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diff --git a/7107.txt b/7107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3df00e --- /dev/null +++ b/7107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2240 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 8 +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 8 + Chapters XXXVI. to The Last + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: June 28, 2004 [EBook #7107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN, PART 8. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +By Mark Twain + +Part 8. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +AS soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the +lightning-rod, and shut ourselves up in the lean-to, and got out our pile +of fox-fire, and went to work. We cleared everything out of the way, +about four or five foot along the middle of the bottom log. Tom said we +was right behind Jim's bed now, and we'd dig in under it, and when we got +through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there was any hole +there, because Jim's counter-pin hung down most to the ground, and you'd +have to raise it up and look under to see the hole. So we dug and dug +with the case-knives till most midnight; and then we was dog-tired, and +our hands was blistered, and yet you couldn't see we'd done anything +hardly. At last I says: + +"This ain't no thirty-seven year job; this is a thirty-eight year job, +Tom Sawyer." + +He never said nothing. But he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped +digging, and then for a good little while I knowed that he was thinking. +Then he says: + +"It ain't no use, Huck, it ain't a-going to work. If we was prisoners it +would, because then we'd have as many years as we wanted, and no hurry; +and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig, every day, while they was +changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and we could +keep it up right along, year in and year out, and do it right, and the +way it ought to be done. But WE can't fool along; we got to rush; we +ain't got no time to spare. If we was to put in another night this way +we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get well--couldn't +touch a case-knife with them sooner." + +"Well, then, what we going to do, Tom?" + +"I'll tell you. It ain't right, and it ain't moral, and I wouldn't like +it to get out; but there ain't only just the one way: we got to dig him +out with the picks, and LET ON it's case-knives." + +"NOW you're TALKING!" I says; "your head gets leveler and leveler all +the time, Tom Sawyer," I says. "Picks is the thing, moral or no moral; +and as for me, I don't care shucks for the morality of it, nohow. When I +start in to steal a nigger, or a watermelon, or a Sunday-school book, I +ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done. What I want is my +nigger; or what I want is my watermelon; or what I want is my +Sunday-school book; and if a pick's the handiest thing, that's the thing +I'm a-going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that Sunday-school +book out with; and I don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks +about it nuther." + +"Well," he says, "there's excuse for picks and letting-on in a case like +this; if it warn't so, I wouldn't approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by +and see the rules broke--because right is right, and wrong is wrong, and +a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and knows +better. It might answer for YOU to dig Jim out with a pick, WITHOUT any +letting on, because you don't know no better; but it wouldn't for me, +because I do know better. Gimme a case-knife." + +He had his own by him, but I handed him mine. He flung it down, and +says: + +"Gimme a CASE-KNIFE." + +I didn't know just what to do--but then I thought. I scratched around +amongst the old tools, and got a pickaxe and give it to him, and he took +it and went to work, and never said a word. + +He was always just that particular. Full of principle. + +So then I got a shovel, and then we picked and shoveled, turn about, and +made the fur fly. We stuck to it about a half an hour, which was as long +as we could stand up; but we had a good deal of a hole to show for it. +When I got up stairs I looked out at the window and see Tom doing his +level best with the lightning-rod, but he couldn't come it, his hands was +so sore. At last he says: + +"It ain't no use, it can't be done. What you reckon I better do? Can't +you think of no way?" + +"Yes," I says, "but I reckon it ain't regular. Come up the stairs, and +let on it's a lightning-rod." + +So he done it. + +Next day Tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house, +for to make some pens for Jim out of, and six tallow candles; and I hung +around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance, and stole three tin +plates. Tom says it wasn't enough; but I said nobody wouldn't ever see +the plates that Jim throwed out, because they'd fall in the dog-fennel +and jimpson weeds under the window-hole--then we could tote them back and +he could use them over again. So Tom was satisfied. Then he says: + +"Now, the thing to study out is, how to get the things to Jim." + +"Take them in through the hole," I says, "when we get it done." + +He only just looked scornful, and said something about nobody ever heard +of such an idiotic idea, and then he went to studying. By and by he said +he had ciphered out two or three ways, but there warn't no need to decide +on any of them yet. Said we'd got to post Jim first. + +That night we went down the lightning-rod a little after ten, and took +one of the candles along, and listened under the window-hole, and heard +Jim snoring; so we pitched it in, and it didn't wake him. Then we +whirled in with the pick and shovel, and in about two hours and a half +the job was done. We crept in under Jim's bed and into the cabin, and +pawed around and found the candle and lit it, and stood over Jim awhile, +and found him looking hearty and healthy, and then we woke him up gentle +and gradual. He was so glad to see us he most cried; and called us +honey, and all the pet names he could think of; and was for having us +hunt up a cold-chisel to cut the chain off of his leg with right away, +and clearing out without losing any time. But Tom he showed him how +unregular it would be, and set down and told him all about our plans, and +how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm; and not +to be the least afraid, because we would see he got away, SURE. So Jim +he said it was all right, and we set there and talked over old times +awhile, and then Tom asked a lot of questions, and when Jim told him +Uncle Silas come in every day or two to pray with him, and Aunt Sally +come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and both of +them was kind as they could be, Tom says: + +"NOW I know how to fix it. We'll send you some things by them." + +I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass ideas +I ever struck;" but he never paid no attention to me; went right on. It +was his way when he'd got his plans set. + +So he told Jim how we'd have to smuggle in the rope-ladder pie and other +large things by Nat, the nigger that fed him, and he must be on the +lookout, and not be surprised, and not let Nat see him open them; and we +would put small things in uncle's coat-pockets and he must steal them +out; and we would tie things to aunt's apron-strings or put them in her +apron-pocket, if we got a chance; and told him what they would be and +what they was for. And told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with +his blood, and all that. He told him everything. Jim he couldn't see no +sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed +better than him; so he was satisfied, and said he would do it all just as +Tom said. + +Jim had plenty corn-cob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good +sociable time; then we crawled out through the hole, and so home to bed, +with hands that looked like they'd been chawed. Tom was in high spirits. +He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life, and the most +intellectural; and said if he only could see his way to it we would keep +it up all the rest of our lives and leave Jim to our children to get out; +for he believed Jim would come to like it better and better the more he +got used to it. He said that in that way it could be strung out to as +much as eighty year, and would be the best time on record. And he said +it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it. + +In the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass +candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put them and the pewter spoon in +his pocket. Then we went to the nigger cabins, and while I got Nat's +notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a +corn-pone that was in Jim's pan, and we went along with Nat to see how it +would work, and it just worked noble; when Jim bit into it it most mashed +all his teeth out; and there warn't ever anything could a worked better. +Tom said so himself. Jim he never let on but what it was only just a +piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into bread, +you know; but after that he never bit into nothing but what he jabbed his +fork into it in three or four places first. + +And whilst we was a-standing there in the dimmish light, here comes a +couple of the hounds bulging in from under Jim's bed; and they kept on +piling in till there was eleven of them, and there warn't hardly room in +there to get your breath. By jings, we forgot to fasten that lean-to +door! The nigger Nat he only just hollered "Witches" once, and keeled +over on to the floor amongst the dogs, and begun to groan like he was +dying. Tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of Jim's meat, and +the dogs went for it, and in two seconds he was out himself and back +again and shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the other door too. +Then he went to work on the nigger, coaxing him and petting him, and +asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again. He raised up, +and blinked his eyes around, and says: + +"Mars Sid, you'll say I's a fool, but if I didn't b'lieve I see most a +million dogs, er devils, er some'n, I wisht I may die right heah in dese +tracks. I did, mos' sholy. Mars Sid, I FELT um--I FELT um, sah; dey was +all over me. Dad fetch it, I jis' wisht I could git my han's on one er +dem witches jis' wunst--on'y jis' wunst--it's all I'd ast. But mos'ly I +wisht dey'd lemme 'lone, I does." + +Tom says: + +"Well, I tell you what I think. What makes them come here just at this +runaway nigger's breakfast-time? It's because they're hungry; that's the +reason. You make them a witch pie; that's the thing for YOU to do." + +"But my lan', Mars Sid, how's I gwyne to make 'm a witch pie? I doan' +know how to make it. I hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo'." + +"Well, then, I'll have to make it myself." + +"Will you do it, honey?--will you? I'll wusshup de groun' und' yo' foot, +I will!" + +"All right, I'll do it, seeing it's you, and you've been good to us and +showed us the runaway nigger. But you got to be mighty careful. When we +come around, you turn your back; and then whatever we've put in the pan, +don't you let on you see it at all. And don't you look when Jim unloads +the pan--something might happen, I don't know what. And above all, don't +you HANDLE the witch-things." + +"HANNEL 'm, Mars Sid? What IS you a-talkin' 'bout? I wouldn' lay de +weight er my finger on um, not f'r ten hund'd thous'n billion dollars, I +wouldn't." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THAT was all fixed. So then we went away and went to the rubbage-pile in +the back yard, where they keep the old boots, and rags, and pieces of +bottles, and wore-out tin things, and all such truck, and scratched +around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as +we could, to bake the pie in, and took it down cellar and stole it full +of flour and started for breakfast, and found a couple of shingle-nails +that Tom said would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble his name and +sorrows on the dungeon walls with, and dropped one of them in Aunt +Sally's apron-pocket which was hanging on a chair, and t'other we stuck +in the band of Uncle Silas's hat, which was on the bureau, because we +heard the children say their pa and ma was going to the runaway nigger's +house this morning, and then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the +pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat-pocket, and Aunt Sally wasn't come +yet, so we had to wait a little while. + +And when she come she was hot and red and cross, and couldn't hardly wait +for the blessing; and then she went to sluicing out coffee with one hand +and cracking the handiest child's head with her thimble with the other, +and says: + +"I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what HAS +become of your other shirt." + +My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard +piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the +road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the +children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry +out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around +the gills, and it all amounted to a considerable state of things for +about a quarter of a minute or as much as that, and I would a sold out +for half price if there was a bidder. But after that we was all right +again--it was the sudden surprise of it that knocked us so kind of cold. +Uncle Silas he says: + +"It's most uncommon curious, I can't understand it. I know perfectly +well I took it OFF, because--" + +"Because you hain't got but one ON. Just LISTEN at the man! I know you +took it off, and know it by a better way than your wool-gethering memory, +too, because it was on the clo's-line yesterday--I see it there myself. +But it's gone, that's the long and the short of it, and you'll just have +to change to a red flann'l one till I can get time to make a new one. +And it 'll be the third I've made in two years. It just keeps a body on +the jump to keep you in shirts; and whatever you do manage to DO with 'm +all is more'n I can make out. A body 'd think you WOULD learn to take +some sort of care of 'em at your time of life." + +"I know it, Sally, and I do try all I can. But it oughtn't to be +altogether my fault, because, you know, I don't see them nor have nothing +to do with them except when they're on me; and I don't believe I've ever +lost one of them OFF of me." + +"Well, it ain't YOUR fault if you haven't, Silas; you'd a done it if you +could, I reckon. And the shirt ain't all that's gone, nuther. Ther's a +spoon gone; and THAT ain't all. There was ten, and now ther's only nine. +The calf got the shirt, I reckon, but the calf never took the spoon, +THAT'S certain." + +"Why, what else is gone, Sally?" + +"Ther's six CANDLES gone--that's what. The rats could a got the candles, +and I reckon they did; I wonder they don't walk off with the whole place, +the way you're always going to stop their holes and don't do it; and if +they warn't fools they'd sleep in your hair, Silas--YOU'D never find it +out; but you can't lay the SPOON on the rats, and that I know." + +"Well, Sally, I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it; I've been remiss; but I +won't let to-morrow go by without stopping up them holes." + +"Oh, I wouldn't hurry; next year 'll do. Matilda Angelina Araminta +PHELPS!" + +Whack comes the thimble, and the child snatches her claws out of the +sugar-bowl without fooling around any. Just then the nigger woman steps +on to the passage, and says: + +"Missus, dey's a sheet gone." + +"A SHEET gone! Well, for the land's sake!" + +"I'll stop up them holes to-day," says Uncle Silas, looking sorrowful. + +"Oh, DO shet up!--s'pose the rats took the SHEET? WHERE'S it gone, +Lize?" + +"Clah to goodness I hain't no notion, Miss' Sally. She wuz on de +clo'sline yistiddy, but she done gone: she ain' dah no mo' now." + +"I reckon the world IS coming to an end. I NEVER see the beat of it in +all my born days. A shirt, and a sheet, and a spoon, and six can--" + +"Missus," comes a young yaller wench, "dey's a brass cannelstick miss'n." + +"Cler out from here, you hussy, er I'll take a skillet to ye!" + +Well, she was just a-biling. I begun to lay for a chance; I reckoned I +would sneak out and go for the woods till the weather moderated. She +kept a-raging right along, running her insurrection all by herself, and +everybody else mighty meek and quiet; and at last Uncle Silas, looking +kind of foolish, fishes up that spoon out of his pocket. She stopped, +with her mouth open and her hands up; and as for me, I wished I was in +Jeruslem or somewheres. But not long, because she says: + +"It's JUST as I expected. So you had it in your pocket all the time; and +like as not you've got the other things there, too. How'd it get there?" + +"I reely don't know, Sally," he says, kind of apologizing, "or you know I +would tell. I was a-studying over my text in Acts Seventeen before +breakfast, and I reckon I put it in there, not noticing, meaning to put +my Testament in, and it must be so, because my Testament ain't in; but +I'll go and see; and if the Testament is where I had it, I'll know I +didn't put it in, and that will show that I laid the Testament down and +took up the spoon, and--" + +"Oh, for the land's sake! Give a body a rest! Go 'long now, the whole +kit and biling of ye; and don't come nigh me again till I've got back my +peace of mind." + +I'd a heard her if she'd a said it to herself, let alone speaking it out; +and I'd a got up and obeyed her if I'd a been dead. As we was passing +through the setting-room the old man he took up his hat, and the +shingle-nail fell out on the floor, and he just merely picked it up and +laid it on the mantel-shelf, and never said nothing, and went out. Tom +see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: + +"Well, it ain't no use to send things by HIM no more, he ain't reliable." +Then he says: "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, anyway, +without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without HIM knowing +it--stop up his rat-holes." + +There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole +hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape. Then we heard +steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes the +old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, +looking as absent-minded as year before last. He went a mooning around, +first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all. Then +he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle and +thinking. Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, saying: + +"Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it. I could show +her now that I warn't to blame on account of the rats. But never mind +--let it go. I reckon it wouldn't do no good." + +And so he went on a-mumbling up stairs, and then we left. He was a +mighty nice old man. And always is. + +Tom was a good deal bothered about what to do for a spoon, but he said +we'd got to have it; so he took a think. When he had ciphered it out he +told me how we was to do; then we went and waited around the spoon-basket +till we see Aunt Sally coming, and then Tom went to counting the spoons +and laying them out to one side, and I slid one of them up my sleeve, and +Tom says: + +"Why, Aunt Sally, there ain't but nine spoons YET." + +She says: + +"Go 'long to your play, and don't bother me. I know better, I counted 'm +myself." + +"Well, I've counted them twice, Aunty, and I can't make but nine." + +She looked out of all patience, but of course she come to count--anybody +would. + +"I declare to gracious ther' AIN'T but nine!" she says. "Why, what in +the world--plague TAKE the things, I'll count 'm again." + +So I slipped back the one I had, and when she got done counting, she +says: + +"Hang the troublesome rubbage, ther's TEN now!" and she looked huffy and +bothered both. But Tom says: + +"Why, Aunty, I don't think there's ten." + +"You numskull, didn't you see me COUNT 'm?" + +"I know, but--" + +"Well, I'll count 'm AGAIN." + +So I smouched one, and they come out nine, same as the other time. Well, +she WAS in a tearing way--just a-trembling all over, she was so mad. But +she counted and counted till she got that addled she'd start to count in +the basket for a spoon sometimes; and so, three times they come out +right, and three times they come out wrong. Then she grabbed up the +basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the cat galley-west; +and she said cle'r out and let her have some peace, and if we come +bothering around her again betwixt that and dinner she'd skin us. So we +had the odd spoon, and dropped it in her apron-pocket whilst she was +a-giving us our sailing orders, and Jim got it all right, along with her +shingle nail, before noon. We was very well satisfied with this +business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, because +he said NOW she couldn't ever count them spoons twice alike again to save +her life; and wouldn't believe she'd counted them right if she DID; and +said that after she'd about counted her head off for the next three days +he judged she'd give it up and offer to kill anybody that wanted her to +ever count them any more. + +So we put the sheet back on the line that night, and stole one out of her +closet; and kept on putting it back and stealing it again for a couple of +days till she didn't know how many sheets she had any more, and she +didn't CARE, and warn't a-going to bullyrag the rest of her soul out +about it, and wouldn't count them again not to save her life; she druther +die first. + +So we was all right now, as to the shirt and the sheet and the spoon and +the candles, by the help of the calf and the rats and the mixed-up +counting; and as to the candlestick, it warn't no consequence, it would +blow over by and by. + +But that pie was a job; we had no end of trouble with that pie. We fixed +it up away down in the woods, and cooked it there; and we got it done at +last, and very satisfactory, too; but not all in one day; and we had to +use up three wash-pans full of flour before we got through, and we got +burnt pretty much all over, in places, and eyes put out with the smoke; +because, you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and we couldn't +prop it up right, and she would always cave in. But of course we thought +of the right way at last--which was to cook the ladder, too, in the +pie. So then we laid in with Jim the second night, and tore up the sheet +all in little strings and twisted them together, and long before daylight +we had a lovely rope that you could a hung a person with. We let on it +took nine months to make it. + +And in the forenoon we took it down to the woods, but it wouldn't go into +the pie. Being made of a whole sheet, that way, there was rope enough +for forty pies if we'd a wanted them, and plenty left over for soup, or +sausage, or anything you choose. We could a had a whole dinner. + +But we didn't need it. All we needed was just enough for the pie, +and so we throwed the rest away. We didn't cook none of the pies in the +wash-pan--afraid the solder would melt; but Uncle Silas he had a noble +brass warming-pan which he thought considerable of, because it belonged +to one of his ancesters with a long wooden handle that come over from +England with William the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early +ships and was hid away up garret with a lot of other old pots and things +that was valuable, not on account of being any account, because they +warn't, but on account of them being relicts, you know, and we snaked her +out, private, and took her down there, but she failed on the first pies, +because we didn't know how, but she come up smiling on the last one. We +took and lined her with dough, and set her in the coals, and loaded her +up with rag rope, and put on a dough roof, and shut down the lid, and put +hot embers on top, and stood off five foot, with the long handle, cool +and comfortable, and in fifteen minutes she turned out a pie that was a +satisfaction to look at. But the person that et it would want to fetch a +couple of kags of toothpicks along, for if that rope ladder wouldn't +cramp him down to business I don't know nothing what I'm talking about, +and lay him in enough stomach-ache to last him till next time, too. + +Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in Jim's pan; and we put the +three tin plates in the bottom of the pan under the vittles; and so Jim +got everything all right, and as soon as he was by himself he busted into +the pie and hid the rope ladder inside of his straw tick, and scratched +some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out of the window-hole. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +MAKING them pens was a distressid tough job, and so was the saw; and Jim +allowed the inscription was going to be the toughest of all. That's the +one which the prisoner has to scrabble on the wall. But he had to have +it; Tom said he'd GOT to; there warn't no case of a state prisoner not +scrabbling his inscription to leave behind, and his coat of arms. + +"Look at Lady Jane Grey," he says; "look at Gilford Dudley; look at old +Northumberland! Why, Huck, s'pose it IS considerble trouble?--what you +going to do?--how you going to get around it? Jim's GOT to do his +inscription and coat of arms. They all do." + +Jim says: + +"Why, Mars Tom, I hain't got no coat o' arm; I hain't got nuffn but dish +yer ole shirt, en you knows I got to keep de journal on dat." + +"Oh, you don't understand, Jim; a coat of arms is very different." + +"Well," I says, "Jim's right, anyway, when he says he ain't got no coat +of arms, because he hain't." + +"I reckon I knowed that," Tom says, "but you bet he'll have one before he +goes out of this--because he's going out RIGHT, and there ain't going to +be no flaws in his record." + +So whilst me and Jim filed away at the pens on a brickbat apiece, Jim +a-making his'n out of the brass and I making mine out of the spoon, Tom +set to work to think out the coat of arms. By and by he said he'd struck +so many good ones he didn't hardly know which to take, but there was one +which he reckoned he'd decide on. He says: + +"On the scutcheon we'll have a bend OR in the dexter base, a saltire +MURREY in the fess, with a dog, couchant, for common charge, and under +his foot a chain embattled, for slavery, with a chevron VERT in a chief +engrailed, and three invected lines on a field AZURE, with the nombril +points rampant on a dancette indented; crest, a runaway nigger, SABLE, +with his bundle over his shoulder on a bar sinister; and a couple of +gules for supporters, which is you and me; motto, MAGGIORE FRETTA, MINORE +OTTO. Got it out of a book--means the more haste the less speed." + +"Geewhillikins," I says, "but what does the rest of it mean?" + +"We ain't got no time to bother over that," he says; "we got to dig in +like all git-out." + +"Well, anyway," I says, "what's SOME of it? What's a fess?" + +"A fess--a fess is--YOU don't need to know what a fess is. I'll show him +how to make it when he gets to it." + +"Shucks, Tom," I says, "I think you might tell a person. What's a bar +sinister?" + +"Oh, I don't know. But he's got to have it. All the nobility does." + +That was just his way. If it didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, +he wouldn't do it. You might pump at him a week, it wouldn't make no +difference. + +He'd got all that coat of arms business fixed, so now he started in to +finish up the rest of that part of the work, which was to plan out a +mournful inscription--said Jim got to have one, like they all done. He +made up a lot, and wrote them out on a paper, and read them off, so: + +1. Here a captive heart busted. 2. Here a poor prisoner, forsook by the +world and friends, fretted his sorrowful life. 3. Here a lonely heart +broke, and a worn spirit went to its rest, after thirty-seven years of +solitary captivity. 4. Here, homeless and friendless, after thirty-seven +years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger, natural son of +Louis XIV. + +Tom's voice trembled whilst he was reading them, and he most broke down. +When he got done he couldn't no way make up his mind which one for Jim to +scrabble on to the wall, they was all so good; but at last he allowed he +would let him scrabble them all on. Jim said it would take him a year to +scrabble such a lot of truck on to the logs with a nail, and he didn't +know how to make letters, besides; but Tom said he would block them out +for him, and then he wouldn't have nothing to do but just follow the +lines. Then pretty soon he says: + +"Come to think, the logs ain't a-going to do; they don't have log walls +in a dungeon: we got to dig the inscriptions into a rock. We'll fetch a +rock." + +Jim said the rock was worse than the logs; he said it would take him such +a pison long time to dig them into a rock he wouldn't ever get out. But +Tom said he would let me help him do it. Then he took a look to see how +me and Jim was getting along with the pens. It was most pesky tedious +hard work and slow, and didn't give my hands no show to get well of the +sores, and we didn't seem to make no headway, hardly; so Tom says: + +"I know how to fix it. We got to have a rock for the coat of arms and +mournful inscriptions, and we can kill two birds with that same rock. +There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the mill, and we'll smouch it, and +carve the things on it, and file out the pens and the saw on it, too." + +It warn't no slouch of an idea; and it warn't no slouch of a grindstone +nuther; but we allowed we'd tackle it. It warn't quite midnight yet, so +we cleared out for the mill, leaving Jim at work. We smouched the +grindstone, and set out to roll her home, but it was a most nation tough +job. Sometimes, do what we could, we couldn't keep her from falling over, +and she come mighty near mashing us every time. Tom said she was going +to get one of us, sure, before we got through. We got her half way; and +then we was plumb played out, and most drownded with sweat. We see it +warn't no use; we got to go and fetch Jim So he raised up his bed and +slid the chain off of the bed-leg, and wrapt it round and round his neck, +and we crawled out through our hole and down there, and Jim and me laid +into that grindstone and walked her along like nothing; and Tom +superintended. He could out-superintend any boy I ever see. He knowed +how to do everything. + +Our hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to get the grindstone +through; but Jim he took the pick and soon made it big enough. Then Tom +marked out them things on it with the nail, and set Jim to work on them, +with the nail for a chisel and an iron bolt from the rubbage in the +lean-to for a hammer, and told him to work till the rest of his candle +quit on him, and then he could go to bed, and hide the grindstone under +his straw tick and sleep on it. Then we helped him fix his chain back on +the bed-leg, and was ready for bed ourselves. But Tom thought of +something, and says: + +"You got any spiders in here, Jim?" + +"No, sah, thanks to goodness I hain't, Mars Tom." + +"All right, we'll get you some." + +"But bless you, honey, I doan' WANT none. I's afeard un um. I jis' 's +soon have rattlesnakes aroun'." + +Tom thought a minute or two, and says: + +"It's a good idea. And I reckon it's been done. It MUST a been done; it +stands to reason. Yes, it's a prime good idea. Where could you keep +it?" + +"Keep what, Mars Tom?" + +"Why, a rattlesnake." + +"De goodness gracious alive, Mars Tom! Why, if dey was a rattlesnake to +come in heah I'd take en bust right out thoo dat log wall, I would, wid +my head." + +Why, Jim, you wouldn't be afraid of it after a little. You could tame +it." + +"TAME it!" + +"Yes--easy enough. Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, +and they wouldn't THINK of hurting a person that pets them. Any book +will tell you that. You try--that's all I ask; just try for two or three +days. Why, you can get him so in a little while that he'll love you; and +sleep with you; and won't stay away from you a minute; and will let you +wrap him round your neck and put his head in your mouth." + +"PLEASE, Mars Tom--DOAN' talk so! I can't STAN' it! He'd LET me shove +his head in my mouf--fer a favor, hain't it? I lay he'd wait a pow'ful +long time 'fo' I AST him. En mo' en dat, I doan' WANT him to sleep wid +me." + +"Jim, don't act so foolish. A prisoner's GOT to have some kind of a dumb +pet, and if a rattlesnake hain't ever been tried, why, there's more glory +to be gained in your being the first to ever try it than any other way +you could ever think of to save your life." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' WANT no sich glory. Snake take 'n bite Jim's +chin off, den WHAH is de glory? No, sah, I doan' want no sich doin's." + +"Blame it, can't you TRY? I only WANT you to try--you needn't keep it up +if it don't work." + +"But de trouble all DONE ef de snake bite me while I's a tryin' him. +Mars Tom, I's willin' to tackle mos' anything 'at ain't onreasonable, but +ef you en Huck fetches a rattlesnake in heah for me to tame, I's gwyne to +LEAVE, dat's SHORE." + +"Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you're so bull-headed about it. We +can get you some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on their +tails, and let on they're rattlesnakes, and I reckon that 'll have to +do." + +"I k'n stan' DEM, Mars Tom, but blame' 'f I couldn' get along widout um, +I tell you dat. I never knowed b'fo' 't was so much bother and trouble +to be a prisoner." + +"Well, it ALWAYS is when it's done right. You got any rats around here?" + +"No, sah, I hain't seed none." + +"Well, we'll get you some rats." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I doan' WANT no rats. Dey's de dadblamedest creturs to +'sturb a body, en rustle roun' over 'im, en bite his feet, when he's +tryin' to sleep, I ever see. No, sah, gimme g'yarter-snakes, 'f I's got +to have 'm, but doan' gimme no rats; I hain' got no use f'r um, skasely." + +"But, Jim, you GOT to have 'em--they all do. So don't make no more fuss +about it. Prisoners ain't ever without rats. There ain't no instance of +it. And they train them, and pet them, and learn them tricks, and they +get to be as sociable as flies. But you got to play music to them. You +got anything to play music on?" + +"I ain' got nuffn but a coase comb en a piece o' paper, en a juice-harp; +but I reck'n dey wouldn' take no stock in a juice-harp." + +"Yes they would. THEY don't care what kind of music 'tis. A jews-harp's +plenty good enough for a rat. All animals like music--in a prison they +dote on it. Specially, painful music; and you can't get no other kind +out of a jews-harp. It always interests them; they come out to see +what's the matter with you. Yes, you're all right; you're fixed very +well. You want to set on your bed nights before you go to sleep, and +early in the mornings, and play your jews-harp; play 'The Last Link is +Broken'--that's the thing that 'll scoop a rat quicker 'n anything else; +and when you've played about two minutes you'll see all the rats, and the +snakes, and spiders, and things begin to feel worried about you, and +come. And they'll just fairly swarm over you, and have a noble good +time." + +"Yes, DEY will, I reck'n, Mars Tom, but what kine er time is JIM havin'? +Blest if I kin see de pint. But I'll do it ef I got to. I reck'n I +better keep de animals satisfied, en not have no trouble in de house." + +Tom waited to think it over, and see if there wasn't nothing else; and +pretty soon he says: + +"Oh, there's one thing I forgot. Could you raise a flower here, do you +reckon?" + +"I doan know but maybe I could, Mars Tom; but it's tolable dark in heah, +en I ain' got no use f'r no flower, nohow, en she'd be a pow'ful sight o' +trouble." + +"Well, you try it, anyway. Some other prisoners has done it." + +"One er dem big cat-tail-lookin' mullen-stalks would grow in heah, Mars +Tom, I reck'n, but she wouldn't be wuth half de trouble she'd coss." + +"Don't you believe it. We'll fetch you a little one and you plant it in +the corner over there, and raise it. And don't call it mullen, call it +Pitchiola--that's its right name when it's in a prison. And you want to +water it with your tears." + +"Why, I got plenty spring water, Mars Tom." + +"You don't WANT spring water; you want to water it with your tears. It's +the way they always do." + +"Why, Mars Tom, I lay I kin raise one er dem mullen-stalks twyste wid +spring water whiles another man's a START'N one wid tears." + +"That ain't the idea. You GOT to do it with tears." + +"She'll die on my han's, Mars Tom, she sholy will; kase I doan' skasely +ever cry." + +So Tom was stumped. But he studied it over, and then said Jim would have +to worry along the best he could with an onion. He promised he would go +to the nigger cabins and drop one, private, in Jim's coffee-pot, in the +morning. Jim said he would "jis' 's soon have tobacker in his coffee;" +and found so much fault with it, and with the work and bother of raising +the mullen, and jews-harping the rats, and petting and flattering up the +snakes and spiders and things, on top of all the other work he had to do +on pens, and inscriptions, and journals, and things, which made it more +trouble and worry and responsibility to be a prisoner than anything he +ever undertook, that Tom most lost all patience with him; and said he was +just loadened down with more gaudier chances than a prisoner ever had in +the world to make a name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to +appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him. So Jim he was +sorry, and said he wouldn't behave so no more, and then me and Tom shoved +for bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +IN the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat-trap and +fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat-hole, and in about an hour we +had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and put it +in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed. But while we was gone for +spiders little Thomas Franklin Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found +it there, and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out, +and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and when we got back she was +a-standing on top of the bed raising Cain, and the rats was doing what +they could to keep off the dull times for her. So she took and dusted us +both with the hickry, and we was as much as two hours catching another +fifteen or sixteen, drat that meddlesome cub, and they warn't the +likeliest, nuther, because the first haul was the pick of the flock. +I never see a likelier lot of rats than what that first haul was. + +We got a splendid stock of sorted spiders, and bugs, and frogs, and +caterpillars, and one thing or another; and we like to got a hornet's +nest, but we didn't. The family was at home. We didn't give it right +up, but stayed with them as long as we could; because we allowed we'd +tire them out or they'd got to tire us out, and they done it. Then we +got allycumpain and rubbed on the places, and was pretty near all right +again, but couldn't set down convenient. And so we went for the snakes, +and grabbed a couple of dozen garters and house-snakes, and put them in a +bag, and put it in our room, and by that time it was supper-time, and a +rattling good honest day's work: and hungry?--oh, no, I reckon not! And +there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went back--we didn't half +tie the sack, and they worked out somehow, and left. But it didn't +matter much, because they was still on the premises somewheres. So we +judged we could get some of them again. No, there warn't no real +scarcity of snakes about the house for a considerable spell. You'd see +them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then; and they +generly landed in your plate, or down the back of your neck, and most of +the time where you didn't want them. Well, they was handsome and +striped, and there warn't no harm in a million of them; but that never +made no difference to Aunt Sally; she despised snakes, be the breed what +they might, and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it; and +every time one of them flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference +what she was doing, she would just lay that work down and light out. I +never see such a woman. And you could hear her whoop to Jericho. You +couldn't get her to take a-holt of one of them with the tongs. And if +she turned over and found one in bed she would scramble out and lift a +howl that you would think the house was afire. She disturbed the old man +so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes +created. Why, after every last snake had been gone clear out of the +house for as much as a week Aunt Sally warn't over it yet; she warn't +near over it; when she was setting thinking about something you could +touch her on the back of her neck with a feather and she would jump right +out of her stockings. It was very curious. But Tom said all women was +just so. He said they was made that way for some reason or other. + +We got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way, and she +allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever +loaded up the place again with them. I didn't mind the lickings, because +they didn't amount to nothing; but I minded the trouble we had to lay in +another lot. But we got them laid in, and all the other things; and you +never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when they'd all swarm out +for music and go for him. Jim didn't like the spiders, and the spiders +didn't like Jim; and so they'd lay for him, and make it mighty warm for +him. And he said that between the rats and the snakes and the grindstone +there warn't no room in bed for him, skasely; and when there was, a body +couldn't sleep, it was so lively, and it was always lively, he said, +because THEY never all slept at one time, but took turn about, so when +the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck, and when the rats turned in +the snakes come on watch, so he always had one gang under him, in his +way, and t'other gang having a circus over him, and if he got up to hunt +a new place the spiders would take a chance at him as he crossed over. +He said if he ever got out this time he wouldn't ever be a prisoner +again, not for a salary. + +Well, by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape. The +shirt was sent in early, in a pie, and every time a rat bit Jim he would +get up and write a little in his journal whilst the ink was fresh; the +pens was made, the inscriptions and so on was all carved on the +grindstone; the bed-leg was sawed in two, and we had et up the sawdust, +and it give us a most amazing stomach-ache. We reckoned we was all going +to die, but didn't. It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever see; and +Tom said the same. But as I was saying, we'd got all the work done now, +at last; and we was all pretty much fagged out, too, but mainly Jim. The +old man had wrote a couple of times to the plantation below Orleans to +come and get their runaway nigger, but hadn't got no answer, because +there warn't no such plantation; so he allowed he would advertise Jim in +the St. Louis and New Orleans papers; and when he mentioned the St. Louis +ones it give me the cold shivers, and I see we hadn't no time to lose. +So Tom said, now for the nonnamous letters. + +"What's them?" I says. + +"Warnings to the people that something is up. Sometimes it's done one +way, sometimes another. But there's always somebody spying around that +gives notice to the governor of the castle. When Louis XVI. was going to +light out of the Tooleries a servant-girl done it. It's a very good way, +and so is the nonnamous letters. We'll use them both. And it's usual +for the prisoner's mother to change clothes with him, and she stays in, +and he slides out in her clothes. We'll do that, too." + +"But looky here, Tom, what do we want to WARN anybody for that +something's up? Let them find it out for themselves--it's their +lookout." + +"Yes, I know; but you can't depend on them. It's the way they've acted +from the very start--left us to do EVERYTHING. They're so confiding and +mullet-headed they don't take notice of nothing at all. So if we don't +GIVE them notice there won't be nobody nor nothing to interfere with us, +and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape 'll go off +perfectly flat; won't amount to nothing--won't be nothing TO it." + +"Well, as for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like." + +"Shucks!" he says, and looked disgusted. So I says: + +"But I ain't going to make no complaint. Any way that suits you suits +me. What you going to do about the servant-girl?" + +"You'll be her. You slide in, in the middle of the night, and hook that +yaller girl's frock." + +"Why, Tom, that 'll make trouble next morning; because, of course, she +prob'bly hain't got any but that one." + +"I know; but you don't want it but fifteen minutes, to carry the +nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door." + +"All right, then, I'll do it; but I could carry it just as handy in my +own togs." + +"You wouldn't look like a servant-girl THEN, would you?" + +"No, but there won't be nobody to see what I look like, ANYWAY." + +"That ain't got nothing to do with it. The thing for us to do is just to +do our DUTY, and not worry about whether anybody SEES us do it or not. +Hain't you got no principle at all?" + +"All right, I ain't saying nothing; I'm the servant-girl. Who's Jim's +mother?" + +"I'm his mother. I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally." + +"Well, then, you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves." + +"Not much. I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed +to represent his mother in disguise, and Jim 'll take the nigger woman's +gown off of me and wear it, and we'll all evade together. When a +prisoner of style escapes it's called an evasion. It's always called so +when a king escapes, f'rinstance. And the same with a king's son; it +don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural one." + +So Tom he wrote the nonnamous letter, and I smouched the yaller wench's +frock that night, and put it on, and shoved it under the front door, the +way Tom told me to. It said: + +Beware. Trouble is brewing. Keep a sharp lookout. UNKNOWN FRIEND. + +Next night we stuck a picture, which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and +crossbones on the front door; and next night another one of a coffin on +the back door. I never see a family in such a sweat. They couldn't a +been worse scared if the place had a been full of ghosts laying for them +behind everything and under the beds and shivering through the air. If a +door banged, Aunt Sally she jumped and said "ouch!" if anything fell, she +jumped and said "ouch!" if you happened to touch her, when she warn't +noticing, she done the same; she couldn't face noway and be satisfied, +because she allowed there was something behind her every time--so she was +always a-whirling around sudden, and saying "ouch," and before she'd got +two-thirds around she'd whirl back again, and say it again; and she was +afraid to go to bed, but she dasn't set up. So the thing was working +very well, Tom said; he said he never see a thing work more satisfactory. +He said it showed it was done right. + +So he said, now for the grand bulge! So the very next morning at the +streak of dawn we got another letter ready, and was wondering what we +better do with it, because we heard them say at supper they was going to +have a nigger on watch at both doors all night. Tom he went down the +lightning-rod to spy around; and the nigger at the back door was asleep, +and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back. This letter said: + +Don't betray me, I wish to be your friend. There is a desprate gang of +cut-throats from over in the Indian Territory going to steal your runaway +nigger to-night, and they have been trying to scare you so as you will +stay in the house and not bother them. I am one of the gang, but have +got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again, and will +betray the helish design. They will sneak down from northards, along the +fence, at midnight exact, with a false key, and go in the nigger's cabin +to get him. I am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn if I see any +danger; but stead of that I will BA like a sheep soon as they get in and +not blow at all; then whilst they are getting his chains loose, you slip +there and lock them in, and can kill them at your leasure. Don't do +anything but just the way I am telling you; if you do they will suspicion +something and raise whoop-jamboreehoo. I do not wish any reward but to +know I have done the right thing. UNKNOWN FRIEND. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +WE was feeling pretty good after breakfast, and took my canoe and went +over the river a-fishing, with a lunch, and had a good time, and took a +look at the raft and found her all right, and got home late to supper, +and found them in such a sweat and worry they didn't know which end they +was standing on, and made us go right off to bed the minute we was done +supper, and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never let on a +word about the new letter, but didn't need to, because we knowed as much +about it as anybody did, and as soon as we was half up stairs and her +back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good +lunch and took it up to our room and went to bed, and got up about +half-past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's dress that he stole and +was going to start with the lunch, but says: + +"Where's the butter?" + +"I laid out a hunk of it," I says, "on a piece of a corn-pone." + +"Well, you LEFT it laid out, then--it ain't here." + +"We can get along without it," I says. + +"We can get along WITH it, too," he says; "just you slide down cellar and +fetch it. And then mosey right down the lightning-rod and come along. +I'll go and stuff the straw into Jim's clothes to represent his mother in +disguise, and be ready to BA like a sheep and shove soon as you get +there." + +So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as a +person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of +corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs very +stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes Aunt +Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped my +hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says: + +"You been down cellar?" + +"Yes'm." + +"What you been doing down there?" + +"Noth'n." + +"NOTH'N!" + +"No'm." + +"Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?" + +"I don't know 'm." + +"You don't KNOW? Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what you +been DOING down there." + +"I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I +have." + +I reckoned she'd let me go now, and as a generl thing she would; but I +s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat +about every little thing that warn't yard-stick straight; so she says, +very decided: + +"You just march into that setting-room and stay there till I come. You +been up to something you no business to, and I lay I'll find out what it +is before I'M done with you." + +So she went away as I opened the door and walked into the setting-room. +My, but there was a crowd there! Fifteen farmers, and every one of them +had a gun. I was most powerful sick, and slunk to a chair and set down. +They was setting around, some of them talking a little, in a low voice, +and all of them fidgety and uneasy, but trying to look like they warn't; +but I knowed they was, because they was always taking off their hats, and +putting them on, and scratching their heads, and changing their seats, +and fumbling with their buttons. I warn't easy myself, but I didn't take +my hat off, all the same. + +I did wish Aunt Sally would come, and get done with me, and lick me, if +she wanted to, and let me get away and tell Tom how we'd overdone this +thing, and what a thundering hornet's-nest we'd got ourselves into, so we +could stop fooling around straight off, and clear out with Jim before +these rips got out of patience and come for us. + +At last she come and begun to ask me questions, but I COULDN'T answer +them straight, I didn't know which end of me was up; because these men +was in such a fidget now that some was wanting to start right NOW and lay +for them desperadoes, and saying it warn't but a few minutes to midnight; +and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the +sheep-signal; and here was Aunty pegging away at the questions, and me +a-shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks I was that scared; +and the place getting hotter and hotter, and the butter beginning to melt +and run down my neck and behind my ears; and pretty soon, when one of +them says, "I'M for going and getting in the cabin FIRST and right NOW, +and catching them when they come," I most dropped; and a streak of butter +come a-trickling down my forehead, and Aunt Sally she see it, and turns +white as a sheet, and says: + +"For the land's sake, what IS the matter with the child? He's got the +brain-fever as shore as you're born, and they're oozing out!" + +And everybody runs to see, and she snatches off my hat, and out comes the +bread and what was left of the butter, and she grabbed me, and hugged me, +and says: + +"Oh, what a turn you did give me! and how glad and grateful I am it ain't +no worse; for luck's against us, and it never rains but it pours, and +when I see that truck I thought we'd lost you, for I knowed by the color +and all it was just like your brains would be if--Dear, dear, whyd'nt you +TELL me that was what you'd been down there for, I wouldn't a cared. Now +cler out to bed, and don't lemme see no more of you till morning!" + +I was up stairs in a second, and down the lightning-rod in another one, +and shinning through the dark for the lean-to. I couldn't hardly get my +words out, I was so anxious; but I told Tom as quick as I could we must +jump for it now, and not a minute to lose--the house full of men, yonder, +with guns! + +His eyes just blazed; and he says: + +"No!--is that so? AIN'T it bully! Why, Huck, if it was to do over +again, I bet I could fetch two hundred! If we could put it off till--" + +"Hurry! HURRY!" I says. "Where's Jim?" + +"Right at your elbow; if you reach out your arm you can touch him. He's +dressed, and everything's ready. Now we'll slide out and give the +sheep-signal." + +But then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door, and heard them +begin to fumble with the pad-lock, and heard a man say: + +"I TOLD you we'd be too soon; they haven't come--the door is locked. +Here, I'll lock some of you into the cabin, and you lay for 'em in the +dark and kill 'em when they come; and the rest scatter around a piece, +and listen if you can hear 'em coming." + +So in they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and most trod on us +whilst we was hustling to get under the bed. But we got under all right, +and out through the hole, swift but soft--Jim first, me next, and Tom +last, which was according to Tom's orders. Now we was in the lean-to, +and heard trampings close by outside. So we crept to the door, and Tom +stopped us there and put his eye to the crack, but couldn't make out +nothing, it was so dark; and whispered and said he would listen for the +steps to get further, and when he nudged us Jim must glide out first, and +him last. So he set his ear to the crack and listened, and listened, and +listened, and the steps a-scraping around out there all the time; and at +last he nudged us, and we slid out, and stooped down, not breathing, and +not making the least noise, and slipped stealthy towards the fence in +Injun file, and got to it all right, and me and Jim over it; but Tom's +britches catched fast on a splinter on the top rail, and then he hear the +steps coming, so he had to pull loose, which snapped the splinter and +made a noise; and as he dropped in our tracks and started somebody sings +out: + +"Who's that? Answer, or I'll shoot!" + +But we didn't answer; we just unfurled our heels and shoved. Then there +was a rush, and a BANG, BANG, BANG! and the bullets fairly whizzed around +us! We heard them sing out: + +"Here they are! They've broke for the river! After 'em, boys, and turn +loose the dogs!" + +So here they come, full tilt. We could hear them because they wore boots +and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell. We was in the +path to the mill; and when they got pretty close on to us we dodged into +the bush and let them go by, and then dropped in behind them. They'd had +all the dogs shut up, so they wouldn't scare off the robbers; but by this +time somebody had let them loose, and here they come, making powwow +enough for a million; but they was our dogs; so we stopped in our tracks +till they catched up; and when they see it warn't nobody but us, and no +excitement to offer them, they only just said howdy, and tore right ahead +towards the shouting and clattering; and then we up-steam again, and +whizzed along after them till we was nearly to the mill, and then struck +up through the bush to where my canoe was tied, and hopped in and pulled +for dear life towards the middle of the river, but didn't make no more +noise than we was obleeged to. Then we struck out, easy and comfortable, +for the island where my raft was; and we could hear them yelling and +barking at each other all up and down the bank, till we was so far away +the sounds got dim and died out. And when we stepped on to the raft I +says: + +"NOW, old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet you won't ever be a +slave no more." + +"En a mighty good job it wuz, too, Huck. It 'uz planned beautiful, en it +'uz done beautiful; en dey ain't NOBODY kin git up a plan dat's mo' +mixed-up en splendid den what dat one wuz." + +We was all glad as we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all because +he had a bullet in the calf of his leg. + +When me and Jim heard that we didn't feel so brash as what we did before. +It was hurting him considerable, and bleeding; so we laid him in the +wigwam and tore up one of the duke's shirts for to bandage him, but he +says: + +"Gimme the rags; I can do it myself. Don't stop now; don't fool around +here, and the evasion booming along so handsome; man the sweeps, and set +her loose! Boys, we done it elegant!--'deed we did. I wish WE'D a had +the handling of Louis XVI., there wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint Louis, +ascend to heaven!' wrote down in HIS biography; no, sir, we'd a whooped +him over the BORDER--that's what we'd a done with HIM--and done it just +as slick as nothing at all, too. Man the sweeps--man the sweeps!" + +But me and Jim was consulting--and thinking. And after we'd thought a +minute, I says: + +"Say it, Jim." + +So he says: + +"Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck. Ef it wuz HIM dat 'uz +bein' sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, 'Go on +en save me, nemmine 'bout a doctor f'r to save dis one?' Is dat like +Mars Tom Sawyer? Would he say dat? You BET he wouldn't! WELL, den, is +JIM gywne to say it? No, sah--I doan' budge a step out'n dis place 'dout +a DOCTOR, not if it's forty year!" + +I knowed he was white inside, and I reckoned he'd say what he did say--so +it was all right now, and I told Tom I was a-going for a doctor. He +raised considerable row about it, but me and Jim stuck to it and wouldn't +budge; so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose himself; but +we wouldn't let him. Then he give us a piece of his mind, but it didn't +do no good. + +So when he sees me getting the canoe ready, he says: + +"Well, then, if you re bound to go, I'll tell you the way to do when you +get to the village. Shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight and +fast, and make him swear to be silent as the grave, and put a purse full +of gold in his hand, and then take and lead him all around the back +alleys and everywheres in the dark, and then fetch him here in the canoe, +in a roundabout way amongst the islands, and search him and take his +chalk away from him, and don't give it back to him till you get him back +to the village, or else he will chalk this raft so he can find it again. +It's the way they all do." + +So I said I would, and left, and Jim was to hide in the woods when he see +the doctor coming till he was gone again. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE doctor was an old man; a very nice, kind-looking old man when I got +him up. I told him me and my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting +yesterday afternoon, and camped on a piece of a raft we found, and about +midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams, for it went off and shot +him in the leg, and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and not say +nothing about it, nor let anybody know, because we wanted to come home +this evening and surprise the folks. + +"Who is your folks?" he says. + +"The Phelpses, down yonder." + +"Oh," he says. And after a minute, he says: + +"How'd you say he got shot?" + +"He had a dream," I says, "and it shot him." + +"Singular dream," he says. + +So he lit up his lantern, and got his saddle-bags, and we started. But +when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of her--said she was big +enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two. I says: + +"Oh, you needn't be afeard, sir, she carried the three of us easy +enough." + +"What three?" + +"Why, me and Sid, and--and--and THE GUNS; that's what I mean." + +"Oh," he says. + +But he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her, and shook his head, and +said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one. But they was all +locked and chained; so he took my canoe, and said for me to wait till he +come back, or I could hunt around further, or maybe I better go down home +and get them ready for the surprise if I wanted to. But I said I didn't; +so I told him just how to find the raft, and then he started. + +I struck an idea pretty soon. I says to myself, spos'n he can't fix that +leg just in three shakes of a sheep's tail, as the saying is? spos'n it +takes him three or four days? What are we going to do?--lay around there +till he lets the cat out of the bag? No, sir; I know what I'LL do. I'll +wait, and when he comes back if he says he's got to go any more I'll get +down there, too, if I swim; and we'll take and tie him, and keep him, and +shove out down the river; and when Tom's done with him we'll give him +what it's worth, or all we got, and then let him get ashore. + +So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I +waked up the sun was away up over my head! I shot out and went for the +doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time or +other, and warn't back yet. Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad for +Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off. So away I shoved, and +turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's stomach! +He says: + +"Why, TOM! Where you been all this time, you rascal?" + +"I hain't been nowheres," I says, "only just hunting for the runaway +nigger--me and Sid." + +"Why, where ever did you go?" he says. "Your aunt's been mighty uneasy." + +"She needn't," I says, "because we was all right. We followed the men +and the dogs, but they outrun us, and we lost them; but we thought we +heard them on the water, so we got a canoe and took out after them and +crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them; so we cruised along +up-shore till we got kind of tired and beat out; and tied up the canoe +and went to sleep, and never waked up till about an hour ago; then we +paddled over here to hear the news, and Sid's at the post-office to see +what he can hear, and I'm a-branching out to get something to eat for us, +and then we're going home." + +So then we went to the post-office to get "Sid"; but just as I +suspicioned, he warn't there; so the old man he got a letter out of the +office, and we waited awhile longer, but Sid didn't come; so the old man +said, come along, let Sid foot it home, or canoe it, when he got done +fooling around--but we would ride. I couldn't get him to let me stay and +wait for Sid; and he said there warn't no use in it, and I must come +along, and let Aunt Sally see we was all right. + +When we got home Aunt Sally was that glad to see me she laughed and cried +both, and hugged me, and give me one of them lickings of hern that don't +amount to shucks, and said she'd serve Sid the same when he come. + +And the place was plum full of farmers and farmers' wives, to dinner; and +such another clack a body never heard. Old Mrs. Hotchkiss was the worst; +her tongue was a-going all the time. She says: + +"Well, Sister Phelps, I've ransacked that-air cabin over, an' I b'lieve +the nigger was crazy. I says to Sister Damrell--didn't I, Sister +Damrell?--s'I, he's crazy, s'I--them's the very words I said. You all +hearn me: he's crazy, s'I; everything shows it, s'I. Look at that-air +grindstone, s'I; want to tell ME't any cretur 't's in his right mind 's a +goin' to scrabble all them crazy things onto a grindstone, s'I? Here +sich 'n' sich a person busted his heart; 'n' here so 'n' so pegged along +for thirty-seven year, 'n' all that--natcherl son o' Louis somebody, 'n' +sich everlast'n rubbage. He's plumb crazy, s'I; it's what I says in the +fust place, it's what I says in the middle, 'n' it's what I says last 'n' +all the time--the nigger's crazy--crazy 's Nebokoodneezer, s'I." + +"An' look at that-air ladder made out'n rags, Sister Hotchkiss," says old +Mrs. Damrell; "what in the name o' goodness COULD he ever want of--" + +"The very words I was a-sayin' no longer ago th'n this minute to Sister +Utterback, 'n' she'll tell you so herself. Sh-she, look at that-air rag +ladder, sh-she; 'n' s'I, yes, LOOK at it, s'I--what COULD he a-wanted of +it, s'I. Sh-she, Sister Hotchkiss, sh-she--" + +"But how in the nation'd they ever GIT that grindstone IN there, ANYWAY? +'n' who dug that-air HOLE? 'n' who--" + +"My very WORDS, Brer Penrod! I was a-sayin'--pass that-air sasser o' +m'lasses, won't ye?--I was a-sayin' to Sister Dunlap, jist this minute, +how DID they git that grindstone in there, s'I. Without HELP, mind you +--'thout HELP! THAT'S wher 'tis. Don't tell ME, s'I; there WUZ help, +s'I; 'n' ther' wuz a PLENTY help, too, s'I; ther's ben a DOZEN a-helpin' +that nigger, 'n' I lay I'd skin every last nigger on this place but I'D +find out who done it, s'I; 'n' moreover, s'I--" + +"A DOZEN says you!--FORTY couldn't a done every thing that's been done. +Look at them case-knife saws and things, how tedious they've been made; +look at that bed-leg sawed off with 'm, a week's work for six men; look +at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed; and look at--" + +"You may WELL say it, Brer Hightower! It's jist as I was a-sayin' to +Brer Phelps, his own self. S'e, what do YOU think of it, Sister +Hotchkiss, s'e? Think o' what, Brer Phelps, s'I? Think o' that bed-leg +sawed off that a way, s'e? THINK of it, s'I? I lay it never sawed +ITSELF off, s'I--somebody SAWED it, s'I; that's my opinion, take it or +leave it, it mayn't be no 'count, s'I, but sich as 't is, it's my +opinion, s'I, 'n' if any body k'n start a better one, s'I, let him DO it, +s'I, that's all. I says to Sister Dunlap, s'I--" + +"Why, dog my cats, they must a ben a house-full o' niggers in there every +night for four weeks to a done all that work, Sister Phelps. Look at +that shirt--every last inch of it kivered over with secret African writ'n +done with blood! Must a ben a raft uv 'm at it right along, all the +time, amost. Why, I'd give two dollars to have it read to me; 'n' as for +the niggers that wrote it, I 'low I'd take 'n' lash 'm t'll--" + +"People to HELP him, Brother Marples! Well, I reckon you'd THINK so if +you'd a been in this house for a while back. Why, they've stole +everything they could lay their hands on--and we a-watching all the time, +mind you. They stole that shirt right off o' the line! and as for that +sheet they made the rag ladder out of, ther' ain't no telling how many +times they DIDN'T steal that; and flour, and candles, and candlesticks, +and spoons, and the old warming-pan, and most a thousand things that I +disremember now, and my new calico dress; and me and Silas and my Sid and +Tom on the constant watch day AND night, as I was a-telling you, and not +a one of us could catch hide nor hair nor sight nor sound of them; and +here at the last minute, lo and behold you, they slides right in under +our noses and fools us, and not only fools US but the Injun Territory +robbers too, and actuly gets AWAY with that nigger safe and sound, and +that with sixteen men and twenty-two dogs right on their very heels at +that very time! I tell you, it just bangs anything I ever HEARD of. +Why, SPERITS couldn't a done better and been no smarter. And I reckon +they must a BEEN sperits--because, YOU know our dogs, and ther' ain't no +better; well, them dogs never even got on the TRACK of 'm once! You +explain THAT to me if you can!--ANY of you!" + +"Well, it does beat--" + +"Laws alive, I never--" + +"So help me, I wouldn't a be--" + +"HOUSE-thieves as well as--" + +"Goodnessgracioussakes, I'd a ben afeard to live in sich a--" + +"'Fraid to LIVE!--why, I was that scared I dasn't hardly go to bed, or +get up, or lay down, or SET down, Sister Ridgeway. Why, they'd steal the +very--why, goodness sakes, you can guess what kind of a fluster I was +in by the time midnight come last night. I hope to gracious if I warn't +afraid they'd steal some o' the family! I was just to that pass I didn't +have no reasoning faculties no more. It looks foolish enough NOW, in the +daytime; but I says to myself, there's my two poor boys asleep, 'way up +stairs in that lonesome room, and I declare to goodness I was that uneasy +'t I crep' up there and locked 'em in! I DID. And anybody would. +Because, you know, when you get scared that way, and it keeps running on, +and getting worse and worse all the time, and your wits gets to addling, +and you get to doing all sorts o' wild things, and by and by you think to +yourself, spos'n I was a boy, and was away up there, and the door ain't +locked, and you--" She stopped, looking kind of wondering, and then she +turned her head around slow, and when her eye lit on me--I got up and +took a walk. + +Says I to myself, I can explain better how we come to not be in that room +this morning if I go out to one side and study over it a little. So I +done it. But I dasn't go fur, or she'd a sent for me. And when it was +late in the day the people all went, and then I come in and told her the +noise and shooting waked up me and "Sid," and the door was locked, and we +wanted to see the fun, so we went down the lightning-rod, and both of us +got hurt a little, and we didn't never want to try THAT no more. And +then I went on and told her all what I told Uncle Silas before; and then +she said she'd forgive us, and maybe it was all right enough anyway, and +about what a body might expect of boys, for all boys was a pretty +harum-scarum lot as fur as she could see; and so, as long as no harm +hadn't come of it, she judged she better put in her time being grateful +we was alive and well and she had us still, stead of fretting over what +was past and done. So then she kissed me, and patted me on the head, and +dropped into a kind of a brown study; and pretty soon jumps up, and says: + +"Why, lawsamercy, it's most night, and Sid not come yet! What HAS become +of that boy?" + +I see my chance; so I skips up and says: + +"I'll run right up to town and get him," I says. + +"No you won't," she says. "You'll stay right wher' you are; ONE'S enough +to be lost at a time. If he ain't here to supper, your uncle 'll go." + +Well, he warn't there to supper; so right after supper uncle went. + +He come back about ten a little bit uneasy; hadn't run across Tom's +track. Aunt Sally was a good DEAL uneasy; but Uncle Silas he said there +warn't no occasion to be--boys will be boys, he said, and you'll see this +one turn up in the morning all sound and right. So she had to be +satisfied. But she said she'd set up for him a while anyway, and keep a +light burning so he could see it. + +And then when I went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her +candle, and tucked me in, and mothered me so good I felt mean, and like I +couldn't look her in the face; and she set down on the bed and talked +with me a long time, and said what a splendid boy Sid was, and didn't +seem to want to ever stop talking about him; and kept asking me every now +and then if I reckoned he could a got lost, or hurt, or maybe drownded, +and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or dead, and she +not by him to help him, and so the tears would drip down silent, and I +would tell her that Sid was all right, and would be home in the morning, +sure; and she would squeeze my hand, or maybe kiss me, and tell me to say +it again, and keep on saying it, because it done her good, and she was in +so much trouble. And when she was going away she looked down in my eyes +so steady and gentle, and says: + +"The door ain't going to be locked, Tom, and there's the window and the +rod; but you'll be good, WON'T you? And you won't go? For MY sake." + +Laws knows I WANTED to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all +intending to go; but after that I wouldn't a went, not for kingdoms. + +But she was on my mind and Tom was on my mind, so I slept very restless. +And twice I went down the rod away in the night, and slipped around +front, and see her setting there by her candle in the window with her +eyes towards the road and the tears in them; and I wished I could do +something for her, but I couldn't, only to swear that I wouldn't never do +nothing to grieve her any more. And the third time I waked up at dawn, +and slid down, and she was there yet, and her candle was most out, and +her old gray head was resting on her hand, and she was asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't get no track +of Tom; and both of them set at the table thinking, and not saying +nothing, and looking mournful, and their coffee getting cold, and not +eating anything. And by and by the old man says: + +"Did I give you the letter?" + +"What letter?" + +"The one I got yesterday out of the post-office." + +"No, you didn't give me no letter." + +"Well, I must a forgot it." + +So he rummaged his pockets, and then went off somewheres where he had +laid it down, and fetched it, and give it to her. She says: + +"Why, it's from St. Petersburg--it's from Sis." + +I allowed another walk would do me good; but I couldn't stir. But before +she could break it open she dropped it and run--for she see something. +And so did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress; and that old doctor; and +Jim, in HER calico dress, with his hands tied behind him; and a lot of +people. I hid the letter behind the first thing that come handy, and +rushed. She flung herself at Tom, crying, and says: + +"Oh, he's dead, he's dead, I know he's dead!" + +And Tom he turned his head a little, and muttered something or other, +which showed he warn't in his right mind; then she flung up her hands, +and says: + +"He's alive, thank God! And that's enough!" and she snatched a kiss of +him, and flew for the house to get the bed ready, and scattering orders +right and left at the niggers and everybody else, as fast as her tongue +could go, every jump of the way. + +I followed the men to see what they was going to do with Jim; and the old +doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom into the house. The men was +very huffy, and some of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to all the +other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be trying to run away like +Jim done, and making such a raft of trouble, and keeping a whole family +scared most to death for days and nights. But the others said, don't do +it, it wouldn't answer at all; he ain't our nigger, and his owner would +turn up and make us pay for him, sure. So that cooled them down a +little, because the people that's always the most anxious for to hang a +nigger that hain't done just right is always the very ones that ain't the +most anxious to pay for him when they've got their satisfaction out of +him. + +They cussed Jim considerble, though, and give him a cuff or two side the +head once in a while, but Jim never said nothing, and he never let on to +know me, and they took him to the same cabin, and put his own clothes on +him, and chained him again, and not to no bed-leg this time, but to a big +staple drove into the bottom log, and chained his hands, too, and both +legs, and said he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to eat after +this till his owner come, or he was sold at auction because he didn't +come in a certain length of time, and filled up our hole, and said a +couple of farmers with guns must stand watch around about the cabin every +night, and a bulldog tied to the door in the daytime; and about this time +they was through with the job and was tapering off with a kind of generl +good-bye cussing, and then the old doctor comes and takes a look, and +says: + +"Don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to, because he ain't a +bad nigger. When I got to where I found the boy I see I couldn't cut the +bullet out without some help, and he warn't in no condition for me to +leave to go and get help; and he got a little worse and a little worse, +and after a long time he went out of his head, and wouldn't let me come +a-nigh him any more, and said if I chalked his raft he'd kill me, and no +end of wild foolishness like that, and I see I couldn't do anything at +all with him; so I says, I got to have HELP somehow; and the minute I +says it out crawls this nigger from somewheres and says he'll help, and +he done it, too, and done it very well. Of course I judged he must be a +runaway nigger, and there I WAS! and there I had to stick right straight +along all the rest of the day and all night. It was a fix, I tell you! +I had a couple of patients with the chills, and of course I'd of liked to +run up to town and see them, but I dasn't, because the nigger might get +away, and then I'd be to blame; and yet never a skiff come close enough +for me to hail. So there I had to stick plumb until daylight this +morning; and I never see a nigger that was a better nuss or faithfuller, +and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, and was all tired out, too, +and I see plain enough he'd been worked main hard lately. I liked the +nigger for that; I tell you, gentlemen, a nigger like that is worth a +thousand dollars--and kind treatment, too. I had everything I needed, +and the boy was doing as well there as he would a done at home--better, +maybe, because it was so quiet; but there I WAS, with both of 'm on my +hands, and there I had to stick till about dawn this morning; then some +men in a skiff come by, and as good luck would have it the nigger was +setting by the pallet with his head propped on his knees sound asleep; so +I motioned them in quiet, and they slipped up on him and grabbed him and +tied him before he knowed what he was about, and we never had no trouble. +And the boy being in a kind of a flighty sleep, too, we muffled the oars +and hitched the raft on, and towed her over very nice and quiet, and the +nigger never made the least row nor said a word from the start. He ain't +no bad nigger, gentlemen; that's what I think about him." + +Somebody says: + +"Well, it sounds very good, doctor, I'm obleeged to say." + +Then the others softened up a little, too, and I was mighty thankful to +that old doctor for doing Jim that good turn; and I was glad it was +according to my judgment of him, too; because I thought he had a good +heart in him and was a good man the first time I see him. Then they all +agreed that Jim had acted very well, and was deserving to have some +notice took of it, and reward. So every one of them promised, right out +and hearty, that they wouldn't cuss him no more. + +Then they come out and locked him up. I hoped they was going to say he +could have one or two of the chains took off, because they was rotten +heavy, or could have meat and greens with his bread and water; but they +didn't think of it, and I reckoned it warn't best for me to mix in, but I +judged I'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or other as soon +as I'd got through the breakers that was laying just ahead of me +--explanations, I mean, of how I forgot to mention about Sid being shot +when I was telling how him and me put in that dratted night paddling +around hunting the runaway nigger. + +But I had plenty time. Aunt Sally she stuck to the sick-room all day and +all night, and every time I see Uncle Silas mooning around I dodged him. + +Next morning I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they said Aunt Sally +was gone to get a nap. So I slips to the sick-room, and if I found him +awake I reckoned we could put up a yarn for the family that would wash. +But he was sleeping, and sleeping very peaceful, too; and pale, not +fire-faced the way he was when he come. So I set down and laid for him +to wake. In about half an hour Aunt Sally comes gliding in, and there I +was, up a stump again! She motioned me to be still, and set down by me, +and begun to whisper, and said we could all be joyful now, because all +the symptoms was first-rate, and he'd been sleeping like that for ever so +long, and looking better and peacefuller all the time, and ten to one +he'd wake up in his right mind. + +So we set there watching, and by and by he stirs a bit, and opened his +eyes very natural, and takes a look, and says: + +"Hello!--why, I'm at HOME! How's that? Where's the raft?" + +"It's all right," I says. + +"And JIM?" + +"The same," I says, but couldn't say it pretty brash. But he never +noticed, but says: + +"Good! Splendid! NOW we're all right and safe! Did you tell Aunty?" + +I was going to say yes; but she chipped in and says: "About what, Sid?" + +"Why, about the way the whole thing was done." + +"What whole thing?" + +"Why, THE whole thing. There ain't but one; how we set the runaway +nigger free--me and Tom." + +"Good land! Set the run--What IS the child talking about! Dear, dear, +out of his head again!" + +"NO, I ain't out of my HEAD; I know all what I'm talking about. We DID +set him free--me and Tom. We laid out to do it, and we DONE it. And we +done it elegant, too." He'd got a start, and she never checked him up, +just set and stared and stared, and let him clip along, and I see it +warn't no use for ME to put in. "Why, Aunty, it cost us a power of work +--weeks of it--hours and hours, every night, whilst you was all asleep. +And we had to steal candles, and the sheet, and the shirt, and your +dress, and spoons, and tin plates, and case-knives, and the warming-pan, +and the grindstone, and flour, and just no end of things, and you can't +think what work it was to make the saws, and pens, and inscriptions, and +one thing or another, and you can't think HALF the fun it was. And we +had to make up the pictures of coffins and things, and nonnamous letters +from the robbers, and get up and down the lightning-rod, and dig the hole +into the cabin, and made the rope ladder and send it in cooked up in a +pie, and send in spoons and things to work with in your apron pocket--" + +"Mercy sakes!" + +"--and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and so on, for company for +Jim; and then you kept Tom here so long with the butter in his hat that +you come near spiling the whole business, because the men come before we +was out of the cabin, and we had to rush, and they heard us and let drive +at us, and I got my share, and we dodged out of the path and let them go +by, and when the dogs come they warn't interested in us, but went for the +most noise, and we got our canoe, and made for the raft, and was all +safe, and Jim was a free man, and we done it all by ourselves, and WASN'T +it bully, Aunty!" + +"Well, I never heard the likes of it in all my born days! So it was YOU, +you little rapscallions, that's been making all this trouble, and turned +everybody's wits clean inside out and scared us all most to death. I've +as good a notion as ever I had in my life to take it out o' you this very +minute. To think, here I've been, night after night, a--YOU just get +well once, you young scamp, and I lay I'll tan the Old Harry out o' both +o' ye!" + +But Tom, he WAS so proud and joyful, he just COULDN'T hold in, and his +tongue just WENT it--she a-chipping in, and spitting fire all along, and +both of them going it at once, like a cat convention; and she says: + +"WELL, you get all the enjoyment you can out of it NOW, for mind I tell +you if I catch you meddling with him again--" + +"Meddling with WHO?" Tom says, dropping his smile and looking surprised. + +"With WHO? Why, the runaway nigger, of course. Who'd you reckon?" + +Tom looks at me very grave, and says: + +"Tom, didn't you just tell me he was all right? Hasn't he got away?" + +"HIM?" says Aunt Sally; "the runaway nigger? 'Deed he hasn't. They've +got him back, safe and sound, and he's in that cabin again, on bread and +water, and loaded down with chains, till he's claimed or sold!" + +Tom rose square up in bed, with his eye hot, and his nostrils opening and +shutting like gills, and sings out to me: + +"They hain't no RIGHT to shut him up! SHOVE!--and don't you lose a +minute. Turn him loose! he ain't no slave; he's as free as any cretur +that walks this earth!" + +"What DOES the child mean?" + +"I mean every word I SAY, Aunt Sally, and if somebody don't go, I'LL go. +I've knowed him all his life, and so has Tom, there. Old Miss Watson +died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him +down the river, and SAID so; and she set him free in her will." + +"Then what on earth did YOU want to set him free for, seeing he was +already free?" + +"Well, that IS a question, I must say; and just like women! Why, I +wanted the ADVENTURE of it; and I'd a waded neck-deep in blood to +--goodness alive, AUNT POLLY!" + +If she warn't standing right there, just inside the door, looking as +sweet and contented as an angel half full of pie, I wish I may never! + +Aunt Sally jumped for her, and most hugged the head off of her, and cried +over her, and I found a good enough place for me under the bed, for it +was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me. And I peeped out, and in +a little while Tom's Aunt Polly shook herself loose and stood there +looking across at Tom over her spectacles--kind of grinding him into the +earth, you know. And then she says: + +"Yes, you BETTER turn y'r head away--I would if I was you, Tom." + +"Oh, deary me!" says Aunt Sally; "IS he changed so? Why, that ain't TOM, +it's Sid; Tom's--Tom's--why, where is Tom? He was here a minute ago." + +"You mean where's Huck FINN--that's what you mean! I reckon I hain't +raised such a scamp as my Tom all these years not to know him when I SEE +him. That WOULD be a pretty howdy-do. Come out from under that bed, +Huck Finn." + +So I done it. But not feeling brash. + +Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest-looking persons I ever see +--except one, and that was Uncle Silas, when he come in and they told it +all to him. It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn't +know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer-meeting +sermon that night that gave him a rattling ruputation, because the oldest +man in the world couldn't a understood it. So Tom's Aunt Polly, she told +all about who I was, and what; and I had to up and tell how I was in such +a tight place that when Mrs. Phelps took me for Tom Sawyer--she chipped +in and says, "Oh, go on and call me Aunt Sally, I'm used to it now, and +'tain't no need to change"--that when Aunt Sally took me for Tom Sawyer I +had to stand it--there warn't no other way, and I knowed he wouldn't +mind, because it would be nuts for him, being a mystery, and he'd make an +adventure out of it, and be perfectly satisfied. And so it turned out, +and he let on to be Sid, and made things as soft as he could for me. + +And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting +Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took +all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn't +ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he COULD +help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up. + +Well, Aunt Polly she said that when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Tom and +SID had come all right and safe, she says to herself: + +"Look at that, now! I might have expected it, letting him go off that +way without anybody to watch him. So now I got to go and trapse all the +way down the river, eleven hundred mile, and find out what that creetur's +up to THIS time, as long as I couldn't seem to get any answer out of you +about it." + +"Why, I never heard nothing from you," says Aunt Sally. + +"Well, I wonder! Why, I wrote you twice to ask you what you could mean +by Sid being here." + +"Well, I never got 'em, Sis." + +Aunt Polly she turns around slow and severe, and says: + +"You, Tom!" + +"Well--WHAT?" he says, kind of pettish. + +"Don t you what ME, you impudent thing--hand out them letters." + +"What letters?" + +"THEM letters. I be bound, if I have to take a-holt of you I'll--" + +"They're in the trunk. There, now. And they're just the same as they +was when I got them out of the office. I hain't looked into them, I +hain't touched them. But I knowed they'd make trouble, and I thought if +you warn't in no hurry, I'd--" + +"Well, you DO need skinning, there ain't no mistake about it. And I +wrote another one to tell you I was coming; and I s'pose he--" + +"No, it come yesterday; I hain't read it yet, but IT'S all right, I've +got that one." + +I wanted to offer to bet two dollars she hadn't, but I reckoned maybe it +was just as safe to not to. So I never said nothing. + + + + +CHAPTER THE LAST + +THE first time I catched Tom private I asked him what was his idea, time +of the evasion?--what it was he'd planned to do if the evasion worked all +right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? +And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got +Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and +have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about +his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, and +pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all the +niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight +procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would +we. But I reckoned it was about as well the way it was. + +We had Jim out of the chains in no time, and when Aunt Polly and Uncle +Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, +they made a heap of fuss over him, and fixed him up prime, and give him +all he wanted to eat, and a good time, and nothing to do. And we had him +up to the sick-room, and had a high talk; and Tom give Jim forty dollars +for being prisoner for us so patient, and doing it up so good, and Jim +was pleased most to death, and busted out, and says: + +"DAH, now, Huck, what I tell you?--what I tell you up dah on Jackson +islan'? I TOLE you I got a hairy breas', en what's de sign un it; en I +TOLE you I ben rich wunst, en gwineter to be rich AGIN; en it's come +true; en heah she is! DAH, now! doan' talk to ME--signs is SIGNS, mine I +tell you; en I knowed jis' 's well 'at I 'uz gwineter be rich agin as I's +a-stannin' heah dis minute!" + +And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three +slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit, and go for +howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a +couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I ain't +got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get none from +home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got it all away +from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. + +"No, he hain't," Tom says; "it's all there yet--six thousand dollars and +more; and your pap hain't ever been back since. Hadn't when I come away, +anyhow." + +Jim says, kind of solemn: + +"He ain't a-comin' back no mo', Huck." + +I says: + +"Why, Jim?" + +"Nemmine why, Huck--but he ain't comin' back no mo." + +But I kept at him; so at last he says: + +"Doan' you 'member de house dat was float'n down de river, en dey wuz a +man in dah, kivered up, en I went in en unkivered him and didn' let you +come in? Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat +wuz him." + +Tom's most well now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard +for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain't +nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I'd a +knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn't a tackled it, and +ain't a-going to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the +Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me +and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 8 +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN, PART 8. *** + +***** This file should be named 7107.txt or 7107.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/0/7107/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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