http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cassandra/blob/72790dc8/test/resources/tokenization/adventures_of_huckleberry_finn_mark_twain.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/test/resources/tokenization/adventures_of_huckleberry_finn_mark_twain.txt b/test/resources/tokenization/adventures_of_huckleberry_finn_mark_twain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27cadc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/test/resources/tokenization/adventures_of_huckleberry_finn_mark_twain.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12361 @@ + + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete +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.net + +Title: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Complete + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #76] + +Last Updated: October 20, 2012] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN *** + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +ADVENTURES + +OF + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +(Tom Sawyer's Comrade) + +By Mark Twain + +Complete + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. Civilizing Huck.ÂMiss Watson.ÂTom Sawyer Waits. + +CHAPTER II. The Boys Escape Jim.ÂTorn Sawyer's Gang.ÂDeep-laid Plans. + +CHAPTER III. A Good Going-over.ÂGrace Triumphant.Â"One of Tom Sawyers's +Lies". + +CHAPTER IV. Huck and the Judge.ÂSuperstition. + +CHAPTER V. Huck's Father.ÂThe Fond Parent.ÂReform. + +CHAPTER VI. He Went for Judge Thatcher.ÂHuck Decided to Leave.ÂPolitical +Economy.ÂThrashing Around. + +CHAPTER VII. Laying for Him.ÂLocked in the Cabin.ÂSinking the +Body.ÂResting. + +CHAPTER VIII. Sleeping in the Woods.ÂRaising the Dead.ÂExploring the +Island.ÂFinding Jim.ÂJim's Escape.ÂSigns.ÂBalum. + +CHAPTER IX. The Cave.ÂThe Floating House. + +CHAPTER X. The Find.ÂOld Hank Bunker.ÂIn Disguise. + +CHAPTER XI. Huck and the Woman.ÂThe Search.ÂPrevarication.ÂGoing to +Goshen. + +CHAPTER XII. Slow Navigation.ÂBorrowing Things.ÂBoarding the Wreck.ÂThe +Plotters.ÂHunting for the Boat. + +CHAPTER XIII. Escaping from the Wreck.ÂThe Watchman.ÂSinking. + +CHAPTER XIV. A General Good Time.ÂThe Harem.ÂFrench. + +CHAPTER XV. Huck Loses the Raft.ÂIn the Fog.ÂHuck Finds the Raft.ÂTrash. + +CHAPTER XVI. Expectation.ÂA White Lie.ÂFloating Currency.ÂRunning by +Cairo.ÂSwimming Ashore. + +CHAPTER XVII. An Evening Call.ÂThe Farm in Arkansaw.ÂInterior +Decorations.ÂStephen Dowling Bots.ÂPoetical Effusions. + +CHAPTER XVIII. Col. Grangerford.ÂAristocracy.ÂFeuds.ÂThe +Testament.ÂRecovering the Raft.ÂThe WoodÂpile.ÂPork and Cabbage. + +CHAPTER XIX. Tying Up DayÂtimes.ÂAn Astronomical Theory.ÂRunning a +Temperance Revival.ÂThe Duke of Bridgewater.ÂThe Troubles of Royalty. + +CHAPTER XX. Huck Explains.ÂLaying Out a Campaign.ÂWorking the +CampÂmeeting.ÂA Pirate at the CampÂmeeting.ÂThe Duke as a Printer. + +CHAPTER XXI. Sword Exercise.ÂHamlet's Soliloquy.ÂThey Loafed Around +Town.ÂA Lazy Town.ÂOld Boggs.ÂDead. + +CHAPTER XXII. Sherburn.ÂAttending the Circus.ÂIntoxication in the +Ring.ÂThe Thrilling Tragedy. + +CHAPTER XXIII. Sold.ÂRoyal Comparisons.ÂJim Gets Home-sick. + +CHAPTER XXIV. Jim in Royal Robes.ÂThey Take a Passenger.ÂGetting +Information.ÂFamily Grief. + +CHAPTER XXV. Is It Them?ÂSinging the "Doxologer."ÂAwful SquareÂFuneral +Orgies.ÂA Bad Investment . + +CHAPTER XXVI. A Pious King.ÂThe King's Clergy.ÂShe Asked His +Pardon.ÂHiding in the Room.ÂHuck Takes the Money. + +CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral.ÂSatisfying Curiosity.ÂSuspicious of +Huck,ÂQuick Sales and Small. + +CHAPTER XXVIII. The Trip to England.Â"The Brute!"ÂMary Jane Decides to +Leave.ÂHuck Parting with Mary Jane.ÂMumps.ÂThe Opposition Line. + +CHAPTER XXIX. Contested Relationship.ÂThe King Explains the Loss.ÂA +Question of Handwriting.ÂDigging up the Corpse.ÂHuck Escapes. + +CHAPTER XXX. The King Went for Him.ÂA Royal Row.ÂPowerful Mellow. + +CHAPTER XXXI. Ominous Plans.ÂNews from Jim.ÂOld Recollections.ÂA Sheep +Story.ÂValuable Information. + +CHAPTER XXXII. Still and SundayÂlike.ÂMistaken Identity.ÂUp a Stump.ÂIn +a Dilemma. + +CHAPTER XXXIII. A Nigger Stealer.ÂSouthern Hospitality.ÂA Pretty Long +Blessing.ÂTar and Feathers. + +CHAPTER XXXIV. The Hut by the Ash Hopper.ÂOutrageous.ÂClimbing the +Lightning Rod.ÂTroubled with Witches. + +CHAPTER XXXV. Escaping Properly.ÂDark Schemes.ÂDiscrimination in +Stealing.ÂA Deep Hole. + +CHAPTER XXXVI. The Lightning Rod.ÂHis Level Best.ÂA Bequest to +Posterity.ÂA High Figure. + +CHAPTER XXXVII. The Last Shirt.ÂMooning Around.ÂSailing Orders.ÂThe +Witch Pie. + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Coat of Arms.ÂA Skilled Superintendent.ÂUnpleasant +Glory.ÂA Tearful Subject. + +CHAPTER XXXIX. Rats.ÂLively BedÂfellows.ÂThe Straw Dummy. + +CHAPTER XL. Fishing.ÂThe Vigilance Committee.ÂA Lively Run.ÂJim Advises +a Doctor. + +CHAPTER XLI. The Doctor.ÂUncle Silas.ÂSister Hotchkiss.ÂAunt Sally in +Trouble. + +CHAPTER XLII. Tom Sawyer Wounded.ÂThe Doctor's Story.ÂTom +Confesses.ÂAunt Polly Arrives.ÂHand Out Them Letters    . + +CHAPTER THE LAST. Out of Bondage.ÂPaying the Captive.ÂYours Truly, Huck +Finn. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers  + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +The Widows + +Moses and the "Bulrushers" + +Miss Watson + +Huck Stealing Away + +They Tip-toed Along + +Jim + +Tom Sawyer's Band of Robbers  + +Huck Creeps into his Window + +Miss Watson's Lecture + +The Robbers Dispersed + +Rubbing the Lamp + +! ! ! ! + +Judge Thatcher surprised + +Jim Listening + +"Pap" + +Huck and his Father + +Reforming the Drunkard + +Falling from Grace + +Getting out of the Way + +Solid Comfort + +Thinking it Over + +Raising a Howl + +"Git Up" + +The Shanty + +Shooting the Pig + +Taking a Rest + +In the Woods + +Watching the Boat + +Discovering the Camp Fire + +Jim and the Ghost + +Misto Bradish's Nigger + +Exploring the Cave + +In the Cave + +Jim sees a Dead Man + +They Found Eight Dollars + +Jim and the Snake + +Old Hank Bunker + +"A Fair Fit" + +"Come In" + +"Him and another Man" + +She puts up a Snack + +"Hump Yourself" + +On the Raft + +He sometimes Lifted a Chicken + +"Please don't, Bill" + +"It ain't Good Morals" + +"Oh! Lordy, Lordy!" + +In a Fix + +"Hello, What's Up?" + +The Wreck + +We turned in and Slept + +Turning over the Truck + +Solomon and his Million Wives + +The story of "Sollermun" + +"We Would Sell the Raft" + +Among the Snags + +Asleep on the Raft + +"Something being Raftsman" + +"Boy, that's a Lie" + +"Here I is, Huck" + +Climbing up the Bank + +"Who's There?" + +"Buck" + +"It made Her look Spidery" + +"They got him out and emptied Him"  + +The House + +Col. Grangerford + +Young Harney Shepherdson + +Miss Charlotte + +"And asked me if I Liked Her" + +"Behind the Wood-pile" + +Hiding Day-times + +"And Dogs a-Coming" + +"By rights I am a Duke!" + +"I am the Late Dauphin" + +Tail Piece + +On the Raft + +The King as Juliet + +"Courting on the Sly" + +"A Pirate for Thirty Years" + +Another little Job + +Practizing + +Hamlet's Soliloquy + +"Gimme a Chaw" + +A Little Monthly Drunk + +The Death of Boggs + +Sherburn steps out + +A Dead Head + +He shed Seventeen Suits + +Tragedy + +Their Pockets Bulged + +Henry the Eighth in Boston Harbor + +Harmless + +Adolphus + +He fairly emptied that Young Fellow + +"Alas, our Poor Brother" + +"You Bet it is" + +Leaking + +Making up the "Deffisit" + +Going for him + +The Doctor + +The Bag of Money + +The Cubby + +Supper with the Hare-Lip + +Honest Injun + +The Duke looks under the Bed + +Huck takes the Money + +A Crack in the Dining-room Door + +The Undertaker + +"He had a Rat!" + +"Was you in my Room?" + +Jawing + +In Trouble + +Indignation + +How to Find Them + +He Wrote + +Hannah with the Mumps + +The Auction + +The True Brothers + +The Doctor leads Huck + +The Duke Wrote + +"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" + +"Jim Lit Out" + +The King shakes Huck + +The Duke went for Him + +Spanish Moss + +"Who Nailed Him?" + +Thinking + +He gave him Ten Cents + +Striking for the Back Country + +Still and Sunday-like + +She hugged him tight + +"Who do you reckon it is?" + +"It was Tom Sawyer" + +"Mr. Archibald Nichols, I presume?" + +A pretty long Blessing + +Traveling By Rail + +Vittles + +A Simple Job + +Witches + +Getting Wood + +One of the Best Authorities + +The Breakfast-Horn + +Smouching the Knives + +Going down the Lightning-Rod + +Stealing spoons + +Tom advises a Witch Pie + +The Rubbage-Pile + +"Missus, dey's a Sheet Gone" + +In a Tearing Way + +One of his Ancestors + +Jim's Coat of Arms + +A Tough Job + +Buttons on their Tails + +Irrigation + +Keeping off Dull Times + +Sawdust Diet + +Trouble is Brewing + +Fishing + +Every one had a Gun + +Tom caught on a Splinter + +Jim advises a Doctor + +The Doctor + +Uncle Silas in Danger + +Old Mrs. Hotchkiss + +Aunt Sally talks to Huck + +Tom Sawyer wounded + +The Doctor speaks for Jim + +Tom rose square up in Bed + +"Hand out them Letters" + +Out of Bondage + +Tom's Liberality + +Yours Truly + + + + +EXPLANATORY + +IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit:  the Missouri negro +dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the +ordinary "Pike County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this +last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by +guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and +support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. + +I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers +would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and +not succeeding. + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +HUCKLEBERRY FINN + +Scene:  The Mississippi Valley Time:  Forty to fifty years ago + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The +Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made +by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things +which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I +never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt +Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary.  Aunt PollyÂTom's Aunt Polly, she +isÂand Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which +is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. + +Now the way that the book winds up is this:  Tom and me found the money +that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich.  We got six +thousand dollars apieceÂall gold.  It was an awful sight of money when +it was piled up.  Well, Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out +at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a day apiece all the year +roundÂmore than a body could tell what to do with.  The Widow Douglas +she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was +rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular +and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand +it no longer I lit out.  I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead +again, and was free and satisfied.  But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and +said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I +would go back to the widow and be respectable.  So I went back. + +The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she +called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by +it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but +sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up.  Well, then, the old thing +commenced again.  The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come +to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but +you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little +over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with +them,Âthat is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself.  In a +barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the +juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better. + +After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the +Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and +by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so +then I didn't care no more about him, because I don't take no stock in +dead people. + +Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me.  But she +wouldn't.  She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean, and I must +try to not do it any more.  That is just the way with some people.  They +get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it.  Here she was +a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, +being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a +thing that had some good in it.  And she took snuff, too; of course that +was all right, because she done it herself. + +Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, +had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a +spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then +the widow made her ease up.  I couldn't stood it much longer.  Then for +an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety.  Miss Watson would say, +"Don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up +like that, HuckleberryÂset up straight;" and pretty soon she would +say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, HuckleberryÂwhy don't you try to +behave?"  Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished +I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm.  All I wanted +was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. + She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for +the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. + Well, I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going, so I +made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.  But I never said so, because it +would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good. + +Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good +place.  She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all +day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever.  So I didn't think +much of it. But I never said so.  I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer +would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight.  I was glad +about that, because I wanted him and me to be together. + +Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. + By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then +everybody was off to bed.  I went up to my room with a piece of candle, +and put it on the table.  Then I set down in a chair by the window and +tried to think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use.  I felt +so lonesome I most wished I was dead.  The stars were shining, and the +leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away +off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a +dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying +to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it was, and so +it made the cold shivers run over me. Then away out in the woods I heard +that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about +something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so +can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night +grieving.  I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some +company.  Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I +flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it +was all shriveled up.  I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was +an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared +and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my +tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied +up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away.  But +I hadn't no confidence.  You do that when you've lost a horseshoe that +you've found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadn't ever +heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you'd killed +a spider. + +I set down again, a-shaking all over, and got out my pipe for a smoke; +for the house was all as still as death now, and so the widow wouldn't +know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town +go boomÂboomÂboomÂtwelve licks; and all still againÂstiller than +ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the +treesÂsomething was a stirring.  I set still and listened.  Directly I +could just barely hear a "me-yow! me-yow!" down there.  That was good! + Says I, "me-yow! me-yow!" as soft as I could, and then I put out the +light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed.  Then I slipped +down to the ground and crawled in among the trees, and, sure enough, +there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WE went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of +the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our +heads. When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made +a noise.  We scrouched down and laid still.  Miss Watson's big nigger, +named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him pretty +clear, because there was a light behind him.  He got up and stretched +his neck out about a minute, listening.  Then he says: + +"Who dah?" + +He listened some more; then he come tiptoeing down and stood right +between us; we could a touched him, nearly.  Well, likely it was +minutes and minutes that there warn't a sound, and we all there so close +together.  There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I +dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, +right between my shoulders.  Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. + Well, I've noticed that thing plenty times since.  If you are with +the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't +sleepyÂif you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why +you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim +says: + +"Say, who is you?  Whar is you?  Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. +Well, I know what I's gwyne to do:  I's gwyne to set down here and +listen tell I hears it agin." + +So he set down on the ground betwixt me and Tom.  He leaned his back up +against a tree, and stretched his legs out till one of them most touched +one of mine.  My nose begun to itch.  It itched till the tears come into +my eyes.  But I dasn't scratch.  Then it begun to itch on the inside. +Next I got to itching underneath.  I didn't know how I was going to set +still. This miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes; but +it seemed a sight longer than that.  I was itching in eleven different +places now.  I reckoned I couldn't stand it more'n a minute longer, +but I set my teeth hard and got ready to try.  Just then Jim begun +to breathe heavy; next he begun to snoreÂand then I was pretty soon +comfortable again. + +Tom he made a sign to meÂkind of a little noise with his mouthÂand we +went creeping away on our hands and knees.  When we was ten foot off Tom +whispered to me, and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun.  But I said +no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then they'd find out I +warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip +in the kitchen and get some more.  I didn't want him to try.  I said Jim +might wake up and come.  But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in there +and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. +Then we got out, and I was in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do +Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play +something on him.  I waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was +so still and lonesome. + +As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden fence, +and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of +the house.  Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and hung it +on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't wake. +Afterwards Jim said the witches be witched him and put him in a trance, +and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, +and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it.  And next time Jim told +it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every +time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they +rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back +was all over saddle-boils.  Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he +got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers.  Niggers would come +miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any +nigger in that country.  Strange niggers would stand with their mouths +open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder.  Niggers is +always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but +whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, +Jim would happen in and say, "Hm!  What you know 'bout witches?" and +that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat.  Jim always kept +that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a +charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could +cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by +saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. + Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they +had, just for a sight of that five-center piece; but they wouldn't touch +it, because the devil had had his hands on it.  Jim was most ruined for +a servant, because he got stuck up on account of having seen the devil +and been rode by witches. + +Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down +into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where +there was sick folks, maybe; and the stars over us was sparkling ever +so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and +awful still and grand.  We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and +Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. + So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, +to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore. + +We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the +secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest +part of the bushes.  Then we lit the candles, and crawled in on our +hands and knees.  We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave +opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages, and pretty soon ducked +under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole.  We +went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and +sweaty and cold, and there we stopped.  Tom says: + +"Now, we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. +Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name +in blood." + +Everybody was willing.  So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had +wrote the oath on, and read it.  It swore every boy to stick to the +band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to +any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and +his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he +had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign +of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that +mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be +killed.  And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he +must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the +ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off of the list with +blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it +and be forgot forever. + +Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got +it out of his own head.  He said, some of it, but the rest was out of +pirate-books and robber-books, and every gang that was high-toned had +it. + +Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told +the secrets.  Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote +it in. Then Ben Rogers says: + +"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family; what you going to do 'bout +him?" + +"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer. + +"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him these days.  He +used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen +in these parts for a year or more." + +They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they +said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it +wouldn't be fair and square for the others.  Well, nobody could think of +anything to doÂeverybody was stumped, and set still.  I was most ready +to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss +WatsonÂthey could kill her.  Everybody said: + +"Oh, she'll do.  That's all right.  Huck can come in." + +Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, +and I made my mark on the paper. + +"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?" + +"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said. + +"But who are we going to rob?Âhouses, or cattle, orÂ" + +"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery; it's burglary," +says Tom Sawyer.  "We ain't burglars.  That ain't no sort of style.  We +are highwaymen.  We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks +on, and kill the people and take their watches and money." + +"Must we always kill the people?" + +"Oh, certainly.  It's best.  Some authorities think different, but +mostly it's considered best to kill themÂexcept some that you bring to +the cave here, and keep them till they're ransomed." + +"Ransomed?  What's that?" + +"I don't know.  But that's what they do.  I've seen it in books; and so +of course that's what we've got to do." + +"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" + +"Why, blame it all, we've got to do it.  Don't I tell you it's in the +books?  Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, +and get things all muddled up?" + +"Oh, that's all very fine to say, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation +are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it +to them?Âthat's the thing I want to get at.  Now, what do you reckon it +is?" + +"Well, I don't know.  But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, +it means that we keep them till they're dead." + +"Now, that's something like.  That'll answer.  Why couldn't you said +that before?  We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death; and a +bothersome lot they'll be, tooÂeating up everything, and always trying +to get loose." + +"How you talk, Ben Rogers.  How can they get loose when there's a guard +over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?" + +"A guard!  Well, that is good.  So somebody's got to set up all night +and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them.  I think that's +foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as +they get here?" + +"Because it ain't in the books soÂthat's why.  Now, Ben Rogers, do you +want to do things regular, or don't you?Âthat's the idea.  Don't you +reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct +thing to do?  Do you reckon you can learn 'em anything?  Not by a good +deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way." + +"All right.  I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow.  Say, do +we kill the women, too?" + +"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on.  Kill +the women?  No; nobody ever saw anything in the books like that.  You +fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; +and by and by they fall in love with you, and never want to go home any +more." + +"Well, if that's the way I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. +Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows +waiting to be ransomed, that there won't be no place for the robbers. +But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say." + +Little Tommy Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up he was +scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't +want to be a robber any more. + +So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him +mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets.  But +Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and +meet next week, and rob somebody and kill some people. + +Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted +to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it +on Sunday, and that settled the thing.  They agreed to get together and +fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first +captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home. + +I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was +breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was +dog-tired. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WELL, I got a good going-over in the morning from old Miss Watson on +account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned +off the grease and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I would +behave awhile if I could.  Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet +and prayed, but nothing come of it.  She told me to pray every day, and +whatever I asked for I would get it.  But it warn't so.  I tried it. +Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.  It warn't any good to me without +hooks.  I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I +couldn't make it work.  By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to +try for me, but she said I was a fool.  She never told me why, and I +couldn't make it out no way. + +I set down one time back in the woods, and had a long think about it. + I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't +Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork?  Why can't the widow get +back her silver snuffbox that was stole?  Why can't Miss Watson fat up? +No, says I to my self, there ain't nothing in it.  I went and told the +widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for +it was "spiritual gifts."  This was too many for me, but she told me +what she meantÂI must help other people, and do everything I could for +other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about +myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it.  I went out in the +woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no +advantage about itÂexcept for the other people; so at last I reckoned +I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.  Sometimes the +widow would take me one side and talk about Providence in a way to make +a body's mouth water; but maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold +and knock it all down again.  I judged I could see that there was two +Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the +widow's Providence, but if Miss Watson's got him there warn't no help +for him any more.  I thought it all out, and reckoned I would belong +to the widow's if he wanted me, though I couldn't make out how he was +a-going to be any better off then than what he was before, seeing I was +so ignorant, and so kind of low-down and ornery. + +Pap he hadn't been seen for more than a year, and that was comfortable +for me; I didn't want to see him no more.  He used to always whale me +when he was sober and could get his hands on me; though I used to take +to the woods most of the time when he was around.  Well, about this time +he was found in the river drownded, about twelve mile above town, so +people said.  They judged it was him, anyway; said this drownded man was +just his size, and was ragged, and had uncommon long hair, which was all +like pap; but they couldn't make nothing out of the face, because it had +been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all.  They said +he was floating on his back in the water.  They took him and buried him +on the bank.  But I warn't comfortable long, because I happened to think +of something.  I knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on +his back, but on his face.  So I knowed, then, that this warn't pap, but +a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.  So I was uncomfortable again. + I judged the old man would turn up again by and by, though I wished he +wouldn't. + +We played robber now and then about a month, and then I resigned.  All +the boys did.  We hadn't robbed nobody, hadn't killed any people, but +only just pretended.  We used to hop out of the woods and go charging +down on hog-drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market, +but we never hived any of them.  Tom Sawyer called the hogs "ingots," +and he called the turnips and stuff "julery," and we would go to the +cave and powwow over what we had done, and how many people we had killed +and marked.  But I couldn't see no profit in it.  One time Tom sent a +boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which he called a slogan +(which was the sign for the Gang to get together), and then he said he +had got secret news by his spies that next day a whole parcel of Spanish +merchants and rich A-rabs was going to camp in Cave Hollow with two +hundred elephants, and six hundred camels, and over a thousand "sumter" +mules, all loaded down with di'monds, and they didn't have only a guard +of four hundred soldiers, and so we would lay in ambuscade, as he called +it, and kill the lot and scoop the things.  He said we must slick up +our swords and guns, and get ready.  He never could go after even a +turnip-cart but he must have the swords and guns all scoured up for it, +though they was only lath and broomsticks, and you might scour at them +till you rotted, and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more +than what they was before.  I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd +of Spaniards and A-rabs, but I wanted to see the camels and elephants, +so I was on hand next day, Saturday, in the ambuscade; and when we got +the word we rushed out of the woods and down the hill.  But there warn't +no Spaniards and A-rabs, and there warn't no camels nor no elephants. + It warn't anything but a Sunday-school picnic, and only a primer-class +at that.  We busted it up, and chased the children up the hollow; but we +never got anything but some doughnuts and jam, though Ben Rogers got +a rag doll, and Jo Harper got a hymn-book and a tract; and then the +teacher charged in, and made us drop everything and cut. + + I didn't see no di'monds, and I told Tom Sawyer so.  He said there was +loads of them there, anyway; and he said there was A-rabs there, too, +and elephants and things.  I said, why couldn't we see them, then?  He +said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I +would know without asking.  He said it was all done by enchantment.  He +said there was hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasure, +and so on, but we had enemies which he called magicians; and they had +turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday-school, just out of spite. + I said, all right; then the thing for us to do was to go for the +magicians.  Tom Sawyer said I was a numskull. + +"Why," said he, "a magician could call up a lot of genies, and they +would hash you up like nothing before you could say Jack Robinson.  They +are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church." + +"Well," I says, "s'pose we got some genies to help usÂcan't we lick +the other crowd then?" + +"How you going to get them?" + +"I don't know.  How do they get them?" + +"Why, they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then the genies +come tearing in, with the thunder and lightning a-ripping around and the +smoke a-rolling, and everything they're told to do they up and do it. + They don't think nothing of pulling a shot-tower up by the roots, and +belting a Sunday-school superintendent over the head with itÂor any +other man." + +"Who makes them tear around so?" + +"Why, whoever rubs the lamp or the ring.  They belong to whoever rubs +the lamp or the ring, and they've got to do whatever he says.  If he +tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds, and fill +it full of chewing-gum, or whatever you want, and fetch an emperor's +daughter from China for you to marry, they've got to do itÂand they've +got to do it before sun-up next morning, too.  And more:  they've got +to waltz that palace around over the country wherever you want it, you +understand." + +"Well," says I, "I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping +the palace themselves 'stead of fooling them away like that.  And what's +moreÂif I was one of them I would see a man in Jericho before I would +drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp." + +"How you talk, Huck Finn.  Why, you'd have to come when he rubbed it, +whether you wanted to or not." + +"What! and I as high as a tree and as big as a church?  All right, then; +I would come; but I lay I'd make that man climb the highest tree there +was in the country." + +"Shucks, it ain't no use to talk to you, Huck Finn.  You don't seem to +know anything, somehowÂperfect saphead." + +I thought all this over for two or three days, and then I reckoned I +would see if there was anything in it.  I got an old tin lamp and an +iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till I sweat +like an Injun, calculating to build a palace and sell it; but it warn't +no use, none of the genies come.  So then I judged that all that stuff +was only just one of Tom Sawyer's lies.  I reckoned he believed in the +A-rabs and the elephants, but as for me I think different.  It had all +the marks of a Sunday-school. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WELL, three or four months run along, and it was well into the winter +now. I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and +write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six +times seven is thirty-five, and I don't reckon I could ever get any +further than that if I was to live forever.  I don't take no stock in +mathematics, anyway. + +At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it. +Whenever I got uncommon tired I played hookey, and the hiding I got next +day done me good and cheered me up.  So the longer I went to school the +easier it got to be.  I was getting sort of used to the widow's ways, +too, and they warn't so raspy on me.  Living in a house and sleeping in +a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I +used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a +rest to me.  I liked the old ways best, but I was getting so I liked the +new ones, too, a little bit. The widow said I was coming along slow but +sure, and doing very satisfactory.  She said she warn't ashamed of me. + +One morning I happened to turn over the salt-cellar at breakfast. + I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my left +shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, +and crossed me off. She says, "Take your hands away, Huckleberry; what +a mess you are always making!"  The widow put in a good word for me, but +that warn't going to keep off the bad luck, I knowed that well enough. + I started out, after breakfast, feeling worried and shaky, and +wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be. + There is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one +of them kind; so I never tried to do anything, but just poked along +low-spirited and on the watch-out. + +I went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go +through the high board fence.  There was an inch of new snow on the +ground, and I seen somebody's tracks.  They had come up from the quarry +and stood around the stile a while, and then went on around the garden +fence.  It was funny they hadn't come in, after standing around so.  I +couldn't make it out.  It was very curious, somehow.  I was going to +follow around, but I stooped down to look at the tracks first.  I didn't +notice anything at first, but next I did.  There was a cross in the left +boot-heel made with big nails, to keep off the devil. + +I was up in a second and shinning down the hill.  I looked over my +shoulder every now and then, but I didn't see nobody.  I was at Judge +Thatcher's as quick as I could get there.  He said: + +"Why, my boy, you are all out of breath.  Did you come for your +interest?" + +"No, sir," I says; "is there some for me?" + +"Oh, yes, a half-yearly is in last nightÂover a hundred and fifty +dollars.  Quite a fortune for you.  You had better let me invest it +along with your six thousand, because if you take it you'll spend it." + +"No, sir," I says, "I don't want to spend it.  I don't want it at +allÂnor the six thousand, nuther.  I want you to take it; I want to give +it to youÂthe six thousand and all." + +He looked surprised.  He couldn't seem to make it out.  He says: + +"Why, what can you mean, my boy?" + +I says, "Don't you ask me no questions about it, please.  You'll take +itÂwon't you?" + +He says: + +"Well, I'm puzzled.  Is something the matter?" + +"Please take it," says I, "and don't ask me nothingÂthen I won't have to +tell no lies." + +He studied a while, and then he says: + +"Oho-o!  I think I see.  You want to sell all your property to meÂnot +give it.  That's the correct idea." + +Then he wrote something on a paper and read it over, and says: + +"There; you see it says 'for a consideration.'  That means I have bought +it of you and paid you for it.  Here's a dollar for you.  Now you sign +it." + +So I signed it, and left. + +Miss Watson's nigger, Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which +had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do +magic with it.  He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed +everything.  So I went to him that night and told him pap was here +again, for I found his tracks in the snow.  What I wanted to know was, +what he was going to do, and was he going to stay?  Jim got out his +hair-ball and said something over it, and then he held it up and dropped +it on the floor.  It fell pretty solid, and only rolled about an inch. + Jim tried it again, and then another time, and it acted just the same. + Jim got down on his knees, and put his ear against it and listened. + But it warn't no use; he said it wouldn't talk. He said sometimes it +wouldn't talk without money.  I told him I had an old slick counterfeit +quarter that warn't no good because the brass showed through the silver +a little, and it wouldn't pass nohow, even if the brass didn't show, +because it was so slick it felt greasy, and so that would tell on it +every time.  (I reckoned I wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got +from the judge.) I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the hair-ball +would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know the difference.  Jim smelt +it and bit it and rubbed it, and said he would manage so the hair-ball +would think it was good.  He said he would split open a raw Irish potato +and stick the quarter in between and keep it there all night, and next +morning you couldn't see no brass, and it wouldn't feel greasy no more, +and so anybody in town would take it in a minute, let alone a hair-ball. + Well, I knowed a potato would do that before, but I had forgot it. + +Jim put the quarter under the hair-ball, and got down and listened +again. This time he said the hair-ball was all right.  He said it +would tell my whole fortune if I wanted it to.  I says, go on.  So the +hair-ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.  He says: + +"Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do.  Sometimes he +spec he'll go 'way, en den agin he spec he'll stay.  De bes' way is to +res' easy en let de ole man take his own way.  Dey's two angels hoverin' +roun' 'bout him.  One uv 'em is white en shiny, en t'other one is black. +De white one gits him to go right a little while, den de black one sail +in en bust it all up.  A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch +him at de las'.  But you is all right.  You gwyne to have considable +trouble in yo' life, en considable joy.  Sometimes you gwyne to git +hurt, en sometimes you gwyne to git sick; but every time you's gwyne +to git well agin.  Dey's two gals flyin' 'bout you in yo' life.  One +uv 'em's light en t'other one is dark. One is rich en t'other is po'. + You's gwyne to marry de po' one fust en de rich one by en by.  You +wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you kin, en don't run no +resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." + +When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night there sat pap his +own self! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +I had shut the door to.  Then I turned around and there he was.  I used +to be scared of him all the time, he tanned me so much.  I reckoned I +was scared now, too; but in a minute I see I was mistakenÂthat is, after +the first jolt, as you may say, when my breath sort of hitched, he being +so unexpected; but right away after I see I warn't scared of him worth +bothring about. + +He was most fifty, and he looked it.  His hair was long and tangled and +greasy, and hung down, and you could see his eyes shining through +like he was behind vines.  It was all black, no gray; so was his long, +mixed-up whiskers.  There warn't no color in his face, where his face +showed; it was white; not like another man's white, but a white to make +a body sick, a white to make a body's flesh crawlÂa tree-toad white, a +fish-belly white.  As for his clothesÂjust rags, that was all.  He had +one ankle resting on t'other knee; the boot on that foot was busted, and +two of his toes stuck through, and he worked them now and then.  His hat +was laying on the floorÂan old black slouch with the top caved in, like +a lid. + +I stood a-looking at him; he set there a-looking at me, with his chair +tilted back a little.  I set the candle down.  I noticed the window was +up; so he had clumb in by the shed.  He kept a-looking me all over.  By +and by he says: + +"Starchy clothesÂvery.  You think you're a good deal of a big-bug, +don't you?" + +"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I says. + +"Don't you give me none o' your lip," says he.  "You've put on +considerable many frills since I been away.  I'll take you down a peg +before I get done with you.  You're educated, too, they sayÂcan read and +write.  You think you're better'n your father, now, don't you, because +he can't?  I'll take it out of you.  Who told you you might meddle +with such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?Âwho told you you could?" + +"The widow.  She told me." + +"The widow, hey?Âand who told the widow she could put in her shovel +about a thing that ain't none of her business?" + +"Nobody never told her." + +"Well, I'll learn her how to meddle.  And looky hereÂyou drop that +school, you hear?  I'll learn people to bring up a boy to put on airs +over his own father and let on to be better'n what he is.  You lemme +catch you fooling around that school again, you hear?  Your mother +couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.  None +of the family couldn't before they died.  I can't; and here you're +a-swelling yourself up like this.  I ain't the man to stand itÂyou hear? +Say, lemme hear you read." + +I took up a book and begun something about General Washington and the +wars. When I'd read about a half a minute, he fetched the book a whack +with his hand and knocked it across the house.  He says: + +"It's so.  You can do it.  I had my doubts when you told me.  Now looky +here; you stop that putting on frills.  I won't have it.  I'll lay for +you, my smarty; and if I catch you about that school I'll tan you good. +First you know you'll get religion, too.  I never see such a son." + +He took up a little blue and yaller picture of some cows and a boy, and +says: + +"What's this?" + +"It's something they give me for learning my lessons good." + +He tore it up, and says: + +"I'll give you something betterÂI'll give you a cowhide." + +He set there a-mumbling and a-growling a minute, and then he says: + +"Ain't you a sweet-scented dandy, though?  A bed; and bedclothes; and +a look'n'-glass; and a piece of carpet on the floorÂand your own father +got to sleep with the hogs in the tanyard.  I never see such a son.  I +bet I'll take some o' these frills out o' you before I'm done with you. +Why, there ain't no end to your airsÂthey say you're rich.  Hey?Âhow's +that?" + +"They lieÂthat's how." + +"Looky hereÂmind how you talk to me; I'm a-standing about all I can +stand nowÂso don't gimme no sass.  I've been in town two days, and I +hain't heard nothing but about you bein' rich.  I heard about it +away down the river, too.  That's why I come.  You git me that money +to-morrowÂI want it." + +"I hain't got no money." + +"It's a lie.  Judge Thatcher's got it.  You git it.  I want it." + +"I hain't got no money, I tell you.  You ask Judge Thatcher; he'll tell +you the same." + +"All right.  I'll ask him; and I'll make him pungle, too, or I'll know +the reason why.  Say, how much you got in your pocket?  I want it." + +"I hain't got only a dollar, and I want that toÂ" + +"It don't make no difference what you want it forÂyou just shell it +out." + +He took it and bit it to see if it was good, and then he said he was +going down town to get some whisky; said he hadn't had a drink all day. +When he had got out on the shed he put his head in again, and cussed +me for putting on frills and trying to be better than him; and when I +reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again, and told me +to mind about that school, because he was going to lay for me and lick +me if I didn't drop that. + +Next day he was drunk, and he went to Judge Thatcher's and bullyragged +him, and tried to make him give up the money; but he couldn't, and then +he swore he'd make the law force him. + +The judge and the widow went to law to get the court to take me away +from him and let one of them be my guardian; but it was a new judge that +had just come, and he didn't know the old man; so he said courts mustn't +interfere and separate families if they could help it; said he'd druther +not take a child away from its father.  So Judge Thatcher and the widow +had to quit on the business. + +That pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.  He said he'd cowhide +me till I was black and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.  I +borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher, and pap took it and got +drunk, and went a-blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying +on; and he kept it up all over town, with a tin pan, till most midnight; +then they jailed him, and next day they had him before court, and jailed +him again for a week.  But he said he was satisfied; said he was boss +of his son, and he'd make it warm for him. + +When he got out the new judge said he was a-going to make a man of him. +So he took him to his own house, and dressed him up clean and nice, and +had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family, and was just +old pie to him, so to speak.  And after supper he talked to him about +temperance and such things till the old man cried, and said he'd been +a fool, and fooled away his life; but now he was a-going to turn over +a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of, and he hoped the +judge would help him and not look down on him.  The judge said he could +hug him for them words; so he cried, and his wife she cried again; pap +said he'd been a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the +judge said he believed it.  The old man said that what a man wanted +that was down was sympathy, and the judge said it was so; so they cried +again.  And when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his +hand, and says: + +"Look at it, gentlemen and ladies all; take a-hold of it; shake it. +There's a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's +the hand of a man that's started in on a new life, and'll die before +he'll go back.  You mark them wordsÂdon't forget I said them.  It's a +clean hand now; shake itÂdon't be afeard." + +So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried.  The +judge's wife she kissed it.  Then the old man he signed a pledgeÂmade +his mark. The judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something +like that. Then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was +the spare room, and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty and +clumb out on to the porch-roof and slid down a stanchion and traded his +new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and clumb back again and had a good old +time; and towards daylight he crawled out again, drunk as a fiddler, and +rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places, and was most +froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.  And when they come +to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could +navigate it. + +The judge he felt kind of sore.  He said he reckoned a body could reform +the old man with a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WELL, pretty soon the old man was up and around again, and then he went +for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him give up that money, and he +went for me, too, for not stopping school.  He catched me a couple of +times and thrashed me, but I went to school just the same, and dodged +him or outrun him most of the time.  I didn't want to go to school much +before, but I reckoned I'd go now to spite pap.  That law trial was a +slow businessÂappeared like they warn't ever going to get started on it; +so every now and then I'd borrow two or three dollars off of the judge +for him, to keep from getting a cowhiding.  Every time he got money he +got drunk; and every time he got drunk he raised Cain around town; and +every time he raised Cain he got jailed.  He was just suitedÂthis kind +of thing was right in his line. + +He got to hanging around the widow's too much and so she told him at +last that if he didn't quit using around there she would make trouble +for him. Well, wasn't he mad?  He said he would show who was Huck +Finn's boss.  So he watched out for me one day in the spring, and +catched me, and took me up the river about three mile in a skiff, and +crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody and there warn't +no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick +you couldn't find it if you didn't know where it was. + +He kept me with him all the time, and I never got a chance to run off. +We lived in that old cabin, and he always locked the door and put the +key under his head nights.  He had a gun which he had stole, I reckon, +and we fished and hunted, and that was what we lived on.  Every little +while he locked me in and went down to the store, three miles, to the +ferry, and traded fish and game for whisky, and fetched it home and got +drunk and had a good time, and licked me.  The widow she found out where +I was by and by, and she sent a man over to try to get hold of me; but +pap drove him off with the gun, and it warn't long after that till I was +used to being where I was, and liked itÂall but the cowhide part. + +It was kind of lazy and jolly, laying off comfortable all day, smoking +and fishing, and no books nor study.  Two months or more run along, and +my clothes got to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see how I'd ever +got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on +a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever +bothering over a book, and have old Miss Watson pecking at you all the +time.  I didn't want to go back no more.  I had stopped cussing, because +the widow didn't like it; but now I took to it again because pap hadn't +no objections.  It was pretty good times up in the woods there, take it +all around. + +But by and by pap got too handy with his hick'ry, and I couldn't stand +it. I was all over welts.  He got to going away so much, too, and +locking me in.  Once he locked me in and was gone three days.  It was +dreadful lonesome.  I judged he had got drownded, and I wasn't ever +going to get out any more.  I was scared.  I made up my mind I would fix +up some way to leave there.  I had tried to get out of that cabin many +a time, but I couldn't find no way.  There warn't a window to it big +enough for a dog to get through.  I couldn't get up the chimbly; it +was too narrow.  The door was thick, solid oak slabs.  Pap was pretty +careful not to leave a knife or anything in the cabin when he was away; +I reckon I had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times; well, I +was most all the time at it, because it was about the only way to put in +the time.  But this time I found something at last; I found an old rusty +wood-saw without any handle; it was laid in between a rafter and the +clapboards of the roof. I greased it up and went to work.  There was an +old horse-blanket nailed against the logs at the far end of the cabin +behind the table, to keep the wind from blowing through the chinks and +putting the candle out.  I got under the table and raised the blanket, +and went to work to saw a section of the big bottom log outÂbig enough +to let me through.  Well, it was a good long job, but I was getting +towards the end of it when I heard pap's gun in the woods.  I got rid of +the signs of my work, and dropped the blanket and hid my saw, and pretty +soon pap come in. + +Pap warn't in a good humorÂso he was his natural self.  He said he was +down town, and everything was going wrong.  His lawyer said he reckoned +he would win his lawsuit and get the money if they ever got started on +the trial; but then there was ways to put it off a long time, and Judge +Thatcher knowed how to do it. And he said people allowed there'd be +another trial to get me away from him and give me to the widow for my +guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.  This shook me up +considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more +and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it.  Then the old man +got to cussing, and cussed everything and everybody he could think of, +and then cussed them all over again to make sure he hadn't skipped any, +and after that he polished off with a kind of a general cuss all round, +including a considerable parcel of people which he didn't know the names +of, and so called them what's-his-name when he got to them, and went +right along with his cussing. + +He said he would like to see the widow get me.  He said he would watch +out, and if they tried to come any such game on him he knowed of a place +six or seven mile off to stow me in, where they might hunt till they +dropped and they couldn't find me.  That made me pretty uneasy again, +but only for a minute; I reckoned I wouldn't stay on hand till he got +that chance. + +The old man made me go to the skiff and fetch the things he had +got. There was a fifty-pound sack of corn meal, and a side of bacon, +ammunition, and a four-gallon jug of whisky, and an old book and two +newspapers for wadding, besides some tow.  I toted up a load, and went +back and set down on the bow of the skiff to rest.  I thought it all +over, and I reckoned I would walk off with the gun and some lines, and +take to the woods when I run away.  I guessed I wouldn't stay in one +place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly night times, and +hunt and fish to keep alive, and so get so far away that the old man nor +the widow couldn't ever find me any more.  I judged I would saw out and +leave that night if pap got drunk enough, and I reckoned he would.  I +got so full of it I didn't notice how long I was staying till the old +man hollered and asked me whether I was asleep or drownded. + +I got the things all up to the cabin, and then it was about dark.  While +I was cooking supper the old man took a swig or two and got sort of +warmed up, and went to ripping again.  He had been drunk over in town, +and laid in the gutter all night, and he was a sight to look at.  A body +would a thought he was AdamÂhe was just all mud.  Whenever his liquor +begun to work he most always went for the govment, this time he says: + +"Call this a govment! why, just look at it and see what it's like. +Here's the law a-standing ready to take a man's son away from himÂa +man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety +and all the expense of raising.  Yes, just as that man has got that +son raised at last, and ready to go to work and begin to do suthin' for +him and give him a rest, the law up and goes for him.  And they call +that govment!  That ain't all, nuther.  The law backs that old Judge +Thatcher up and helps him to keep me out o' my property.  Here's what +the law does:  The law takes a man worth six thousand dollars and +up'ards, and jams him into an old trap of a cabin like this, and lets +him go round in clothes that ain't fitten for a hog. They call that +govment!  A man can't get his rights in a govment like this. Sometimes +I've a mighty notion to just leave the country for good and all. Yes, +and I told 'em so; I told old Thatcher so to his face.  Lots of 'em +heard me, and can tell what I said.  Says I, for two cents I'd leave the +blamed country and never come a-near it agin.  Them's the very words.  I +says look at my hatÂif you call it a hatÂbut the lid raises up and the +rest of it goes down till it's below my chin, and then it ain't rightly +a hat at all, but more like my head was shoved up through a jint o' +stove-pipe.  Look at it, says IÂsuch a hat for me to wearÂone of the +wealthiest men in this town if I could git my rights. + +"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful.  Why, looky here. +There was a free nigger there from OhioÂa mulatter, most as white as +a white man.  He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the +shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine +clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a +silver-headed caneÂthe awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State.  And +what do you think?  They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could +talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything.  And that ain't the +wust. They said he could vote when he was at home.  Well, that let me +out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to?  It was 'lection day, +and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get +there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where +they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out.  I says I'll never vote agin. + Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may +rot for all meÂI'll never vote agin as long as I live.  And to see the +cool way of that niggerÂwhy, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't +shoved him out o' the way.  I says to the people, why ain't this nigger +put up at auction and sold?Âthat's what I want to know.  And what do you +reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in +the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet.  There, +nowÂthat's a specimen.  They call that a govment that can't sell a free +nigger till he's been in the State six months.  Here's a govment that +calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a +govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before +it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free +nigger, andÂ" + +Pap was agoing on so he never noticed where his old limber legs was +taking him to, so he went head over heels over the tub of salt pork and +barked both shins, and the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind +of languageÂmostly hove at the nigger and the govment, though he give +the tub some, too, all along, here and there.  He hopped around the +cabin considerable, first on one leg and then on the other, holding +first one shin and then the other one, and at last he let out with his +left foot all of a sudden and fetched the tub a rattling kick.  But it +warn't good judgment, because that was the boot that had a couple of his +toes leaking out of the front end of it; so now he raised a howl that +fairly made a body's hair raise, and down he went in the dirt, and +rolled there, and held his toes; and the cussing he done then laid over +anything he had ever done previous.  He said so his own self afterwards. + He had heard old Sowberry Hagan in his best days, and he said it laid +over him, too; but I reckon that was sort of piling it on, maybe. + +After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there +for two drunks and one delirium tremens.  That was always his word.  I +judged he would be blind drunk in about an hour, and then I would steal +the key, or saw myself out, one or t'other.  He drank and drank, and +tumbled down on his blankets by and by; but luck didn't run my way. + He didn't go sound asleep, but was uneasy.  He groaned and moaned and +thrashed around this way and that for a long time.  At last I got so +sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes open all I could do, and so before I +knowed what I was about I was sound asleep, and the candle burning. + +I don't know how long I was asleep, but all of a sudden there was an +awful scream and I was up.  There was pap looking wild, and skipping +around every which way and yelling about snakes.  He said they was +crawling up his legs; and then he would give a jump and scream, and say +one had bit him on the cheekÂbut I couldn't see no snakes.  He started +and run round and round the cabin, hollering "Take him off! take him +off! he's biting me on the neck!"  I never see a man look so wild in the +eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out, and fell down panting; then he +rolled over and over wonderful fast, kicking things every which way, +and striking and grabbing at the air with his hands, and screaming and +saying there was devils a-hold of him.  He wore out by and by, and laid +still a while, moaning.  Then he laid stiller, and didn't make a sound. + I could hear the owls and the wolves away off in the woods, and it +seemed terrible still.  He was laying over by the corner. By and by he +raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.  He says, +very low: + +"TrampÂtrampÂtramp; that's the dead; trampÂtrampÂtramp; they're coming +after me; but I won't go.  Oh, they're here! don't touch meÂdon't! hands +offÂthey're cold; let go.  Oh, let a poor devil alone!" + +Then he went down on all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him +alone, and he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed in under the +old pine table, still a-begging; and then he went to crying.  I could +hear him through the blanket. + +By and by he rolled out and jumped up on his feet looking wild, and he +see me and went for me.  He chased me round and round the place with a +clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death, and saying he would kill me, +and then I couldn't come for him no more.  I begged, and told him I +was only Huck; but he laughed such a screechy laugh, and roared and +cussed, and kept on chasing me up.  Once when I turned short and +dodged under his arm he made a grab and got me by the jacket between my +shoulders, and I thought I was gone; but I slid out of the jacket quick +as lightning, and saved myself. Pretty soon he was all tired out, and +dropped down with his back against the door, and said he would rest a +minute and then kill me. He put his knife under him, and said he would +sleep and get strong, and then he would see who was who. + +So he dozed off pretty soon.  By and by I got the old split-bottom chair +and clumb up as easy as I could, not to make any noise, and got down the +gun.  I slipped the ramrod down it to make sure it was loaded, then I +laid it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards pap, and set down +behind it to wait for him to stir.  And how slow and still the time did +drag along. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"GIT up!  What you 'bout?" + +I opened my eyes and looked around, trying to make out where I was.  It +was after sun-up, and I had been sound asleep.  Pap was standing over me +looking sour and sick, too.  He says: + +"What you doin' with this gun?" + +I judged he didn't know nothing about what he had been doing, so I says: + +"Somebody tried to get in, so I was laying for him." + +"Why didn't you roust me out?" + +"Well, I tried to, but I couldn't; I couldn't budge you." + +"Well, all right.  Don't stand there palavering all day, but out with +you and see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.  I'll be along +in a minute." + +He unlocked the door, and I cleared out up the river-bank.  I noticed +some pieces of limbs and such things floating down, and a sprinkling of +bark; so I knowed the river had begun to rise.  I reckoned I would have +great times now if I was over at the town.  The June rise used to be +always luck for me; because as soon as that rise begins here comes +cordwood floating down, and pieces of log raftsÂsometimes a dozen logs +together; so all you have to do is to catch them and sell them to the +wood-yards and the sawmill. + +I went along up the bank with one eye out for pap and t'other one out +for what the rise might fetch along.  Well, all at once here comes a +canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding +high like a duck.  I shot head-first off of the bank like a frog, +clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.  I just expected +there'd be somebody laying down in it, because people often done that +to fool folks, and when a chap had pulled a skiff out most to it they'd +raise up and laugh at him.  But it warn't so this time.  It was a +drift-canoe sure enough, and I clumb in and paddled her ashore.  Thinks +I, the old man will be glad when he sees thisÂshe's worth ten dollars. + But when I got to shore pap wasn't in sight yet, and as I was running +her into a little creek like a gully, all hung over with vines and +willows, I struck another idea:  I judged I'd hide her good, and then, +'stead of taking to the woods when I run off, I'd go down the river +about fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a +rough time tramping on foot. + +It was pretty close to the shanty, and I thought I heard the old man +coming all the time; but I got her hid; and then I out and looked around +a bunch of willows, and there was the old man down the path a piece just +drawing a bead on a bird with his gun.  So he hadn't seen anything. + +When he got along I was hard at it taking up a "trot" line.  He abused +me a little for being so slow; but I told him I fell in the river, and +that was what made me so long.  I knowed he would see I was wet, and +then he would be asking questions.  We got five catfish off the lines +and went home. + +While we laid off after breakfast to sleep up, both of us being about +wore out, I got to thinking that if I could fix up some way to keep pap +and the widow from trying to follow me, it would be a certainer thing +than trusting to luck to get far enough off before they missed me; you +see, all kinds of things might happen.  Well, I didn't see no way for a +while, but by and by pap raised up a minute to drink another barrel of +water, and he says: + +"Another time a man comes a-prowling round here you roust me out, you +hear? That man warn't here for no good.  I'd a shot him.  Next time you +roust me out, you hear?" + +Then he dropped down and went to sleep again; but what he had been +saying give me the very idea I wanted.  I says to myself, I can fix it +now so nobody won't think of following me. + +About twelve o'clock we turned out and went along up the bank.  The +river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of driftwood going by on the +rise. By and by along comes part of a log raftÂnine logs fast together. + We went out with the skiff and towed it ashore.  Then we had dinner. +Anybody but pap would a waited and seen the day through, so as to catch +more stuff; but that warn't pap's style.  Nine logs was enough for one +time; he must shove right over to town and sell.  So he locked me in and +took the skiff, and started off towing the raft about half-past three. + I judged he wouldn't come back that night.  I waited till I reckoned he +had got a good start; then I out with my saw, and went to work on that +log again.  Before he was t'other side of the river I was out of the +hole; him and his raft was just a speck on the water away off yonder. + +I took the sack of corn meal and took it to where the canoe was hid, and +shoved the vines and branches apart and put it in; then I done the same +with the side of bacon; then the whisky-jug.  I took all the coffee and +sugar there was, and all the ammunition; I took the wadding; I took the +bucket and gourd; I took a dipper and a tin cup, and my old saw and two +blankets, and the skillet and the coffee-pot.  I took fish-lines and +matches and other thingsÂeverything that was worth a cent.  I cleaned +out the place.  I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out +at the woodpile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that.  I fetched +out the gun, and now I was done. + +I had wore the ground a good deal crawling out of the hole and dragging +out so many things.  So I fixed that as good as I could from the outside +by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the smoothness and the +sawdust.  Then I fixed the piece of log back into its place, and put two +rocks under it and one against it to hold it there, for it was bent up +at that place and didn't quite touch ground.  If you stood four or five +foot away and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice +it; and besides, this was the back of the cabin, and it warn't likely +anybody would go fooling around there. + +It was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't left a track.  I +followed around to see.  I stood on the bank and looked out over the +river.  All safe.  So I took the gun and went up a piece into the woods, +and was hunting around for some birds when I see a wild pig; hogs soon +went wild in them bottoms after they had got away from the prairie +farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp. + +I took the axe and smashed in the door.  I beat it and hacked it +considerable a-doing it.  I fetched the pig in, and took him back nearly +to the table and hacked into his throat with the axe, and laid him down +on the ground to bleed; I say ground because it was groundÂhard packed, +and no boards.  Well, next I took an old sack and put a lot of big rocks +in itÂall I could dragÂand I started it from the pig, and dragged it to +the door and through the woods down to the river and dumped it in, and +down it sunk, out of sight.  You could easy see that something had been +dragged over the ground.  I did wish Tom Sawyer was there; I knowed he +would take an interest in this kind of business, and throw in the fancy +touches.  Nobody could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing as +that. + +Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded the axe good, and +stuck it on the back side, and slung the axe in the corner.  Then I +took up the pig and held him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't +drip) till I got a good piece below the house and then dumped him into +the river.  Now I thought of something else.  So I went and got the bag +of meal and my old saw out of the canoe, and fetched them to the house. + I took the bag to where it used to stand, and ripped a hole in the +bottom of it with the saw, for there warn't no knives and forks on the +placeÂpap done everything with his clasp-knife about the cooking.  Then +I carried the sack about a hundred yards across the grass and through +the willows east of the house, to a shallow lake that was five mile wide +and full of rushesÂand ducks too, you might say, in the season.  There +was a slough or a creek leading out of it on the other side that went +miles away, I don't know where, but it didn't go to the river.  The meal +sifted out and made a little track all the way to the lake.  I dropped +pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by +accident. Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack with a string, so it +wouldn't leak no more, and took it and my saw to the canoe again. + +It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some +willows that hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise.  I +made fast to a willow; then I took a bite to eat, and by and by laid +down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan.  I says to myself, +they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then +drag the river for me.  And they'll follow that meal track to the lake +and go browsing down the creek that leads out of it to find the robbers +that killed me and took the things.  They won't ever hunt the river for +anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that, and won't +bother no more about me.  All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. +Jackson's Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, +and nobody ever comes there.  And then I can paddle over to town nights, +and slink around and pick up things I want. Jackson's Island's the +place. + +I was pretty tired, and the first thing I knowed I was asleep.  When +I woke up I didn't know where I was for a minute.  I set up and looked +around, a little scared.  Then I remembered.  The river looked miles and +miles across.  The moon was so bright I could a counted the drift logs +that went a-slipping along, black and still, hundreds of yards out from +shore. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and smelt late. +You know what I meanÂI don't know the words to put it in. + +I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start +when I heard a sound away over the water.  I listened.  Pretty soon I +made it out.  It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from +oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.  I peeped out through +the willow branches, and there it wasÂa skiff, away across the water. + I couldn't tell how many was in it.  It kept a-coming, and when it was +abreast of me I see there warn't but one man in it.  Think's I, maybe +it's pap, though I warn't expecting him.  He dropped below me with the +current, and by and by he came a-swinging up shore in the easy water, +and he went by so close I could a reached out the gun and touched him. + Well, it was pap, sure enoughÂand sober, too, by the way he laid his +oars. + +I didn't lose no time.  The next minute I was a-spinning down stream +soft but quick in the shade of the bank.  I made two mile and a half, +and then struck out a quarter of a mile or more towards the middle of +the river, because pretty soon I would be passing the ferry landing, and +people might see me and hail me.  I got out amongst the driftwood, and +then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. + + I laid there, and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking +away into the sky; not a cloud in it.  The sky looks ever so deep when +you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. + And how far a body can hear on the water such nights!  I heard people +talking at the ferry landing. I heard what they said, tooÂevery word +of it.  One man said it was getting towards the long days and the short +nights now.  T'other one said this warn't one of the short ones, he +reckonedÂand then they laughed, and he said it over again, and they +laughed again; then they waked up another fellow and told him, and +laughed, but he didn't laugh; he ripped out something brisk, and said +let him alone.  The first fellow said he 'lowed to tell it to his +old womanÂshe would think it was pretty good; but he said that warn't +nothing to some things he had said in his time. I heard one man say it +was nearly three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than +about a week longer.  After that the talk got further and further away, +and I couldn't make out the words any more; but I could hear the mumble, +and now and then a laugh, too, but it seemed a long ways off. + +I was away below the ferry now.  I rose up, and there was Jackson's +Island, about two mile and a half down stream, heavy timbered and +standing up out of the middle of the river, big and dark and solid, like +a steamboat without any lights.  There warn't any signs of the bar at +the headÂit was all under water now. + +It didn't take me long to get there.  I shot past the head at a ripping +rate, the current was so swift, and then I got into the dead water and +landed on the side towards the Illinois shore.  I run the canoe into +a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow +branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe +from the outside. + +I went up and set down on a log at the head of the island, and looked +out on the big river and the black driftwood and away over to the town, +three mile away, where there was three or four lights twinkling.  A +monstrous big lumber-raft was about a mile up stream, coming along down, +with a lantern in the middle of it.  I watched it come creeping down, +and when it was most abreast of where I stood I heard a man say, "Stern +oars, there! heave her head to stabboard!"  I heard that just as plain +as if the man was by my side. + +There was a little gray in the sky now; so I stepped into the woods, and +laid down for a nap before breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight +o'clock.  I laid there in the grass and the cool shade thinking about +things, and feeling rested and ruther comfortable and satisfied.  I +could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees +all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.  There was freckled places +on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves, and the +freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little +breeze up there.  A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me +very friendly. + +I was powerful lazy and comfortableÂdidn't want to get up and cook +breakfast.  Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hears a deep +sound of "boom!" away up the river.  I rouses up, and rests on my elbow +and listens; pretty soon I hears it again.  I hopped up, and went and +looked out at a hole in the leaves, and I see a bunch of smoke laying +on the water a long ways upÂabout abreast the ferry.  And there was the +ferryboat full of people floating along down.  I knowed what was the +matter now.  "Boom!" I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's +side.  You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my +carcass come to the top. + +I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, +because they might see the smoke.  So I set there and watched the +cannon-smoke and listened to the boom.  The river was a mile wide there, +and it always looks pretty on a summer morningÂso I was having a good +enough time seeing them hunt for my remainders if I only had a bite to +eat. Well, then I happened to think how they always put quicksilver in +loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the +drownded carcass and stop there.  So, says I, I'll keep a lookout, and +if any of them's floating around after me I'll give them a show.  I +changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could +have, and I warn't disappointed.  A big double loaf come along, and I +most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and she floated out +further.  Of course I was where the current set in the closest to the +shoreÂI knowed enough for that.  But by and by along comes another one, +and this time I won.  I took out the plug and shook out the little dab +of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.  It was "baker's bread"Âwhat the +quality eat; none of your low-down corn-pone. + +I got a good place amongst the leaves, and set there on a log, munching +the bread and watching the ferry-boat, and very well satisfied.  And +then something struck me.  I says, now I reckon the widow or the parson +or somebody prayed that this bread would find me, and here it has gone +and done it.  So there ain't no doubt but there is something in that +thingÂthat is, there's something in it when a body like the widow or the +parson prays, but it don't work for me, and I reckon it don't work for +only just the right kind. + +I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.  The +ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed I'd have a chance +to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in +close, where the bread did.  When she'd got pretty well along down +towards me, I put out my pipe and went to where I fished out the bread, +and laid down behind a log on the bank in a little open place.  Where +the log forked I could peep through. + +By and by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could +a run out a plank and walked ashore.  Most everybody was on the boat. + Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Jo Harper, and Tom +Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more. + Everybody was talking about the murder, but the captain broke in and +says: + +"Look sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's +washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.  I +hope so, anyway." + +I didn't hope so.  They all crowded up and leaned over the rails, nearly +in my face, and kept still, watching with all their might.  I could see +them first-rate, but they couldn't see me.  Then the captain sung out: + +"Stand away!" and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that +it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and +I judged I was gone.  If they'd a had some bullets in, I reckon they'd +a got the corpse they was after.  Well, I see I warn't hurt, thanks to +goodness. The boat floated on and went out of sight around the shoulder +of the island.  I could hear the booming now and then, further and +further off, and by and by, after an hour, I didn't hear it no more. + The island was three mile long.  I judged they had got to the foot, and +was giving it up.  But they didn't yet a while.  They turned around +the foot of the island and started up the channel on the Missouri side, +under steam, and booming once in a while as they went.  I crossed over +to that side and watched them. When they got abreast the head of the +island they quit shooting and dropped over to the Missouri shore and +went home to the town. + +I knowed I was all rig
<TRUNCATED>
