall flag-pole at each end. There was a +power of style about her. It AMOUNTED to something being a raftsman on +such a craft as that. + +We went drifting down into a big bend, and the night clouded up and got +hot. The river was very wide, and was walled with solid timber on both +sides; you couldn't see a break in it hardly ever, or a light. We talked +about Cairo, and wondered whether we would know it when we got to it. I +said likely we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but about a +dozen houses there, and if they didn't happen to have them lit up, how +was we going to know we was passing a town? Jim said if the two big +rivers joined together there, that would show. But I said maybe we might +think we was passing the foot of an island and coming into the same old +river again. That disturbed Jim--and me too. So the question was, what +to do? I said, paddle ashore the first time a light showed, and tell +them pap was behind, coming along with a trading-scow, and was a green +hand at the business, and wanted to know how far it was to Cairo. Jim +thought it was a good idea, so we took a smoke on it and waited. + +There warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp for the town, and +not pass it without seeing it. He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, +because he'd be a free man the minute he seen it, but if he missed it +he'd be in a slave country again and no more show for freedom. Every +little while he jumps up and says: + +"Dah she is?" + +But it warn't. It was Jack-o'-lanterns, or lightning bugs; so he set +down again, and went to watching, same as before. Jim said it made him +all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I can +tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, +because I begun to get it through my head that he WAS most free--and who +was to blame for it? Why, ME. I couldn't get that out of my conscience, +no how nor no way. It got to troubling me so I couldn't rest; I couldn't +stay still in one place. It hadn't ever come home to me before, what +this thing was that I was doing. But now it did; and it stayed with me, +and scorched me more and more. I tried to make out to myself that I +warn't to blame, because I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner; +but it warn't no use, conscience up and says, every time, "But you knowed +he was running for his freedom, and you could a paddled ashore and told +somebody." That was so--I couldn't get around that noway. That was +where it pinched. Conscience says to me, "What had poor Miss Watson done +to you that you could see her nigger go off right under your eyes and +never say one single word? What did that poor old woman do to you that +you could treat her so mean? Why, she tried to learn you your book, she +tried to learn you your manners, she tried to be good to you every way +she knowed how. THAT'S what she done." + +I got to feeling so mean and so miserable I most wished I was dead. I +fidgeted up and down the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was +fidgeting up and down past me. We neither of us could keep still. Every +time he danced around and says, "Dah's Cairo!" it went through me like a +shot, and I thought if it WAS Cairo I reckoned I would die of +miserableness. + +Jim talked out loud all the time while I was talking to myself. He was +saying how the first thing he would do when he got to a free State he +would go to saving up money and never spend a single cent, and when he +got enough he would buy his wife, which was owned on a farm close to +where Miss Watson lived; and then they would both work to buy the two +children, and if their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an +Ab'litionist to go and steal them. + +It most froze me to hear such talk. He wouldn't ever dared to talk such +talk in his life before. Just see what a difference it made in him the +minute he judged he was about free. It was according to the old saying, +"Give a nigger an inch and he'll take an ell." Thinks I, this is what +comes of my not thinking. Here was this nigger, which I had as good as +helped to run away, coming right out flat-footed and saying he would +steal his children--children that belonged to a man I didn't even know; a +man that hadn't ever done me no harm. + +I was sorry to hear Jim say that, it was such a lowering of him. My +conscience got to stirring me up hotter than ever, until at last I says +to it, "Let up on me--it ain't too late yet--I'll paddle ashore at the +first light and tell." I felt easy and happy and light as a feather +right off. All my troubles was gone. I went to looking out sharp for a +light, and sort of singing to myself. By and by one showed. Jim sings +out: + +"We's safe, Huck, we's safe! Jump up and crack yo' heels! Dat's de good +ole Cairo at las', I jis knows it!" + +I says: + +"I'll take the canoe and go and see, Jim. It mightn't be, you know." + +He jumped and got the canoe ready, and put his old coat in the bottom for +me to set on, and give me the paddle; and as I shoved off, he says: + +"Pooty soon I'll be a-shout'n' for joy, en I'll say, it's all on accounts +o' Huck; I's a free man, en I couldn't ever ben free ef it hadn' ben for +Huck; Huck done it. Jim won't ever forgit you, Huck; you's de bes' fren' +Jim's ever had; en you's de ONLY fren' ole Jim's got now." + +I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him; but when he says this, +it seemed to kind of take the tuck all out of me. I went along slow +then, and I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I started or +whether I warn't. When I was fifty yards off, Jim says: + +"Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on'y white genlman dat ever kep' his +promise to ole Jim." + +Well, I just felt sick. But I says, I GOT to do it--I can't get OUT of +it. Right then along comes a skiff with two men in it with guns, and +they stopped and I stopped. One of them says: + +"What's that yonder?" + +"A piece of a raft," I says. + +"Do you belong on it?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Any men on it?" + +"Only one, sir." + +"Well, there's five niggers run off to-night up yonder, above the head of +the bend. Is your man white or black?" + +I didn't answer up prompt. I tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I +tried for a second or two to brace up and out with it, but I warn't man +enough--hadn't the spunk of a rabbit. I see I was weakening; so I just +give up trying, and up and says: + +"He's white." + +"I reckon we'll go and see for ourselves." + +"I wish you would," says I, "because it's pap that's there, and maybe +you'd help me tow the raft ashore where the light is. He's sick--and so +is mam and Mary Ann." + +"Oh, the devil! we're in a hurry, boy. But I s'pose we've got to. Come, +buckle to your paddle, and let's get along." + +I buckled to my paddle and they laid to their oars. When we had made a +stroke or two, I says: + +"Pap'll be mighty much obleeged to you, I can tell you. Everybody goes +away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore, and I can't do it +by myself." + +"Well, that's infernal mean. Odd, too. Say, boy, what's the matter with +your father?" + +"It's the--a--the--well, it ain't anything much." + +They stopped pulling. It warn't but a mighty little ways to the raft +now. One says: + +"Boy, that's a lie. What IS the matter with your pap? Answer up square +now, and it'll be the better for you." + +"I will, sir, I will, honest--but don't leave us, please. It's the--the +--Gentlemen, if you'll only pull ahead, and let me heave you the +headline, you won't have to come a-near the raft--please do." + +"Set her back, John, set her back!" says one. They backed water. "Keep +away, boy--keep to looard. Confound it, I just expect the wind has +blowed it to us. Your pap's got the small-pox, and you know it precious +well. Why didn't you come out and say so? Do you want to spread it all +over?" + +"Well," says I, a-blubbering, "I've told everybody before, and they just +went away and left us." + +"Poor devil, there's something in that. We are right down sorry for you, +but we--well, hang it, we don't want the small-pox, you see. Look here, +I'll tell you what to do. Don't you try to land by yourself, or you'll +smash everything to pieces. You float along down about twenty miles, and +you'll come to a town on the left-hand side of the river. It will be +long after sun-up then, and when you ask for help you tell them your +folks are all down with chills and fever. Don't be a fool again, and let +people guess what is the matter. Now we're trying to do you a kindness; +so you just put twenty miles between us, that's a good boy. It wouldn't +do any good to land yonder where the light is--it's only a wood-yard. +Say, I reckon your father's poor, and I'm bound to say he's in pretty +hard luck. Here, I'll put a twenty-dollar gold piece on this board, and +you get it when it floats by. I feel mighty mean to leave you; but my +kingdom! it won't do to fool with small-pox, don't you see?" + +"Hold on, Parker," says the other man, "here's a twenty to put on the +board for me. Good-bye, boy; you do as Mr. Parker told you, and you'll +be all right." + +"That's so, my boy--good-bye, good-bye. If you see any runaway niggers +you get help and nab them, and you can make some money by it." + +"Good-bye, sir," says I; "I won't let no runaway niggers get by me if I +can help it." + +They went off and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low, because I +knowed very well I had done wrong, and I see it warn't no use for me to +try to learn to do right; a body that don't get STARTED right when he's +little ain't got no show--when the pinch comes there ain't nothing to +back him up and keep him to his work, and so he gets beat. Then I +thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on; s'pose you'd a done right +and give Jim up, would you felt better than what you do now? No, says I, +I'd feel bad--I'd feel just the same way I do now. Well, then, says I, +what's the use you learning to do right when it's troublesome to do right +and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was +stuck. I couldn't answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more +about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time. + +I went into the wigwam; Jim warn't there. I looked all around; he warn't +anywhere. I says: + +"Jim!" + +"Here I is, Huck. Is dey out o' sight yit? Don't talk loud." + +He was in the river under the stern oar, with just his nose out. I told +him they were out of sight, so he come aboard. He says: + +"I was a-listenin' to all de talk, en I slips into de river en was gwyne +to shove for sho' if dey come aboard. Den I was gwyne to swim to de raf' +agin when dey was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck! Dat WUZ +de smartes' dodge! I tell you, chile, I'spec it save' ole Jim--ole Jim +ain't going to forgit you for dat, honey." + +Then we talked about the money. It was a pretty good raise--twenty +dollars apiece. Jim said we could take deck passage on a steamboat now, +and the money would last us as far as we wanted to go in the free States. +He said twenty mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but he wished we +was already there. + +Towards daybreak we tied up, and Jim was mighty particular about hiding +the raft good. Then he worked all day fixing things in bundles, and +getting all ready to quit rafting. + +That night about ten we hove in sight of the lights of a town away down +in a left-hand bend. + +I went off in the canoe to ask about it. Pretty soon I found a man out +in the river with a skiff, setting a trot-line. I ranged up and says: + +"Mister, is that town Cairo?" + +"Cairo? no. You must be a blame' fool." + +"What town is it, mister?" + +"If you want to know, go and find out. If you stay here botherin' around +me for about a half a minute longer you'll get something you won't want." + +I paddled to the raft. Jim was awful disappointed, but I said never +mind, Cairo would be the next place, I reckoned. + +We passed another town before daylight, and I was going out again; but it +was high ground, so I didn't go. No high ground about Cairo, Jim said. +I had forgot it. We laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable close to +the left-hand bank. I begun to suspicion something. So did Jim. I +says: + +"Maybe we went by Cairo in the fog that night." + +He says: + +"Doan' le's talk about it, Huck. Po' niggers can't have no luck. I +awluz 'spected dat rattlesnake-skin warn't done wid its work." + +"I wish I'd never seen that snake-skin, Jim--I do wish I'd never laid +eyes on it." + +"It ain't yo' fault, Huck; you didn' know. Don't you blame yo'self 'bout +it." + +When it was daylight, here was the clear Ohio water inshore, sure enough, +and outside was the old regular Muddy! So it was all up with Cairo. + +We talked it all over. It wouldn't do to take to the shore; we couldn't +take the raft up the stream, of course. There warn't no way but to wait +for dark, and start back in the canoe and take the chances. So we slept +all day amongst the cottonwood thicket, so as to be fresh for the work, +and when we went back to the raft about dark the canoe was gone! + +We didn't say a word for a good while. There warn't anything to say. We +both knowed well enough it was some more work of the rattlesnake-skin; so +what was the use to talk about it? It would only look like we was +finding fault, and that would be bound to fetch more bad luck--and keep +on fetching it, too, till we knowed enough to keep still. + +By and by we talked about what we better do, and found there warn't no +way but just to go along down with the raft till we got a chance to buy a +canoe to go back in. We warn't going to borrow it when there warn't +anybody around, the way pap would do, for that might set people after us. + +So we shoved out after dark on the raft. + +Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness to handle a +snake-skin, after all that that snake-skin done for us, will believe +it now if they read on and see what more it done for us. + +The place to buy canoes is off of rafts laying up at shore. But we +didn't see no rafts laying up; so we went along during three hours and +more. Well, the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the next +meanest thing to fog. You can't tell the shape of the river, and you +can't see no distance. It got to be very late and still, and then along +comes a steamboat up the river. We lit the lantern, and judged she would +see it. Up-stream boats didn't generly come close to us; they go out and +follow the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs; but nights like +this they bull right up the channel against the whole river. + +We could hear her pounding along, but we didn't see her good till she was +close. She aimed right for us. Often they do that and try to see how +close they can come without touching; sometimes the wheel bites off a +sweep, and then the pilot sticks his head out and laughs, and thinks he's +mighty smart. Well, here she comes, and we said she was going to try and +shave us; but she didn't seem to be sheering off a bit. She was a big +one, and she was coming in a hurry, too, looking like a black cloud with +rows of glow-worms around it; but all of a sudden she bulged out, big and +scary, with a long row of wide-open furnace doors shining like red-hot +teeth, and her monstrous bows and guards hanging right over us. There +was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a powwow +of cussing, and whistling of steam--and as Jim went overboard on one side +and I on the other, she come smashing straight through the raft. + +I dived--and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel had +got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room. I could +always stay under water a minute; this time I reckon I stayed under a +minute and a half. Then I bounced for the top in a hurry, for I was +nearly busting. I popped out to my armpits and blowed the water out of +my nose, and puffed a bit. Of course there was a booming current; and of +course that boat started her engines again ten seconds after she stopped +them, for they never cared much for raftsmen; so now she was churning +along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather, though I could +hear her. + +I sung out for Jim about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer; so I +grabbed a plank that touched me while I was "treading water," and struck +out for shore, shoving it ahead of me. But I made out to see that the +drift of the current was towards the left-hand shore, which meant that I +was in a crossing; so I changed off and went that way. + +It was one of these long, slanting, two-mile crossings; so I was a good +long time in getting over. I made a safe landing, and clumb up the bank. +I couldn't see but a little ways, but I went poking along over rough +ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and then I run across a big +old-fashioned double log-house before I noticed it. I was going to rush +by and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out and went to howling and +barking at me, and I knowed better than to move another peg. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +IN about a minute somebody spoke out of a window without putting his head +out, and says: + +"Be done, boys! Who's there?" + +I says: + +"It's me." + +"Who's me?" + +"George Jackson, sir." + +"What do you want?" + +"I don't want nothing, sir. I only want to go along by, but the dogs +won't let me." + +"What are you prowling around here this time of night for--hey?" + +"I warn't prowling around, sir, I fell overboard off of the steamboat." + +"Oh, you did, did you? Strike a light there, somebody. What did you say +your name was?" + +"George Jackson, sir. I'm only a boy." + +"Look here, if you're telling the truth you needn't be afraid--nobody'll +hurt you. But don't try to budge; stand right where you are. Rouse out +Bob and Tom, some of you, and fetch the guns. George Jackson, is there +anybody with you?" + +"No, sir, nobody." + +I heard the people stirring around in the house now, and see a light. +The man sung out: + +"Snatch that light away, Betsy, you old fool--ain't you got any sense? +Put it on the floor behind the front door. Bob, if you and Tom are +ready, take your places." + +"All ready." + +"Now, George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?" + +"No, sir; I never heard of them." + +"Well, that may be so, and it mayn't. Now, all ready. Step forward, +George Jackson. And mind, don't you hurry--come mighty slow. If there's +anybody with you, let him keep back--if he shows himself he'll be shot. +Come along now. Come slow; push the door open yourself--just enough to +squeeze in, d' you hear?" + +I didn't hurry; I couldn't if I'd a wanted to. I took one slow step at a +time and there warn't a sound, only I thought I could hear my heart. The +dogs were as still as the humans, but they followed a little behind me. +When I got to the three log doorsteps I heard them unlocking and +unbarring and unbolting. I put my hand on the door and pushed it a +little and a little more till somebody said, "There, that's enough--put +your head in." I done it, but I judged they would take it off. + +The candle was on the floor, and there they all was, looking at me, and +me at them, for about a quarter of a minute: Three big men with guns +pointed at me, which made me wince, I tell you; the oldest, gray and +about sixty, the other two thirty or more--all of them fine and handsome +--and the sweetest old gray-headed lady, and back of her two young women +which I couldn't see right well. The old gentleman says: + +"There; I reckon it's all right. Come in." + +As soon as I was in the old gentleman he locked the door and barred it +and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with their guns, and +they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag carpet on the floor, and +got together in a corner that was out of the range of the front windows +--there warn't none on the side. They held the candle, and took a good +look at me, and all said, "Why, HE ain't a Shepherdson--no, there ain't +any Shepherdson about him." Then the old man said he hoped I wouldn't +mind being searched for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by it--it +was only to make sure. So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only felt +outside with his hands, and said it was all right. He told me to make +myself easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old lady +says: + +"Why, bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and don't +you reckon it may be he's hungry?" + +"True for you, Rachel--I forgot." + +So the old lady says: + +"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him something +to eat as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you girls go and wake +up Buck and tell him--oh, here he is himself. Buck, take this little +stranger and get the wet clothes off from him and dress him up in some of +yours that's dry." + +Buck looked about as old as me--thirteen or fourteen or along there, +though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn't on anything but a +shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed. He came in gaping and digging one +fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along with the other one. +He says: + +"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?" + +They said, no, 'twas a false alarm. + +"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one." + +They all laughed, and Bob says: + +"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so slow in +coming." + +"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right I'm always kept down; I +don't get no show." + +"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have show enough, +all in good time, don't you fret about that. Go 'long with you now, and +do as your mother told you." + +When we got up-stairs to his room he got me a coarse shirt and a +roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on. While I was at it he +asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him he started to tell +me about a bluejay and a young rabbit he had catched in the woods day +before yesterday, and he asked me where Moses was when the candle went +out. I said I didn't know; I hadn't heard about it before, no way. + +"Well, guess," he says. + +"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell of it before?" + +"But you can guess, can't you? It's just as easy." + +"WHICH candle?" I says. + +"Why, any candle," he says. + +"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?" + +"Why, he was in the DARK! That's where he was!" + +"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?" + +"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see? Say, how long are you +going to stay here? You got to stay always. We can just have booming +times--they don't have no school now. Do you own a dog? I've got a +dog--and he'll go in the river and bring out chips that you throw in. Do +you like to comb up Sundays, and all that kind of foolishness? You bet I +don't, but ma she makes me. Confound these ole britches! I reckon I'd +better put 'em on, but I'd ruther not, it's so warm. Are you all ready? +All right. Come along, old hoss." + +Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk--that is what they +had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that ever I've come +across yet. Buck and his ma and all of them smoked cob pipes, except the +nigger woman, which was gone, and the two young women. They all smoked +and talked, and I eat and talked. The young women had quilts around +them, and their hair down their backs. They all asked me questions, and +I told them how pap and me and all the family was living on a little farm +down at the bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann run off and got +married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went to hunt them and he +warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, and then there warn't +nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just trimmed down to nothing, +on account of his troubles; so when he died I took what there was left, +because the farm didn't belong to us, and started up the river, deck +passage, and fell overboard; and that was how I come to be here. So they +said I could have a home there as long as I wanted it. Then it was most +daylight and everybody went to bed, and I went to bed with Buck, and when +I waked up in the morning, drat it all, I had forgot what my name was. +So I laid there about an hour trying to think, and when Buck waked up I +says: + +"Can you spell, Buck?" + +"Yes," he says. + +"I bet you can't spell my name," says I. + +"I bet you what you dare I can," says he. + +"All right," says I, "go ahead." + +"G-e-o-r-g-e J-a-x-o-n--there now," he says. + +"Well," says I, "you done it, but I didn't think you could. It ain't no +slouch of a name to spell--right off without studying." + +I set it down, private, because somebody might want ME to spell it next, +and so I wanted to be handy with it and rattle it off like I was used to +it. + +It was a mighty nice family, and a mighty nice house, too. I hadn't seen +no house out in the country before that was so nice and had so much +style. It didn't have an iron latch on the front door, nor a wooden one +with a buckskin string, but a brass knob to turn, the same as houses in +town. There warn't no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed; but heaps +of parlors in towns has beds in them. There was a big fireplace that was +bricked on the bottom, and the bricks was kept clean and red by pouring +water on them and scrubbing them with another brick; sometimes they wash +them over with red water-paint that they call Spanish-brown, same as they +do in town. They had big brass dog-irons that could hold up a saw-log. +There was a clock on the middle of the mantelpiece, with a picture of a +town painted on the bottom half of the glass front, and a round place in +the middle of it for the sun, and you could see the pendulum swinging +behind it. It was beautiful to hear that clock tick; and sometimes when +one of these peddlers had been along and scoured her up and got her in +good shape, she would start in and strike a hundred and fifty before she +got tuckered out. They wouldn't took any money for her. + +Well, there was a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock, made +out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy. By one of the parrots +was a cat made of crockery, and a crockery dog by the other; and when you +pressed down on them they squeaked, but didn't open their mouths nor look +different nor interested. They squeaked through underneath. There was a +couple of big wild-turkey-wing fans spread out behind those things. On +the table in the middle of the room was a kind of a lovely crockery +basket that had apples and oranges and peaches and grapes piled up in it, +which was much redder and yellower and prettier than real ones is, but +they warn't real because you could see where pieces had got chipped off +and showed the white chalk, or whatever it was, underneath. + +This table had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth, with a red and +blue spread-eagle painted on it, and a painted border all around. It +come all the way from Philadelphia, they said. There was some books, +too, piled up perfectly exact, on each corner of the table. One was a +big family Bible full of pictures. One was Pilgrim's Progress, about a +man that left his family, it didn't say why. I read considerable in it +now and then. The statements was interesting, but tough. Another was +Friendship's Offering, full of beautiful stuff and poetry; but I didn't +read the poetry. Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Dr. +Gunn's Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do if a body was +sick or dead. There was a hymn book, and a lot of other books. And +there was nice split-bottom chairs, and perfectly sound, too--not bagged +down in the middle and busted, like an old basket. + +They had pictures hung on the walls--mainly Washingtons and Lafayettes, +and battles, and Highland Marys, and one called "Signing the +Declaration." There was some that they called crayons, which one of the +daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only fifteen +years old. They was different from any pictures I ever see before +--blacker, mostly, than is common. One was a woman in a slim black dress, +belted small under the armpits, with bulges like a cabbage in the middle +of the sleeves, and a large black scoop-shovel bonnet with a black veil, +and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape, and very wee black +slippers, like a chisel, and she was leaning pensive on a tombstone on +her right elbow, under a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down +her side holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, and underneath the +picture it said "Shall I Never See Thee More Alas." Another one was a +young lady with her hair all combed up straight to the top of her head, +and knotted there in front of a comb like a chair-back, and she was +crying into a handkerchief and had a dead bird laying on its back in her +other hand with its heels up, and underneath the picture it said "I Shall +Never Hear Thy Sweet Chirrup More Alas." There was one where a young +lady was at a window looking up at the moon, and tears running down her +cheeks; and she had an open letter in one hand with black sealing wax +showing on one edge of it, and she was mashing a locket with a chain to +it against her mouth, and underneath the picture it said "And Art Thou +Gone Yes Thou Art Gone Alas." These was all nice pictures, I reckon, but +I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because if ever I was down a +little they always give me the fan-tods. Everybody was sorry she died, +because she had laid out a lot more of these pictures to do, and a body +could see by what she had done what they had lost. But I reckoned that +with her disposition she was having a better time in the graveyard. She +was at work on what they said was her greatest picture when she took +sick, and every day and every night it was her prayer to be allowed to +live till she got it done, but she never got the chance. It was a +picture of a young woman in a long white gown, standing on the rail of a +bridge all ready to jump off, with her hair all down her back, and +looking up to the moon, with the tears running down her face, and she had +two arms folded across her breast, and two arms stretched out in front, +and two more reaching up towards the moon--and the idea was to see which +pair would look best, and then scratch out all the other arms; but, as I +was saying, she died before she got her mind made up, and now they kept +this picture over the head of the bed in her room, and every time her +birthday come they hung flowers on it. Other times it was hid with a +little curtain. The young woman in the picture had a kind of a nice +sweet face, but there was so many arms it made her look too spidery, +seemed to me. + +This young girl kept a scrap-book when she was alive, and used to paste +obituaries and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it out of the +Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them out of her own head. +It was very good poetry. This is what she wrote about a boy by the name +of Stephen Dowling Bots that fell down a well and was drownded: + +ODE TO STEPHEN DOWLING BOTS, DEC'D + +And did young Stephen sicken, And did young Stephen die? And did the sad +hearts thicken, And did the mourners cry? + +No; such was not the fate of Young Stephen Dowling Bots; Though sad +hearts round him thickened, 'Twas not from sickness' shots. + +No whooping-cough did rack his frame, Nor measles drear with spots; Not +these impaired the sacred name Of Stephen Dowling Bots. + +Despised love struck not with woe That head of curly knots, Nor stomach +troubles laid him low, Young Stephen Dowling Bots. + +O no. Then list with tearful eye, Whilst I his fate do tell. His soul +did from this cold world fly By falling down a well. + +They got him out and emptied him; Alas it was too late; His spirit was +gone for to sport aloft In the realms of the good and great. + +If Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was +fourteen, there ain't no telling what she could a done by and by. Buck +said she could rattle off poetry like nothing. She didn't ever have to +stop to think. He said she would slap down a line, and if she couldn't +find anything to rhyme with it would just scratch it out and slap down +another one, and go ahead. She warn't particular; she could write about +anything you choose to give her to write about just so it was sadful. +Every time a man died, or a woman died, or a child died, she would be on +hand with her "tribute" before he was cold. She called them tributes. +The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the +undertaker--the undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline but once, and +then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead person's name, which was +Whistler. She warn't ever the same after that; she never complained, but +she kinder pined away and did not live long. Poor thing, many's the time +I made myself go up to the little room that used to be hers and get out +her poor old scrap-book and read in it when her pictures had been +aggravating me and I had soured on her a little. I liked all that +family, dead ones and all, and warn't going to let anything come between +us. Poor Emmeline made poetry about all the dead people when she was +alive, and it didn't seem right that there warn't nobody to make some +about her now she was gone; so I tried to sweat out a verse or two +myself, but I couldn't seem to make it go somehow. They kept Emmeline's +room trim and nice, and all the things fixed in it just the way she liked +to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. The old +lady took care of the room herself, though there was plenty of niggers, +and she sewed there a good deal and read her Bible there mostly. + +Well, as I was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on +the windows: white, with pictures painted on them of castles with vines +all down the walls, and cattle coming down to drink. There was a little +old piano, too, that had tin pans in it, I reckon, and nothing was ever +so lovely as to hear the young ladies sing "The Last Link is Broken" and +play "The Battle of Prague" on it. The walls of all the rooms was +plastered, and most had carpets on the floors, and the whole house was +whitewashed on the outside. + +It was a double house, and the big open place betwixt them was roofed and +floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the day, +and it was a cool, comfortable place. Nothing couldn't be better. And +warn't the cooking good, and just bushels of it too! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +COL. GRANGERFORD was a gentleman, you see. He was a gentleman all over; +and so was his family. He was well born, as the saying is, and that's +worth as much in a man as it is in a horse, so the Widow Douglas said, +and nobody ever denied that she was of the first aristocracy in our town; +and pap he always said it, too, though he warn't no more quality than a +mudcat himself. Col. Grangerford was very tall and very slim, and had a +darkish-paly complexion, not a sign of red in it anywheres; he was clean +shaved every morning all over his thin face, and he had the thinnest kind +of lips, and the thinnest kind of nostrils, and a high nose, and heavy +eyebrows, and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep back that they +seemed like they was looking out of caverns at you, as you may say. His +forehead was high, and his hair was black and straight and hung to his +shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and every day of his life he put +on a clean shirt and a full suit from head to foot made out of linen so +white it hurt your eyes to look at it; and on Sundays he wore a blue +tail-coat with brass buttons on it. He carried a mahogany cane with a +silver head to it. There warn't no frivolishness about him, not a bit, +and he warn't ever loud. He was as kind as he could be--you could feel +that, you know, and so you had confidence. Sometimes he smiled, and it +was good to see; but when he straightened himself up like a liberty-pole, +and the lightning begun to flicker out from under his eyebrows, you +wanted to climb a tree first, and find out what the matter was +afterwards. He didn't ever have to tell anybody to mind their manners +--everybody was always good-mannered where he was. Everybody loved to have +him around, too; he was sunshine most always--I mean he made it seem +like good weather. When he turned into a cloudbank it was awful dark for +half a minute, and that was enough; there wouldn't nothing go wrong again +for a week. + +When him and the old lady come down in the morning all the family got up +out of their chairs and give them good-day, and didn't set down again +till they had set down. Then Tom and Bob went to the sideboard where the +decanter was, and mixed a glass of bitters and handed it to him, and he +held it in his hand and waited till Tom's and Bob's was mixed, and then +they bowed and said, "Our duty to you, sir, and madam;" and THEY bowed +the least bit in the world and said thank you, and so they drank, all +three, and Bob and Tom poured a spoonful of water on the sugar and the +mite of whisky or apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and give +it to me and Buck, and we drank to the old people too. + +Bob was the oldest and Tom next--tall, beautiful men with very broad +shoulders and brown faces, and long black hair and black eyes. They +dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman, and +wore broad Panama hats. + +Then there was Miss Charlotte; she was twenty-five, and tall and proud +and grand, but as good as she could be when she warn't stirred up; but +when she was she had a look that would make you wilt in your tracks, like +her father. She was beautiful. + +So was her sister, Miss Sophia, but it was a different kind. She was +gentle and sweet like a dove, and she was only twenty. + +Each person had their own nigger to wait on them--Buck too. My nigger +had a monstrous easy time, because I warn't used to having anybody do +anything for me, but Buck's was on the jump most of the time. + +This was all there was of the family now, but there used to be more +--three sons; they got killed; and Emmeline that died. + +The old gentleman owned a lot of farms and over a hundred niggers. +Sometimes a stack of people would come there, horseback, from ten or +fifteen mile around, and stay five or six days, and have such junketings +round about and on the river, and dances and picnics in the woods +daytimes, and balls at the house nights. These people was mostly +kinfolks of the family. The men brought their guns with them. It was a +handsome lot of quality, I tell you. + +There was another clan of aristocracy around there--five or six families +--mostly of the name of Shepherdson. They was as high-toned and well +born and rich and grand as the tribe of Grangerfords. The Shepherdsons +and Grangerfords used the same steamboat landing, which was about two +mile above our house; so sometimes when I went up there with a lot of our +folks I used to see a lot of the Shepherdsons there on their fine horses. + +One day Buck and me was away out in the woods hunting, and heard a horse +coming. We was crossing the road. Buck says: + +"Quick! Jump for the woods!" + +We done it, and then peeped down the woods through the leaves. Pretty +soon a splendid young man come galloping down the road, setting his horse +easy and looking like a soldier. He had his gun across his pommel. I +had seen him before. It was young Harney Shepherdson. I heard Buck's +gun go off at my ear, and Harney's hat tumbled off from his head. He +grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place where we was hid. But we +didn't wait. We started through the woods on a run. The woods warn't +thick, so I looked over my shoulder to dodge the bullet, and twice I seen +Harney cover Buck with his gun; and then he rode away the way he come--to +get his hat, I reckon, but I couldn't see. We never stopped running till +we got home. The old gentleman's eyes blazed a minute--'twas pleasure, +mainly, I judged--then his face sort of smoothed down, and he says, +kind of gentle: + +"I don't like that shooting from behind a bush. Why didn't you step into +the road, my boy?" + +"The Shepherdsons don't, father. They always take advantage." + +Miss Charlotte she held her head up like a queen while Buck was telling +his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped. The two young +men looked dark, but never said nothing. Miss Sophia she turned pale, +but the color come back when she found the man warn't hurt. + +Soon as I could get Buck down by the corn-cribs under the trees by +ourselves, I says: + +"Did you want to kill him, Buck?" + +"Well, I bet I did." + +"What did he do to you?" + +"Him? He never done nothing to me." + +"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?" + +"Why, nothing--only it's on account of the feud." + +"What's a feud?" + +"Why, where was you raised? Don't you know what a feud is?" + +"Never heard of it before--tell me about it." + +"Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another +man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills HIM; then the +other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the COUSINS +chip in--and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more +feud. But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time." + +"Has this one been going on long, Buck?" + +"Well, I should RECKON! It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along +there. There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle +it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man +that won the suit--which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody +would." + +"What was the trouble about, Buck?--land?" + +"I reckon maybe--I don't know." + +"Well, who done the shooting? Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?" + +"Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago." + +"Don't anybody know?" + +"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they +don't know now what the row was about in the first place." + +"Has there been many killed, Buck?" + +"Yes; right smart chance of funerals. But they don't always kill. Pa's +got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh much, +anyway. Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been hurt once +or twice." + +"Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?" + +"Yes; we got one and they got one. 'Bout three months ago my cousin Bud, +fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side of the +river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' foolishness, +and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind him, and sees +old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in his hand and +his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping off and taking +to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could out-run him; so they had it, nip and +tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all the time; so at +last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced around so as to +have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old man he rode up and +shot him down. But he didn't git much chance to enjoy his luck, for +inside of a week our folks laid HIM out." + +"I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck." + +"I reckon he WARN'T a coward. Not by a blame' sight. There ain't a +coward amongst them Shepherdsons--not a one. And there ain't no cowards +amongst the Grangerfords either. Why, that old man kep' up his end in a +fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come out +winner. They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got behind +a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the bullets; but +the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around the old man, +and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them. Him and his +horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the Grangerfords had +to be FETCHED home--and one of 'em was dead, and another died the next +day. No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards he don't want to fool +away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz they don't breed any of +that KIND." + +Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody +a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them +between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The +Shepherdsons done the same. It was pretty ornery preaching--all about +brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a +good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a +powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and +preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me +to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet. + +About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their +chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull. Buck and a +dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep. I went up to +our room, and judged I would take a nap myself. I found that sweet Miss +Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took me in +her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, and I +said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and not tell +anybody, and I said I would. Then she said she'd forgot her Testament, +and left it in the seat at church between two other books, and would I +slip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say nothing to +nobody. I said I would. So I slid out and slipped off up the road, and +there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there +warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in +summer-time because it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go +to church only when they've got to; but a hog is different. + +Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in +such a sweat about a Testament. So I give it a shake, and out drops a +little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil. I +ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else. I couldn't make anything +out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home +and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me. She +pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till she +found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and before a +body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and said I was the +best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody. She was mighty red in +the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it made her powerful +pretty. I was a good deal astonished, but when I got my breath I asked +her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I had read it, and I +said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, and I told her "no, +only coarse-hand," and then she said the paper warn't anything but a +book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and play now. + +I went off down to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon I +noticed that my nigger was following along behind. When we was out of +sight of the house he looked back and around a second, and then comes +a-running, and says: + +"Mars Jawge, if you'll come down into de swamp I'll show you a whole +stack o' water-moccasins." + +Thinks I, that's mighty curious; he said that yesterday. He oughter know +a body don't love water-moccasins enough to go around hunting for them. +What is he up to, anyway? So I says: + +"All right; trot ahead." + +I followed a half a mile; then he struck out over the swamp, and waded +ankle deep as much as another half-mile. We come to a little flat piece +of land which was dry and very thick with trees and bushes and vines, and +he says: + +"You shove right in dah jist a few steps, Mars Jawge; dah's whah dey is. +I's seed 'm befo'; I don't k'yer to see 'em no mo'." + +Then he slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the trees hid +him. I poked into the place a-ways and come to a little open patch as +big as a bedroom all hung around with vines, and found a man laying there +asleep--and, by jings, it was my old Jim! + +I waked him up, and I reckoned it was going to be a grand surprise to him +to see me again, but it warn't. He nearly cried he was so glad, but he +warn't surprised. Said he swum along behind me that night, and heard me +yell every time, but dasn't answer, because he didn't want nobody to pick +HIM up and take him into slavery again. Says he: + +"I got hurt a little, en couldn't swim fas', so I wuz a considable ways +behine you towards de las'; when you landed I reck'ned I could ketch up +wid you on de lan' 'dout havin' to shout at you, but when I see dat house +I begin to go slow. I 'uz off too fur to hear what dey say to you--I wuz +'fraid o' de dogs; but when it 'uz all quiet agin I knowed you's in de +house, so I struck out for de woods to wait for day. Early in de mawnin' +some er de niggers come along, gwyne to de fields, en dey tuk me en +showed me dis place, whah de dogs can't track me on accounts o' de water, +en dey brings me truck to eat every night, en tells me how you's a-gitt'n +along." + +"Why didn't you tell my Jack to fetch me here sooner, Jim?" + +"Well, 'twarn't no use to 'sturb you, Huck, tell we could do sumfn--but +we's all right now. I ben a-buyin' pots en pans en vittles, as I got a +chanst, en a-patchin' up de raf' nights when--" + +"WHAT raft, Jim?" + +"Our ole raf'." + +"You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all to flinders?" + +"No, she warn't. She was tore up a good deal--one en' of her was; but +dey warn't no great harm done, on'y our traps was mos' all los'. Ef we +hadn' dive' so deep en swum so fur under water, en de night hadn' ben so +dark, en we warn't so sk'yerd, en ben sich punkin-heads, as de sayin' is, +we'd a seed de raf'. But it's jis' as well we didn't, 'kase now she's +all fixed up agin mos' as good as new, en we's got a new lot o' stuff, in +de place o' what 'uz los'." + +"Why, how did you get hold of the raft again, Jim--did you catch her?" + +"How I gwyne to ketch her en I out in de woods? No; some er de niggers +foun' her ketched on a snag along heah in de ben', en dey hid her in a +crick 'mongst de willows, en dey wuz so much jawin' 'bout which un 'um +she b'long to de mos' dat I come to heah 'bout it pooty soon, so I ups en +settles de trouble by tellin' 'um she don't b'long to none uv um, but to +you en me; en I ast 'm if dey gwyne to grab a young white genlman's +propaty, en git a hid'n for it? Den I gin 'm ten cents apiece, en dey +'uz mighty well satisfied, en wisht some mo' raf's 'ud come along en make +'m rich agin. Dey's mighty good to me, dese niggers is, en whatever I +wants 'm to do fur me I doan' have to ast 'm twice, honey. Dat Jack's a +good nigger, en pooty smart." + +"Yes, he is. He ain't ever told me you was here; told me to come, and +he'd show me a lot of water-moccasins. If anything happens HE ain't +mixed up in it. He can say he never seen us together, and it 'll be the +truth." + +I don't want to talk much about the next day. I reckon I'll cut it +pretty short. I waked up about dawn, and was a-going to turn over and go +to sleep again when I noticed how still it was--didn't seem to be anybody +stirring. That warn't usual. Next I noticed that Buck was up and gone. +Well, I gets up, a-wondering, and goes down stairs--nobody around; +everything as still as a mouse. Just the same outside. Thinks I, what +does it mean? Down by the wood-pile I comes across my Jack, and says: + +"What's it all about?" + +Says he: + +"Don't you know, Mars Jawge?" + +"No," says I, "I don't." + +"Well, den, Miss Sophia's run off! 'deed she has. She run off in de +night some time--nobody don't know jis' when; run off to get married to +dat young Harney Shepherdson, you know--leastways, so dey 'spec. De +fambly foun' it out 'bout half an hour ago--maybe a little mo'--en' I +TELL you dey warn't no time los'. Sich another hurryin' up guns en +hosses YOU never see! De women folks has gone for to stir up de +relations, en ole Mars Saul en de boys tuck dey guns en rode up de river +road for to try to ketch dat young man en kill him 'fo' he kin git acrost +de river wid Miss Sophia. I reck'n dey's gwyne to be mighty rough +times." + +"Buck went off 'thout waking me up." + +"Well, I reck'n he DID! Dey warn't gwyne to mix you up in it. Mars Buck +he loaded up his gun en 'lowed he's gwyne to fetch home a Shepherdson or +bust. Well, dey'll be plenty un 'm dah, I reck'n, en you bet you he'll +fetch one ef he gits a chanst." + +I took up the river road as hard as I could put. By and by I begin to +hear guns a good ways off. When I came in sight of the log store and the +woodpile where the steamboats lands I worked along under the trees and +brush till I got to a good place, and then I clumb up into the forks of a +cottonwood that was out of reach, and watched. There was a wood-rank +four foot high a little ways in front of the tree, and first I was going +to hide behind that; but maybe it was luckier I didn't. + +There was four or five men cavorting around on their horses in the open +place before the log store, cussing and yelling, and trying to get at a +couple of young chaps that was behind the wood-rank alongside of the +steamboat landing; but they couldn't come it. Every time one of them +showed himself on the river side of the woodpile he got shot at. The two +boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch both +ways. + +By and by the men stopped cavorting around and yelling. They started +riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady +bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle. All +the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started +to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the +run. They got half way to the tree I was in before the men noticed. +Then the men see them, and jumped on their horses and took out after +them. They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had +too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, +and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again. +One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about +nineteen years old. + +The men ripped around awhile, and then rode away. As soon as they was +out of sight I sung out to Buck and told him. He didn't know what to +make of my voice coming out of the tree at first. He was awful +surprised. He told me to watch out sharp and let him know when the men +come in sight again; said they was up to some devilment or other +--wouldn't be gone long. I wished I was out of that tree, but I dasn't +come down. Buck begun to cry and rip, and 'lowed that him and his cousin +Joe (that was the other young chap) would make up for this day yet. He +said his father and his two brothers was killed, and two or three of the +enemy. Said the Shepherdsons laid for them in ambush. Buck said his +father and brothers ought to waited for their relations--the Shepherdsons +was too strong for them. I asked him what was become of young Harney and +Miss Sophia. He said they'd got across the river and was safe. I was +glad of that; but the way Buck did take on because he didn't manage to +kill Harney that day he shot at him--I hain't ever heard anything like +it. + +All of a sudden, bang! bang! bang! goes three or four guns--the men had +slipped around through the woods and come in from behind without their +horses! The boys jumped for the river--both of them hurt--and as they +swum down the current the men run along the bank shooting at them and +singing out, "Kill them, kill them!" It made me so sick I most fell out +of the tree. I ain't a-going to tell ALL that happened--it would make me +sick again if I was to do that. I wished I hadn't ever come ashore that +night to see such things. I ain't ever going to get shut of them--lots +of times I dream about them. + +I stayed in the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to come down. +Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods; and twice I seen little +gangs of men gallop past the log store with guns; so I reckoned the +trouble was still a-going on. I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my +mind I wouldn't ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I was +to blame, somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant that Miss +Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half-past two and run off; and I +judged I ought to told her father about that paper and the curious way +she acted, and then maybe he would a locked her up, and this awful mess +wouldn't ever happened. + +When I got down out of the tree I crept along down the river bank a +piece, and found the two bodies laying in the edge of the water, and +tugged at them till I got them ashore; then I covered up their faces, and +got away as quick as I could. I cried a little when I was covering up +Buck's face, for he was mighty good to me. + +It was just dark now. I never went near the house, but struck through +the woods and made for the swamp. Jim warn't on his island, so I tramped +off in a hurry for the crick, and crowded through the willows, red-hot to +jump aboard and get out of that awful country. The raft was gone! My +souls, but I was scared! I couldn't get my breath for most a minute. +Then I raised a yell. A voice not twenty-five foot from me says: + +"Good lan'! is dat you, honey? Doan' make no noise." + +It was Jim's voice--nothing ever sounded so good before. I run along the +bank a piece and got aboard, and Jim he grabbed me and hugged me, he was +so glad to see me. He says: + +"Laws bless you, chile, I 'uz right down sho' you's dead agin. Jack's +been heah; he say he reck'n you's ben shot, kase you didn' come home no +mo'; so I's jes' dis minute a startin' de raf' down towards de mouf er de +crick, so's to be all ready for to shove out en leave soon as Jack comes +agin en tells me for certain you IS dead. Lawsy, I's mighty glad to git +you back again, honey." + +I says: + +"All right--that's mighty good; they won't find me, and they'll think +I've been killed, and floated down the river--there's something up there +that 'll help them think so--so don't you lose no time, Jim, but just +shove off for the big water as fast as ever you can." + +I never felt easy till the raft was two mile below there and out in the +middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung up our signal lantern, and +judged that we was free and safe once more. I hadn't had a bite to eat +since yesterday, so Jim he got out some corn-dodgers and buttermilk, and +pork and cabbage and greens--there ain't nothing in the world so good +when it's cooked right--and whilst I eat my supper we talked and had a +good time. I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was +Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn't no home like a +raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a +raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +TWO or three days and nights went by; I reckon I might say they swum by, +they slid along so quiet and smooth and lovely. Here is the way we put +in the time. It was a monstrous big river down there--sometimes a mile +and a half wide; we run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as +night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up--nearly always in +the dead water under a towhead; and then cut young cottonwoods and +willows, and hid the raft with them. Then we set out the lines. Next we +slid into the river and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool off; +then we set down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee deep, +and watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywheres--perfectly still +--just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs +a-cluttering, maybe. The first thing to see, looking away over the water, +was a kind of dull line--that was the woods on t'other side; you couldn't +make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness +spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and warn't black +any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots drifting along ever +so far away--trading scows, and such things; and long black streaks +--rafts; sometimes you could hear a sweep screaking; or jumbled up voices, +it was so still, and sounds come so far; and by and by you could see a +streak on the water which you know by the look of the streak that there's +a snag there in a swift current which breaks on it and makes that streak +look that way; and you see the mist curl up off of the water, and the +east reddens up, and the river, and you make out a log-cabin in the edge +of the woods, away on the bank on t'other side of the river, being a +woodyard, likely, and piled by them cheats so you can throw a dog through +it anywheres; then the nice breeze springs up, and comes fanning you from +over there, so cool and fresh and sweet to smell on account of the woods +and the flowers; but sometimes not that way, because they've left dead +fish laying around, gars and such, and they do get pretty rank; and next +you've got the full day, and everything smiling in the sun, and the +song-birds just going it! + +A little smoke couldn't be noticed now, so we would take some fish off of +the lines and cook up a hot breakfast. And afterwards we would watch the +lonesomeness of the river, and kind of lazy along, and by and by lazy off +to sleep. Wake up by and by, and look to see what done it, and maybe see +a steamboat coughing along up-stream, so far off towards the other side +you couldn't tell nothing about her only whether she was a stern-wheel or +side-wheel; then for about an hour there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor +nothing to see--just solid lonesomeness. Next you'd see a raft sliding +by, away off yonder, and maybe a galoot on it chopping, because they're +most always doing it on a raft; you'd see the axe flash and come down +--you don't hear nothing; you see that axe go up again, and by the time +it's above the man's head then you hear the K'CHUNK!--it had took all +that time to come over the water. So we would put in the day, lazying +around, listening to the stillness. Once there was a thick fog, and the +rafts and things that went by was beating tin pans so the steamboats +wouldn't run over them. A scow or a raft went by so close we could hear +them talking and cussing and laughing--heard them plain; but we couldn't +see no sign of them; it made you feel crawly; it was like spirits +carrying on that way in the air. Jim said he believed it was spirits; +but I says: + +"No; spirits wouldn't say, 'Dern the dern fog.'" + +Soon as it was night out we shoved; when we got her out to about the +middle we let her alone, and let her float wherever the current wanted +her to; then we lit the pipes, and dangled our legs in the water, and +talked about all kinds of things--we was always naked, day and night, +whenever the mosquitoes would let us--the new clothes Buck's folks made +for me was too good to be comfortable, and besides I didn't go much on +clothes, nohow. + +Sometimes we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest +time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a +spark--which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water +you could see a spark or two--on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe +you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. +It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled +with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and +discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim he +allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would +have took too long to MAKE so many. Jim said the moon could a LAID them; +well, that looked kind of reasonable, so I didn't say nothing against it, +because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so of course it could be done. +We used to watch the stars that fell, too, and see them streak down. Jim +allowed they'd got spoiled and was hove out of the nest. + +Once or twice of a night we would see a steamboat slipping along in the +dark, and now and then she would belch a whole world of sparks up out of +her chimbleys, and they would rain down in the river and look awful +pretty; then she would turn a corner and her lights would wink out and +her powwow shut off and leave the river still again; and by and by her +waves would get to us, a long time after she was gone, and joggle the +raft a bit, and after that you wouldn't hear nothing for you couldn't +tell how long, except maybe frogs or something. + +After midnight the people on shore went to bed, and then for two or three +hours the shores was black--no more sparks in the cabin windows. These +sparks was our clock--the first one that showed again meant morning was +coming, so we hunted a place to hide and tie up right away. + +One morning about daybreak I found a canoe and crossed over a chute to +the main shore--it was only two hundred yards--and paddled about a mile +up a crick amongst the cypress woods, to see if I couldn't get some +berries. Just as I was passing a place where a kind of a cowpath crossed +the crick, here comes a couple of men tearing up the path as tight as +they could foot it. I thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was +after anybody I judged it was ME--or maybe Jim. I was about to dig out +from there in a hurry, but they was pretty close to me then, and sung out +and begged me to save their lives--said they hadn't been doing nothing, +and was being chased for it--said there was men and dogs a-coming. They +wanted to jump right in, but I says: + +"Don't you do it. I don't hear the dogs and horses yet; you've got time +to crowd through the brush and get up the crick a little ways; then you +take to the water and wade down to me and get in--that'll throw the dogs +off the scent." + +They done it, and soon as they was aboard I lit out for our towhead, and +in about five or ten minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, +shouting. We heard them come along towards the crick, but couldn't see +them; they seemed to stop and fool around a while; then, as we got +further and further away all the time, we couldn't hardly hear them at +all; by the time we had left a mile of woods behind us and struck the +river, everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead and hid +in the cottonwoods and was safe. + +One of these fellows was about seventy or upwards, and had a bald head +and very gray whiskers. He had an old battered-up slouch hat on, and a +greasy blue woollen shirt, and ragged old blue jeans britches stuffed +into his boot-tops, and home-knit galluses--no, he only had one. He had +an old long-tailed blue jeans coat with slick brass buttons flung over +his arm, and both of them had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. + +The other fellow was about thirty, and dressed about as ornery. After +breakfast we all laid off and talked, and the first thing that come out +was that these chaps didn't know one another. + +"What got you into trouble?" says the baldhead to t'other chap. + +"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the tartar off the teeth--and +it does take it off, too, and generly the enamel along with it--but I +stayed about one night longer than I ought to, and was just in the act of +sliding out when I ran across you on the trail this side of town, and you +told me they were coming, and begged me to help you to get off. So I +told you I was expecting trouble myself, and would scatter out WITH you. +That's the whole yarn--what's yourn? + +"Well, I'd ben a-running' a little temperance revival thar 'bout a week, +and was the pet of the women folks, big and little, for I was makin' it +mighty warm for the rummies, I TELL you, and takin' as much as five or +six dollars a night--ten cents a head, children and niggers free--and +business a-growin' all the time, when somehow or another a little report +got around last night that I had a way of puttin' in my time with a +private jug on the sly. A nigger rousted me out this mornin', and told +me the people was getherin' on the quiet with their dogs and horses, and +they'd be along pretty soon and give me 'bout half an hour's start, and +then run me down if they could; and if they got me they'd tar and feather +me and ride me on a rail, sure. I didn't wait for no breakfast--I warn't +hungry." + +"Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we might double-team it +together; what do you think?" + +"I ain't undisposed. What's your line--mainly?" + +"Jour printer by trade; do a little in patent medicines; theater-actor +--tragedy, you know; take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology when there's a +chance; teach singing-geography school for a change; sling a lecture +sometimes--oh, I do lots of things--most anything that comes handy, so it +ain't work. What's your lay?" + +"I've done considerble in the doctoring way in my time. Layin' on o' +hands is my best holt--for cancer and paralysis, and sich things; and I +k'n tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out +the facts for me. Preachin's my line, too, and workin' camp-meetin's, +and missionaryin' around." + +Nobody never said anything for a while; then the young man hove a sigh +and says: + +"Alas!" + +"What 're you alassin' about?" says the bald-head. + +"To think I should have lived to be leading such a life, and be degraded +down into such company." And he begun to wipe the corner of his eye with +a rag. + +"Dern your skin, ain't the company good enough for you?" says the +baldhead, pretty pert and uppish. + +"Yes, it IS good enough for me; it's as good as I deserve; for who +fetched me so low when I was so high? I did myself. I don't blame YOU, +gentlemen--far from it; I don't blame anybody. I deserve it all. Let +the cold world do its worst; one thing I know--there's a grave somewhere +for me. The world may go on just as it's always done, and take everything +from me--loved ones, property, everything; but it can't take that. +Some day I'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken heart +will be at rest." He went on a-wiping. + +"Drot your pore broken heart," says the baldhead; "what are you heaving +your pore broken heart at US f'r? WE hain't done nothing." + +"No, I know you haven't. I ain't blaming you, gentlemen. I brought +myself down--yes, I did it myself. It's right I should suffer--perfectly +right--I don't make any moan." + +"Brought you down from whar? Whar was you brought down from?" + +"Ah, you would not believe me; the world never believes--let it pass +--'tis no matter. The secret of my birth--" + +"The secret of your birth! Do you mean to say--" + +"Gentlemen," says the young man, very solemn, "I will reveal it to you, +for I feel I may have confidence in you. By rights I am a duke!" + +Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that; and I reckon mine did, too. +Then the baldhead says: "No! you can't mean it?" + +"Yes. My great-grandfather, eldest son of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled +to this country about the end of the last century, to breathe the pure +air of freedom; married here, and died, leaving a son, his own father +dying about the same time. The second son of the late duke seized the +titles and estates--the infant real duke was ignored. I am the lineal +descendant of that infant--I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater; and +here am I, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised by +the cold world, ragged, worn, heart-broken, and degraded to the +companionship of felons on a raft!" + +Jim pitied him ever so much, and so did I. We tried to comfort him, but +he said it warn't much use, he couldn't be much comforted; said if we was +a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him more good than most anything +else; so we said we would, if he would tell us how. He said we ought to +bow when we spoke to him, and say "Your Grace," or "My Lord," or "Your +Lordship"--and he wouldn't mind it if we called him plain +"Bridgewater," which, he said, was a title anyway, and not a name; and +one of us ought to wait on him at dinner, and do any little thing for him +he wanted done. + +Well, that was all easy, so we done it. All through dinner Jim stood +around and waited on him, and says, "Will yo' Grace have some o' dis or +some o' dat?" and so on, and a body could see it was mighty pleasing to +him. + +But the old man got pretty silent by and by--didn't have much to say, and +didn't look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going on +around that duke. He seemed to have something on his mind. So, along in +the afternoon, he says: + +"Looky here, Bilgewater," he says, "I'm nation sorry for you, but you +ain't the only person that's had troubles like that." + +"No?" + +"No you ain't. You ain't the only person that's ben snaked down +wrongfully out'n a high place." + +"Alas!" + +"No, you ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth." And, +by jings, HE begins to cry. + +"Hold! What do you mean?" + +"Bilgewater, kin I trust you?" says the old man, still sort of sobbing. + +"To the bitter death!" He took the old man by the hand and squeezed it, +and says, "That secret of your being: speak!" + +"Bilgewater, I am the late Dauphin!" + +You bet you, Jim and me stared this time. Then the duke says: + +"You are what?" + +"Yes, my friend, it is too true--your eyes is lookin' at this very moment +on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the +Sixteen and Marry Antonette." + +"You! At your age! No! You mean you're the late Charlemagne; you must +be six or seven hundred years old, at the very least." + +"Trouble has done it, Bilgewater, trouble has done it; trouble has brung +these gray hairs and this premature balditude. Yes, gentlemen, you see +before you, in blue jeans and misery, the wanderin', exiled, trampled-on, +and sufferin' rightful King of France." + +Well, he cried and took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly what to +do, we was so sorry--and so glad and proud we'd got him with us, too. So +we set in, like we done before with the duke, and tried to comfort HIM. +But he said it warn't no use, nothing but to be dead and done with it all +could do him any good; though he said it often made him feel easier and +better for a while if people treated him according to his rights, and got +down on one knee to speak to him, and always called him "Your Majesty," +and waited on him first at meals, and didn't set down in his presence +till he asked them. So Jim and me set to majestying him, and doing this +and that and t'other for him, and standing up till he told us we might +set down. This done him heaps of good, and so he got cheerful and +comfortable. But the duke kind of soured on him, and didn't look a bit +satisfied with the way things was going; still, the king acted real +friendly towards him, and said the duke's great-grandfather and all the +other Dukes of Bilgewater was a good deal thought of by HIS father, and +was allowed to come to the palace considerable; but the duke stayed huffy +a good while, till by and by the king says: + +"Like as not we got to be together a blamed long time on this h-yer raft, +Bilgewater, and so what's the use o' your bein' sour? It 'll only make +things oncomfortable. It ain't my fault I warn't born a duke, it ain't +your fault you warn't born a king--so what's the use to worry? Make the +best o' things the way you find 'em, says I--that's my motto. This ain't +no bad thing that we've struck here--plenty grub and an easy life--come, +give us your hand, duke, and le's all be friends." + +The duke done it, and Jim and me was pretty glad to see it. It took away +all the uncomfortableness and we felt mighty good over it, because it +would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the raft; +for what you want, above all things, on a raft, is for everybody to be +satisfied, and feel right and kind towards the others. + +It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no +kings nor dukes at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds. But I +never said nothing, never let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; +then you don't have no quarrels, and don't get into no trouble. If they +wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't no objections, 'long as +it would keep peace in the family; and it warn't no use to tell Jim, so I +didn't tell him. If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt +that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them +have their own way. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we covered +up the raft that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of running +--was Jim a runaway nigger? Says I: + +"Goodness sakes! would a runaway nigger run SOUTH?" + +No, they allowed he wouldn't. I had to account for things some way, so I +says: + +"My folks was living in Pike County, in Missouri, where I was born, and +they all died off but me and pa and my brother Ike. Pa, he 'lowed he'd +break up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's got a little +one-horse place on the river, forty-four mile below Orleans. Pa was +pretty poor, and had some debts; so when he'd squared up there warn't +nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim. That warn't enough +to take us fourteen hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way. Well, +when the river rose pa had a streak of luck one day; he ketched this +piece of a raft; so we reckoned we'd go down to Orleans on it. Pa's luck +didn't hold out; a steamboat run over the forrard corner of the raft one +night, and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel; Jim and me +come up all right, but pa was drunk, and Ike was only four years old, so +they never come up no more. Well, for the next day or two we had +considerable trouble, because people was always coming out in skiffs and +trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was a runaway +nigger. We don't run daytimes no more now; nights they don't bother us." + +The duke says: + +"Leave me alone to cipher out a way so we can run in the daytime if we +want to. I'll think the thing over--I'll invent a plan that'll fix it. +We'll let it alone for to-day, because of course we don't want to go by +that town yonder in daylight--it mightn't be healthy." + +Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat +lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was +beginning to shiver--it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see +that. So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see +what the beds was like. My bed was a straw tick better than Jim's, which +was a corn-shuck tick; there's always cobs around about in a shuck tick, +and they poke into you and hurt; and when you roll over the dry shucks +sound like you was rolling over in a pile of dead leaves; it makes such a +rustling that you wake up. Well, the duke allowed he would take my bed; +but the king allowed he wouldn't. He says: + +"I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that +a corn-shuck bed warn't just fitten for me to sleep on. Your Grace 'll +take the shuck bed yourself." + +Jim and me was in a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was +going to be some more trouble amongst them; so we was pretty glad when +the duke says: + +"'Tis my fate to be always ground into the mire under the iron heel of +oppression. Misfortune has broken my once haughty spirit; I yield, I +submit; 'tis my fate. I am alone in the world--let me suffer; can bear +it." + +We got away as soon as it was good and dark. The king told us to stand +well out towards the middle of the river, and not show a light till we +got a long ways below the town. We come in sight of the little bunch of +lights by and by--that was the town, you know--and slid by, about a half +a mile out, all right. When we was three-quarters of a mile below we +hoisted up our signal lantern; and about ten o'clock it come on to rain +and blow and thunder and lighten like everything; so the king told us to +both stay on watch till the weather got better; then him and the duke +crawled into the wigwam and turned in for the night. It was my watch +below till twelve, but I wouldn't a turned in anyway if I'd had a bed, +because a body don't see such a storm as that every day in the week, not +by a long sight. My souls, how the wind did scream along! And every +second or two there'd come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half +a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain, +and the trees thrashing around in the wind; then comes a H-WHACK!--bum! +bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum--and the thunder would go rumbling +and grumbling away, and quit--and then RIP comes another flash and +another sockdolager. The waves most washed me off the raft sometimes, +but I hadn't any clothes on, and didn't mind. We didn't have no trouble +about snags; the lightning was glaring and flittering around so constant +that we could see them plenty soon enough to throw her head this way or +that and miss them. + +I had the middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by that time, +so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me; he was always +mighty good that way, Jim was. I crawled into the wigwam, but the king +and the duke had their legs sprawled around so there warn't no show for +me; so I laid outside--I didn't mind the rain, because it was warm, and +the waves warn't running so high now. About two they come up again, +though, and Jim was going to call me; but he changed his mind, because he +reckoned they warn't high enough yet to do any harm; but he was mistaken +about that, for pretty soon all of a sudden along comes a regular ripper +and washed me overboard. It most killed Jim a-laughing. He was the +easiest nigger to laugh that ever was, anyway. + +I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away; and by and by the +storm let up for good and all; and the first cabin-light that showed I +rousted him out, and we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the day. + +The king got out an old ratty deck of cards after breakfast, and him and +the duke played seven-up a while, five cents a game. Then they got tired +of it, and allowed they would "lay out a campaign," as they called it. +The duke went down into his carpet-bag, and fetched up a lot of little +printed bills and read them out loud. One bill said, "The celebrated Dr. +Armand de Montalban, of Paris," would "lecture on the Science of +Phrenology" at such and such a place, on the blank day of blank, at ten +cents admission, and "furnish charts of character at twenty-five cents +apiece." The duke said that was HIM. In another bill he was the +"world-renowned Shakespearian tragedian, Garrick the Younger, of Drury +Lane, London." In other bills he had a lot of other names and done other +wonderful things, like finding water and gold with a "divining-rod," +"dissipating witch spells," and so on. By and by he says: + +"But the histrionic muse is the darling. Have you ever trod the boards, +Royalty?" + +"No," says the king. + +"You shall, then, before you're three days older, Fallen Grandeur," says +the duke. "The first good town we come to we'll hire a hall and do the +sword fight in Richard III. and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. +How does that strike you?" + +"I'm in, up to the hub, for anything that will pay, Bilgewater; but, you +see, I don't know nothing about play-actin', and hain't ever seen much of +it. I was too small when pap used to have 'em at the palace. Do you +reckon you can learn me?" + +"Easy!" + +"All right. I'm jist a-freezn' for something fresh, anyway. Le's +commence right away." + +So the duke he told him all about who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and +said he was used to being Romeo, so the king could be Juliet. + +"But if Juliet's such a young gal, duke, my peeled head and my white +whiskers is goin' to look oncommon odd on her, maybe." + +"No, don't you worry; these country jakes won't ever think of that. +Besides, you know, you'll be in costume, and that makes all the +difference in the world; Juliet's in a balcony, enjoying the moonlight +before she goes to bed, and she's got on her night-gown and her ruffled +nightcap. Here are the costumes for the parts." + +He got out two or three curtain-calico suits, which he said was meedyevil +armor for Richard III. and t'other chap, and a long white cotton +nightshirt and a ruffled nightcap to match. The king was satisfied; so +the duke got out his book and read the parts over in the most splendid +spread-eagle way, prancing around and acting at the same time, to show +how it had got to be done; then he give the book to the king and told him +to get his part by heart. + +There was a little one-horse town about three mile down the bend, and +after dinner the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about how to run +in daylight without it being dangersome for Jim; so he allowed he would +go down to the town and fix that thing. The king allowed he would go, +too, and see if he couldn't strike something. We was out of coffee, so +Jim said I better go along with them in the canoe and get some. + +When we got there there warn't nobody stirring; streets empty, and +perfectly dead and still, like Sunday. We found a sick nigger sunning +himself in a back yard, and he said everybody that warn't too young or +too sick or too old was gone to camp-meeting, about two mile back in the +woods. The king got the directions, and allowed he'd go and work that +camp-meeting for all it was worth, and I might go, too. + +The duke said what he was after was a printing-office. We found it; a +little bit of a concern, up over a carpenter shop--carpenters and +printers all gone to the meeting, and no doors locked. It was a dirty, +littered-up place, and had ink marks, and handbills with pictures of +horses and runaway niggers on them, all over the walls. The duke shed +his coat and said he was all right now. So me and the king lit out for +the camp-meeting. + +We got there in about a half an hour fairly dripping, for it was a most +awful hot day. There was as much as a thousand people there from twenty +mile around. The woods was full of teams and wagons, hitched +everywheres, feeding out of the wagon-troughs and stomping to keep off +the flies. There was sheds made out of poles and roofed over with +branches, where they had lemonade and gingerbread to sell, and piles of +watermelons and green corn and such-like truck. + +The preaching was going on under the same kinds of sheds, only they was +bigger and held crowds of people. The benches was made out of outside +slabs of logs, with holes bored in the round side to drive sticks into +for legs. They didn't have no backs. The preachers had high platforms to +stand on at one end of the sheds. The women had on sun-bonnets; and some +had linsey-woolsey frocks, some gingham ones, and a few of the young ones +had on calico. Some of the young men was barefooted, and some of the +children didn't have on any clothes but just a tow-linen shirt. Some of +the old women was knitting, and some of the young folks was courting on +the sly. + +The first shed we come to the preacher was lining out a hymn. He lined +out two lines, everybody sung it, and it was kind of grand to hear it, +there was so many of them and they done it in such a rousing way; then he +lined out two more for them to sing--and so on. The people woke up more +and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end some begun to +groan, and some begun to shout. Then the preacher begun to preach, and +begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to one side of the platform +and then the other, and then a-leaning down over the front of it, with +his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his words out with +all his might; and every now and then he would hold up his Bible and +spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and that, shouting, +"It's the brazen serpent in the wilderness! Look upon it and live!" And +people would shout out, "Glory!--A-a-MEN!" And so he went on, and the +people groaning and crying and saying amen: + +"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (AMEN!) come, +sick and sore! (AMEN!) come, lame and halt and blind! (AMEN!) come, pore +and needy, sunk in shame! (A-A-MEN!) come, all that's worn and soiled and +suffering!--come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite heart! come +in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse is free, the door +of heaven stands open--oh, enter in and be at rest!" (A-A-MEN! GLORY, +GLORY HALLELUJAH!) + +And so on. You couldn't make out what the preacher said any more, on +account of the shouting and crying. Folks got up everywheres in the +crowd, and worked their way just by main strength to the mourners' bench, +with the tears running down their faces; and when all the mourners had +got up there to the front benches in a crowd, they sung and shouted and +flung themselves down on the straw, just crazy and wild. + +Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him +over everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform, and +the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it. He +told them he was a pirate--been a pirate for thirty years out in the +Indian Ocean--and his crew was thinned out considerable last spring in +a fight, and he was home now to take out some fresh men, and thanks to +goodness he'd been robbed last night and put ashore off of a steamboat +without a cent, and he was glad of it; it was the blessedest thing that +ever happened to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for the +first time in his life; and, poor as he was, he was going to start right +off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean, and put in the rest of his +life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he could do it +better than anybody else, being acquainted with all pirate crews in that +ocean; and though it would take him a long time to get there without +money, he would get there anyway, and every time he convinced a pirate he +would say to him, "Don't you thank me, don't you give me no credit; it +all belongs to them dear people in Pokeville camp-meeting, natural +brothers and benefactors of the race, and that dear preacher there, the +truest friend a pirate ever had!" + +And then he busted into tears, and so did everybody. Then somebody sings +out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!" Well, a half +a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let HIM pass the +hat around!" Then everybody said it, the preacher too. + +So the king went all through the crowd with his hat swabbing his eyes, +and blessing the people and praising them and thanking them for being so +good to the poor pirates away off there; and every little while the +prettiest kind of girls, with the tears running down their cheeks, would +up and ask him would he let them kiss him for to remember him by; and he +always done it; and some of them he hugged and kissed as many as five or +six times--and he was invited to stay a week; and everybody wanted him to +live in their houses, and said they'd think it was an honor; but he said +as this was the last day of the camp-meeting he couldn't do no good, and +besides he was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off and go to +work on the pirates. + +When we got back to the raft and he come to count up he found he had +collected eighty-seven dollars and seventy-five cents. And then he had +fetched away a three-gallon jug of whisky, too, that he found under a +wagon when he was starting home through the woods. The king said, take +it all around, it laid over any day he'd ever put in in the missionarying +line. He said it warn't no use talking, heathens don't amount to shucks +alongside of pirates to work a camp-meeting with. + +The duke was thinking HE'D been doing pretty well till the king come to +show up, but after that he didn't think so so much. He had set up and +printed off two little jobs for farmers in that printing-office--horse +bills--and took the money, four dollars. And he had got in ten +dollars' worth of advertisements for the paper, which he said he would +put in for four dollars if they would pay in advance--so they done it. +The price of the paper was two dollars a year, but he took in three +subscriptions for half a dollar apiece on condition of them paying him in +advance; they were going to pay in cordwood and onions as usual, but he +said he had just bought the concern and knocked down the price as low as +he could afford it, and was going to run it for cash. He set up a little +piece of poetry, which he made, himself, out of his own head--three +verses--kind of sweet and saddish--the name of it was, "Yes, crush, cold +world, this breaking heart"--and he left that all set up and ready to +print in the paper, and didn't charge nothing for it. Well, he took in +nine dollars and a half, and said he'd done a pretty square day's work +for it. + +Then he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't charged for, +because it was for us. It had a picture of a runaway nigger with a +bundle on a stick over his shoulder, and "$200 reward" under it. The +reading was all about Jim, and just described him to a dot. It said he +run away from St. Jacques' plantation, forty mile below New Orleans, last +winter, and likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send him +back he could have the reward and expenses. + +"Now," says the duke, "after to-night we can run in the daytime if we +want to. Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot +with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we +captured him up the river, and were too poor to travel on a steamboat, so +we got this little raft on credit from our friends and are going down to +get the reward. Handcuffs and chains would look still better on Jim, but +it wouldn't go well with the story of us being so poor. Too much like +jewelry. Ropes are the correct thing--we must preserve the unities, as +we say on the boards." + +We all said the duke was pretty smart, and there couldn't be no trouble +about running daytimes. We judged we could make miles enough that night +to get out of the reach of the powwow we reckoned the duke's work in the +printing office was going to make in that little town; then we could boom +right along if we wanted to. + +We laid low and kept still, and never shoved out till nearly ten o'clock; +then we slid by, pretty wide away from the town, and didn't hoist our +lantern till we was clear out of sight of it. + +When Jim called me to take the watch at four in the morning, he says: + +"Huck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo' kings on dis trip?" + +"No," I says, "I reckon not." + +"Well," says he, "dat's all right, den. I doan' mine one er two kings, +but dat's enough. Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much +better." + +I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear +what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and +had so much trouble, he'd forgot it. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 4 +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN, PART 4. *** + +***** This file should be named 7103.txt or 7103.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/0/7103/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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