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Posted to commits@teaclave.apache.org by rd...@apache.org on 2023/05/21 13:44:17 UTC
[incubator-teaclave-sgx-sdk] branch v2.0.0-preview updated: Remove unused files in libbacktrace
This is an automated email from the ASF dual-hosted git repository.
rduan pushed a commit to branch v2.0.0-preview
in repository https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-teaclave-sgx-sdk.git
The following commit(s) were added to refs/heads/v2.0.0-preview by this push:
new 68f29a74 Remove unused files in libbacktrace
68f29a74 is described below
commit 68f29a74a151dced4553a26286db5b7c899668b2
Author: volcano0dr <vo...@163.com>
AuthorDate: Sun May 21 21:42:58 2023 +0800
Remove unused files in libbacktrace
Signed-off-by: volcano0dr <vo...@163.com>
---
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Makefile.in | 1021 --
.../libbacktrace/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt | 8465 -----------
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/acinclude.m4 | 72 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/aclocal.m4 | 767 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/btest.c | 473 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/config.guess | 1530 --
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/config.sub | 1794 ---
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/configure | 14361 -------------------
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/configure.ac | 512 -
sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/e.am | 206 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/edtest.c | 119 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/edtest2.c | 43 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/filetype.awk | 11 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/install-sh | 527 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/ltmain.sh | 7874 ----------
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/missing | 331 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/simple.c | 106 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/stest.c | 136 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/testlib.c | 224 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/testlib.h | 106 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/ttest.c | 155 -
.../sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/ztest.c | 504 -
22 files changed, 39337 deletions(-)
diff --git a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Makefile.in b/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Makefile.in
deleted file mode 100644
index 498f7fb0..00000000
--- a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Makefile.in
+++ /dev/null
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diff --git a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt b/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index c9106fd5..00000000
--- a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8465 +0,0 @@
-Produced by David Widger. The previous edition was updated by Jose
-Menendez.
-
-
-
-
-
- THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
- BY
- MARK TWAIN
- (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
-
-
-
-
- P R E F A C E
-
-MOST of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or
-two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were
-schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but
-not from an individual--he is a combination of the characteristics of
-three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of
-architecture.
-
-The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children
-and slaves in the West at the period of this story--that is to say,
-thirty or forty years ago.
-
-Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and
-girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,
-for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what
-they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked,
-and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
-
- THE AUTHOR.
-
-HARTFORD, 1876.
-
-
-
- T O M S A W Y E R
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-"TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-"TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the
-room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or
-never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her
-state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not
-service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.
-She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but
-still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
-
-"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll--"
-
-She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching
-under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the
-punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
-
-"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
-
-She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the
-tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom.
-So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and
-shouted:
-
-"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
-
-There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to
-seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
-
-"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in
-there?"
-
-"Nothing."
-
-"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that
-truck?"
-
-"I don't know, aunt."
-
-"Well, I know. It's jam--that's what it is. Forty times I've said if
-you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."
-
-The switch hovered in the air--the peril was desperate--
-
-"My! Look behind you, aunt!"
-
-The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The
-lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and
-disappeared over it.
-
-His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle
-laugh.
-
-"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks
-enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old
-fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks,
-as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days,
-and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how
-long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he
-can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down
-again and I can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy,
-and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile
-the child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for
-us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my
-own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash
-him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so,
-and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man
-that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the
-Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, *
-and [* Southwestern for "afternoon"] I'll just be obleeged to make him
-work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work
-Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more
-than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my duty by him,
-or I'll be the ruination of the child."
-
-Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home
-barely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's
-wood and split the kindlings before supper--at least he was there in
-time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the
-work. Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already
-through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a
-quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
-
-While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity
-offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and
-very deep--for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
-many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she
-was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she
-loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low
-cunning. Said she:
-
-"Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn't it?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-"Powerful warm, warn't it?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-"Didn't you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?"
-
-A bit of a scare shot through Tom--a touch of uncomfortable suspicion.
-He searched Aunt Polly's face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
-
-"No'm--well, not very much."
-
-The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's shirt, and said:
-
-"But you ain't too warm now, though." And it flattered her to reflect
-that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing
-that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew
-where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
-
-"Some of us pumped on our heads--mine's damp yet. See?"
-
-Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of
-circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new
-inspiration:
-
-"Tom, you didn't have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to
-pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!"
-
-The trouble vanished out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket. His
-shirt collar was securely sewed.
-
-"Bother! Well, go 'long with you. I'd made sure you'd played hookey
-and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you're a kind of a
-singed cat, as the saying is--better'n you look. THIS time."
-
-She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom
-had stumbled into obedient conduct for once.
-
-But Sidney said:
-
-"Well, now, if I didn't think you sewed his collar with white thread,
-but it's black."
-
-"Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!"
-
-But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
-
-"Siddy, I'll lick you for that."
-
-In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into
-the lapels of his jacket, and had thread bound about them--one needle
-carried white thread and the other black. He said:
-
-"She'd never noticed if it hadn't been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes
-she sews it with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to
-geeminy she'd stick to one or t'other--I can't keep the run of 'em. But
-I bet you I'll lam Sid for that. I'll learn him!"
-
-He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very
-well though--and loathed him.
-
-Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles.
-Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him
-than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore
-them down and drove them out of his mind for the time--just as men's
-misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises. This
-new interest was a valued novelty in whistling, which he had just
-acquired from a negro, and he was suffering to practise it undisturbed.
-It consisted in a peculiar bird-like turn, a sort of liquid warble,
-produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short
-intervals in the midst of the music--the reader probably remembers how
-to do it, if he has ever been a boy. Diligence and attention soon gave
-him the knack of it, and he strode down the street with his mouth full
-of harmony and his soul full of gratitude. He felt much as an
-astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet--no doubt, as far as
-strong, deep, unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with
-the boy, not the astronomer.
-
-The summer evenings were long. It was not dark, yet. Presently Tom
-checked his whistle. A stranger was before him--a boy a shade larger
-than himself. A new-comer of any age or either sex was an impressive
-curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg. This boy
-was well dressed, too--well dressed on a week-day. This was simply
-astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth
-roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes
-on--and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bit of
-ribbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The
-more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he turned up his
-nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed
-to him to grow. Neither boy spoke. If one moved, the other moved--but
-only sidewise, in a circle; they kept face to face and eye to eye all
-the time. Finally Tom said:
-
-"I can lick you!"
-
-"I'd like to see you try it."
-
-"Well, I can do it."
-
-"No you can't, either."
-
-"Yes I can."
-
-"No you can't."
-
-"I can."
-
-"You can't."
-
-"Can!"
-
-"Can't!"
-
-An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
-
-"What's your name?"
-
-"'Tisn't any of your business, maybe."
-
-"Well I 'low I'll MAKE it my business."
-
-"Well why don't you?"
-
-"If you say much, I will."
-
-"Much--much--MUCH. There now."
-
-"Oh, you think you're mighty smart, DON'T you? I could lick you with
-one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to."
-
-"Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it."
-
-"Well I WILL, if you fool with me."
-
-"Oh yes--I've seen whole families in the same fix."
-
-"Smarty! You think you're SOME, now, DON'T you? Oh, what a hat!"
-
-"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it
-off--and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."
-
-"You're a liar!"
-
-"You're another."
-
-"You're a fighting liar and dasn't take it up."
-
-"Aw--take a walk!"
-
-"Say--if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a
-rock off'n your head."
-
-"Oh, of COURSE you will."
-
-"Well I WILL."
-
-"Well why don't you DO it then? What do you keep SAYING you will for?
-Why don't you DO it? It's because you're afraid."
-
-"I AIN'T afraid."
-
-"You are."
-
-"I ain't."
-
-"You are."
-
-Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other. Presently
-they were shoulder to shoulder. Tom said:
-
-"Get away from here!"
-
-"Go away yourself!"
-
-"I won't."
-
-"I won't either."
-
-So they stood, each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace, and
-both shoving with might and main, and glowering at each other with
-hate. But neither could get an advantage. After struggling till both
-were hot and flushed, each relaxed his strain with watchful caution,
-and Tom said:
-
-"You're a coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he
-can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make him do it, too."
-
-"What do I care for your big brother? I've got a brother that's bigger
-than he is--and what's more, he can throw him over that fence, too."
-[Both brothers were imaginary.]
-
-"That's a lie."
-
-"YOUR saying so don't make it so."
-
-Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe, and said:
-
-"I dare you to step over that, and I'll lick you till you can't stand
-up. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep."
-
-The new boy stepped over promptly, and said:
-
-"Now you said you'd do it, now let's see you do it."
-
-"Don't you crowd me now; you better look out."
-
-"Well, you SAID you'd do it--why don't you do it?"
-
-"By jingo! for two cents I WILL do it."
-
-The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out
-with derision. Tom struck them to the ground. In an instant both boys
-were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats; and
-for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each other's hair and
-clothes, punched and scratched each other's nose, and covered
-themselves with dust and glory. Presently the confusion took form, and
-through the fog of battle Tom appeared, seated astride the new boy, and
-pounding him with his fists. "Holler 'nuff!" said he.
-
-The boy only struggled to free himself. He was crying--mainly from rage.
-
-"Holler 'nuff!"--and the pounding went on.
-
-At last the stranger got out a smothered "'Nuff!" and Tom let him up
-and said:
-
-"Now that'll learn you. Better look out who you're fooling with next
-time."
-
-The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, sobbing,
-snuffling, and occasionally looking back and shaking his head and
-threatening what he would do to Tom the "next time he caught him out."
-To which Tom responded with jeers, and started off in high feather, and
-as soon as his back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone, threw
-it and hit him between the shoulders and then turned tail and ran like
-an antelope. Tom chased the traitor home, and thus found out where he
-lived. He then held a position at the gate for some time, daring the
-enemy to come outside, but the enemy only made faces at him through the
-window and declined. At last the enemy's mother appeared, and called
-Tom a bad, vicious, vulgar child, and ordered him away. So he went
-away; but he said he "'lowed" to "lay" for that boy.
-
-He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in
-at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt;
-and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn
-his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in
-its firmness.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-SATURDAY morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and
-fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if
-the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in
-every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom
-and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond
-the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far
-enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.
-
-Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a
-long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and
-a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board
-fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a
-burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost
-plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant
-whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed
-fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at
-the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from
-the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but
-now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at
-the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there
-waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling,
-fighting, skylarking. And he remembered that although the pump was only
-a hundred and fifty yards off, Jim never got back with a bucket of
-water under an hour--and even then somebody generally had to go after
-him. Tom said:
-
-"Say, Jim, I'll fetch the water if you'll whitewash some."
-
-Jim shook his head and said:
-
-"Can't, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an' git dis
-water an' not stop foolin' roun' wid anybody. She say she spec' Mars
-Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an' so she tole me go 'long an' 'tend
-to my own business--she 'lowed SHE'D 'tend to de whitewashin'."
-
-"Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That's the way she always
-talks. Gimme the bucket--I won't be gone only a a minute. SHE won't
-ever know."
-
-"Oh, I dasn't, Mars Tom. Ole missis she'd take an' tar de head off'n
-me. 'Deed she would."
-
-"SHE! She never licks anybody--whacks 'em over the head with her
-thimble--and who cares for that, I'd like to know. She talks awful, but
-talk don't hurt--anyways it don't if she don't cry. Jim, I'll give you
-a marvel. I'll give you a white alley!"
-
-Jim began to waver.
-
-"White alley, Jim! And it's a bully taw."
-
-"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I's powerful
-'fraid ole missis--"
-
-"And besides, if you will I'll show you my sore toe."
-
-Jim was only human--this attraction was too much for him. He put down
-his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing
-interest while the bandage was being unwound. In another moment he was
-flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was
-whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field
-with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye.
-
-But Tom's energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had
-planned for this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys
-would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and
-they would make a world of fun of him for having to work--the very
-thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and
-examined it--bits of toys, marbles, and trash; enough to buy an
-exchange of WORK, maybe, but not half enough to buy so much as half an
-hour of pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his
-pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At this dark
-and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a
-great, magnificent inspiration.
-
-He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in
-sight presently--the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been
-dreading. Ben's gait was the hop-skip-and-jump--proof enough that his
-heart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and
-giving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned
-ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. As
-he drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned
-far over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious
-pomp and circumstance--for he was personating the Big Missouri, and
-considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat and
-captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself
-standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:
-
-"Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!" The headway ran almost out, and he
-drew up slowly toward the sidewalk.
-
-"Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!" His arms straightened and
-stiffened down his sides.
-
-"Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow!
-Chow!" His right hand, meantime, describing stately circles--for it was
-representing a forty-foot wheel.
-
-"Let her go back on the labboard! Ting-a-lingling! Chow-ch-chow-chow!"
-The left hand began to describe circles.
-
-"Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead
-on the stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow!
-Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! LIVELY now!
-Come--out with your spring-line--what're you about there! Take a turn
-round that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now--let her
-go! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! SH'T! S'H'T! SH'T!"
-(trying the gauge-cocks).
-
-Tom went on whitewashing--paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben
-stared a moment and then said: "Hi-YI! YOU'RE up a stump, ain't you!"
-
-No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then
-he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as
-before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the
-apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:
-
-"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
-
-Tom wheeled suddenly and said:
-
-"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
-
-"Say--I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
-course you'd druther WORK--wouldn't you? Course you would!"
-
-Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
-
-"What do you call work?"
-
-"Why, ain't THAT work?"
-
-Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
-
-"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom
-Sawyer."
-
-"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you LIKE it?"
-
-The brush continued to move.
-
-"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get
-a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
-
-That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
-swept his brush daintily back and forth--stepped back to note the
-effect--added a touch here and there--criticised the effect again--Ben
-watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
-absorbed. Presently he said:
-
-"Say, Tom, let ME whitewash a little."
-
-Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:
-
-"No--no--I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's
-awful particular about this fence--right here on the street, you know
---but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and SHE wouldn't. Yes,
-she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very
-careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two
-thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."
-
-"No--is that so? Oh come, now--lemme just try. Only just a little--I'd
-let YOU, if you was me, Tom."
-
-"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to
-do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't
-let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this
-fence and anything was to happen to it--"
-
-"Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give
-you the core of my apple."
-
-"Well, here--No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard--"
-
-"I'll give you ALL of it!"
-
-Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his
-heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in
-the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by,
-dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more
-innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every
-little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time
-Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for
-a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in
-for a dead rat and a string to swing it with--and so on, and so on,
-hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being
-a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling
-in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles,
-part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a
-spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk,
-a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six
-fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a
-dog-collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife, four pieces of
-orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.
-
-He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while--plenty of company
---and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out
-of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.
-
-Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He
-had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely,
-that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only
-necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great
-and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have
-comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do,
-and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And
-this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers
-or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or
-climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in
-England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles
-on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them
-considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service,
-that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
-
-The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place
-in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to
-report.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-TOM presented himself before Aunt Polly, who was sitting by an open
-window in a pleasant rearward apartment, which was bedroom,
-breakfast-room, dining-room, and library, combined. The balmy summer
-air, the restful quiet, the odor of the flowers, and the drowsing murmur
-of the bees had had their effect, and she was nodding over her knitting
---for she had no company but the cat, and it was asleep in her lap. Her
-spectacles were propped up on her gray head for safety. She had thought
-that of course Tom had deserted long ago, and she wondered at seeing him
-place himself in her power again in this intrepid way. He said: "Mayn't
-I go and play now, aunt?"
-
-"What, a'ready? How much have you done?"
-
-"It's all done, aunt."
-
-"Tom, don't lie to me--I can't bear it."
-
-"I ain't, aunt; it IS all done."
-
-Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see
-for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent.
-of Tom's statement true. When she found the entire fence whitewashed,
-and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even
-a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.
-She said:
-
-"Well, I never! There's no getting round it, you can work when you're
-a mind to, Tom." And then she diluted the compliment by adding, "But
-it's powerful seldom you're a mind to, I'm bound to say. Well, go 'long
-and play; but mind you get back some time in a week, or I'll tan you."
-
-She was so overcome by the splendor of his achievement that she took
-him into the closet and selected a choice apple and delivered it to
-him, along with an improving lecture upon the added value and flavor a
-treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort.
-And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, he "hooked" a
-doughnut.
-
-Then he skipped out, and saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway
-that led to the back rooms on the second floor. Clods were handy and
-the air was full of them in a twinkling. They raged around Sid like a
-hail-storm; and before Aunt Polly could collect her surprised faculties
-and sally to the rescue, six or seven clods had taken personal effect,
-and Tom was over the fence and gone. There was a gate, but as a general
-thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it. His soul was at
-peace, now that he had settled with Sid for calling attention to his
-black thread and getting him into trouble.
-
-Tom skirted the block, and came round into a muddy alley that led by
-the back of his aunt's cow-stable. He presently got safely beyond the
-reach of capture and punishment, and hastened toward the public square
-of the village, where two "military" companies of boys had met for
-conflict, according to previous appointment. Tom was General of one of
-these armies, Joe Harper (a bosom friend) General of the other. These
-two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person--that being
-better suited to the still smaller fry--but sat together on an eminence
-and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through
-aides-de-camp. Tom's army won a great victory, after a long and
-hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged,
-the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the
-necessary battle appointed; after which the armies fell into line and
-marched away, and Tom turned homeward alone.
-
-As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new
-girl in the garden--a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair
-plaited into two long-tails, white summer frock and embroidered
-pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot. A
-certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a
-memory of herself behind. He had thought he loved her to distraction;
-he had regarded his passion as adoration; and behold it was only a poor
-little evanescent partiality. He had been months winning her; she had
-confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest
-boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant of time
-she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is
-done.
-
-He worshipped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she
-had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present,
-and began to "show off" in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to
-win her admiration. He kept up this grotesque foolishness for some
-time; but by-and-by, while he was in the midst of some dangerous
-gymnastic performances, he glanced aside and saw that the little girl
-was wending her way toward the house. Tom came up to the fence and
-leaned on it, grieving, and hoping she would tarry yet awhile longer.
-She halted a moment on the steps and then moved toward the door. Tom
-heaved a great sigh as she put her foot on the threshold. But his face
-lit up, right away, for she tossed a pansy over the fence a moment
-before she disappeared.
-
-The boy ran around and stopped within a foot or two of the flower, and
-then shaded his eyes with his hand and began to look down street as if
-he had discovered something of interest going on in that direction.
-Presently he picked up a straw and began trying to balance it on his
-nose, with his head tilted far back; and as he moved from side to side,
-in his efforts, he edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy; finally
-his bare foot rested upon it, his pliant toes closed upon it, and he
-hopped away with the treasure and disappeared round the corner. But
-only for a minute--only while he could button the flower inside his
-jacket, next his heart--or next his stomach, possibly, for he was not
-much posted in anatomy, and not hypercritical, anyway.
-
-He returned, now, and hung about the fence till nightfall, "showing
-off," as before; but the girl never exhibited herself again, though Tom
-comforted himself a little with the hope that she had been near some
-window, meantime, and been aware of his attentions. Finally he strode
-home reluctantly, with his poor head full of visions.
-
-All through supper his spirits were so high that his aunt wondered
-"what had got into the child." He took a good scolding about clodding
-Sid, and did not seem to mind it in the least. He tried to steal sugar
-under his aunt's very nose, and got his knuckles rapped for it. He said:
-
-"Aunt, you don't whack Sid when he takes it."
-
-"Well, Sid don't torment a body the way you do. You'd be always into
-that sugar if I warn't watching you."
-
-Presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his
-immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl--a sort of glorying over Tom which
-was wellnigh unbearable. But Sid's fingers slipped and the bowl dropped
-and broke. Tom was in ecstasies. In such ecstasies that he even
-controlled his tongue and was silent. He said to himself that he would
-not speak a word, even when his aunt came in, but would sit perfectly
-still till she asked who did the mischief; and then he would tell, and
-there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model
-"catch it." He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold
-himself when the old lady came back and stood above the wreck
-discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles. He said to
-himself, "Now it's coming!" And the next instant he was sprawling on
-the floor! The potent palm was uplifted to strike again when Tom cried
-out:
-
-"Hold on, now, what 'er you belting ME for?--Sid broke it!"
-
-Aunt Polly paused, perplexed, and Tom looked for healing pity. But
-when she got her tongue again, she only said:
-
-"Umf! Well, you didn't get a lick amiss, I reckon. You been into some
-other audacious mischief when I wasn't around, like enough."
-
-Then her conscience reproached her, and she yearned to say something
-kind and loving; but she judged that this would be construed into a
-confession that she had been in the wrong, and discipline forbade that.
-So she kept silence, and went about her affairs with a troubled heart.
-Tom sulked in a corner and exalted his woes. He knew that in her heart
-his aunt was on her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the
-consciousness of it. He would hang out no signals, he would take notice
-of none. He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him, now and then,
-through a film of tears, but he refused recognition of it. He pictured
-himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him beseeching
-one little forgiving word, but he would turn his face to the wall, and
-die with that word unsaid. Ah, how would she feel then? And he pictured
-himself brought home from the river, dead, with his curls all wet, and
-his sore heart at rest. How she would throw herself upon him, and how
-her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back
-her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more! But he would lie
-there cold and white and make no sign--a poor little sufferer, whose
-griefs were at an end. He so worked upon his feelings with the pathos
-of these dreams, that he had to keep swallowing, he was so like to
-choke; and his eyes swam in a blur of water, which overflowed when he
-winked, and ran down and trickled from the end of his nose. And such a
-luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows, that he could not bear
-to have any worldly cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it;
-it was too sacred for such contact; and so, presently, when his cousin
-Mary danced in, all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an
-age-long visit of one week to the country, he got up and moved in
-clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in
-at the other.
-
-He wandered far from the accustomed haunts of boys, and sought
-desolate places that were in harmony with his spirit. A log raft in the
-river invited him, and he seated himself on its outer edge and
-contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream, wishing, the while,
-that he could only be drowned, all at once and unconsciously, without
-undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by nature. Then he thought
-of his flower. He got it out, rumpled and wilted, and it mightily
-increased his dismal felicity. He wondered if she would pity him if she
-knew? Would she cry, and wish that she had a right to put her arms
-around his neck and comfort him? Or would she turn coldly away like all
-the hollow world? This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable
-suffering that he worked it over and over again in his mind and set it
-up in new and varied lights, till he wore it threadbare. At last he
-rose up sighing and departed in the darkness.
-
-About half-past nine or ten o'clock he came along the deserted street
-to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; no sound fell
-upon his listening ear; a candle was casting a dull glow upon the
-curtain of a second-story window. Was the sacred presence there? He
-climbed the fence, threaded his stealthy way through the plants, till
-he stood under that window; he looked up at it long, and with emotion;
-then he laid him down on the ground under it, disposing himself upon
-his back, with his hands clasped upon his breast and holding his poor
-wilted flower. And thus he would die--out in the cold world, with no
-shelter over his homeless head, no friendly hand to wipe the
-death-damps from his brow, no loving face to bend pityingly over him
-when the great agony came. And thus SHE would see him when she looked
-out upon the glad morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon
-his poor, lifeless form, would she heave one little sigh to see a bright
-young life so rudely blighted, so untimely cut down?
-
-The window went up, a maid-servant's discordant voice profaned the
-holy calm, and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyr's remains!
-
-The strangling hero sprang up with a relieving snort. There was a whiz
-as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, a sound
-as of shivering glass followed, and a small, vague form went over the
-fence and shot away in the gloom.
-
-Not long after, as Tom, all undressed for bed, was surveying his
-drenched garments by the light of a tallow dip, Sid woke up; but if he
-had any dim idea of making any "references to allusions," he thought
-better of it and held his peace, for there was danger in Tom's eye.
-
-Tom turned in without the added vexation of prayers, and Sid made
-mental note of the omission.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-THE sun rose upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the peaceful
-village like a benediction. Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had family
-worship: it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid
-courses of Scriptural quotations, welded together with a thin mortar of
-originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter
-of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai.
-
-Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to "get
-his verses." Sid had learned his lesson days before. Tom bent all his
-energies to the memorizing of five verses, and he chose part of the
-Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were shorter.
-At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson,
-but no more, for his mind was traversing the whole field of human
-thought, and his hands were busy with distracting recreations. Mary
-took his book to hear him recite, and he tried to find his way through
-the fog:
-
-"Blessed are the--a--a--"
-
-"Poor"--
-
-"Yes--poor; blessed are the poor--a--a--"
-
-"In spirit--"
-
-"In spirit; blessed are the poor in spirit, for they--they--"
-
-"THEIRS--"
-
-"For THEIRS. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
-of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they--they--"
-
-"Sh--"
-
-"For they--a--"
-
-"S, H, A--"
-
-"For they S, H--Oh, I don't know what it is!"
-
-"SHALL!"
-
-"Oh, SHALL! for they shall--for they shall--a--a--shall mourn--a--a--
-blessed are they that shall--they that--a--they that shall mourn, for
-they shall--a--shall WHAT? Why don't you tell me, Mary?--what do you
-want to be so mean for?"
-
-"Oh, Tom, you poor thick-headed thing, I'm not teasing you. I wouldn't
-do that. You must go and learn it again. Don't you be discouraged, Tom,
-you'll manage it--and if you do, I'll give you something ever so nice.
-There, now, that's a good boy."
-
-"All right! What is it, Mary, tell me what it is."
-
-"Never you mind, Tom. You know if I say it's nice, it is nice."
-
-"You bet you that's so, Mary. All right, I'll tackle it again."
-
-And he did "tackle it again"--and under the double pressure of
-curiosity and prospective gain he did it with such spirit that he
-accomplished a shining success. Mary gave him a brand-new "Barlow"
-knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that
-swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would
-not cut anything, but it was a "sure-enough" Barlow, and there was
-inconceivable grandeur in that--though where the Western boys ever got
-the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its
-injury is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps. Tom
-contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin
-on the bureau, when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school.
-
-Mary gave him a tin basin of water and a piece of soap, and he went
-outside the door and set the basin on a little bench there; then he
-dipped the soap in the water and laid it down; turned up his sleeves;
-poured out the water on the ground, gently, and then entered the
-kitchen and began to wipe his face diligently on the towel behind the
-door. But Mary removed the towel and said:
-
-"Now ain't you ashamed, Tom. You mustn't be so bad. Water won't hurt
-you."
-
-Tom was a trifle disconcerted. The basin was refilled, and this time
-he stood over it a little while, gathering resolution; took in a big
-breath and began. When he entered the kitchen presently, with both eyes
-shut and groping for the towel with his hands, an honorable testimony
-of suds and water was dripping from his face. But when he emerged from
-the towel, he was not yet satisfactory, for the clean territory stopped
-short at his chin and his jaws, like a mask; below and beyond this line
-there was a dark expanse of unirrigated soil that spread downward in
-front and backward around his neck. Mary took him in hand, and when she
-was done with him he was a man and a brother, without distinction of
-color, and his saturated hair was neatly brushed, and its short curls
-wrought into a dainty and symmetrical general effect. [He privately
-smoothed out the curls, with labor and difficulty, and plastered his
-hair close down to his head; for he held curls to be effeminate, and
-his own filled his life with bitterness.] Then Mary got out a suit of
-his clothing that had been used only on Sundays during two years--they
-were simply called his "other clothes"--and so by that we know the
-size of his wardrobe. The girl "put him to rights" after he had dressed
-himself; she buttoned his neat roundabout up to his chin, turned his
-vast shirt collar down over his shoulders, brushed him off and crowned
-him with his speckled straw hat. He now looked exceedingly improved and
-uncomfortable. He was fully as uncomfortable as he looked; for there
-was a restraint about whole clothes and cleanliness that galled him. He
-hoped that Mary would forget his shoes, but the hope was blighted; she
-coated them thoroughly with tallow, as was the custom, and brought them
-out. He lost his temper and said he was always being made to do
-everything he didn't want to do. But Mary said, persuasively:
-
-"Please, Tom--that's a good boy."
-
-So he got into the shoes snarling. Mary was soon ready, and the three
-children set out for Sunday-school--a place that Tom hated with his
-whole heart; but Sid and Mary were fond of it.
-
-Sabbath-school hours were from nine to half-past ten; and then church
-service. Two of the children always remained for the sermon
-voluntarily, and the other always remained too--for stronger reasons.
-The church's high-backed, uncushioned pews would seat about three
-hundred persons; the edifice was but a small, plain affair, with a sort
-of pine board tree-box on top of it for a steeple. At the door Tom
-dropped back a step and accosted a Sunday-dressed comrade:
-
-"Say, Billy, got a yaller ticket?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"What'll you take for her?"
-
-"What'll you give?"
-
-"Piece of lickrish and a fish-hook."
-
-"Less see 'em."
-
-Tom exhibited. They were satisfactory, and the property changed hands.
-Then Tom traded a couple of white alleys for three red tickets, and
-some small trifle or other for a couple of blue ones. He waylaid other
-boys as they came, and went on buying tickets of various colors ten or
-fifteen minutes longer. He entered the church, now, with a swarm of
-clean and noisy boys and girls, proceeded to his seat and started a
-quarrel with the first boy that came handy. The teacher, a grave,
-elderly man, interfered; then turned his back a moment and Tom pulled a
-boy's hair in the next bench, and was absorbed in his book when the boy
-turned around; stuck a pin in another boy, presently, in order to hear
-him say "Ouch!" and got a new reprimand from his teacher. Tom's whole
-class were of a pattern--restless, noisy, and troublesome. When they
-came to recite their lessons, not one of them knew his verses
-perfectly, but had to be prompted all along. However, they worried
-through, and each got his reward--in small blue tickets, each with a
-passage of Scripture on it; each blue ticket was pay for two verses of
-the recitation. Ten blue tickets equalled a red one, and could be
-exchanged for it; ten red tickets equalled a yellow one; for ten yellow
-tickets the superintendent gave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty
-cents in those easy times) to the pupil. How many of my readers would
-have the industry and application to memorize two thousand verses, even
-for a Dore Bible? And yet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way--it
-was the patient work of two years--and a boy of German parentage had
-won four or five. He once recited three thousand verses without
-stopping; but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great, and
-he was little better than an idiot from that day forth--a grievous
-misfortune for the school, for on great occasions, before company, the
-superintendent (as Tom expressed it) had always made this boy come out
-and "spread himself." Only the older pupils managed to keep their
-tickets and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a Bible, and
-so the delivery of one of these prizes was a rare and noteworthy
-circumstance; the successful pupil was so great and conspicuous for
-that day that on the spot every scholar's heart was fired with a fresh
-ambition that often lasted a couple of weeks. It is possible that Tom's
-mental stomach had never really hungered for one of those prizes, but
-unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory
-and the eclat that came with it.
-
-In due course the superintendent stood up in front of the pulpit, with
-a closed hymn-book in his hand and his forefinger inserted between its
-leaves, and commanded attention. When a Sunday-school superintendent
-makes his customary little speech, a hymn-book in the hand is as
-necessary as is the inevitable sheet of music in the hand of a singer
-who stands forward on the platform and sings a solo at a concert
---though why, is a mystery: for neither the hymn-book nor the sheet of
-music is ever referred to by the sufferer. This superintendent was a
-slim creature of thirty-five, with a sandy goatee and short sandy hair;
-he wore a stiff standing-collar whose upper edge almost reached his
-ears and whose sharp points curved forward abreast the corners of his
-mouth--a fence that compelled a straight lookout ahead, and a turning
-of the whole body when a side view was required; his chin was propped
-on a spreading cravat which was as broad and as long as a bank-note,
-and had fringed ends; his boot toes were turned sharply up, in the
-fashion of the day, like sleigh-runners--an effect patiently and
-laboriously produced by the young men by sitting with their toes
-pressed against a wall for hours together. Mr. Walters was very earnest
-of mien, and very sincere and honest at heart; and he held sacred
-things and places in such reverence, and so separated them from worldly
-matters, that unconsciously to himself his Sunday-school voice had
-acquired a peculiar intonation which was wholly absent on week-days. He
-began after this fashion:
-
-"Now, children, I want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty
-as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two. There
---that is it. That is the way good little boys and girls should do. I see
-one little girl who is looking out of the window--I am afraid she
-thinks I am out there somewhere--perhaps up in one of the trees making
-a speech to the little birds. [Applausive titter.] I want to tell you
-how good it makes me feel to see so many bright, clean little faces
-assembled in a place like this, learning to do right and be good." And
-so forth and so on. It is not necessary to set down the rest of the
-oration. It was of a pattern which does not vary, and so it is familiar
-to us all.
-
-The latter third of the speech was marred by the resumption of fights
-and other recreations among certain of the bad boys, and by fidgetings
-and whisperings that extended far and wide, washing even to the bases
-of isolated and incorruptible rocks like Sid and Mary. But now every
-sound ceased suddenly, with the subsidence of Mr. Walters' voice, and
-the conclusion of the speech was received with a burst of silent
-gratitude.
-
-A good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which
-was more or less rare--the entrance of visitors: lawyer Thatcher,
-accompanied by a very feeble and aged man; a fine, portly, middle-aged
-gentleman with iron-gray hair; and a dignified lady who was doubtless
-the latter's wife. The lady was leading a child. Tom had been restless
-and full of chafings and repinings; conscience-smitten, too--he could
-not meet Amy Lawrence's eye, he could not brook her loving gaze. But
-when he saw this small new-comer his soul was all ablaze with bliss in
-a moment. The next moment he was "showing off" with all his might
---cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces--in a word, using every art
-that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause. His
-exaltation had but one alloy--the memory of his humiliation in this
-angel's garden--and that record in sand was fast washing out, under
-the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now.
-
-The visitors were given the highest seat of honor, and as soon as Mr.
-Walters' speech was finished, he introduced them to the school. The
-middle-aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage--no less a one
-than the county judge--altogether the most august creation these
-children had ever looked upon--and they wondered what kind of material
-he was made of--and they half wanted to hear him roar, and were half
-afraid he might, too. He was from Constantinople, twelve miles away--so
-he had travelled, and seen the world--these very eyes had looked upon
-the county court-house--which was said to have a tin roof. The awe
-which these reflections inspired was attested by the impressive silence
-and the ranks of staring eyes. This was the great Judge Thatcher,
-brother of their own lawyer. Jeff Thatcher immediately went forward, to
-be familiar with the great man and be envied by the school. It would
-have been music to his soul to hear the whisperings:
-
-"Look at him, Jim! He's a going up there. Say--look! he's a going to
-shake hands with him--he IS shaking hands with him! By jings, don't you
-wish you was Jeff?"
-
-Mr. Walters fell to "showing off," with all sorts of official
-bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments,
-discharging directions here, there, everywhere that he could find a
-target. The librarian "showed off"--running hither and thither with his
-arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss that
-insect authority delights in. The young lady teachers "showed off"
---bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed, lifting
-pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting good ones
-lovingly. The young gentlemen teachers "showed off" with small
-scoldings and other little displays of authority and fine attention to
-discipline--and most of the teachers, of both sexes, found business up
-at the library, by the pulpit; and it was business that frequently had
-to be done over again two or three times (with much seeming vexation).
-The little girls "showed off" in various ways, and the little boys
-"showed off" with such diligence that the air was thick with paper wads
-and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the great man sat and
-beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house, and warmed himself
-in the sun of his own grandeur--for he was "showing off," too.
-
-There was only one thing wanting to make Mr. Walters' ecstasy
-complete, and that was a chance to deliver a Bible-prize and exhibit a
-prodigy. Several pupils had a few yellow tickets, but none had enough
---he had been around among the star pupils inquiring. He would have given
-worlds, now, to have that German lad back again with a sound mind.
-
-And now at this moment, when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward
-with nine yellow tickets, nine red tickets, and ten blue ones, and
-demanded a Bible. This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Walters
-was not expecting an application from this source for the next ten
-years. But there was no getting around it--here were the certified
-checks, and they were good for their face. Tom was therefore elevated
-to a place with the Judge and the other elect, and the great news was
-announced from headquarters. It was the most stunning surprise of the
-decade, and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new hero
-up to the judicial one's altitude, and the school had two marvels to
-gaze upon in place of one. The boys were all eaten up with envy--but
-those that suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too
-late that they themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by
-trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in selling
-whitewashing privileges. These despised themselves, as being the dupes
-of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.
-
-The prize was delivered to Tom with as much effusion as the
-superintendent could pump up under the circumstances; but it lacked
-somewhat of the true gush, for the poor fellow's instinct taught him
-that there was a mystery here that could not well bear the light,
-perhaps; it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two
-thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises--a dozen would
-strain his capacity, without a doubt.
-
-Amy Lawrence was proud and glad, and she tried to make Tom see it in
-her face--but he wouldn't look. She wondered; then she was just a grain
-troubled; next a dim suspicion came and went--came again; she watched;
-a furtive glance told her worlds--and then her heart broke, and she was
-jealous, and angry, and the tears came and she hated everybody. Tom
-most of all (she thought).
-
-Tom was introduced to the Judge; but his tongue was tied, his breath
-would hardly come, his heart quaked--partly because of the awful
-greatness of the man, but mainly because he was her parent. He would
-have liked to fall down and worship him, if it were in the dark. The
-Judge put his hand on Tom's head and called him a fine little man, and
-asked him what his name was. The boy stammered, gasped, and got it out:
-
-"Tom."
-
-"Oh, no, not Tom--it is--"
-
-"Thomas."
-
-"Ah, that's it. I thought there was more to it, maybe. That's very
-well. But you've another one I daresay, and you'll tell it to me, won't
-you?"
-
-"Tell the gentleman your other name, Thomas," said Walters, "and say
-sir. You mustn't forget your manners."
-
-"Thomas Sawyer--sir."
-
-"That's it! That's a good boy. Fine boy. Fine, manly little fellow.
-Two thousand verses is a great many--very, very great many. And you
-never can be sorry for the trouble you took to learn them; for
-knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it's what
-makes great men and good men; you'll be a great man and a good man
-yourself, some day, Thomas, and then you'll look back and say, It's all
-owing to the precious Sunday-school privileges of my boyhood--it's all
-owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn--it's all owing to
-the good superintendent, who encouraged me, and watched over me, and
-gave me a beautiful Bible--a splendid elegant Bible--to keep and have
-it all for my own, always--it's all owing to right bringing up! That is
-what you will say, Thomas--and you wouldn't take any money for those
-two thousand verses--no indeed you wouldn't. And now you wouldn't mind
-telling me and this lady some of the things you've learned--no, I know
-you wouldn't--for we are proud of little boys that learn. Now, no
-doubt you know the names of all the twelve disciples. Won't you tell us
-the names of the first two that were appointed?"
-
-Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. He blushed,
-now, and his eyes fell. Mr. Walters' heart sank within him. He said to
-himself, it is not possible that the boy can answer the simplest
-question--why DID the Judge ask him? Yet he felt obliged to speak up
-and say:
-
-"Answer the gentleman, Thomas--don't be afraid."
-
-Tom still hung fire.
-
-"Now I know you'll tell me," said the lady. "The names of the first
-two disciples were--"
-
-"DAVID AND GOLIAH!"
-
-Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-ABOUT half-past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to
-ring, and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon.
-The Sunday-school children distributed themselves about the house and
-occupied pews with their parents, so as to be under supervision. Aunt
-Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her--Tom being placed
-next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open
-window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible. The crowd
-filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better
-days; the mayor and his wife--for they had a mayor there, among other
-unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair,
-smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her
-hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and
-much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St. Petersburg
-could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward; lawyer
-Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the
-village, followed by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young
-heart-breakers; then all the young clerks in town in a body--for they
-had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a circling wall of
-oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet;
-and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful
-care of his mother as if she were cut glass. He always brought his
-mother to church, and was the pride of all the matrons. The boys all
-hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown up to them"
-so much. His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind, as
-usual on Sundays--accidentally. Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked
-upon boys who had as snobs.
-
-The congregation being fully assembled, now, the bell rang once more,
-to warn laggards and stragglers, and then a solemn hush fell upon the
-church which was only broken by the tittering and whispering of the
-choir in the gallery. The choir always tittered and whispered all
-through service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred,
-but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago,
-and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in
-some foreign country.
-
-The minister gave out the hymn, and read it through with a relish, in
-a peculiar style which was much admired in that part of the country.
-His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily up till it reached
-a certain point, where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost
-word and then plunged down as if from a spring-board:
-
- Shall I be car-ri-ed toe the skies, on flow'ry BEDS of ease,
-
- Whilst others fight to win the prize, and sail thro' BLOODY seas?
-
-He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was
-always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies
-would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps,
-and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words
-cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal
-earth."
-
-After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into
-a bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and
-things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of
-doom--a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities,
-away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is
-to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
-
-And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went
-into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little children of the
-church; for the other churches of the village; for the village itself;
-for the county; for the State; for the State officers; for the United
-States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for the
-President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed
-by stormy seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of
-European monarchies and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light
-and the good tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear
-withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with
-a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace
-and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a
-grateful harvest of good. Amen.
-
-There was a rustling of dresses, and the standing congregation sat
-down. The boy whose history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer,
-he only endured it--if he even did that much. He was restive all
-through it; he kept tally of the details of the prayer, unconsciously
---for he was not listening, but he knew the ground of old, and the
-clergyman's regular route over it--and when a little trifle of new
-matter was interlarded, his ear detected it and his whole nature
-resented it; he considered additions unfair, and scoundrelly. In the
-midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of
-him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together,
-embracing its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that
-it seemed to almost part company with the body, and the slender thread
-of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its wings with its hind legs
-and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails; going
-through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly
-safe. As indeed it was; for as sorely as Tom's hands itched to grab for
-it they did not dare--he believed his soul would be instantly destroyed
-if he did such a thing while the prayer was going on. But with the
-closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward; and the
-instant the "Amen" was out the fly was a prisoner of war. His aunt
-detected the act and made him let it go.
-
-The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through
-an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod
---and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless fire and brimstone
-and thinned the predestined elect down to a company so small as to be
-hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after
-church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew
-anything else about the discourse. However, this time he was really
-interested for a little while. The minister made a grand and moving
-picture of the assembling together of the world's hosts at the
-millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a
-little child should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of
-the great spectacle were lost upon the boy; he only thought of the
-conspicuousness of the principal character before the on-looking
-nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that he
-wished he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.
-
-Now he lapsed into suffering again, as the dry argument was resumed.
-Presently he bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out. It was
-a large black beetle with formidable jaws--a "pinchbug," he called it.
-It was in a percussion-cap box. The first thing the beetle did was to
-take him by the finger. A natural fillip followed, the beetle went
-floundering into the aisle and lit on its back, and the hurt finger
-went into the boy's mouth. The beetle lay there working its helpless
-legs, unable to turn over. Tom eyed it, and longed for it; but it was
-safe out of his reach. Other people uninterested in the sermon found
-relief in the beetle, and they eyed it too. Presently a vagrant poodle
-dog came idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the summer softness and
-the quiet, weary of captivity, sighing for change. He spied the beetle;
-the drooping tail lifted and wagged. He surveyed the prize; walked
-around it; smelt at it from a safe distance; walked around it again;
-grew bolder, and took a closer smell; then lifted his lip and made a
-gingerly snatch at it, just missing it; made another, and another;
-began to enjoy the diversion; subsided to his stomach with the beetle
-between his paws, and continued his experiments; grew weary at last,
-and then indifferent and absent-minded. His head nodded, and little by
-little his chin descended and touched the enemy, who seized it. There
-was a sharp yelp, a flirt of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell a
-couple of yards away, and lit on its back once more. The neighboring
-spectators shook with a gentle inward joy, several faces went behind
-fans and handkerchiefs, and Tom was entirely happy. The dog looked
-foolish, and probably felt so; but there was resentment in his heart,
-too, and a craving for revenge. So he went to the beetle and began a
-wary attack on it again; jumping at it from every point of a circle,
-lighting with his fore-paws within an inch of the creature, making even
-closer snatches at it with his teeth, and jerking his head till his
-ears flapped again. But he grew tired once more, after a while; tried
-to amuse himself with a fly but found no relief; followed an ant
-around, with his nose close to the floor, and quickly wearied of that;
-yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely, and sat down on it. Then
-there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the
-aisle; the yelps continued, and so did the dog; he crossed the house in
-front of the altar; he flew down the other aisle; he crossed before the
-doors; he clamored up the home-stretch; his anguish grew with his
-progress, till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its orbit
-with the gleam and the speed of light. At last the frantic sufferer
-sheered from its course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it
-out of the window, and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and
-died in the distance.
-
-By this time the whole church was red-faced and suffocating with
-suppressed laughter, and the sermon had come to a dead standstill. The
-discourse was resumed presently, but it went lame and halting, all
-possibility of impressiveness being at an end; for even the gravest
-sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of
-unholy mirth, under cover of some remote pew-back, as if the poor
-parson had said a rarely facetious thing. It was a genuine relief to
-the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the benediction
-pronounced.
-
-Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful, thinking to himself that there
-was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of
-variety in it. He had but one marring thought; he was willing that the
-dog should play with his pinchbug, but he did not think it was upright
-in him to carry it off.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-MONDAY morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found
-him so--because it began another week's slow suffering in school. He
-generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening
-holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much
-more odious.
-
-Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was
-sick; then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague
-possibility. He canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he
-investigated again. This time he thought he could detect colicky
-symptoms, and he began to encourage them with considerable hope. But
-they soon grew feeble, and presently died wholly away. He reflected
-further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of his upper front teeth
-was loose. This was lucky; he was about to begin to groan, as a
-"starter," as he called it, when it occurred to him that if he came
-into court with that argument, his aunt would pull it out, and that
-would hurt. So he thought he would hold the tooth in reserve for the
-present, and seek further. Nothing offered for some little time, and
-then he remembered hearing the doctor tell about a certain thing that
-laid up a patient for two or three weeks and threatened to make him
-lose a finger. So the boy eagerly drew his sore toe from under the
-sheet and held it up for inspection. But now he did not know the
-necessary symptoms. However, it seemed well worth while to chance it,
-so he fell to groaning with considerable spirit.
-
-But Sid slept on unconscious.
-
-Tom groaned louder, and fancied that he began to feel pain in the toe.
-
-No result from Sid.
-
-Tom was panting with his exertions by this time. He took a rest and
-then swelled himself up and fetched a succession of admirable groans.
-
-Sid snored on.
-
-Tom was aggravated. He said, "Sid, Sid!" and shook him. This course
-worked well, and Tom began to groan again. Sid yawned, stretched, then
-brought himself up on his elbow with a snort, and began to stare at
-Tom. Tom went on groaning. Sid said:
-
-"Tom! Say, Tom!" [No response.] "Here, Tom! TOM! What is the matter,
-Tom?" And he shook him and looked in his face anxiously.
-
-Tom moaned out:
-
-"Oh, don't, Sid. Don't joggle me."
-
-"Why, what's the matter, Tom? I must call auntie."
-
-"No--never mind. It'll be over by and by, maybe. Don't call anybody."
-
-"But I must! DON'T groan so, Tom, it's awful. How long you been this
-way?"
-
-"Hours. Ouch! Oh, don't stir so, Sid, you'll kill me."
-
-"Tom, why didn't you wake me sooner? Oh, Tom, DON'T! It makes my
-flesh crawl to hear you. Tom, what is the matter?"
-
-"I forgive you everything, Sid. [Groan.] Everything you've ever done
-to me. When I'm gone--"
-
-"Oh, Tom, you ain't dying, are you? Don't, Tom--oh, don't. Maybe--"
-
-"I forgive everybody, Sid. [Groan.] Tell 'em so, Sid. And Sid, you
-give my window-sash and my cat with one eye to that new girl that's
-come to town, and tell her--"
-
-But Sid had snatched his clothes and gone. Tom was suffering in
-reality, now, so handsomely was his imagination working, and so his
-groans had gathered quite a genuine tone.
-
-Sid flew down-stairs and said:
-
-"Oh, Aunt Polly, come! Tom's dying!"
-
-"Dying!"
-
-"Yes'm. Don't wait--come quick!"
-
-"Rubbage! I don't believe it!"
-
-But she fled up-stairs, nevertheless, with Sid and Mary at her heels.
-And her face grew white, too, and her lip trembled. When she reached
-the bedside she gasped out:
-
-"You, Tom! Tom, what's the matter with you?"
-
-"Oh, auntie, I'm--"
-
-"What's the matter with you--what is the matter with you, child?"
-
-"Oh, auntie, my sore toe's mortified!"
-
-The old lady sank down into a chair and laughed a little, then cried a
-little, then did both together. This restored her and she said:
-
-"Tom, what a turn you did give me. Now you shut up that nonsense and
-climb out of this."
-
-The groans ceased and the pain vanished from the toe. The boy felt a
-little foolish, and he said:
-
-"Aunt Polly, it SEEMED mortified, and it hurt so I never minded my
-tooth at all."
-
-"Your tooth, indeed! What's the matter with your tooth?"
-
-"One of them's loose, and it aches perfectly awful."
-
-"There, there, now, don't begin that groaning again. Open your mouth.
-Well--your tooth IS loose, but you're not going to die about that.
-Mary, get me a silk thread, and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen."
-
-Tom said:
-
-"Oh, please, auntie, don't pull it out. It don't hurt any more. I wish
-I may never stir if it does. Please don't, auntie. I don't want to stay
-home from school."
-
-"Oh, you don't, don't you? So all this row was because you thought
-you'd get to stay home from school and go a-fishing? Tom, Tom, I love
-you so, and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart
-with your outrageousness." By this time the dental instruments were
-ready. The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Tom's tooth
-with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost. Then she seized the
-chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boy's face. The
-tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now.
-
-But all trials bring their compensations. As Tom wended to school
-after breakfast, he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in
-his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and
-admirable way. He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the
-exhibition; and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of
-fascination and homage up to this time, now found himself suddenly
-without an adherent, and shorn of his glory. His heart was heavy, and
-he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasn't anything to
-spit like Tom Sawyer; but another boy said, "Sour grapes!" and he
-wandered away a dismantled hero.
-
-Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry
-Finn, son of the town drunkard. Huckleberry was cordially hated and
-dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless
-and vulgar and bad--and because all their children admired him so, and
-delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like
-him. Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied
-Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders
-not to play with him. So he played with him every time he got a chance.
-Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown
-men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags. His hat
-was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat,
-when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons
-far down the back; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat
-of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing, the fringed legs
-dragged in the dirt when not rolled up.
-
-Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps
-in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to
-school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could
-go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it
-suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he
-pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring
-and the last to resume leather in the fall; he never had to wash, nor
-put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully. In a word, everything
-that goes to make life precious that boy had. So thought every
-harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg.
-
-Tom hailed the romantic outcast:
-
-"Hello, Huckleberry!"
-
-"Hello yourself, and see how you like it."
-
-"What's that you got?"
-
-"Dead cat."
-
-"Lemme see him, Huck. My, he's pretty stiff. Where'd you get him?"
-
-"Bought him off'n a boy."
-
-"What did you give?"
-
-"I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter-house."
-
-"Where'd you get the blue ticket?"
-
-"Bought it off'n Ben Rogers two weeks ago for a hoop-stick."
-
-"Say--what is dead cats good for, Huck?"
-
-"Good for? Cure warts with."
-
-"No! Is that so? I know something that's better."
-
-"I bet you don't. What is it?"
-
-"Why, spunk-water."
-
-"Spunk-water! I wouldn't give a dern for spunk-water."
-
-"You wouldn't, wouldn't you? D'you ever try it?"
-
-"No, I hain't. But Bob Tanner did."
-
-"Who told you so!"
-
-"Why, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny
-told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Rogers, and Ben told a nigger, and
-the nigger told me. There now!"
-
-"Well, what of it? They'll all lie. Leastways all but the nigger. I
-don't know HIM. But I never see a nigger that WOULDN'T lie. Shucks! Now
-you tell me how Bob Tanner done it, Huck."
-
-"Why, he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the
-rain-water was."
-
-"In the daytime?"
-
-"Certainly."
-
-"With his face to the stump?"
-
-"Yes. Least I reckon so."
-
-"Did he say anything?"
-
-"I don't reckon he did. I don't know."
-
-"Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame
-fool way as that! Why, that ain't a-going to do any good. You got to go
-all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a
-spunk-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the
-stump and jam your hand in and say:
-
- 'Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
- Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,'
-
-and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then
-turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody.
-Because if you speak the charm's busted."
-
-"Well, that sounds like a good way; but that ain't the way Bob Tanner
-done."
-
-"No, sir, you can bet he didn't, becuz he's the wartiest boy in this
-town; and he wouldn't have a wart on him if he'd knowed how to work
-spunk-water. I've took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way,
-Huck. I play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable many
-warts. Sometimes I take 'em off with a bean."
-
-"Yes, bean's good. I've done that."
-
-"Have you? What's your way?"
-
-"You take and split the bean, and cut the wart so as to get some
-blood, and then you put the blood on one piece of the bean and take and
-dig a hole and bury it 'bout midnight at the crossroads in the dark of
-the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean. You see that piece
-that's got the blood on it will keep drawing and drawing, trying to
-fetch the other piece to it, and so that helps the blood to draw the
-wart, and pretty soon off she comes."
-
-"Yes, that's it, Huck--that's it; though when you're burying it if you
-say 'Down bean; off wart; come no more to bother me!' it's better.
-That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to Coonville and
-most everywheres. But say--how do you cure 'em with dead cats?"
-
-"Why, you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard 'long about
-midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's
-midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see
-'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk;
-and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after 'em
-and say, 'Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm
-done with ye!' That'll fetch ANY wart."
-
-"Sounds right. D'you ever try it, Huck?"
-
-"No, but old Mother Hopkins told me."
-
-"Well, I reckon it's so, then. Becuz they say she's a witch."
-
-"Say! Why, Tom, I KNOW she is. She witched pap. Pap says so his own
-self. He come along one day, and he see she was a-witching him, so he
-took up a rock, and if she hadn't dodged, he'd a got her. Well, that
-very night he rolled off'n a shed wher' he was a layin drunk, and broke
-his arm."
-
-"Why, that's awful. How did he know she was a-witching him?"
-
-"Lord, pap can tell, easy. Pap says when they keep looking at you
-right stiddy, they're a-witching you. Specially if they mumble. Becuz
-when they mumble they're saying the Lord's Prayer backards."
-
-"Say, Hucky, when you going to try the cat?"
-
-"To-night. I reckon they'll come after old Hoss Williams to-night."
-
-"But they buried him Saturday. Didn't they get him Saturday night?"
-
-"Why, how you talk! How could their charms work till midnight?--and
-THEN it's Sunday. Devils don't slosh around much of a Sunday, I don't
-reckon."
-
-"I never thought of that. That's so. Lemme go with you?"
-
-"Of course--if you ain't afeard."
-
-"Afeard! 'Tain't likely. Will you meow?"
-
-"Yes--and you meow back, if you get a chance. Last time, you kep' me
-a-meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says
-'Dern that cat!' and so I hove a brick through his window--but don't
-you tell."
-
-"I won't. I couldn't meow that night, becuz auntie was watching me,
-but I'll meow this time. Say--what's that?"
-
-"Nothing but a tick."
-
-"Where'd you get him?"
-
-"Out in the woods."
-
-"What'll you take for him?"
-
-"I don't know. I don't want to sell him."
-
-"All right. It's a mighty small tick, anyway."
-
-"Oh, anybody can run a tick down that don't belong to them. I'm
-satisfied with it. It's a good enough tick for me."
-
-"Sho, there's ticks a plenty. I could have a thousand of 'em if I
-wanted to."
-
-"Well, why don't you? Becuz you know mighty well you can't. This is a
-pretty early tick, I reckon. It's the first one I've seen this year."
-
-"Say, Huck--I'll give you my tooth for him."
-
-"Less see it."
-
-Tom got out a bit of paper and carefully unrolled it. Huckleberry
-viewed it wistfully. The temptation was very strong. At last he said:
-
-"Is it genuwyne?"
-
-Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy.
-
-"Well, all right," said Huckleberry, "it's a trade."
-
-Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion-cap box that had lately been
-the pinchbug's prison, and the boys separated, each feeling wealthier
-than before.
-
-When Tom reached the little isolated frame schoolhouse, he strode in
-briskly, with the manner of one who had come with all honest speed.
-He hung his hat on a peg and flung himself into his seat with
-business-like alacrity. The master, throned on high in his great
-splint-bottom arm-chair, was dozing, lulled by the drowsy hum of study.
-The interruption roused him.
-
-"Thomas Sawyer!"
-
-Tom knew that when his name was pronounced in full, it meant trouble.
-
-"Sir!"
-
-"Come up here. Now, sir, why are you late again, as usual?"
-
-Tom was about to take refuge in a lie, when he saw two long tails of
-yellow hair hanging down a back that he recognized by the electric
-sympathy of love; and by that form was THE ONLY VACANT PLACE on the
-girls' side of the schoolhouse. He instantly said:
-
-"I STOPPED TO TALK WITH HUCKLEBERRY FINN!"
-
-The master's pulse stood still, and he stared helplessly. The buzz of
-study ceased. The pupils wondered if this foolhardy boy had lost his
-mind. The master said:
-
-"You--you did what?"
-
-"Stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn."
-
-There was no mistaking the words.
-
-"Thomas Sawyer, this is the most astounding confession I have ever
-listened to. No mere ferule will answer for this offence. Take off your
-jacket."
-
-The master's arm performed until it was tired and the stock of
-switches notably diminished. Then the order followed:
-
-"Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this be a warning to you."
-
-The titter that rippled around the room appeared to abash the boy, but
-in reality that result was caused rather more by his worshipful awe of
-his unknown idol and the dread pleasure that lay in his high good
-fortune. He sat down upon the end of the pine bench and the girl
-hitched herself away from him with a toss of her head. Nudges and winks
-and whispers traversed the room, but Tom sat still, with his arms upon
-the long, low desk before him, and seemed to study his book.
-
-By and by attention ceased from him, and the accustomed school murmur
-rose upon the dull air once more. Presently the boy began to steal
-furtive glances at the girl. She observed it, "made a mouth" at him and
-gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute. When she
-cautiously faced around again, a peach lay before her. She thrust it
-away. Tom gently put it back. She thrust it away again, but with less
-animosity. Tom patiently returned it to its place. Then she let it
-remain. Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it--I got more." The
-girl glanced at the words, but made no sign. Now the boy began to draw
-something on the slate, hiding his work with his left hand. For a time
-the girl refused to notice; but her human curiosity presently began to
-manifest itself by hardly perceptible signs. The boy worked on,
-apparently unconscious. The girl made a sort of noncommittal attempt to
-see, but the boy did not betray that he was aware of it. At last she
-gave in and hesitatingly whispered:
-
-"Let me see it."
-
-Tom partly uncovered a dismal caricature of a house with two gable
-ends to it and a corkscrew of smoke issuing from the chimney. Then the
-girl's interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot
-everything else. When it was finished, she gazed a moment, then
-whispered:
-
-"It's nice--make a man."
-
-The artist erected a man in the front yard, that resembled a derrick.
-He could have stepped over the house; but the girl was not
-hypercritical; she was satisfied with the monster, and whispered:
-
-"It's a beautiful man--now make me coming along."
-
-Tom drew an hour-glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and
-armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan. The girl said:
-
-"It's ever so nice--I wish I could draw."
-
-"It's easy," whispered Tom, "I'll learn you."
-
-"Oh, will you? When?"
-
-"At noon. Do you go home to dinner?"
-
-"I'll stay if you will."
-
-"Good--that's a whack. What's your name?"
-
-"Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer."
-
-"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me
-Tom, will you?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-Now Tom began to scrawl something on the slate, hiding the words from
-the girl. But she was not backward this time. She begged to see. Tom
-said:
-
-"Oh, it ain't anything."
-
-"Yes it is."
-
-"No it ain't. You don't want to see."
-
-"Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me."
-
-"You'll tell."
-
-"No I won't--deed and deed and double deed won't."
-
-"You won't tell anybody at all? Ever, as long as you live?"
-
-"No, I won't ever tell ANYbody. Now let me."
-
-"Oh, YOU don't want to see!"
-
-"Now that you treat me so, I WILL see." And she put her small hand
-upon his and a little scuffle ensued, Tom pretending to resist in
-earnest but letting his hand slip by degrees till these words were
-revealed: "I LOVE YOU."
-
-"Oh, you bad thing!" And she hit his hand a smart rap, but reddened
-and looked pleased, nevertheless.
-
-Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing on his
-ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that wise he was borne across the
-house and deposited in his own seat, under a peppering fire of giggles
-from the whole school. Then the master stood over him during a few
-awful moments, and finally moved away to his throne without saying a
-word. But although Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
-
-As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but the
-turmoil within him was too great. In turn he took his place in the
-reading class and made a botch of it; then in the geography class and
-turned lakes into mountains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into
-continents, till chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and
-got "turned down," by a succession of mere baby words, till he brought
-up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with
-ostentation for months.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-THE harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his
-ideas wandered. So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up. It
-seemed to him that the noon recess would never come. The air was
-utterly dead. There was not a breath stirring. It was the sleepiest of
-sleepy days. The drowsing murmur of the five and twenty studying
-scholars soothed the soul like the spell that is in the murmur of bees.
-Away off in the flaming sunshine, Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green
-sides through a shimmering veil of heat, tinted with the purple of
-distance; a few birds floated on lazy wing high in the air; no other
-living thing was visible but some cows, and they were asleep. Tom's
-heart ached to be free, or else to have something of interest to do to
-pass the dreary time. His hand wandered into his pocket and his face
-lit up with a glow of gratitude that was prayer, though he did not know
-it. Then furtively the percussion-cap box came out. He released the
-tick and put him on the long flat desk. The creature probably glowed
-with a gratitude that amounted to prayer, too, at this moment, but it
-was premature: for when he started thankfully to travel off, Tom turned
-him aside with a pin and made him take a new direction.
-
-Tom's bosom friend sat next him, suffering just as Tom had been, and
-now he was deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in an
-instant. This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn
-friends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays. Joe took a
-pin out of his lapel and began to assist in exercising the prisoner.
-The sport grew in interest momently. Soon Tom said that they were
-interfering with each other, and neither getting the fullest benefit of
-the tick. So he put Joe's slate on the desk and drew a line down the
-middle of it from top to bottom.
-
-"Now," said he, "as long as he is on your side you can stir him up and
-I'll let him alone; but if you let him get away and get on my side,
-you're to leave him alone as long as I can keep him from crossing over."
-
-"All right, go ahead; start him up."
-
-The tick escaped from Tom, presently, and crossed the equator. Joe
-harassed him awhile, and then he got away and crossed back again. This
-change of base occurred often. While one boy was worrying the tick with
-absorbing interest, the other would look on with interest as strong,
-the two heads bowed together over the slate, and the two souls dead to
-all things else. At last luck seemed to settle and abide with Joe. The
-tick tried this, that, and the other course, and got as excited and as
-anxious as the boys themselves, but time and again just as he would
-have victory in his very grasp, so to speak, and Tom's fingers would be
-twitching to begin, Joe's pin would deftly head him off, and keep
-possession. At last Tom could stand it no longer. The temptation was
-too strong. So he reached out and lent a hand with his pin. Joe was
-angry in a moment. Said he:
-
-"Tom, you let him alone."
-
-"I only just want to stir him up a little, Joe."
-
-"No, sir, it ain't fair; you just let him alone."
-
-"Blame it, I ain't going to stir him much."
-
-"Let him alone, I tell you."
-
-"I won't!"
-
-"You shall--he's on my side of the line."
-
-"Look here, Joe Harper, whose is that tick?"
-
-"I don't care whose tick he is--he's on my side of the line, and you
-sha'n't touch him."
-
-"Well, I'll just bet I will, though. He's my tick and I'll do what I
-blame please with him, or die!"
-
-A tremendous whack came down on Tom's shoulders, and its duplicate on
-Joe's; and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to fly from
-the two jackets and the whole school to enjoy it. The boys had been too
-absorbed to notice the hush that had stolen upon the school awhile
-before when the master came tiptoeing down the room and stood over
-them. He had contemplated a good part of the performance before he
-contributed his bit of variety to it.
-
-When school broke up at noon, Tom flew to Becky Thatcher, and
-whispered in her ear:
-
-"Put on your bonnet and let on you're going home; and when you get to
-the corner, give the rest of 'em the slip, and turn down through the
-lane and come back. I'll go the other way and come it over 'em the same
-way."
-
-So the one went off with one group of scholars, and the other with
-another. In a little while the two met at the bottom of the lane, and
-when they reached the school they had it all to themselves. Then they
-sat together, with a slate before them, and Tom gave Becky the pencil
-and held her hand in his, guiding it, and so created another surprising
-house. When the interest in art began to wane, the two fell to talking.
-Tom was swimming in bliss. He said:
-
-"Do you love rats?"
-
-"No! I hate them!"
-
-"Well, I do, too--LIVE ones. But I mean dead ones, to swing round your
-head with a string."
-
-"No, I don't care for rats much, anyway. What I like is chewing-gum."
-
-"Oh, I should say so! I wish I had some now."
-
-"Do you? I've got some. I'll let you chew it awhile, but you must give
-it back to me."
-
-That was agreeable, so they chewed it turn about, and dangled their
-legs against the bench in excess of contentment.
-
-"Was you ever at a circus?" said Tom.
-
-"Yes, and my pa's going to take me again some time, if I'm good."
-
-"I been to the circus three or four times--lots of times. Church ain't
-shucks to a circus. There's things going on at a circus all the time.
-I'm going to be a clown in a circus when I grow up."
-
-"Oh, are you! That will be nice. They're so lovely, all spotted up."
-
-"Yes, that's so. And they get slathers of money--most a dollar a day,
-Ben Rogers says. Say, Becky, was you ever engaged?"
-
-"What's that?"
-
-"Why, engaged to be married."
-
-"No."
-
-"Would you like to?"
-
-"I reckon so. I don't know. What is it like?"
-
-"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't
-ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's
-all. Anybody can do it."
-
-"Kiss? What do you kiss for?"
-
-"Why, that, you know, is to--well, they always do that."
-
-"Everybody?"
-
-"Why, yes, everybody that's in love with each other. Do you remember
-what I wrote on the slate?"
-
-"Ye--yes."
-
-"What was it?"
-
-"I sha'n't tell you."
-
-"Shall I tell YOU?"
-
-"Ye--yes--but some other time."
-
-"No, now."
-
-"No, not now--to-morrow."
-
-"Oh, no, NOW. Please, Becky--I'll whisper it, I'll whisper it ever so
-easy."
-
-Becky hesitating, Tom took silence for consent, and passed his arm
-about her waist and whispered the tale ever so softly, with his mouth
-close to her ear. And then he added:
-
-"Now you whisper it to me--just the same."
-
-She resisted, for a while, and then said:
-
-"You turn your face away so you can't see, and then I will. But you
-mustn't ever tell anybody--WILL you, Tom? Now you won't, WILL you?"
-
-"No, indeed, indeed I won't. Now, Becky."
-
-He turned his face away. She bent timidly around till her breath
-stirred his curls and whispered, "I--love--you!"
-
-Then she sprang away and ran around and around the desks and benches,
-with Tom after her, and took refuge in a corner at last, with her
-little white apron to her face. Tom clasped her about her neck and
-pleaded:
-
-"Now, Becky, it's all done--all over but the kiss. Don't you be afraid
-of that--it ain't anything at all. Please, Becky." And he tugged at her
-apron and the hands.
-
-By and by she gave up, and let her hands drop; her face, all glowing
-with the struggle, came up and submitted. Tom kissed the red lips and
-said:
-
-"Now it's all done, Becky. And always after this, you know, you ain't
-ever to love anybody but me, and you ain't ever to marry anybody but
-me, ever never and forever. Will you?"
-
-"No, I'll never love anybody but you, Tom, and I'll never marry
-anybody but you--and you ain't to ever marry anybody but me, either."
-
-"Certainly. Of course. That's PART of it. And always coming to school
-or when we're going home, you're to walk with me, when there ain't
-anybody looking--and you choose me and I choose you at parties, because
-that's the way you do when you're engaged."
-
-"It's so nice. I never heard of it before."
-
-"Oh, it's ever so gay! Why, me and Amy Lawrence--"
-
-The big eyes told Tom his blunder and he stopped, confused.
-
-"Oh, Tom! Then I ain't the first you've ever been engaged to!"
-
-The child began to cry. Tom said:
-
-"Oh, don't cry, Becky, I don't care for her any more."
-
-"Yes, you do, Tom--you know you do."
-
-Tom tried to put his arm about her neck, but she pushed him away and
-turned her face to the wall, and went on crying. Tom tried again, with
-soothing words in his mouth, and was repulsed again. Then his pride was
-up, and he strode away and went outside. He stood about, restless and
-uneasy, for a while, glancing at the door, every now and then, hoping
-she would repent and come to find him. But she did not. Then he began
-to feel badly and fear that he was in the wrong. It was a hard struggle
-with him to make new advances, now, but he nerved himself to it and
-entered. She was still standing back there in the corner, sobbing, with
-her face to the wall. Tom's heart smote him. He went to her and stood a
-moment, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Then he said hesitatingly:
-
-"Becky, I--I don't care for anybody but you."
-
-No reply--but sobs.
-
-"Becky"--pleadingly. "Becky, won't you say something?"
-
-More sobs.
-
-Tom got out his chiefest jewel, a brass knob from the top of an
-andiron, and passed it around her so that she could see it, and said:
-
-"Please, Becky, won't you take it?"
-
-She struck it to the floor. Then Tom marched out of the house and over
-the hills and far away, to return to school no more that day. Presently
-Becky began to suspect. She ran to the door; he was not in sight; she
-flew around to the play-yard; he was not there. Then she called:
-
-"Tom! Come back, Tom!"
-
-She listened intently, but there was no answer. She had no companions
-but silence and loneliness. So she sat down to cry again and upbraid
-herself; and by this time the scholars began to gather again, and she
-had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart and take up the cross
-of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none among the strangers
-about her to exchange sorrows with.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-TOM dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of
-the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. He
-crossed a small "branch" two or three times, because of a prevailing
-juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit. Half an hour
-later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the summit of
-Cardiff Hill, and the schoolhouse was hardly distinguishable away off
-in the valley behind him. He entered a dense wood, picked his pathless
-way to the centre of it, and sat down on a mossy spot under a spreading
-oak. There was not even a zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had
-even stilled the songs of the birds; nature lay in a trance that was
-broken by no sound but the occasional far-off hammering of a
-woodpecker, and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense
-of loneliness the more profound. The boy's soul was steeped in
-melancholy; his feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings. He
-sat long with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands,
-meditating. It seemed to him that life was but a trouble, at best, and
-he more than half envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately released; it must be
-very peaceful, he thought, to lie and slumber and dream forever and
-ever, with the wind whispering through the trees and caressing the
-grass and the flowers over the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve
-about, ever any more. If he only had a clean Sunday-school record he
-could be willing to go, and be done with it all. Now as to this girl.
-What had he done? Nothing. He had meant the best in the world, and been
-treated like a dog--like a very dog. She would be sorry some day--maybe
-when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die TEMPORARILY!
-
-But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one
-constrained shape long at a time. Tom presently began to drift
-insensibly back into the concerns of this life again. What if he turned
-his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? What if he went away--ever
-so far away, into unknown countries beyond the seas--and never came
-back any more! How would she feel then! The idea of being a clown
-recurred to him now, only to fill him with disgust. For frivolity and
-jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves
-upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the
-romantic. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all
-war-worn and illustrious. No--better still, he would join the Indians,
-and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the
-trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come
-back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and
-prance into Sunday-school, some drowsy summer morning, with a
-bloodcurdling war-whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions
-with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than
-this. He would be a pirate! That was it! NOW his future lay plain
-before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would
-fill the world, and make people shudder! How gloriously he would go
-plowing the dancing seas, in his long, low, black-hulled racer, the
-Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore! And at
-the zenith of his fame, how he would suddenly appear at the old village
-and stalk into church, brown and weather-beaten, in his black velvet
-doublet and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his belt
-bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cutlass at his side, his
-slouch hat with waving plumes, his black flag unfurled, with the skull
-and crossbones on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings,
-"It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!--the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!"
-
-Yes, it was settled; his career was determined. He would run away from
-home and enter upon it. He would start the very next morning. Therefore
-he must now begin to get ready. He would collect his resources
-together. He went to a rotten log near at hand and began to dig under
-one end of it with his Barlow knife. He soon struck wood that sounded
-hollow. He put his hand there and uttered this incantation impressively:
-
-"What hasn't come here, come! What's here, stay here!"
-
-Then he scraped away the dirt, and exposed a pine shingle. He took it
-up and disclosed a shapely little treasure-house whose bottom and sides
-were of shingles. In it lay a marble. Tom's astonishment was boundless!
-He scratched his head with a perplexed air, and said:
-
-"Well, that beats anything!"
-
-Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood cogitating. The
-truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and
-all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. If you buried a
-marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a
-fortnight, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just
-used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had
-gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they
-had been separated. But now, this thing had actually and unquestionably
-failed. Tom's whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations.
-He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding but never of its
-failing before. It did not occur to him that he had tried it several
-times before, himself, but could never find the hiding-places
-afterward. He puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided
-that some witch had interfered and broken the charm. He thought he
-would satisfy himself on that point; so he searched around till he
-found a small sandy spot with a little funnel-shaped depression in it.
-He laid himself down and put his mouth close to this depression and
-called--
-
-"Doodle-bug, doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know! Doodle-bug,
-doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know!"
-
-The sand began to work, and presently a small black bug appeared for a
-second and then darted under again in a fright.
-
-"He dasn't tell! So it WAS a witch that done it. I just knowed it."
-
-He well knew the futility of trying to contend against witches, so he
-gave up discouraged. But it occurred to him that he might as well have
-the marble he had just thrown away, and therefore he went and made a
-patient search for it. But he could not find it. Now he went back to
-his treasure-house and carefully placed himself just as he had been
-standing when he tossed the marble away; then he took another marble
-from his pocket and tossed it in the same way, saying:
-
-"Brother, go find your brother!"
-
-He watched where it stopped, and went there and looked. But it must
-have fallen short or gone too far; so he tried twice more. The last
-repetition was successful. The two marbles lay within a foot of each
-other.
-
-Just here the blast of a toy tin trumpet came faintly down the green
-aisles of the forest. Tom flung off his jacket and trousers, turned a
-suspender into a belt, raked away some brush behind the rotten log,
-disclosing a rude bow and arrow, a lath sword and a tin trumpet, and in
-a moment had seized these things and bounded away, barelegged, with
-fluttering shirt. He presently halted under a great elm, blew an
-answering blast, and then began to tiptoe and look warily out, this way
-and that. He said cautiously--to an imaginary company:
-
-"Hold, my merry men! Keep hid till I blow."
-
-Now appeared Joe Harper, as airily clad and elaborately armed as Tom.
-Tom called:
-
-"Hold! Who comes here into Sherwood Forest without my pass?"
-
-"Guy of Guisborne wants no man's pass. Who art thou that--that--"
-
-"Dares to hold such language," said Tom, prompting--for they talked
-"by the book," from memory.
-
-"Who art thou that dares to hold such language?"
-
-"I, indeed! I am Robin Hood, as thy caitiff carcase soon shall know."
-
-"Then art thou indeed that famous outlaw? Right gladly will I dispute
-with thee the passes of the merry wood. Have at thee!"
-
-They took their lath swords, dumped their other traps on the ground,
-struck a fencing attitude, foot to foot, and began a grave, careful
-combat, "two up and two down." Presently Tom said:
-
-"Now, if you've got the hang, go it lively!"
-
-So they "went it lively," panting and perspiring with the work. By and
-by Tom shouted:
-
-"Fall! fall! Why don't you fall?"
-
-"I sha'n't! Why don't you fall yourself? You're getting the worst of
-it."
-
-"Why, that ain't anything. I can't fall; that ain't the way it is in
-the book. The book says, 'Then with one back-handed stroke he slew poor
-Guy of Guisborne.' You're to turn around and let me hit you in the
-back."
-
-There was no getting around the authorities, so Joe turned, received
-the whack and fell.
-
-"Now," said Joe, getting up, "you got to let me kill YOU. That's fair."
-
-"Why, I can't do that, it ain't in the book."
-
-"Well, it's blamed mean--that's all."
-
-"Well, say, Joe, you can be Friar Tuck or Much the miller's son, and
-lam me with a quarter-staff; or I'll be the Sheriff of Nottingham and
-you be Robin Hood a little while and kill me."
-
-This was satisfactory, and so these adventures were carried out. Then
-Tom became Robin Hood again, and was allowed by the treacherous nun to
-bleed his strength away through his neglected wound. And at last Joe,
-representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly forth,
-gave his bow into his feeble hands, and Tom said, "Where this arrow
-falls, there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree." Then he
-shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a
-nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.
-
-The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off
-grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern
-civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss.
-They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than
-President of the United States forever.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-AT half-past nine, that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual.
-They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep. Tom lay awake and
-waited, in restless impatience. When it seemed to him that it must be
-nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten! This was despair. He
-would have tossed and fidgeted, as his nerves demanded, but he was
-afraid he might wake Sid. So he lay still, and stared up into the dark.
-Everything was dismally still. By and by, out of the stillness, little,
-scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves. The ticking
-of the clock began to bring itself into notice. Old beams began to
-crack mysteriously. The stairs creaked faintly. Evidently spirits were
-abroad. A measured, muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber. And
-now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could
-locate, began. Next the ghastly ticking of a deathwatch in the wall at
-the bed's head made Tom shudder--it meant that somebody's days were
-numbered. Then the howl of a far-off dog rose on the night air, and was
-answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance. Tom was in an
-agony. At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and eternity
-begun; he began to doze, in spite of himself; the clock chimed eleven,
-but he did not hear it. And then there came, mingling with his
-half-formed dreams, a most melancholy caterwauling. The raising of a
-neighboring window disturbed him. A cry of "Scat! you devil!" and the
-crash of an empty bottle against the back of his aunt's woodshed
-brought him wide awake, and a single minute later he was dressed and
-out of the window and creeping along the roof of the "ell" on all
-fours. He "meow'd" with caution once or twice, as he went; then jumped
-to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground. Huckleberry Finn
-was there, with his dead cat. The boys moved off and disappeared in the
-gloom. At the end of half an hour they were wading through the tall
-grass of the graveyard.
-
-It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a
-hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board
-fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of
-the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew rank over the
-whole cemetery. All the old graves were sunken in, there was not a
-tombstone on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over
-the graves, leaning for support and finding none. "Sacred to the memory
-of" So-and-So had been painted on them once, but it could no longer
-have been read, on the most of them, now, even if there had been light.
-
-A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the
-spirits of the dead, complaining at being disturbed. The boys talked
-little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the
-pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits. They found the
-sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the
-protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet
-of the grave.
-
-Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time. The hooting
-of a distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness.
-Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk. So he said
-in a whisper:
-
-"Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?"
-
-Huckleberry whispered:
-
-"I wisht I knowed. It's awful solemn like, AIN'T it?"
-
-"I bet it is."
-
-There was a considerable pause, while the boys canvassed this matter
-inwardly. Then Tom whispered:
-
-"Say, Hucky--do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?"
-
-"O' course he does. Least his sperrit does."
-
-Tom, after a pause:
-
-"I wish I'd said Mister Williams. But I never meant any harm.
-Everybody calls him Hoss."
-
-"A body can't be too partic'lar how they talk 'bout these-yer dead
-people, Tom."
-
-This was a damper, and conversation died again.
-
-Presently Tom seized his comrade's arm and said:
-
-"Sh!"
-
-"What is it, Tom?" And the two clung together with beating hearts.
-
-"Sh! There 'tis again! Didn't you hear it?"
-
-"I--"
-
-"There! Now you hear it."
-
-"Lord, Tom, they're coming! They're coming, sure. What'll we do?"
-
-"I dono. Think they'll see us?"
-
-"Oh, Tom, they can see in the dark, same as cats. I wisht I hadn't
-come."
-
-"Oh, don't be afeard. I don't believe they'll bother us. We ain't
-doing any harm. If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us
-at all."
-
-"I'll try to, Tom, but, Lord, I'm all of a shiver."
-
-"Listen!"
-
-The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed. A muffled
-sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.
-
-"Look! See there!" whispered Tom. "What is it?"
-
-"It's devil-fire. Oh, Tom, this is awful."
-
-Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an
-old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable
-little spangles of light. Presently Huckleberry whispered with a
-shudder:
-
-"It's the devils sure enough. Three of 'em! Lordy, Tom, we're goners!
-Can you pray?"
-
-"I'll try, but don't you be afeard. They ain't going to hurt us. 'Now
-I lay me down to sleep, I--'"
-
-"Sh!"
-
-"What is it, Huck?"
-
-"They're HUMANS! One of 'em is, anyway. One of 'em's old Muff Potter's
-voice."
-
-"No--'tain't so, is it?"
-
-"I bet I know it. Don't you stir nor budge. He ain't sharp enough to
-notice us. Drunk, the same as usual, likely--blamed old rip!"
-
-"All right, I'll keep still. Now they're stuck. Can't find it. Here
-they come again. Now they're hot. Cold again. Hot again. Red hot!
-They're p'inted right, this time. Say, Huck, I know another o' them
-voices; it's Injun Joe."
-
-"That's so--that murderin' half-breed! I'd druther they was devils a
-dern sight. What kin they be up to?"
-
-The whisper died wholly out, now, for the three men had reached the
-grave and stood within a few feet of the boys' hiding-place.
-
-"Here it is," said the third voice; and the owner of it held the
-lantern up and revealed the face of young Doctor Robinson.
-
-Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a
-couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load and began to open
-the grave. The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came
-and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees. He was so
-close the boys could have touched him.
-
-"Hurry, men!" he said, in a low voice; "the moon might come out at any
-moment."
-
-They growled a response and went on digging. For some time there was
-no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight
-of mould and gravel. It was very monotonous. Finally a spade struck
-upon the coffin with a dull woody accent, and within another minute or
-two the men had hoisted it out on the ground. They pried off the lid
-with their shovels, got out the body and dumped it rudely on the
-ground. The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid
-face. The barrow was got ready and the corpse placed on it, covered
-with a blanket, and bound to its place with the rope. Potter took out a
-large spring-knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope and then
-said:
-
-"Now the cussed thing's ready, Sawbones, and you'll just out with
-another five, or here she stays."
-
-"That's the talk!" said Injun Joe.
-
-"Look here, what does this mean?" said the doctor. "You required your
-pay in advance, and I've paid you."
-
-"Yes, and you done more than that," said Injun Joe, approaching the
-doctor, who was now standing. "Five years ago you drove me away from
-your father's kitchen one night, when I come to ask for something to
-eat, and you said I warn't there for any good; and when I swore I'd get
-even with you if it took a hundred years, your father had me jailed for
-a vagrant. Did you think I'd forget? The Injun blood ain't in me for
-nothing. And now I've GOT you, and you got to SETTLE, you know!"
-
-He was threatening the doctor, with his fist in his face, by this
-time. The doctor struck out suddenly and stretched the ruffian on the
-ground. Potter dropped his knife, and exclaimed:
-
-"Here, now, don't you hit my pard!" and the next moment he had
-grappled with the doctor and the two were struggling with might and
-main, trampling the grass and tearing the ground with their heels.
-Injun Joe sprang to his feet, his eyes flaming with passion, snatched
-up Potter's knife, and went creeping, catlike and stooping, round and
-round about the combatants, seeking an opportunity. All at once the
-doctor flung himself free, seized the heavy headboard of Williams'
-grave and felled Potter to the earth with it--and in the same instant
-the half-breed saw his chance and drove the knife to the hilt in the
-young man's breast. He reeled and fell partly upon Potter, flooding him
-with his blood, and in the same moment the clouds blotted out the
-dreadful spectacle and the two frightened boys went speeding away in
-the dark.
-
-Presently, when the moon emerged again, Injun Joe was standing over
-the two forms, contemplating them. The doctor murmured inarticulately,
-gave a long gasp or two and was still. The half-breed muttered:
-
-"THAT score is settled--damn you."
-
-Then he robbed the body. After which he put the fatal knife in
-Potter's open right hand, and sat down on the dismantled coffin. Three
---four--five minutes passed, and then Potter began to stir and moan. His
-hand closed upon the knife; he raised it, glanced at it, and let it
-fall, with a shudder. Then he sat up, pushing the body from him, and
-gazed at it, and then around him, confusedly. His eyes met Joe's.
-
-"Lord, how is this, Joe?" he said.
-
-"It's a dirty business," said Joe, without moving.
-
-"What did you do it for?"
-
-"I! I never done it!"
-
-"Look here! That kind of talk won't wash."
-
-Potter trembled and grew white.
-
-"I thought I'd got sober. I'd no business to drink to-night. But it's
-in my head yet--worse'n when we started here. I'm all in a muddle;
-can't recollect anything of it, hardly. Tell me, Joe--HONEST, now, old
-feller--did I do it? Joe, I never meant to--'pon my soul and honor, I
-never meant to, Joe. Tell me how it was, Joe. Oh, it's awful--and him
-so young and promising."
-
-"Why, you two was scuffling, and he fetched you one with the headboard
-and you fell flat; and then up you come, all reeling and staggering
-like, and snatched the knife and jammed it into him, just as he fetched
-you another awful clip--and here you've laid, as dead as a wedge til
-now."
-
-"Oh, I didn't know what I was a-doing. I wish I may die this minute if
-I did. It was all on account of the whiskey and the excitement, I
-reckon. I never used a weepon in my life before, Joe. I've fought, but
-never with weepons. They'll all say that. Joe, don't tell! Say you
-won't tell, Joe--that's a good feller. I always liked you, Joe, and
-stood up for you, too. Don't you remember? You WON'T tell, WILL you,
-Joe?" And the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid
-murderer, and clasped his appealing hands.
-
-"No, you've always been fair and square with me, Muff Potter, and I
-won't go back on you. There, now, that's as fair as a man can say."
-
-"Oh, Joe, you're an angel. I'll bless you for this the longest day I
-live." And Potter began to cry.
-
-"Come, now, that's enough of that. This ain't any time for blubbering.
-You be off yonder way and I'll go this. Move, now, and don't leave any
-tracks behind you."
-
-Potter started on a trot that quickly increased to a run. The
-half-breed stood looking after him. He muttered:
-
-"If he's as much stunned with the lick and fuddled with the rum as he
-had the look of being, he won't think of the knife till he's gone so
-far he'll be afraid to come back after it to such a place by himself
---chicken-heart!"
-
-Two or three minutes later the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the
-lidless coffin, and the open grave were under no inspection but the
-moon's. The stillness was complete again, too.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-THE two boys flew on and on, toward the village, speechless with
-horror. They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time,
-apprehensively, as if they feared they might be followed. Every stump
-that started up in their path seemed a man and an enemy, and made them
-catch their breath; and as they sped by some outlying cottages that lay
-near the village, the barking of the aroused watch-dogs seemed to give
-wings to their feet.
-
-"If we can only get to the old tannery before we break down!"
-whispered Tom, in short catches between breaths. "I can't stand it much
-longer."
-
-Huckleberry's hard pantings were his only reply, and the boys fixed
-their eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to their work to win it.
-They gained steadily on it, and at last, breast to breast, they burst
-through the open door and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering
-shadows beyond. By and by their pulses slowed down, and Tom whispered:
-
-"Huckleberry, what do you reckon'll come of this?"
-
-"If Doctor Robinson dies, I reckon hanging'll come of it."
-
-"Do you though?"
-
-"Why, I KNOW it, Tom."
-
-Tom thought a while, then he said:
-
-"Who'll tell? We?"
-
-"What are you talking about? S'pose something happened and Injun Joe
-DIDN'T hang? Why, he'd kill us some time or other, just as dead sure as
-we're a laying here."
-
-"That's just what I was thinking to myself, Huck."
-
-"If anybody tells, let Muff Potter do it, if he's fool enough. He's
-generally drunk enough."
-
-Tom said nothing--went on thinking. Presently he whispered:
-
-"Huck, Muff Potter don't know it. How can he tell?"
-
-"What's the reason he don't know it?"
-
-"Because he'd just got that whack when Injun Joe done it. D'you reckon
-he could see anything? D'you reckon he knowed anything?"
-
-"By hokey, that's so, Tom!"
-
-"And besides, look-a-here--maybe that whack done for HIM!"
-
-"No, 'taint likely, Tom. He had liquor in him; I could see that; and
-besides, he always has. Well, when pap's full, you might take and belt
-him over the head with a church and you couldn't phase him. He says so,
-his own self. So it's the same with Muff Potter, of course. But if a
-man was dead sober, I reckon maybe that whack might fetch him; I dono."
-
-After another reflective silence, Tom said:
-
-"Hucky, you sure you can keep mum?"
-
-"Tom, we GOT to keep mum. You know that. That Injun devil wouldn't
-make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats, if we was to
-squeak 'bout this and they didn't hang him. Now, look-a-here, Tom, less
-take and swear to one another--that's what we got to do--swear to keep
-mum."
-
-"I'm agreed. It's the best thing. Would you just hold hands and swear
-that we--"
-
-"Oh no, that wouldn't do for this. That's good enough for little
-rubbishy common things--specially with gals, cuz THEY go back on you
-anyway, and blab if they get in a huff--but there orter be writing
-'bout a big thing like this. And blood."
-
-Tom's whole being applauded this idea. It was deep, and dark, and
-awful; the hour, the circumstances, the surroundings, were in keeping
-with it. He picked up a clean pine shingle that lay in the moonlight,
-took a little fragment of "red keel" out of his pocket, got the moon on
-his work, and painfully scrawled these lines, emphasizing each slow
-down-stroke by clamping his tongue between his teeth, and letting up
-the pressure on the up-strokes. [See next page.]
-
- "Huck Finn and
- Tom Sawyer swears
- they will keep mum
- about This and They
- wish They may Drop
- down dead in Their
- Tracks if They ever
- Tell and Rot."
-
-Huckleberry was filled with admiration of Tom's facility in writing,
-and the sublimity of his language. He at once took a pin from his lapel
-and was going to prick his flesh, but Tom said:
-
-"Hold on! Don't do that. A pin's brass. It might have verdigrease on
-it."
-
-"What's verdigrease?"
-
-"It's p'ison. That's what it is. You just swaller some of it once
---you'll see."
-
-So Tom unwound the thread from one of his needles, and each boy
-pricked the ball of his thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood. In
-time, after many squeezes, Tom managed to sign his initials, using the
-ball of his little finger for a pen. Then he showed Huckleberry how to
-make an H and an F, and the oath was complete. They buried the shingle
-close to the wall, with some dismal ceremonies and incantations, and
-the fetters that bound their tongues were considered to be locked and
-the key thrown away.
-
-A figure crept stealthily through a break in the other end of the
-ruined building, now, but they did not notice it.
-
-"Tom," whispered Huckleberry, "does this keep us from EVER telling
---ALWAYS?"
-
-"Of course it does. It don't make any difference WHAT happens, we got
-to keep mum. We'd drop down dead--don't YOU know that?"
-
-"Yes, I reckon that's so."
-
-They continued to whisper for some little time. Presently a dog set up
-a long, lugubrious howl just outside--within ten feet of them. The boys
-clasped each other suddenly, in an agony of fright.
-
-"Which of us does he mean?" gasped Huckleberry.
-
-"I dono--peep through the crack. Quick!"
-
-"No, YOU, Tom!"
-
-"I can't--I can't DO it, Huck!"
-
-"Please, Tom. There 'tis again!"
-
-"Oh, lordy, I'm thankful!" whispered Tom. "I know his voice. It's Bull
-Harbison." *
-
-[* If Mr. Harbison owned a slave named Bull, Tom would have spoken of
-him as "Harbison's Bull," but a son or a dog of that name was "Bull
-Harbison."]
-
-"Oh, that's good--I tell you, Tom, I was most scared to death; I'd a
-bet anything it was a STRAY dog."
-
-The dog howled again. The boys' hearts sank once more.
-
-"Oh, my! that ain't no Bull Harbison!" whispered Huckleberry. "DO, Tom!"
-
-Tom, quaking with fear, yielded, and put his eye to the crack. His
-whisper was hardly audible when he said:
-
-"Oh, Huck, IT S A STRAY DOG!"
-
-"Quick, Tom, quick! Who does he mean?"
-
-"Huck, he must mean us both--we're right together."
-
-"Oh, Tom, I reckon we're goners. I reckon there ain't no mistake 'bout
-where I'LL go to. I been so wicked."
-
-"Dad fetch it! This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a
-feller's told NOT to do. I might a been good, like Sid, if I'd a tried
---but no, I wouldn't, of course. But if ever I get off this time, I lay
-I'll just WALLER in Sunday-schools!" And Tom began to snuffle a little.
-
-"YOU bad!" and Huckleberry began to snuffle too. "Consound it, Tom
-Sawyer, you're just old pie, 'longside o' what I am. Oh, LORDY, lordy,
-lordy, I wisht I only had half your chance."
-
-Tom choked off and whispered:
-
-"Look, Hucky, look! He's got his BACK to us!"
-
-Hucky looked, with joy in his heart.
-
-"Well, he has, by jingoes! Did he before?"
-
-"Yes, he did. But I, like a fool, never thought. Oh, this is bully,
-you know. NOW who can he mean?"
-
-The howling stopped. Tom pricked up his ears.
-
-"Sh! What's that?" he whispered.
-
-"Sounds like--like hogs grunting. No--it's somebody snoring, Tom."
-
-"That IS it! Where 'bouts is it, Huck?"
-
-"I bleeve it's down at 'tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to
-sleep there, sometimes, 'long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he
-just lifts things when HE snores. Besides, I reckon he ain't ever
-coming back to this town any more."
-
-The spirit of adventure rose in the boys' souls once more.
-
-"Hucky, do you das't to go if I lead?"
-
-"I don't like to, much. Tom, s'pose it's Injun Joe!"
-
-Tom quailed. But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the
-boys agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take to
-their heels if the snoring stopped. So they went tiptoeing stealthily
-down, the one behind the other. When they had got to within five steps
-of the snorer, Tom stepped on a stick, and it broke with a sharp snap.
-The man moaned, writhed a little, and his face came into the moonlight.
-It was Muff Potter. The boys' hearts had stood still, and their hopes
-too, when the man moved, but their fears passed away now. They tiptoed
-out, through the broken weather-boarding, and stopped at a little
-distance to exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose on
-the night air again! They turned and saw the strange dog standing
-within a few feet of where Potter was lying, and FACING Potter, with
-his nose pointing heavenward.
-
-"Oh, geeminy, it's HIM!" exclaimed both boys, in a breath.
-
-"Say, Tom--they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller's
-house, 'bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill
-come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and
-there ain't anybody dead there yet."
-
-"Well, I know that. And suppose there ain't. Didn't Gracie Miller fall
-in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?"
-
-"Yes, but she ain't DEAD. And what's more, she's getting better, too."
-
-"All right, you wait and see. She's a goner, just as dead sure as Muff
-Potter's a goner. That's what the niggers say, and they know all about
-these kind of things, Huck."
-
-Then they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his bedroom
-window the night was almost spent. He undressed with excessive caution,
-and fell asleep congratulating himself that nobody knew of his
-escapade. He was not aware that the gently-snoring Sid was awake, and
-had been so for an hour.
-
-When Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was a late look in the
-light, a late sense in the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not
-been called--persecuted till he was up, as usual? The thought filled
-him with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed and down-stairs,
-feeling sore and drowsy. The family were still at table, but they had
-finished breakfast. There was no voice of rebuke; but there were
-averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a
-chill to the culprit's heart. He sat down and tried to seem gay, but it
-was up-hill work; it roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into
-silence and let his heart sink down to the depths.
-
-After breakfast his aunt took him aside, and Tom almost brightened in
-the hope that he was going to be flogged; but it was not so. His aunt
-wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so;
-and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray
-hairs with sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any
-more. This was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom's heart was
-sorer now than his body. He cried, he pleaded for forgiveness, promised
-to reform over and over again, and then received his dismissal, feeling
-that he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a
-feeble confidence.
-
-He left the presence too miserable to even feel revengeful toward Sid;
-and so the latter's prompt retreat through the back gate was
-unnecessary. He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging,
-along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before, with the air
-of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to
-trifles. Then he betook himself to his seat, rested his elbows on his
-desk and his jaws in his hands, and stared at the wall with the stony
-stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can no further go.
-His elbow was pressing against some hard substance. After a long time
-he slowly and sadly changed his position, and took up this object with
-a sigh. It was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering, colossal
-sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his brass andiron knob!
-
-This final feather broke the camel's back.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-CLOSE upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified
-with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph;
-the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to
-house, with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the
-schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon; the town would have
-thought strangely of him if he had not.
-
-A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had been
-recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter--so the story ran.
-And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing
-himself in the "branch" about one or two o'clock in the morning, and
-that Potter had at once sneaked off--suspicious circumstances,
-especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter. It was also
-said that the town had been ransacked for this "murderer" (the public
-are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a
-verdict), but that he could not be found. Horsemen had departed down
-all the roads in every direction, and the Sheriff "was confident" that
-he would be captured before night.
-
-All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom's heartbreak
-vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not a
-thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful,
-unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful place,
-he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal
-spectacle. It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody
-pinched his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry's. Then both
-looked elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed anything
-in their mutual glance. But everybody was talking, and intent upon the
-grisly spectacle before them.
-
-"Poor fellow!" "Poor young fellow!" "This ought to be a lesson to
-grave robbers!" "Muff Potter'll hang for this if they catch him!" This
-was the drift of remark; and the minister said, "It was a judgment; His
-hand is here."
-
-Now Tom shivered from head to heel; for his eye fell upon the stolid
-face of Injun Joe. At this moment the crowd began to sway and struggle,
-and voices shouted, "It's him! it's him! he's coming himself!"
-
-"Who? Who?" from twenty voices.
-
-"Muff Potter!"
-
-"Hallo, he's stopped!--Look out, he's turning! Don't let him get away!"
-
-People in the branches of the trees over Tom's head said he wasn't
-trying to get away--he only looked doubtful and perplexed.
-
-"Infernal impudence!" said a bystander; "wanted to come and take a
-quiet look at his work, I reckon--didn't expect any company."
-
-The crowd fell apart, now, and the Sheriff came through,
-ostentatiously leading Potter by the arm. The poor fellow's face was
-haggard, and his eyes showed the fear that was upon him. When he stood
-before the murdered man, he shook as with a palsy, and he put his face
-in his hands and burst into tears.
-
-"I didn't do it, friends," he sobbed; "'pon my word and honor I never
-done it."
-
-"Who's accused you?" shouted a voice.
-
-This shot seemed to carry home. Potter lifted his face and looked
-around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes. He saw Injun Joe,
-and exclaimed:
-
-"Oh, Injun Joe, you promised me you'd never--"
-
-"Is that your knife?" and it was thrust before him by the Sheriff.
-
-Potter would have fallen if they had not caught him and eased him to
-the ground. Then he said:
-
-"Something told me 't if I didn't come back and get--" He shuddered;
-then waved his nerveless hand with a vanquished gesture and said, "Tell
-'em, Joe, tell 'em--it ain't any use any more."
-
-Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring, and heard the
-stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, they expecting every
-moment that the clear sky would deliver God's lightnings upon his head,
-and wondering to see how long the stroke was delayed. And when he had
-finished and still stood alive and whole, their wavering impulse to
-break their oath and save the poor betrayed prisoner's life faded and
-vanished away, for plainly this miscreant had sold himself to Satan and
-it would be fatal to meddle with the property of such a power as that.
-
-"Why didn't you leave? What did you want to come here for?" somebody
-said.
-
-"I couldn't help it--I couldn't help it," Potter moaned. "I wanted to
-run away, but I couldn't seem to come anywhere but here." And he fell
-to sobbing again.
-
-Injun Joe repeated his statement, just as calmly, a few minutes
-afterward on the inquest, under oath; and the boys, seeing that the
-lightnings were still withheld, were confirmed in their belief that Joe
-had sold himself to the devil. He was now become, to them, the most
-balefully interesting object they had ever looked upon, and they could
-not take their fascinated eyes from his face.
-
-They inwardly resolved to watch him nights, when opportunity should
-offer, in the hope of getting a glimpse of his dread master.
-
-Injun Joe helped to raise the body of the murdered man and put it in a
-wagon for removal; and it was whispered through the shuddering crowd
-that the wound bled a little! The boys thought that this happy
-circumstance would turn suspicion in the right direction; but they were
-disappointed, for more than one villager remarked:
-
-"It was within three feet of Muff Potter when it done it."
-
-Tom's fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as
-much as a week after this; and at breakfast one morning Sid said:
-
-"Tom, you pitch around and talk in your sleep so much that you keep me
-awake half the time."
-
-Tom blanched and dropped his eyes.
-
-"It's a bad sign," said Aunt Polly, gravely. "What you got on your
-mind, Tom?"
-
-"Nothing. Nothing 't I know of." But the boy's hand shook so that he
-spilled his coffee.
-
-"And you do talk such stuff," Sid said. "Last night you said, 'It's
-blood, it's blood, that's what it is!' You said that over and over. And
-you said, 'Don't torment me so--I'll tell!' Tell WHAT? What is it
-you'll tell?"
-
-Everything was swimming before Tom. There is no telling what might
-have happened, now, but luckily the concern passed out of Aunt Polly's
-face and she came to Tom's relief without knowing it. She said:
-
-"Sho! It's that dreadful murder. I dream about it most every night
-myself. Sometimes I dream it's me that done it."
-
-Mary said she had been affected much the same way. Sid seemed
-satisfied. Tom got out of the presence as quick as he plausibly could,
-and after that he complained of toothache for a week, and tied up his
-jaws every night. He never knew that Sid lay nightly watching, and
-frequently slipped the bandage free and then leaned on his elbow
-listening a good while at a time, and afterward slipped the bandage
-back to its place again. Tom's distress of mind wore off gradually and
-the toothache grew irksome and was discarded. If Sid really managed to
-make anything out of Tom's disjointed mutterings, he kept it to himself.
-
-It seemed to Tom that his schoolmates never would get done holding
-inquests on dead cats, and thus keeping his trouble present to his
-mind. Sid noticed that Tom never was coroner at one of these inquiries,
-though it had been his habit to take the lead in all new enterprises;
-he noticed, too, that Tom never acted as a witness--and that was
-strange; and Sid did not overlook the fact that Tom even showed a
-marked aversion to these inquests, and always avoided them when he
-could. Sid marvelled, but said nothing. However, even inquests went out
-of vogue at last, and ceased to torture Tom's conscience.
-
-Every day or two, during this time of sorrow, Tom watched his
-opportunity and went to the little grated jail-window and smuggled such
-small comforts through to the "murderer" as he could get hold of. The
-jail was a trifling little brick den that stood in a marsh at the edge
-of the village, and no guards were afforded for it; indeed, it was
-seldom occupied. These offerings greatly helped to ease Tom's
-conscience.
-
-The villagers had a strong desire to tar-and-feather Injun Joe and
-ride him on a rail, for body-snatching, but so formidable was his
-character that nobody could be found who was willing to take the lead
-in the matter, so it was dropped. He had been careful to begin both of
-his inquest-statements with the fight, without confessing the
-grave-robbery that preceded it; therefore it was deemed wisest not
-to try the case in the courts at present.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-ONE of the reasons why Tom's mind had drifted away from its secret
-troubles was, that it had found a new and weighty matter to interest
-itself about. Becky Thatcher had stopped coming to school. Tom had
-struggled with his pride a few days, and tried to "whistle her down the
-wind," but failed. He began to find himself hanging around her father's
-house, nights, and feeling very miserable. She was ill. What if she
-should die! There was distraction in the thought. He no longer took an
-interest in war, nor even in piracy. The charm of life was gone; there
-was nothing but dreariness left. He put his hoop away, and his bat;
-there was no joy in them any more. His aunt was concerned. She began to
-try all manner of remedies on him. She was one of those people who are
-infatuated with patent medicines and all new-fangled methods of
-producing health or mending it. She was an inveterate experimenter in
-these things. When something fresh in this line came out she was in a
-fever, right away, to try it; not on herself, for she was never ailing,
-but on anybody else that came handy. She was a subscriber for all the
-"Health" periodicals and phrenological frauds; and the solemn ignorance
-they were inflated with was breath to her nostrils. All the "rot" they
-contained about ventilation, and how to go to bed, and how to get up,
-and what to eat, and what to drink, and how much exercise to take, and
-what frame of mind to keep one's self in, and what sort of clothing to
-wear, was all gospel to her, and she never observed that her
-health-journals of the current month customarily upset everything they
-had recommended the month before. She was as simple-hearted and honest
-as the day was long, and so she was an easy victim. She gathered
-together her quack periodicals and her quack medicines, and thus armed
-with death, went about on her pale horse, metaphorically speaking, with
-"hell following after." But she never suspected that she was not an
-angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise, to the suffering
-neighbors.
-
-The water treatment was new, now, and Tom's low condition was a
-windfall to her. She had him out at daylight every morning, stood him
-up in the woodshed and drowned him with a deluge of cold water; then
-she scrubbed him down with a towel like a file, and so brought him to;
-then she rolled him up in a wet sheet and put him away under blankets
-till she sweated his soul clean and "the yellow stains of it came
-through his pores"--as Tom said.
-
-Yet notwithstanding all this, the boy grew more and more melancholy
-and pale and dejected. She added hot baths, sitz baths, shower baths,
-and plunges. The boy remained as dismal as a hearse. She began to
-assist the water with a slim oatmeal diet and blister-plasters. She
-calculated his capacity as she would a jug's, and filled him up every
-day with quack cure-alls.
-
-Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time. This phase
-filled the old lady's heart with consternation. This indifference must
-be broken up at any cost. Now she heard of Pain-killer for the first
-time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with
-gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water
-treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Pain-killer. She
-gave Tom a teaspoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the
-result. Her troubles were instantly at rest, her soul at peace again;
-for the "indifference" was broken up. The boy could not have shown a
-wilder, heartier interest, if she had built a fire under him.
-
-Tom felt that it was time to wake up; this sort of life might be
-romantic enough, in his blighted condition, but it was getting to have
-too little sentiment and too much distracting variety about it. So he
-thought over various plans for relief, and finally hit pon that of
-professing to be fond of Pain-killer. He asked for it so often that he
-became a nuisance, and his aunt ended by telling him to help himself
-and quit bothering her. If it had been Sid, she would have had no
-misgivings to alloy her delight; but since it was Tom, she watched the
-bottle clandestinely. She found that the medicine did really diminish,
-but it did not occur to her that the boy was mending the health of a
-crack in the sitting-room floor with it.
-
-One day Tom was in the act of dosing the crack when his aunt's yellow
-cat came along, purring, eying the teaspoon avariciously, and begging
-for a taste. Tom said:
-
-"Don't ask for it unless you want it, Peter."
-
-But Peter signified that he did want it.
-
-"You better make sure."
-
-Peter was sure.
-
-"Now you've asked for it, and I'll give it to you, because there ain't
-anything mean about me; but if you find you don't like it, you mustn't
-blame anybody but your own self."
-
-Peter was agreeable. So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the
-Pain-killer. Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then
-delivered a war-whoop and set off round and round the room, banging
-against furniture, upsetting flower-pots, and making general havoc.
-Next he rose on his hind feet and pranced around, in a frenzy of
-enjoyment, with his head over his shoulder and his voice proclaiming
-his unappeasable happiness. Then he went tearing around the house again
-spreading chaos and destruction in his path. Aunt Polly entered in time
-to see him throw a few double summersets, deliver a final mighty
-hurrah, and sail through the open window, carrying the rest of the
-flower-pots with him. The old lady stood petrified with astonishment,
-peering over her glasses; Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter.
-
-"Tom, what on earth ails that cat?"
-
-"I don't know, aunt," gasped the boy.
-
-"Why, I never see anything like it. What did make him act so?"
-
-"Deed I don't know, Aunt Polly; cats always act so when they're having
-a good time."
-
-"They do, do they?" There was something in the tone that made Tom
-apprehensive.
-
-"Yes'm. That is, I believe they do."
-
-"You DO?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-The old lady was bending down, Tom watching, with interest emphasized
-by anxiety. Too late he divined her "drift." The handle of the telltale
-teaspoon was visible under the bed-valance. Aunt Polly took it, held it
-up. Tom winced, and dropped his eyes. Aunt Polly raised him by the
-usual handle--his ear--and cracked his head soundly with her thimble.
-
-"Now, sir, what did you want to treat that poor dumb beast so, for?"
-
-"I done it out of pity for him--because he hadn't any aunt."
-
-"Hadn't any aunt!--you numskull. What has that got to do with it?"
-
-"Heaps. Because if he'd had one she'd a burnt him out herself! She'd a
-roasted his bowels out of him 'thout any more feeling than if he was a
-human!"
-
-Aunt Polly felt a sudden pang of remorse. This was putting the thing
-in a new light; what was cruelty to a cat MIGHT be cruelty to a boy,
-too. She began to soften; she felt sorry. Her eyes watered a little,
-and she put her hand on Tom's head and said gently:
-
-"I was meaning for the best, Tom. And, Tom, it DID do you good."
-
-Tom looked up in her face with just a perceptible twinkle peeping
-through his gravity.
-
-"I know you was meaning for the best, aunty, and so was I with Peter.
-It done HIM good, too. I never see him get around so since--"
-
-"Oh, go 'long with you, Tom, before you aggravate me again. And you
-try and see if you can't be a good boy, for once, and you needn't take
-any more medicine."
-
-Tom reached school ahead of time. It was noticed that this strange
-thing had been occurring every day latterly. And now, as usual of late,
-he hung about the gate of the schoolyard instead of playing with his
-comrades. He was sick, he said, and he looked it. He tried to seem to
-be looking everywhere but whither he really was looking--down the road.
-Presently Jeff Thatcher hove in sight, and Tom's face lighted; he gazed
-a moment, and then turned sorrowfully away. When Jeff arrived, Tom
-accosted him; and "led up" warily to opportunities for remark about
-Becky, but the giddy lad never could see the bait. Tom watched and
-watched, hoping whenever a frisking frock came in sight, and hating the
-owner of it as soon as he saw she was not the right one. At last frocks
-ceased to appear, and he dropped hopelessly into the dumps; he entered
-the empty schoolhouse and sat down to suffer. Then one more frock
-passed in at the gate, and Tom's heart gave a great bound. The next
-instant he was out, and "going on" like an Indian; yelling, laughing,
-chasing boys, jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb, throwing
-handsprings, standing on his head--doing all the heroic things he could
-conceive of, and keeping a furtive eye out, all the while, to see if
-Becky Thatcher was noticing. But she seemed to be unconscious of it
-all; she never looked. Could it be possible that she was not aware that
-he was there? He carried his exploits to her immediate vicinity; came
-war-whooping around, snatched a boy's cap, hurled it to the roof of the
-schoolhouse, broke through a group of boys, tumbling them in every
-direction, and fell sprawling, himself, under Becky's nose, almost
-upsetting her--and she turned, with her nose in the air, and he heard
-her say: "Mf! some people think they're mighty smart--always showing
-off!"
-
-Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed
-and crestfallen.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-TOM'S mind was made up now. He was gloomy and desperate. He was a
-forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found
-out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had
-tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since
-nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them
-blame HIM for the consequences--why shouldn't they? What right had the
-friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he
-would lead a life of crime. There was no choice.
-
-By this time he was far down Meadow Lane, and the bell for school to
-"take up" tinkled faintly upon his ear. He sobbed, now, to think he
-should never, never hear that old familiar sound any more--it was very
-hard, but it was forced on him; since he was driven out into the cold
-world, he must submit--but he forgave them. Then the sobs came thick
-and fast.
-
-Just at this point he met his soul's sworn comrade, Joe Harper
---hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart.
-Plainly here were "two souls with but a single thought." Tom, wiping
-his eyes with his sleeve, began to blubber out something about a
-resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by
-roaming abroad into the great world never to return; and ended by
-hoping that Joe would not forget him.
-
-But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been
-going to make of Tom, and had come to hunt him up for that purpose. His
-mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never
-tasted and knew nothing about; it was plain that she was tired of him
-and wished him to go; if she felt that way, there was nothing for him
-to do but succumb; he hoped she would be happy, and never regret having
-driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die.
-
-As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to
-stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death
-relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans.
-Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and
-dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to
-Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a
-life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate.
-
-Three miles below St. Petersburg, at a point where the Mississippi
-River was a trifle over a mile wide, there was a long, narrow, wooded
-island, with a shallow bar at the head of it, and this offered well as
-a rendezvous. It was not inhabited; it lay far over toward the further
-shore, abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest. So Jackson's
-Island was chosen. Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a
-matter that did not occur to them. Then they hunted up Huckleberry
-Finn, and he joined them promptly, for all careers were one to him; he
-was indifferent. They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on
-the river-bank two miles above the village at the favorite hour--which
-was midnight. There was a small log raft there which they meant to
-capture. Each would bring hooks and lines, and such provision as he
-could steal in the most dark and mysterious way--as became outlaws. And
-before the afternoon was done, they had all managed to enjoy the sweet
-glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would "hear
-something." All who got this vague hint were cautioned to "be mum and
-wait."
-
-About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles,
-and stopped in a dense undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the
-meeting-place. It was starlight, and very still. The mighty river lay
-like an ocean at rest. Tom listened a moment, but no sound disturbed the
-quiet. Then he gave a low, distinct whistle. It was answered from under
-the bluff. Tom whistled twice more; these signals were answered in the
-same way. Then a guarded voice said:
-
-"Who goes there?"
-
-"Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names."
-
-"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas." Tom
-had furnished these titles, from his favorite literature.
-
-"'Tis well. Give the countersign."
-
-Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to
-the brooding night:
-
-"BLOOD!"
-
-Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it,
-tearing both skin and clothes to some extent in the effort. There was
-an easy, comfortable path along the shore under the bluff, but it
-lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate.
-
-The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, and had about worn
-himself out with getting it there. Finn the Red-Handed had stolen a
-skillet and a quantity of half-cured leaf tobacco, and had also brought
-a few corn-cobs to make pipes with. But none of the pirates smoked or
-"chewed" but himself. The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it
-would never do to start without some fire. That was a wise thought;
-matches were hardly known there in that day. They saw a fire
-smouldering upon a great raft a hundred yards above, and they went
-stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk. They made an
-imposing adventure of it, saying, "Hist!" every now and then, and
-suddenly halting with finger on lip; moving with hands on imaginary
-dagger-hilts; and giving orders in dismal whispers that if "the foe"
-stirred, to "let him have it to the hilt," because "dead men tell no
-tales." They knew well enough that the raftsmen were all down at the
-village laying in stores or having a spree, but still that was no
-excuse for their conducting this thing in an unpiratical way.
-
-They shoved off, presently, Tom in command, Huck at the after oar and
-Joe at the forward. Tom stood amidships, gloomy-browed, and with folded
-arms, and gave his orders in a low, stern whisper:
-
-"Luff, and bring her to the wind!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Steady, steady-y-y-y!"
-
-"Steady it is, sir!"
-
-"Let her go off a point!"
-
-"Point it is, sir!"
-
-As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward mid-stream
-it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for
-"style," and were not intended to mean anything in particular.
-
-"What sail's she carrying?"
-
-"Courses, tops'ls, and flying-jib, sir."
-
-"Send the r'yals up! Lay out aloft, there, half a dozen of ye
---foretopmaststuns'l! Lively, now!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Shake out that maintogalans'l! Sheets and braces! NOW my hearties!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Hellum-a-lee--hard a port! Stand by to meet her when she comes! Port,
-port! NOW, men! With a will! Stead-y-y-y!"
-
-"Steady it is, sir!"
-
-The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her
-head right, and then lay on their oars. The river was not high, so
-there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
-said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was
-passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed
-where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of
-star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.
-The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
-the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
-"she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death
-with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips.
-It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson's Island
-beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he "looked his last" with a
-broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last,
-too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the
-current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered
-the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two o'clock in
-the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the
-head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed
-their freight. Part of the little raft's belongings consisted of an old
-sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to
-shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open
-air in good weather, as became outlaws.
-
-They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
-steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
-bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn "pone"
-stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
-wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
-island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
-return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
-its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
-and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.
-
-When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of
-corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass,
-filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they
-would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting
-camp-fire.
-
-"AIN'T it gay?" said Joe.
-
-"It's NUTS!" said Tom. "What would the boys say if they could see us?"
-
-"Say? Well, they'd just die to be here--hey, Hucky!"
-
-"I reckon so," said Huckleberry; "anyways, I'm suited. I don't want
-nothing better'n this. I don't ever get enough to eat, gen'ally--and
-here they can't come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so."
-
-"It's just the life for me," said Tom. "You don't have to get up,
-mornings, and you don't have to go to school, and wash, and all that
-blame foolishness. You see a pirate don't have to do ANYTHING, Joe,
-when he's ashore, but a hermit HE has to be praying considerable, and
-then he don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way."
-
-"Oh yes, that's so," said Joe, "but I hadn't thought much about it,
-you know. I'd a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I've tried it."
-
-"You see," said Tom, "people don't go much on hermits, nowadays, like
-they used to in old times, but a pirate's always respected. And a
-hermit's got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put
-sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and--"
-
-"What does he put sackcloth and ashes on his head for?" inquired Huck.
-
-"I dono. But they've GOT to do it. Hermits always do. You'd have to do
-that if you was a hermit."
-
-"Dern'd if I would," said Huck.
-
-"Well, what would you do?"
-
-"I dono. But I wouldn't do that."
-
-"Why, Huck, you'd HAVE to. How'd you get around it?"
-
-"Why, I just wouldn't stand it. I'd run away."
-
-"Run away! Well, you WOULD be a nice old slouch of a hermit. You'd be
-a disgrace."
-
-The Red-Handed made no response, being better employed. He had
-finished gouging out a cob, and now he fitted a weed stem to it, loaded
-it with tobacco, and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a
-cloud of fragrant smoke--he was in the full bloom of luxurious
-contentment. The other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and
-secretly resolved to acquire it shortly. Presently Huck said:
-
-"What does pirates have to do?"
-
-Tom said:
-
-"Oh, they have just a bully time--take ships and burn them, and get
-the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's
-ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships--make
-'em walk a plank."
-
-"And they carry the women to the island," said Joe; "they don't kill
-the women."
-
-"No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women--they're too noble. And
-the women's always beautiful, too.
-
-"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver
-and di'monds," said Joe, with enthusiasm.
-
-"Who?" said Huck.
-
-"Why, the pirates."
-
-Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly.
-
-"I reckon I ain't dressed fitten for a pirate," said he, with a
-regretful pathos in his voice; "but I ain't got none but these."
-
-But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough,
-after they should have begun their adventures. They made him understand
-that his poor rags would do to begin with, though it was customary for
-wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
-
-Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the
-eyelids of the little waifs. The pipe dropped from the fingers of the
-Red-Handed, and he slept the sleep of the conscience-free and the
-weary. The Terror of the Seas and the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main
-had more difficulty in getting to sleep. They said their prayers
-inwardly, and lying down, since there was nobody there with authority
-to make them kneel and recite aloud; in truth, they had a mind not to
-say them at all, but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as
-that, lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from
-heaven. Then at once they reached and hovered upon the imminent verge
-of sleep--but an intruder came, now, that would not "down." It was
-conscience. They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing
-wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then
-the real torture came. They tried to argue it away by reminding
-conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of
-times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin
-plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no
-getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only
-"hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain
-simple stealing--and there was a command against that in the Bible. So
-they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business,
-their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing.
-Then conscience granted a truce, and these curiously inconsistent
-pirates fell peacefully to sleep.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-WHEN Tom awoke in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up and
-rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was the
-cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in
-the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a leaf stirred;
-not a sound obtruded upon great Nature's meditation. Beaded dewdrops
-stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of ashes covered the
-fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air. Joe
-and Huck still slept.
-
-Now, far away in the woods a bird called; another answered; presently
-the hammering of a woodpecker was heard. Gradually the cool dim gray of
-the morning whitened, and as gradually sounds multiplied and life
-manifested itself. The marvel of Nature shaking off sleep and going to
-work unfolded itself to the musing boy. A little green worm came
-crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds of his body into the air
-from time to time and "sniffing around," then proceeding again--for he
-was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm approached him, of its own
-accord, he sat as still as a stone, with his hopes rising and falling,
-by turns, as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to
-go elsewhere; and when at last it considered a painful moment with its
-curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Tom's leg and
-began a journey over him, his whole heart was glad--for that meant that
-he was going to have a new suit of clothes--without the shadow of a
-doubt a gaudy piratical uniform. Now a procession of ants appeared,
-from nowhere in particular, and went about their labors; one struggled
-manfully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms,
-and lugged it straight up a tree-trunk. A brown spotted lady-bug
-climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to
-it and said, "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire,
-your children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it
---which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was
-credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its
-simplicity more than once. A tumblebug came next, heaving sturdily at
-its ball, and Tom touched the creature, to see it shut its legs against
-its body and pretend to be dead. The birds were fairly rioting by this
-time. A catbird, the Northern mocker, lit in a tree over Tom's head,
-and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a rapture of
-enjoyment; then a shrill jay swept down, a flash of blue flame, and
-stopped on a twig almost within the boy's reach, cocked his head to one
-side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity; a gray squirrel
-and a big fellow of the "fox" kind came skurrying along, sitting up at
-intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys, for the wild things had
-probably never seen a human being before and scarcely knew whether to
-be afraid or not. All Nature was wide awake and stirring, now; long
-lances of sunlight pierced down through the dense foliage far and near,
-and a few butterflies came fluttering upon the scene.
-
-Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a
-shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and
-tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white
-sandbar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the
-distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a
-slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only
-gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge
-between them and civilization.
-
-They came back to camp wonderfully refreshed, glad-hearted, and
-ravenous; and they soon had the camp-fire blazing up again. Huck found
-a spring of clear cold water close by, and the boys made cups of broad
-oak or hickory leaves, and felt that water, sweetened with such a
-wildwood charm as that, would be a good enough substitute for coffee.
-While Joe was slicing bacon for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him to
-hold on a minute; they stepped to a promising nook in the river-bank
-and threw in their lines; almost immediately they had reward. Joe had
-not had time to get impatient before they were back again with some
-handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a small catfish--provisions
-enough for quite a family. They fried the fish with the bacon, and were
-astonished; for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did
-not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire after he is
-caught the better he is; and they reflected little upon what a sauce
-open-air sleeping, open-air exercise, bathing, and a large ingredient
-of hunger make, too.
-
-They lay around in the shade, after breakfast, while Huck had a smoke,
-and then went off through the woods on an exploring expedition. They
-tramped gayly along, over decaying logs, through tangled underbrush,
-among solemn monarchs of the forest, hung from their crowns to the
-ground with a drooping regalia of grape-vines. Now and then they came
-upon snug nooks carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers.
-
-They found plenty of things to be delighted with, but nothing to be
-astonished at. They discovered that the island was about three miles
-long and a quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to
-was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards
-wide. They took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the
-middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp. They were too
-hungry to stop to fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and
-then threw themselves down in the shade to talk. But the talk soon
-began to drag, and then died. The stillness, the solemnity that brooded
-in the woods, and the sense of loneliness, began to tell upon the
-spirits of the boys. They fell to thinking. A sort of undefined longing
-crept upon them. This took dim shape, presently--it was budding
-homesickness. Even Finn the Red-Handed was dreaming of his doorsteps
-and empty hogsheads. But they were all ashamed of their weakness, and
-none was brave enough to speak his thought.
-
-For some time, now, the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar
-sound in the distance, just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a
-clock which he takes no distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound
-became more pronounced, and forced a recognition. The boys started,
-glanced at each other, and then each assumed a listening attitude.
-There was a long silence, profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen
-boom came floating down out of the distance.
-
-"What is it!" exclaimed Joe, under his breath.
-
-"I wonder," said Tom in a whisper.
-
-"'Tain't thunder," said Huckleberry, in an awed tone, "becuz thunder--"
-
-"Hark!" said Tom. "Listen--don't talk."
-
-They waited a time that seemed an age, and then the same muffled boom
-troubled the solemn hush.
-
-"Let's go and see."
-
-They sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town.
-They parted the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water. The
-little steam ferryboat was about a mile below the village, drifting
-with the current. Her broad deck seemed crowded with people. There were
-a great many skiffs rowing about or floating with the stream in the
-neighborhood of the ferryboat, but the boys could not determine what
-the men in them were doing. Presently a great jet of white smoke burst
-from the ferryboat's side, and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud,
-that same dull throb of sound was borne to the listeners again.
-
-"I know now!" exclaimed Tom; "somebody's drownded!"
-
-"That's it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner
-got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him
-come up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put
-quicksilver in 'em and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody
-that's drownded, they'll float right there and stop."
-
-"Yes, I've heard about that," said Joe. "I wonder what makes the bread
-do that."
-
-"Oh, it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly
-what they SAY over it before they start it out."
-
-"But they don't say anything over it," said Huck. "I've seen 'em and
-they don't."
-
-"Well, that's funny," said Tom. "But maybe they say it to themselves.
-Of COURSE they do. Anybody might know that."
-
-The other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said, because
-an ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by an incantation, could not be
-expected to act very intelligently when set upon an errand of such
-gravity.
-
-"By jings, I wish I was over there, now," said Joe.
-
-"I do too" said Huck "I'd give heaps to know who it is."
-
-The boys still listened and watched. Presently a revealing thought
-flashed through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed:
-
-"Boys, I know who's drownded--it's us!"
-
-They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they
-were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account;
-tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor
-lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being
-indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole
-town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety
-was concerned. This was fine. It was worth while to be a pirate, after
-all.
-
-As twilight drew on, the ferryboat went back to her accustomed
-business and the skiffs disappeared. The pirates returned to camp. They
-were jubilant with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious
-trouble they were making. They caught fish, cooked supper and ate it,
-and then fell to guessing at what the village was thinking and saying
-about them; and the pictures they drew of the public distress on their
-account were gratifying to look upon--from their point of view. But
-when the shadows of night closed them in, they gradually ceased to
-talk, and sat gazing into the fire, with their minds evidently
-wandering elsewhere. The excitement was gone, now, and Tom and Joe
-could not keep back thoughts of certain persons at home who were not
-enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were. Misgivings came; they
-grew troubled and unhappy; a sigh or two escaped, unawares. By and by
-Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout "feeler" as to how the others
-might look upon a return to civilization--not right now, but--
-
-Tom withered him with derision! Huck, being uncommitted as yet, joined
-in with Tom, and the waverer quickly "explained," and was glad to get
-out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken-hearted homesickness
-clinging to his garments as he could. Mutiny was effectually laid to
-rest for the moment.
-
-As the night deepened, Huck began to nod, and presently to snore. Joe
-followed next. Tom lay upon his elbow motionless, for some time,
-watching the two intently. At last he got up cautiously, on his knees,
-and went searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung
-by the camp-fire. He picked up and inspected several large
-semi-cylinders of the thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose
-two which seemed to suit him. Then he knelt by the fire and painfully
-wrote something upon each of these with his "red keel"; one he rolled up
-and put in his jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and
-removed it to a little distance from the owner. And he also put into the
-hat certain schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value--among them
-a lump of chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of that
-kind of marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal." Then he tiptoed his
-way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing,
-and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sandbar.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-A FEW minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading
-toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was
-half-way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he
-struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam
-quartering upstream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he
-had expected. However, he reached the shore finally, and drifted along
-till he found a low place and drew himself out. He put his hand on his
-jacket pocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through
-the woods, following the shore, with streaming garments. Shortly before
-ten o'clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and
-saw the ferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank.
-Everything was quiet under the blinking stars. He crept down the bank,
-watching with all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four
-strokes and climbed into the skiff that did "yawl" duty at the boat's
-stern. He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting.
-
-Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to "cast
-off." A minute or two later the skiff's head was standing high up,
-against the boat's swell, and the voyage was begun. Tom felt happy in
-his success, for he knew it was the boat's last trip for the night. At
-the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and Tom
-slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards
-downstream, out of danger of possible stragglers.
-
-He flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his
-aunt's back fence. He climbed over, approached the "ell," and looked in
-at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. There sat
-Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother, grouped together,
-talking. They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the
-door. Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then he
-pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing
-cautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might
-squeeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began,
-warily.
-
-"What makes the candle blow so?" said Aunt Polly. Tom hurried up.
-"Why, that door's open, I believe. Why, of course it is. No end of
-strange things now. Go 'long and shut it, Sid."
-
-Tom disappeared under the bed just in time. He lay and "breathed"
-himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his
-aunt's foot.
-
-"But as I was saying," said Aunt Polly, "he warn't BAD, so to say
---only mischEEvous. Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. He
-warn't any more responsible than a colt. HE never meant any harm, and
-he was the best-hearted boy that ever was"--and she began to cry.
-
-"It was just so with my Joe--always full of his devilment, and up to
-every kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he
-could be--and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking
-that cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself
-because it was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never,
-never, never, poor abused boy!" And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart
-would break.
-
-"I hope Tom's better off where he is," said Sid, "but if he'd been
-better in some ways--"
-
-"SID!" Tom felt the glare of the old lady's eye, though he could not
-see it. "Not a word against my Tom, now that he's gone! God'll take
-care of HIM--never you trouble YOURself, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don't
-know how to give him up! I don't know how to give him up! He was such a
-comfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, 'most."
-
-"The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away--Blessed be the name of
-the Lord! But it's so hard--Oh, it's so hard! Only last Saturday my
-Joe busted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him
-sprawling. Little did I know then, how soon--Oh, if it was to do over
-again I'd hug him and bless him for it."
-
-"Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just
-exactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took
-and filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur
-would tear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom's head
-with my thimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he's out of all his
-troubles now. And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach--"
-
-But this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely
-down. Tom was snuffling, now, himself--and more in pity of himself than
-anybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word
-for him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself
-than ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's
-grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with
-joy--and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to
-his nature, too, but he resisted and lay still.
-
-He went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was
-conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim;
-then the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the
-missing lads had promised that the village should "hear something"
-soon; the wise-heads had "put this and that together" and decided that
-the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town
-below, presently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged
-against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village
---and then hope perished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have
-driven them home by nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the
-search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the
-drowning must have occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good
-swimmers, would otherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday
-night. If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be
-given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning. Tom
-shuddered.
-
-Mrs. Harper gave a sobbing good-night and turned to go. Then with a
-mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each
-other's arms and had a good, consoling cry, and then parted. Aunt Polly
-was tender far beyond her wont, in her good-night to Sid and Mary. Sid
-snuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart.
-
-Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so
-appealingly, and with such measureless love in her words and her old
-trembling voice, that he was weltering in tears again, long before she
-was through.
-
-He had to keep still long after she went to bed, for she kept making
-broken-hearted ejaculations from time to time, tossing unrestfully, and
-turning over. But at last she was still, only moaning a little in her
-sleep. Now the boy stole out, rose gradually by the bedside, shaded the
-candle-light with his hand, and stood regarding her. His heart was full
-of pity for her. He took out his sycamore scroll and placed it by the
-candle. But something occurred to him, and he lingered considering. His
-face lighted with a happy solution of his thought; he put the bark
-hastily in his pocket. Then he bent over and kissed the faded lips, and
-straightway made his stealthy exit, latching the door behind him.
-
-He threaded his way back to the ferry landing, found nobody at large
-there, and walked boldly on board the boat, for he knew she was
-tenantless except that there was a watchman, who always turned in and
-slept like a graven image. He untied the skiff at the stern, slipped
-into it, and was soon rowing cautiously upstream. When he had pulled a
-mile above the village, he started quartering across and bent himself
-stoutly to his work. He hit the landing on the other side neatly, for
-this was a familiar bit of work to him. He was moved to capture the
-skiff, arguing that it might be considered a ship and therefore
-legitimate prey for a pirate, but he knew a thorough search would be
-made for it and that might end in revelations. So he stepped ashore and
-entered the woods.
-
-He sat down and took a long rest, torturing himself meanwhile to keep
-awake, and then started warily down the home-stretch. The night was far
-spent. It was broad daylight before he found himself fairly abreast the
-island bar. He rested again until the sun was well up and gilding the
-great river with its splendor, and then he plunged into the stream. A
-little later he paused, dripping, upon the threshold of the camp, and
-heard Joe say:
-
-"No, Tom's true-blue, Huck, and he'll come back. He won't desert. He
-knows that would be a disgrace to a pirate, and Tom's too proud for
-that sort of thing. He's up to something or other. Now I wonder what?"
-
-"Well, the things is ours, anyway, ain't they?"
-
-"Pretty near, but not yet, Huck. The writing says they are if he ain't
-back here to breakfast."
-
-"Which he is!" exclaimed Tom, with fine dramatic effect, stepping
-grandly into camp.
-
-A sumptuous breakfast of bacon and fish was shortly provided, and as
-the boys set to work upon it, Tom recounted (and adorned) his
-adventures. They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the
-tale was done. Then Tom hid himself away in a shady nook to sleep till
-noon, and the other pirates got ready to fish and explore.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-AFTER dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the
-bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a
-soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands.
-Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole. They
-were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English
-walnut. They had a famous fried-egg feast that night, and another on
-Friday morning.
-
-After breakfast they went whooping and prancing out on the bar, and
-chased each other round and round, shedding clothes as they went, until
-they were naked, and then continued the frolic far away up the shoal
-water of the bar, against the stiff current, which latter tripped their
-legs from under them from time to time and greatly increased the fun.
-And now and then they stooped in a group and splashed water in each
-other's faces with their palms, gradually approaching each other, with
-averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays, and finally gripping and
-struggling till the best man ducked his neighbor, and then they all
-went under in a tangle of white legs and arms and came up blowing,
-sputtering, laughing, and gasping for breath at one and the same time.
-
-When they were well exhausted, they would run out and sprawl on the
-dry, hot sand, and lie there and cover themselves up with it, and by
-and by break for the water again and go through the original
-performance once more. Finally it occurred to them that their naked
-skin represented flesh-colored "tights" very fairly; so they drew a
-ring in the sand and had a circus--with three clowns in it, for none
-would yield this proudest post to his neighbor.
-
-Next they got their marbles and played "knucks" and "ring-taw" and
-"keeps" till that amusement grew stale. Then Joe and Huck had another
-swim, but Tom would not venture, because he found that in kicking off
-his trousers he had kicked his string of rattlesnake rattles off his
-ankle, and he wondered how he had escaped cramp so long without the
-protection of this mysterious charm. He did not venture again until he
-had found it, and by that time the other boys were tired and ready to
-rest. They gradually wandered apart, dropped into the "dumps," and fell
-to gazing longingly across the wide river to where the village lay
-drowsing in the sun. Tom found himself writing "BECKY" in the sand with
-his big toe; he scratched it out, and was angry with himself for his
-weakness. But he wrote it again, nevertheless; he could not help it. He
-erased it once more and then took himself out of temptation by driving
-the other boys together and joining them.
-
-But Joe's spirits had gone down almost beyond resurrection. He was so
-homesick that he could hardly endure the misery of it. The tears lay
-very near the surface. Huck was melancholy, too. Tom was downhearted,
-but tried hard not to show it. He had a secret which he was not ready
-to tell, yet, but if this mutinous depression was not broken up soon,
-he would have to bring it out. He said, with a great show of
-cheerfulness:
-
-"I bet there's been pirates on this island before, boys. We'll explore
-it again. They've hid treasures here somewhere. How'd you feel to light
-on a rotten chest full of gold and silver--hey?"
-
-But it roused only faint enthusiasm, which faded out, with no reply.
-Tom tried one or two other seductions; but they failed, too. It was
-discouraging work. Joe sat poking up the sand with a stick and looking
-very gloomy. Finally he said:
-
-"Oh, boys, let's give it up. I want to go home. It's so lonesome."
-
-"Oh no, Joe, you'll feel better by and by," said Tom. "Just think of
-the fishing that's here."
-
-"I don't care for fishing. I want to go home."
-
-"But, Joe, there ain't such another swimming-place anywhere."
-
-"Swimming's no good. I don't seem to care for it, somehow, when there
-ain't anybody to say I sha'n't go in. I mean to go home."
-
-"Oh, shucks! Baby! You want to see your mother, I reckon."
-
-"Yes, I DO want to see my mother--and you would, too, if you had one.
-I ain't any more baby than you are." And Joe snuffled a little.
-
-"Well, we'll let the cry-baby go home to his mother, won't we, Huck?
-Poor thing--does it want to see its mother? And so it shall. You like
-it here, don't you, Huck? We'll stay, won't we?"
-
-Huck said, "Y-e-s"--without any heart in it.
-
-"I'll never speak to you again as long as I live," said Joe, rising.
-"There now!" And he moved moodily away and began to dress himself.
-
-"Who cares!" said Tom. "Nobody wants you to. Go 'long home and get
-laughed at. Oh, you're a nice pirate. Huck and me ain't cry-babies.
-We'll stay, won't we, Huck? Let him go if he wants to. I reckon we can
-get along without him, per'aps."
-
-But Tom was uneasy, nevertheless, and was alarmed to see Joe go
-sullenly on with his dressing. And then it was discomforting to see
-Huck eying Joe's preparations so wistfully, and keeping up such an
-ominous silence. Presently, without a parting word, Joe began to wade
-off toward the Illinois shore. Tom's heart began to sink. He glanced at
-Huck. Huck could not bear the look, and dropped his eyes. Then he said:
-
-"I want to go, too, Tom. It was getting so lonesome anyway, and now
-it'll be worse. Let's us go, too, Tom."
-
-"I won't! You can all go, if you want to. I mean to stay."
-
-"Tom, I better go."
-
-"Well, go 'long--who's hendering you."
-
-Huck began to pick up his scattered clothes. He said:
-
-"Tom, I wisht you'd come, too. Now you think it over. We'll wait for
-you when we get to shore."
-
-"Well, you'll wait a blame long time, that's all."
-
-Huck started sorrowfully away, and Tom stood looking after him, with a
-strong desire tugging at his heart to yield his pride and go along too.
-He hoped the boys would stop, but they still waded slowly on. It
-suddenly dawned on Tom that it was become very lonely and still. He
-made one final struggle with his pride, and then darted after his
-comrades, yelling:
-
-"Wait! Wait! I want to tell you something!"
-
-They presently stopped and turned around. When he got to where they
-were, he began unfolding his secret, and they listened moodily till at
-last they saw the "point" he was driving at, and then they set up a
-war-whoop of applause and said it was "splendid!" and said if he had
-told them at first, they wouldn't have started away. He made a plausible
-excuse; but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret
-would keep them with him any very great length of time, and so he had
-meant to hold it in reserve as a last seduction.
-
-The lads came gayly back and went at their sports again with a will,
-chattering all the time about Tom's stupendous plan and admiring the
-genius of it. After a dainty egg and fish dinner, Tom said he wanted to
-learn to smoke, now. Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to
-try, too. So Huck made pipes and filled them. These novices had never
-smoked anything before but cigars made of grape-vine, and they "bit"
-the tongue, and were not considered manly anyway.
-
-Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff,
-charily, and with slender confidence. The smoke had an unpleasant
-taste, and they gagged a little, but Tom said:
-
-"Why, it's just as easy! If I'd a knowed this was all, I'd a learnt
-long ago."
-
-"So would I," said Joe. "It's just nothing."
-
-"Why, many a time I've looked at people smoking, and thought well I
-wish I could do that; but I never thought I could," said Tom.
-
-"That's just the way with me, hain't it, Huck? You've heard me talk
-just that way--haven't you, Huck? I'll leave it to Huck if I haven't."
-
-"Yes--heaps of times," said Huck.
-
-"Well, I have too," said Tom; "oh, hundreds of times. Once down by the
-slaughter-house. Don't you remember, Huck? Bob Tanner was there, and
-Johnny Miller, and Jeff Thatcher, when I said it. Don't you remember,
-Huck, 'bout me saying that?"
-
-"Yes, that's so," said Huck. "That was the day after I lost a white
-alley. No, 'twas the day before."
-
-"There--I told you so," said Tom. "Huck recollects it."
-
-"I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day," said Joe. "I don't feel
-sick."
-
-"Neither do I," said Tom. "I could smoke it all day. But I bet you
-Jeff Thatcher couldn't."
-
-"Jeff Thatcher! Why, he'd keel over just with two draws. Just let him
-try it once. HE'D see!"
-
-"I bet he would. And Johnny Miller--I wish could see Johnny Miller
-tackle it once."
-
-"Oh, don't I!" said Joe. "Why, I bet you Johnny Miller couldn't any
-more do this than nothing. Just one little snifter would fetch HIM."
-
-"'Deed it would, Joe. Say--I wish the boys could see us now."
-
-"So do I."
-
-"Say--boys, don't say anything about it, and some time when they're
-around, I'll come up to you and say, 'Joe, got a pipe? I want a smoke.'
-And you'll say, kind of careless like, as if it warn't anything, you'll
-say, 'Yes, I got my OLD pipe, and another one, but my tobacker ain't
-very good.' And I'll say, 'Oh, that's all right, if it's STRONG
-enough.' And then you'll out with the pipes, and we'll light up just as
-ca'm, and then just see 'em look!"
-
-"By jings, that'll be gay, Tom! I wish it was NOW!"
-
-"So do I! And when we tell 'em we learned when we was off pirating,
-won't they wish they'd been along?"
-
-"Oh, I reckon not! I'll just BET they will!"
-
-So the talk ran on. But presently it began to flag a trifle, and grow
-disjointed. The silences widened; the expectoration marvellously
-increased. Every pore inside the boys' cheeks became a spouting
-fountain; they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues
-fast enough to prevent an inundation; little overflowings down their
-throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and sudden retchings
-followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and miserable,
-now. Joe's pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom's followed.
-Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might
-and main. Joe said feebly:
-
-"I've lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it."
-
-Tom said, with quivering lips and halting utterance:
-
-"I'll help you. You go over that way and I'll hunt around by the
-spring. No, you needn't come, Huck--we can find it."
-
-So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it lonesome,
-and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods, both
-very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they
-had had any trouble they had got rid of it.
-
-They were not talkative at supper that night. They had a humble look,
-and when Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare
-theirs, they said no, they were not feeling very well--something they
-ate at dinner had disagreed with them.
-
-About midnight Joe awoke, and called the boys. There was a brooding
-oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something. The boys
-huddled themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of
-the fire, though the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was
-stifling. They sat still, intent and waiting. The solemn hush
-continued. Beyond the light of the fire everything was swallowed up in
-the blackness of darkness. Presently there came a quivering glow that
-vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished. By and by
-another came, a little stronger. Then another. Then a faint moan came
-sighing through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting
-breath upon their cheeks, and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit
-of the Night had gone by. There was a pause. Now a weird flash turned
-night into day and showed every little grass-blade, separate and
-distinct, that grew about their feet. And it showed three white,
-startled faces, too. A deep peal of thunder went rolling and tumbling
-down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. A
-sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the
-flaky ashes broadcast about the fire. Another fierce glare lit up the
-forest and an instant crash followed that seemed to rend the tree-tops
-right over the boys' heads. They clung together in terror, in the thick
-gloom that followed. A few big rain-drops fell pattering upon the
-leaves.
-
-"Quick! boys, go for the tent!" exclaimed Tom.
-
-They sprang away, stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark, no
-two plunging in the same direction. A furious blast roared through the
-trees, making everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after
-another came, and peal on peal of deafening thunder. And now a
-drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets
-along the ground. The boys cried out to each other, but the roaring
-wind and the booming thunder-blasts drowned their voices utterly.
-However, one by one they straggled in at last and took shelter under
-the tent, cold, scared, and streaming with water; but to have company
-in misery seemed something to be grateful for. They could not talk, the
-old sail flapped so furiously, even if the other noises would have
-allowed them. The tempest rose higher and higher, and presently the
-sail tore loose from its fastenings and went winging away on the blast.
-The boys seized each others' hands and fled, with many tumblings and
-bruises, to the shelter of a great oak that stood upon the river-bank.
-Now the battle was at its highest. Under the ceaseless conflagration of
-lightning that flamed in the skies, everything below stood out in
-clean-cut and shadowless distinctness: the bending trees, the billowy
-river, white with foam, the driving spray of spume-flakes, the dim
-outlines of the high bluffs on the other side, glimpsed through the
-drifting cloud-rack and the slanting veil of rain. Every little while
-some giant tree yielded the fight and fell crashing through the younger
-growth; and the unflagging thunder-peals came now in ear-splitting
-explosive bursts, keen and sharp, and unspeakably appalling. The storm
-culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island
-to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the tree-tops, blow it away, and
-deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. It was a
-wild night for homeless young heads to be out in.
-
-But at last the battle was done, and the forces retired with weaker
-and weaker threatenings and grumblings, and peace resumed her sway. The
-boys went back to camp, a good deal awed; but they found there was
-still something to be thankful for, because the great sycamore, the
-shelter of their beds, was a ruin, now, blasted by the lightnings, and
-they were not under it when the catastrophe happened.
-
-Everything in camp was drenched, the camp-fire as well; for they were
-but heedless lads, like their generation, and had made no provision
-against rain. Here was matter for dismay, for they were soaked through
-and chilled. They were eloquent in their distress; but they presently
-discovered that the fire had eaten so far up under the great log it had
-been built against (where it curved upward and separated itself from
-the ground), that a handbreadth or so of it had escaped wetting; so
-they patiently wrought until, with shreds and bark gathered from the
-under sides of sheltered logs, they coaxed the fire to burn again. Then
-they piled on great dead boughs till they had a roaring furnace, and
-were glad-hearted once more. They dried their boiled ham and had a
-feast, and after that they sat by the fire and expanded and glorified
-their midnight adventure until morning, for there was not a dry spot to
-sleep on, anywhere around.
-
-As the sun began to steal in upon the boys, drowsiness came over them,
-and they went out on the sandbar and lay down to sleep. They got
-scorched out by and by, and drearily set about getting breakfast. After
-the meal they felt rusty, and stiff-jointed, and a little homesick once
-more. Tom saw the signs, and fell to cheering up the pirates as well as
-he could. But they cared nothing for marbles, or circus, or swimming,
-or anything. He reminded them of the imposing secret, and raised a ray
-of cheer. While it lasted, he got them interested in a new device. This
-was to knock off being pirates, for a while, and be Indians for a
-change. They were attracted by this idea; so it was not long before
-they were stripped, and striped from head to heel with black mud, like
-so many zebras--all of them chiefs, of course--and then they went
-tearing through the woods to attack an English settlement.
-
-By and by they separated into three hostile tribes, and darted upon
-each other from ambush with dreadful war-whoops, and killed and scalped
-each other by thousands. It was a gory day. Consequently it was an
-extremely satisfactory one.
-
-They assembled in camp toward supper-time, hungry and happy; but now a
-difficulty arose--hostile Indians could not break the bread of
-hospitality together without first making peace, and this was a simple
-impossibility without smoking a pipe of peace. There was no other
-process that ever they had heard of. Two of the savages almost wished
-they had remained pirates. However, there was no other way; so with
-such show of cheerfulness as they could muster they called for the pipe
-and took their whiff as it passed, in due form.
-
-And behold, they were glad they had gone into savagery, for they had
-gained something; they found that they could now smoke a little without
-having to go and hunt for a lost knife; they did not get sick enough to
-be seriously uncomfortable. They were not likely to fool away this high
-promise for lack of effort. No, they practised cautiously, after
-supper, with right fair success, and so they spent a jubilant evening.
-They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would
-have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations. We will
-leave them to smoke and chatter and brag, since we have no further use
-for them at present.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-BUT there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil
-Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family, were being
-put into mourning, with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet
-possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all
-conscience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air,
-and talked little; but they sighed often. The Saturday holiday seemed a
-burden to the children. They had no heart in their sports, and
-gradually gave them up.
-
-In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the
-deserted schoolhouse yard, and feeling very melancholy. But she found
-nothing there to comfort her. She soliloquized:
-
-"Oh, if I only had a brass andiron-knob again! But I haven't got
-anything now to remember him by." And she choked back a little sob.
-
-Presently she stopped, and said to herself:
-
-"It was right here. Oh, if it was to do over again, I wouldn't say
-that--I wouldn't say it for the whole world. But he's gone now; I'll
-never, never, never see him any more."
-
-This thought broke her down, and she wandered away, with tears rolling
-down her cheeks. Then quite a group of boys and girls--playmates of
-Tom's and Joe's--came by, and stood looking over the paling fence and
-talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so-and-so the last time they
-saw him, and how Joe said this and that small trifle (pregnant with
-awful prophecy, as they could easily see now!)--and each speaker
-pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time, and
-then added something like "and I was a-standing just so--just as I am
-now, and as if you was him--I was as close as that--and he smiled, just
-this way--and then something seemed to go all over me, like--awful, you
-know--and I never thought what it meant, of course, but I can see now!"
-
-Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life, and
-many claimed that dismal distinction, and offered evidences, more or
-less tampered with by the witness; and when it was ultimately decided
-who DID see the departed last, and exchanged the last words with them,
-the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance, and
-were gaped at and envied by all the rest. One poor chap, who had no
-other grandeur to offer, said with tolerably manifest pride in the
-remembrance:
-
-"Well, Tom Sawyer he licked me once."
-
-But that bid for glory was a failure. Most of the boys could say that,
-and so that cheapened the distinction too much. The group loitered
-away, still recalling memories of the lost heroes, in awed voices.
-
-When the Sunday-school hour was finished, the next morning, the bell
-began to toll, instead of ringing in the usual way. It was a very still
-Sabbath, and the mournful sound seemed in keeping with the musing hush
-that lay upon nature. The villagers began to gather, loitering a moment
-in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the sad event. But there
-was no whispering in the house; only the funereal rustling of dresses
-as the women gathered to their seats disturbed the silence there. None
-could remember when the little church had been so full before. There
-was finally a waiting pause, an expectant dumbness, and then Aunt Polly
-entered, followed by Sid and Mary, and they by the Harper family, all
-in deep black, and the whole congregation, the old minister as well,
-rose reverently and stood until the mourners were seated in the front
-pew. There was another communing silence, broken at intervals by
-muffled sobs, and then the minister spread his hands abroad and prayed.
-A moving hymn was sung, and the text followed: "I am the Resurrection
-and the Life."
-
-As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the
-graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that
-every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in
-remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always
-before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor
-boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the
-departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the
-people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes
-were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had
-seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The
-congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on,
-till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping
-mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way
-to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.
-
-There was a rustle in the gallery, which nobody noticed; a moment
-later the church door creaked; the minister raised his streaming eyes
-above his handkerchief, and stood transfixed! First one and then
-another pair of eyes followed the minister's, and then almost with one
-impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came
-marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of
-drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in
-the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!
-
-Aunt Polly, Mary, and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored
-ones, smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings, while
-poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to
-do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes. He wavered, and
-started to slink away, but Tom seized him and said:
-
-"Aunt Polly, it ain't fair. Somebody's got to be glad to see Huck."
-
-"And so they shall. I'm glad to see him, poor motherless thing!" And
-the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing
-capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before.
-
-Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice: "Praise God
-from whom all blessings flow--SING!--and put your hearts in it!"
-
-And they did. Old Hundred swelled up with a triumphant burst, and
-while it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer the Pirate looked around upon the
-envying juveniles about him and confessed in his heart that this was
-the proudest moment of his life.
-
-As the "sold" congregation trooped out they said they would almost be
-willing to be made ridiculous again to hear Old Hundred sung like that
-once more.
-
-Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day--according to Aunt Polly's
-varying moods--than he had earned before in a year; and he hardly knew
-which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-THAT was Tom's great secret--the scheme to return home with his
-brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over to
-the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or six
-miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge of the
-town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back lanes and
-alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a
-chaos of invalided benches.
-
-At breakfast, Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to
-Tom, and very attentive to his wants. There was an unusual amount of
-talk. In the course of it Aunt Polly said:
-
-"Well, I don't say it wasn't a fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody
-suffering 'most a week so you boys had a good time, but it is a pity
-you could be so hard-hearted as to let me suffer so. If you could come
-over on a log to go to your funeral, you could have come over and give
-me a hint some way that you warn't dead, but only run off."
-
-"Yes, you could have done that, Tom," said Mary; "and I believe you
-would if you had thought of it."
-
-"Would you, Tom?" said Aunt Polly, her face lighting wistfully. "Say,
-now, would you, if you'd thought of it?"
-
-"I--well, I don't know. 'Twould 'a' spoiled everything."
-
-"Tom, I hoped you loved me that much," said Aunt Polly, with a grieved
-tone that discomforted the boy. "It would have been something if you'd
-cared enough to THINK of it, even if you didn't DO it."
-
-"Now, auntie, that ain't any harm," pleaded Mary; "it's only Tom's
-giddy way--he is always in such a rush that he never thinks of
-anything."
-
-"More's the pity. Sid would have thought. And Sid would have come and
-DONE it, too. Tom, you'll look back, some day, when it's too late, and
-wish you'd cared a little more for me when it would have cost you so
-little."
-
-"Now, auntie, you know I do care for you," said Tom.
-
-"I'd know it better if you acted more like it."
-
-"I wish now I'd thought," said Tom, with a repentant tone; "but I
-dreamt about you, anyway. That's something, ain't it?"
-
-"It ain't much--a cat does that much--but it's better than nothing.
-What did you dream?"
-
-"Why, Wednesday night I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the
-bed, and Sid was sitting by the woodbox, and Mary next to him."
-
-"Well, so we did. So we always do. I'm glad your dreams could take
-even that much trouble about us."
-
-"And I dreamt that Joe Harper's mother was here."
-
-"Why, she was here! Did you dream any more?"
-
-"Oh, lots. But it's so dim, now."
-
-"Well, try to recollect--can't you?"
-
-"Somehow it seems to me that the wind--the wind blowed the--the--"
-
-"Try harder, Tom! The wind did blow something. Come!"
-
-Tom pressed his fingers on his forehead an anxious minute, and then
-said:
-
-"I've got it now! I've got it now! It blowed the candle!"
-
-"Mercy on us! Go on, Tom--go on!"
-
-"And it seems to me that you said, 'Why, I believe that that door--'"
-
-"Go ON, Tom!"
-
-"Just let me study a moment--just a moment. Oh, yes--you said you
-believed the door was open."
-
-"As I'm sitting here, I did! Didn't I, Mary! Go on!"
-
-"And then--and then--well I won't be certain, but it seems like as if
-you made Sid go and--and--"
-
-"Well? Well? What did I make him do, Tom? What did I make him do?"
-
-"You made him--you--Oh, you made him shut it."
-
-"Well, for the land's sake! I never heard the beat of that in all my
-days! Don't tell ME there ain't anything in dreams, any more. Sereny
-Harper shall know of this before I'm an hour older. I'd like to see her
-get around THIS with her rubbage 'bout superstition. Go on, Tom!"
-
-"Oh, it's all getting just as bright as day, now. Next you said I
-warn't BAD, only mischeevous and harum-scarum, and not any more
-responsible than--than--I think it was a colt, or something."
-
-"And so it was! Well, goodness gracious! Go on, Tom!"
-
-"And then you began to cry."
-
-"So I did. So I did. Not the first time, neither. And then--"
-
-"Then Mrs. Harper she began to cry, and said Joe was just the same,
-and she wished she hadn't whipped him for taking cream when she'd
-throwed it out her own self--"
-
-"Tom! The sperrit was upon you! You was a prophesying--that's what you
-was doing! Land alive, go on, Tom!"
-
-"Then Sid he said--he said--"
-
-"I don't think I said anything," said Sid.
-
-"Yes you did, Sid," said Mary.
-
-"Shut your heads and let Tom go on! What did he say, Tom?"
-
-"He said--I THINK he said he hoped I was better off where I was gone
-to, but if I'd been better sometimes--"
-
-"THERE, d'you hear that! It was his very words!"
-
-"And you shut him up sharp."
-
-"I lay I did! There must 'a' been an angel there. There WAS an angel
-there, somewheres!"
-
-"And Mrs. Harper told about Joe scaring her with a firecracker, and
-you told about Peter and the Painkiller--"
-
-"Just as true as I live!"
-
-"And then there was a whole lot of talk 'bout dragging the river for
-us, and 'bout having the funeral Sunday, and then you and old Miss
-Harper hugged and cried, and she went."
-
-"It happened just so! It happened just so, as sure as I'm a-sitting in
-these very tracks. Tom, you couldn't told it more like if you'd 'a'
-seen it! And then what? Go on, Tom!"
-
-"Then I thought you prayed for me--and I could see you and hear every
-word you said. And you went to bed, and I was so sorry that I took and
-wrote on a piece of sycamore bark, 'We ain't dead--we are only off
-being pirates,' and put it on the table by the candle; and then you
-looked so good, laying there asleep, that I thought I went and leaned
-over and kissed you on the lips."
-
-"Did you, Tom, DID you! I just forgive you everything for that!" And
-she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made him feel like the
-guiltiest of villains.
-
-"It was very kind, even though it was only a--dream," Sid soliloquized
-just audibly.
-
-"Shut up, Sid! A body does just the same in a dream as he'd do if he
-was awake. Here's a big Milum apple I've been saving for you, Tom, if
-you was ever found again--now go 'long to school. I'm thankful to the
-good God and Father of us all I've got you back, that's long-suffering
-and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word, though
-goodness knows I'm unworthy of it, but if only the worthy ones got His
-blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places, there's
-few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long
-night comes. Go 'long Sid, Mary, Tom--take yourselves off--you've
-hendered me long enough."
-
-The children left for school, and the old lady to call on Mrs. Harper
-and vanquish her realism with Tom's marvellous dream. Sid had better
-judgment than to utter the thought that was in his mind as he left the
-house. It was this: "Pretty thin--as long a dream as that, without any
-mistakes in it!"
-
-What a hero Tom was become, now! He did not go skipping and prancing,
-but moved with a dignified swagger as became a pirate who felt that the
-public eye was on him. And indeed it was; he tried not to seem to see
-the looks or hear the remarks as he passed along, but they were food
-and drink to him. Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels, as
-proud to be seen with him, and tolerated by him, as if he had been the
-drummer at the head of a procession or the elephant leading a menagerie
-into town. Boys of his own size pretended not to know he had been away
-at all; but they were consuming with envy, nevertheless. They would
-have given anything to have that swarthy suntanned skin of his, and his
-glittering notoriety; and Tom would not have parted with either for a
-circus.
-
-At school the children made so much of him and of Joe, and delivered
-such eloquent admiration from their eyes, that the two heroes were not
-long in becoming insufferably "stuck-up." They began to tell their
-adventures to hungry listeners--but they only began; it was not a thing
-likely to have an end, with imaginations like theirs to furnish
-material. And finally, when they got out their pipes and went serenely
-puffing around, the very summit of glory was reached.
-
-Tom decided that he could be independent of Becky Thatcher now. Glory
-was sufficient. He would live for glory. Now that he was distinguished,
-maybe she would be wanting to "make up." Well, let her--she should see
-that he could be as indifferent as some other people. Presently she
-arrived. Tom pretended not to see her. He moved away and joined a group
-of boys and girls and began to talk. Soon he observed that she was
-tripping gayly back and forth with flushed face and dancing eyes,
-pretending to be busy chasing schoolmates, and screaming with laughter
-when she made a capture; but he noticed that she always made her
-captures in his vicinity, and that she seemed to cast a conscious eye
-in his direction at such times, too. It gratified all the vicious
-vanity that was in him; and so, instead of winning him, it only "set
-him up" the more and made him the more diligent to avoid betraying that
-he knew she was about. Presently she gave over skylarking, and moved
-irresolutely about, sighing once or twice and glancing furtively and
-wistfully toward Tom. Then she observed that now Tom was talking more
-particularly to Amy Lawrence than to any one else. She felt a sharp
-pang and grew disturbed and uneasy at once. She tried to go away, but
-her feet were treacherous, and carried her to the group instead. She
-said to a girl almost at Tom's elbow--with sham vivacity:
-
-"Why, Mary Austin! you bad girl, why didn't you come to Sunday-school?"
-
-"I did come--didn't you see me?"
-
-"Why, no! Did you? Where did you sit?"
-
-"I was in Miss Peters' class, where I always go. I saw YOU."
-
-"Did you? Why, it's funny I didn't see you. I wanted to tell you about
-the picnic."
-
-"Oh, that's jolly. Who's going to give it?"
-
-"My ma's going to let me have one."
-
-"Oh, goody; I hope she'll let ME come."
-
-"Well, she will. The picnic's for me. She'll let anybody come that I
-want, and I want you."
-
-"That's ever so nice. When is it going to be?"
-
-"By and by. Maybe about vacation."
-
-"Oh, won't it be fun! You going to have all the girls and boys?"
-
-"Yes, every one that's friends to me--or wants to be"; and she glanced
-ever so furtively at Tom, but he talked right along to Amy Lawrence
-about the terrible storm on the island, and how the lightning tore the
-great sycamore tree "all to flinders" while he was "standing within
-three feet of it."
-
-"Oh, may I come?" said Grace Miller.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"And me?" said Sally Rogers.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"And me, too?" said Susy Harper. "And Joe?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-And so on, with clapping of joyful hands till all the group had begged
-for invitations but Tom and Amy. Then Tom turned coolly away, still
-talking, and took Amy with him. Becky's lips trembled and the tears
-came to her eyes; she hid these signs with a forced gayety and went on
-chattering, but the life had gone out of the picnic, now, and out of
-everything else; she got away as soon as she could and hid herself and
-had what her sex call "a good cry." Then she sat moody, with wounded
-pride, till the bell rang. She roused up, now, with a vindictive cast
-in her eye, and gave her plaited tails a shake and said she knew what
-SHE'D do.
-
-At recess Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant
-self-satisfaction. And he kept drifting about to find Becky and lacerate
-her with the performance. At last he spied her, but there was a sudden
-falling of his mercury. She was sitting cosily on a little bench behind
-the schoolhouse looking at a picture-book with Alfred Temple--and so
-absorbed were they, and their heads so close together over the book,
-that they did not seem to be conscious of anything in the world besides.
-Jealousy ran red-hot through Tom's veins. He began to hate himself for
-throwing away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation. He
-called himself a fool, and all the hard names he could think of. He
-wanted to cry with vexation. Amy chatted happily along, as they walked,
-for her heart was singing, but Tom's tongue had lost its function. He
-did not hear what Amy was saying, and whenever she paused expectantly he
-could only stammer an awkward assent, which was as often misplaced as
-otherwise. He kept drifting to the rear of the schoolhouse, again and
-again, to sear his eyeballs with the hateful spectacle there. He could
-not help it. And it maddened him to see, as he thought he saw, that
-Becky Thatcher never once suspected that he was even in the land of the
-living. But she did see, nevertheless; and she knew she was winning her
-fight, too, and was glad to see him suffer as she had suffered.
-
-Amy's happy prattle became intolerable. Tom hinted at things he had to
-attend to; things that must be done; and time was fleeting. But in
-vain--the girl chirped on. Tom thought, "Oh, hang her, ain't I ever
-going to get rid of her?" At last he must be attending to those
-things--and she said artlessly that she would be "around" when school
-let out. And he hastened away, hating her for it.
-
-"Any other boy!" Tom thought, grating his teeth. "Any boy in the whole
-town but that Saint Louis smarty that thinks he dresses so fine and is
-aristocracy! Oh, all right, I licked you the first day you ever saw
-this town, mister, and I'll lick you again! You just wait till I catch
-you out! I'll just take and--"
-
-And he went through the motions of thrashing an imaginary boy
---pummelling the air, and kicking and gouging. "Oh, you do, do you? You
-holler 'nough, do you? Now, then, let that learn you!" And so the
-imaginary flogging was finished to his satisfaction.
-
-Tom fled home at noon. His conscience could not endure any more of
-Amy's grateful happiness, and his jealousy could bear no more of the
-other distress. Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred, but
-as the minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer, her triumph
-began to cloud and she lost interest; gravity and absent-mindedness
-followed, and then melancholy; two or three times she pricked up her
-ear at a footstep, but it was a false hope; no Tom came. At last she
-grew entirely miserable and wished she hadn't carried it so far. When
-poor Alfred, seeing that he was losing her, he did not know how, kept
-exclaiming: "Oh, here's a jolly one! look at this!" she lost patience
-at last, and said, "Oh, don't bother me! I don't care for them!" and
-burst into tears, and got up and walked away.
-
-Alfred dropped alongside and was going to try to comfort her, but she
-said:
-
-"Go away and leave me alone, can't you! I hate you!"
-
-So the boy halted, wondering what he could have done--for she had said
-she would look at pictures all through the nooning--and she walked on,
-crying. Then Alfred went musing into the deserted schoolhouse. He was
-humiliated and angry. He easily guessed his way to the truth--the girl
-had simply made a convenience of him to vent her spite upon Tom Sawyer.
-He was far from hating Tom the less when this thought occurred to him.
-He wished there was some way to get that boy into trouble without much
-risk to himself. Tom's spelling-book fell under his eye. Here was his
-opportunity. He gratefully opened to the lesson for the afternoon and
-poured ink upon the page.
-
-Becky, glancing in at a window behind him at the moment, saw the act,
-and moved on, without discovering herself. She started homeward, now,
-intending to find Tom and tell him; Tom would be thankful and their
-troubles would be healed. Before she was half way home, however, she
-had changed her mind. The thought of Tom's treatment of her when she
-was talking about her picnic came scorching back and filled her with
-shame. She resolved to let him get whipped on the damaged
-spelling-book's account, and to hate him forever, into the bargain.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-TOM arrived at home in a dreary mood, and the first thing his aunt
-said to him showed him that he had brought his sorrows to an
-unpromising market:
-
-"Tom, I've a notion to skin you alive!"
-
-"Auntie, what have I done?"
-
-"Well, you've done enough. Here I go over to Sereny Harper, like an
-old softy, expecting I'm going to make her believe all that rubbage
-about that dream, when lo and behold you she'd found out from Joe that
-you was over here and heard all the talk we had that night. Tom, I
-don't know what is to become of a boy that will act like that. It makes
-me feel so bad to think you could let me go to Sereny Harper and make
-such a fool of myself and never say a word."
-
-This was a new aspect of the thing. His smartness of the morning had
-seemed to Tom a good joke before, and very ingenious. It merely looked
-mean and shabby now. He hung his head and could not think of anything
-to say for a moment. Then he said:
-
-"Auntie, I wish I hadn't done it--but I didn't think."
-
-"Oh, child, you never think. You never think of anything but your own
-selfishness. You could think to come all the way over here from
-Jackson's Island in the night to laugh at our troubles, and you could
-think to fool me with a lie about a dream; but you couldn't ever think
-to pity us and save us from sorrow."
-
-"Auntie, I know now it was mean, but I didn't mean to be mean. I
-didn't, honest. And besides, I didn't come over here to laugh at you
-that night."
-
-"What did you come for, then?"
-
-"It was to tell you not to be uneasy about us, because we hadn't got
-drownded."
-
-"Tom, Tom, I would be the thankfullest soul in this world if I could
-believe you ever had as good a thought as that, but you know you never
-did--and I know it, Tom."
-
-"Indeed and 'deed I did, auntie--I wish I may never stir if I didn't."
-
-"Oh, Tom, don't lie--don't do it. It only makes things a hundred times
-worse."
-
-"It ain't a lie, auntie; it's the truth. I wanted to keep you from
-grieving--that was all that made me come."
-
-"I'd give the whole world to believe that--it would cover up a power
-of sins, Tom. I'd 'most be glad you'd run off and acted so bad. But it
-ain't reasonable; because, why didn't you tell me, child?"
-
-"Why, you see, when you got to talking about the funeral, I just got
-all full of the idea of our coming and hiding in the church, and I
-couldn't somehow bear to spoil it. So I just put the bark back in my
-pocket and kept mum."
-
-"What bark?"
-
-"The bark I had wrote on to tell you we'd gone pirating. I wish, now,
-you'd waked up when I kissed you--I do, honest."
-
-The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed and a sudden tenderness
-dawned in her eyes.
-
-"DID you kiss me, Tom?"
-
-"Why, yes, I did."
-
-"Are you sure you did, Tom?"
-
-"Why, yes, I did, auntie--certain sure."
-
-"What did you kiss me for, Tom?"
-
-"Because I loved you so, and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry."
-
-The words sounded like truth. The old lady could not hide a tremor in
-her voice when she said:
-
-"Kiss me again, Tom!--and be off with you to school, now, and don't
-bother me any more."
-
-The moment he was gone, she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a
-jacket which Tom had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her
-hand, and said to herself:
-
-"No, I don't dare. Poor boy, I reckon he's lied about it--but it's a
-blessed, blessed lie, there's such a comfort come from it. I hope the
-Lord--I KNOW the Lord will forgive him, because it was such
-goodheartedness in him to tell it. But I don't want to find out it's a
-lie. I won't look."
-
-She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute. Twice she put
-out her hand to take the garment again, and twice she refrained. Once
-more she ventured, and this time she fortified herself with the
-thought: "It's a good lie--it's a good lie--I won't let it grieve me."
-So she sought the jacket pocket. A moment later she was reading Tom's
-piece of bark through flowing tears and saying: "I could forgive the
-boy, now, if he'd committed a million sins!"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-THERE was something about Aunt Polly's manner, when she kissed Tom,
-that swept away his low spirits and made him lighthearted and happy
-again. He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky
-Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane. His mood always determined his
-manner. Without a moment's hesitation he ran to her and said:
-
-"I acted mighty mean to-day, Becky, and I'm so sorry. I won't ever,
-ever do that way again, as long as ever I live--please make up, won't
-you?"
-
-The girl stopped and looked him scornfully in the face:
-
-"I'll thank you to keep yourself TO yourself, Mr. Thomas Sawyer. I'll
-never speak to you again."
-
-She tossed her head and passed on. Tom was so stunned that he had not
-even presence of mind enough to say "Who cares, Miss Smarty?" until the
-right time to say it had gone by. So he said nothing. But he was in a
-fine rage, nevertheless. He moped into the schoolyard wishing she were
-a boy, and imagining how he would trounce her if she were. He presently
-encountered her and delivered a stinging remark as he passed. She
-hurled one in return, and the angry breach was complete. It seemed to
-Becky, in her hot resentment, that she could hardly wait for school to
-"take in," she was so impatient to see Tom flogged for the injured
-spelling-book. If she had had any lingering notion of exposing Alfred
-Temple, Tom's offensive fling had driven it entirely away.
-
-Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was nearing trouble herself.
-The master, Mr. Dobbins, had reached middle age with an unsatisfied
-ambition. The darling of his desires was, to be a doctor, but poverty
-had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village
-schoolmaster. Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and
-absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting. He kept
-that book under lock and key. There was not an urchin in school but was
-perishing to have a glimpse of it, but the chance never came. Every boy
-and girl had a theory about the nature of that book; but no two
-theories were alike, and there was no way of getting at the facts in
-the case. Now, as Becky was passing by the desk, which stood near the
-door, she noticed that the key was in the lock! It was a precious
-moment. She glanced around; found herself alone, and the next instant
-she had the book in her hands. The title-page--Professor Somebody's
-ANATOMY--carried no information to her mind; so she began to turn the
-leaves. She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored
-frontispiece--a human figure, stark naked. At that moment a shadow fell
-on the page and Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught a glimpse
-of the picture. Becky snatched at the book to close it, and had the
-hard luck to tear the pictured page half down the middle. She thrust
-the volume into the desk, turned the key, and burst out crying with
-shame and vexation.
-
-"Tom Sawyer, you are just as mean as you can be, to sneak up on a
-person and look at what they're looking at."
-
-"How could I know you was looking at anything?"
-
-"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Tom Sawyer; you know you're
-going to tell on me, and oh, what shall I do, what shall I do! I'll be
-whipped, and I never was whipped in school."
-
-Then she stamped her little foot and said:
-
-"BE so mean if you want to! I know something that's going to happen.
-You just wait and you'll see! Hateful, hateful, hateful!"--and she
-flung out of the house with a new explosion of crying.
-
-Tom stood still, rather flustered by this onslaught. Presently he said
-to himself:
-
-"What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school!
-Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl--they're so
-thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. Well, of course I ain't going to tell
-old Dobbins on this little fool, because there's other ways of getting
-even on her, that ain't so mean; but what of it? Old Dobbins will ask
-who it was tore his book. Nobody'll answer. Then he'll do just the way
-he always does--ask first one and then t'other, and when he comes to the
-right girl he'll know it, without any telling. Girls' faces always tell
-on them. They ain't got any backbone. She'll get licked. Well, it's a
-kind of a tight place for Becky Thatcher, because there ain't any way
-out of it." Tom conned the thing a moment longer, and then added: "All
-right, though; she'd like to see me in just such a fix--let her sweat it
-out!"
-
-Tom joined the mob of skylarking scholars outside. In a few moments
-the master arrived and school "took in." Tom did not feel a strong
-interest in his studies. Every time he stole a glance at the girls'
-side of the room Becky's face troubled him. Considering all things, he
-did not want to pity her, and yet it was all he could do to help it. He
-could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name. Presently
-the spelling-book discovery was made, and Tom's mind was entirely full
-of his own matters for a while after that. Becky roused up from her
-lethargy of distress and showed good interest in the proceedings. She
-did not expect that Tom could get out of his trouble by denying that he
-spilt the ink on the book himself; and she was right. The denial only
-seemed to make the thing worse for Tom. Becky supposed she would be
-glad of that, and she tried to believe she was glad of it, but she
-found she was not certain. When the worst came to the worst, she had an
-impulse to get up and tell on Alfred Temple, but she made an effort and
-forced herself to keep still--because, said she to herself, "he'll tell
-about me tearing the picture sure. I wouldn't say a word, not to save
-his life!"
-
-Tom took his whipping and went back to his seat not at all
-broken-hearted, for he thought it was possible that he had unknowingly
-upset the ink on the spelling-book himself, in some skylarking bout--he
-had denied it for form's sake and because it was custom, and had stuck
-to the denial from principle.
-
-A whole hour drifted by, the master sat nodding in his throne, the air
-was drowsy with the hum of study. By and by, Mr. Dobbins straightened
-himself up, yawned, then unlocked his desk, and reached for his book,
-but seemed undecided whether to take it out or leave it. Most of the
-pupils glanced up languidly, but there were two among them that watched
-his movements with intent eyes. Mr. Dobbins fingered his book absently
-for a while, then took it out and settled himself in his chair to read!
-Tom shot a glance at Becky. He had seen a hunted and helpless rabbit
-look as she did, with a gun levelled at its head. Instantly he forgot
-his quarrel with her. Quick--something must be done! done in a flash,
-too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.
-Good!--he had an inspiration! He would run and snatch the book, spring
-through the door and fly. But his resolution shook for one little
-instant, and the chance was lost--the master opened the volume. If Tom
-only had the wasted opportunity back again! Too late. There was no help
-for Becky now, he said. The next moment the master faced the school.
-Every eye sank under his gaze. There was that in it which smote even
-the innocent with fear. There was silence while one might count ten
---the master was gathering his wrath. Then he spoke: "Who tore this book?"
-
-There was not a sound. One could have heard a pin drop. The stillness
-continued; the master searched face after face for signs of guilt.
-
-"Benjamin Rogers, did you tear this book?"
-
-A denial. Another pause.
-
-"Joseph Harper, did you?"
-
-Another denial. Tom's uneasiness grew more and more intense under the
-slow torture of these proceedings. The master scanned the ranks of
-boys--considered a while, then turned to the girls:
-
-"Amy Lawrence?"
-
-A shake of the head.
-
-"Gracie Miller?"
-
-The same sign.
-
-"Susan Harper, did you do this?"
-
-Another negative. The next girl was Becky Thatcher. Tom was trembling
-from head to foot with excitement and a sense of the hopelessness of
-the situation.
-
-"Rebecca Thatcher" [Tom glanced at her face--it was white with terror]
---"did you tear--no, look me in the face" [her hands rose in appeal]
---"did you tear this book?"
-
-A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his
-feet and shouted--"I done it!"
-
-The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly. Tom stood a
-moment, to gather his dismembered faculties; and when he stepped
-forward to go to his punishment the surprise, the gratitude, the
-adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky's eyes seemed pay
-enough for a hundred floggings. Inspired by the splendor of his own
-act, he took without an outcry the most merciless flaying that even Mr.
-Dobbins had ever administered; and also received with indifference the
-added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after school should be
-dismissed--for he knew who would wait for him outside till his
-captivity was done, and not count the tedious time as loss, either.
-
-Tom went to bed that night planning vengeance against Alfred Temple;
-for with shame and repentance Becky had told him all, not forgetting
-her own treachery; but even the longing for vengeance had to give way,
-soon, to pleasanter musings, and he fell asleep at last with Becky's
-latest words lingering dreamily in his ear--
-
-"Tom, how COULD you be so noble!"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI
-
-VACATION was approaching. The schoolmaster, always severe, grew
-severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a
-good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom
-idle now--at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and
-young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing. Mr. Dobbins'
-lashings were very vigorous ones, too; for although he carried, under
-his wig, a perfectly bald and shiny head, he had only reached middle
-age, and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle. As the great
-day approached, all the tyranny that was in him came to the surface; he
-seemed to take a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least
-shortcomings. The consequence was, that the smaller boys spent their
-days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting revenge. They
-threw away no opportunity to do the master a mischief. But he kept
-ahead all the time. The retribution that followed every vengeful
-success was so sweeping and majestic that the boys always retired from
-the field badly worsted. At last they conspired together and hit upon a
-plan that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in the sign-painter's
-boy, told him the scheme, and asked his help. He had his own reasons
-for being delighted, for the master boarded in his father's family and
-had given the boy ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would go
-on a visit to the country in a few days, and there would be nothing to
-interfere with the plan; the master always prepared himself for great
-occasions by getting pretty well fuddled, and the sign-painter's boy
-said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on
-Examination Evening he would "manage the thing" while he napped in his
-chair; then he would have him awakened at the right time and hurried
-away to school.
-
-In the fulness of time the interesting occasion arrived. At eight in
-the evening the schoolhouse was brilliantly lighted, and adorned with
-wreaths and festoons of foliage and flowers. The master sat throned in
-his great chair upon a raised platform, with his blackboard behind him.
-He was looking tolerably mellow. Three rows of benches on each side and
-six rows in front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the town
-and by the parents of the pupils. To his left, back of the rows of
-citizens, was a spacious temporary platform upon which were seated the
-scholars who were to take part in the exercises of the evening; rows of
-small boys, washed and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort;
-rows of gawky big boys; snowbanks of girls and young ladies clad in
-lawn and muslin and conspicuously conscious of their bare arms, their
-grandmothers' ancient trinkets, their bits of pink and blue ribbon and
-the flowers in their hair. All the rest of the house was filled with
-non-participating scholars.
-
-The exercises began. A very little boy stood up and sheepishly
-recited, "You'd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the
-stage," etc.--accompanying himself with the painfully exact and
-spasmodic gestures which a machine might have used--supposing the
-machine to be a trifle out of order. But he got through safely, though
-cruelly scared, and got a fine round of applause when he made his
-manufactured bow and retired.
-
-A little shamefaced girl lisped, "Mary had a little lamb," etc.,
-performed a compassion-inspiring curtsy, got her meed of applause, and
-sat down flushed and happy.
-
-Tom Sawyer stepped forward with conceited confidence and soared into
-the unquenchable and indestructible "Give me liberty or give me death"
-speech, with fine fury and frantic gesticulation, and broke down in the
-middle of it. A ghastly stage-fright seized him, his legs quaked under
-him and he was like to choke. True, he had the manifest sympathy of the
-house but he had the house's silence, too, which was even worse than
-its sympathy. The master frowned, and this completed the disaster. Tom
-struggled awhile and then retired, utterly defeated. There was a weak
-attempt at applause, but it died early.
-
-"The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" followed; also "The Assyrian Came
-Down," and other declamatory gems. Then there were reading exercises,
-and a spelling fight. The meagre Latin class recited with honor. The
-prime feature of the evening was in order, now--original "compositions"
-by the young ladies. Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of
-the platform, cleared her throat, held up her manuscript (tied with
-dainty ribbon), and proceeded to read, with labored attention to
-"expression" and punctuation. The themes were the same that had been
-illuminated upon similar occasions by their mothers before them, their
-grandmothers, and doubtless all their ancestors in the female line
-clear back to the Crusades. "Friendship" was one; "Memories of Other
-Days"; "Religion in History"; "Dream Land"; "The Advantages of
-Culture"; "Forms of Political Government Compared and Contrasted";
-"Melancholy"; "Filial Love"; "Heart Longings," etc., etc.
-
-A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and petted
-melancholy; another was a wasteful and opulent gush of "fine language";
-another was a tendency to lug in by the ears particularly prized words
-and phrases until they were worn entirely out; and a peculiarity that
-conspicuously marked and marred them was the inveterate and intolerable
-sermon that wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every one
-of them. No matter what the subject might be, a brain-racking effort
-was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and
-religious mind could contemplate with edification. The glaring
-insincerity of these sermons was not sufficient to compass the
-banishment of the fashion from the schools, and it is not sufficient
-to-day; it never will be sufficient while the world stands, perhaps.
-There is no school in all our land where the young ladies do not feel
-obliged to close their compositions with a sermon; and you will find
-that the sermon of the most frivolous and the least religious girl in
-the school is always the longest and the most relentlessly pious. But
-enough of this. Homely truth is unpalatable.
-
-Let us return to the "Examination." The first composition that was
-read was one entitled "Is this, then, Life?" Perhaps the reader can
-endure an extract from it:
-
- "In the common walks of life, with what delightful
- emotions does the youthful mind look forward to some
- anticipated scene of festivity! Imagination is busy
- sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the
- voluptuous votary of fashion sees herself amid the
- festive throng, 'the observed of all observers.' Her
- graceful form, arrayed in snowy robes, is whirling
- through the mazes of the joyous dance; her eye is
- brightest, her step is lightest in the gay assembly.
-
- "In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by,
- and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into
- the Elysian world, of which she has had such bright
- dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to
- her enchanted vision! Each new scene is more charming
- than the last. But after a while she finds that
- beneath this goodly exterior, all is vanity, the
- flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates
- harshly upon her ear; the ball-room has lost its
- charms; and with wasted health and imbittered heart,
- she turns away with the conviction that earthly
- pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul!"
-
-And so forth and so on. There was a buzz of gratification from time to
-time during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of "How
-sweet!" "How eloquent!" "So true!" etc., and after the thing had closed
-with a peculiarly afflicting sermon the applause was enthusiastic.
-
-Then arose a slim, melancholy girl, whose face had the "interesting"
-paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read a "poem." Two
-stanzas of it will do:
-
- "A MISSOURI MAIDEN'S FAREWELL TO ALABAMA
-
- "Alabama, good-bye! I love thee well!
- But yet for a while do I leave thee now!
- Sad, yes, sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell,
- And burning recollections throng my brow!
- For I have wandered through thy flowery woods;
- Have roamed and read near Tallapoosa's stream;
- Have listened to Tallassee's warring floods,
- And wooed on Coosa's side Aurora's beam.
-
- "Yet shame I not to bear an o'er-full heart,
- Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes;
- 'Tis from no stranger land I now must part,
- 'Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs.
- Welcome and home were mine within this State,
- Whose vales I leave--whose spires fade fast from me
- And cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and tete,
- When, dear Alabama! they turn cold on thee!"
-
-There were very few there who knew what "tete" meant, but the poem was
-very satisfactory, nevertheless.
-
-Next appeared a dark-complexioned, black-eyed, black-haired young
-lady, who paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic expression, and
-began to read in a measured, solemn tone:
-
- "A VISION
-
- "Dark and tempestuous was night. Around the
- throne on high not a single star quivered; but
- the deep intonations of the heavy thunder
- constantly vibrated upon the ear; whilst the
- terrific lightning revelled in angry mood
- through the cloudy chambers of heaven, seeming
- to scorn the power exerted over its terror by
- the illustrious Franklin! Even the boisterous
- winds unanimously came forth from their mystic
- homes, and blustered about as if to enhance by
- their aid the wildness of the scene.
-
- "At such a time, so dark, so dreary, for human
- sympathy my very spirit sighed; but instead thereof,
-
- "'My dearest friend, my counsellor, my comforter
- and guide--My joy in grief, my second bliss
- in joy,' came to my side. She moved like one of
- those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks
- of fancy's Eden by the romantic and young, a
- queen of beauty unadorned save by her own
- transcendent loveliness. So soft was her step, it
- failed to make even a sound, and but for the
- magical thrill imparted by her genial touch, as
- other unobtrusive beauties, she would have glided
- away un-perceived--unsought. A strange sadness
- rested upon her features, like icy tears upon
- the robe of December, as she pointed to the
- contending elements without, and bade me contemplate
- the two beings presented."
-
-This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with
-a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took
-the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest
-effort of the evening. The mayor of the village, in delivering the
-prize to the author of it, made a warm speech in which he said that it
-was by far the most "eloquent" thing he had ever listened to, and that
-Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it.
-
-It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in
-which the word "beauteous" was over-fondled, and human experience
-referred to as "life's page," was up to the usual average.
-
-Now the master, mellow almost to the verge of geniality, put his chair
-aside, turned his back to the audience, and began to draw a map of
-America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he
-made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered
-titter rippled over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set
-himself to right it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only
-distorted them more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced.
-He threw his entire attention upon his work, now, as if determined not
-to be put down by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon
-him; he imagined he was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it
-even manifestly increased. And well it might. There was a garret above,
-pierced with a scuttle over his head; and down through this scuttle
-came a cat, suspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag
-tied about her head and jaws to keep her from mewing; as she slowly
-descended she curved upward and clawed at the string, she swung
-downward and clawed at the intangible air. The tittering rose higher
-and higher--the cat was within six inches of the absorbed teacher's
-head--down, down, a little lower, and she grabbed his wig with her
-desperate claws, clung to it, and was snatched up into the garret in an
-instant with her trophy still in her possession! And how the light did
-blaze abroad from the master's bald pate--for the sign-painter's boy
-had GILDED it!
-
-That broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged. Vacation had come.
-
- NOTE:--The pretended "compositions" quoted in
- this chapter are taken without alteration from a
- volume entitled "Prose and Poetry, by a Western
- Lady"--but they are exactly and precisely after
- the schoolgirl pattern, and hence are much
- happier than any mere imitations could be.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII
-
-TOM joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by
-the showy character of their "regalia." He promised to abstain from
-smoking, chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he
-found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the
-surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very
-thing. Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and
-swear; the desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a
-chance to display himself in his red sash kept him from withdrawing
-from the order. Fourth of July was coming; but he soon gave that up
---gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty-eight hours--and
-fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was
-apparently on his deathbed and would have a big public funeral, since
-he was so high an official. During three days Tom was deeply concerned
-about the Judge's condition and hungry for news of it. Sometimes his
-hopes ran high--so high that he would venture to get out his regalia
-and practise before the looking-glass. But the Judge had a most
-discouraging way of fluctuating. At last he was pronounced upon the
-mend--and then convalescent. Tom was disgusted; and felt a sense of
-injury, too. He handed in his resignation at once--and that night the
-Judge suffered a relapse and died. Tom resolved that he would never
-trust a man like that again.
-
-The funeral was a fine thing. The Cadets paraded in a style calculated
-to kill the late member with envy. Tom was a free boy again, however
---there was something in that. He could drink and swear, now--but found
-to his surprise that he did not want to. The simple fact that he could,
-took the desire away, and the charm of it.
-
-Tom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning
-to hang a little heavily on his hands.
-
-He attempted a diary--but nothing happened during three days, and so
-he abandoned it.
-
-The first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town, and made a
-sensation. Tom and Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were
-happy for two days.
-
-Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained
-hard, there was no procession in consequence, and the greatest man in
-the world (as Tom supposed), Mr. Benton, an actual United States
-Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment--for he was not
-twenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it.
-
-A circus came. The boys played circus for three days afterward in
-tents made of rag carpeting--admission, three pins for boys, two for
-girls--and then circusing was abandoned.
-
-A phrenologist and a mesmerizer came--and went again and left the
-village duller and drearier than ever.
-
-There were some boys-and-girls' parties, but they were so few and so
-delightful that they only made the aching voids between ache the harder.
-
-Becky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her
-parents during vacation--so there was no bright side to life anywhere.
-
-The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery. It was a very
-cancer for permanency and pain.
-
-Then came the measles.
-
-During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its
-happenings. He was very ill, he was interested in nothing. When he got
-upon his feet at last and moved feebly down-town, a melancholy change
-had come over everything and every creature. There had been a
-"revival," and everybody had "got religion," not only the adults, but
-even the boys and girls. Tom went about, hoping against hope for the
-sight of one blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him
-everywhere. He found Joe Harper studying a Testament, and turned sadly
-away from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben Rogers, and found him
-visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He hunted up Jim Hollis, who
-called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a
-warning. Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression;
-and when, in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of
-Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural quotation, his
-heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all
-the town was lost, forever and forever.
-
-And that night there came on a terrific storm, with driving rain,
-awful claps of thunder and blinding sheets of lightning. He covered his
-head with the bedclothes and waited in a horror of suspense for his
-doom; for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all this hubbub was
-about him. He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above
-to the extremity of endurance and that this was the result. It might
-have seemed to him a waste of pomp and ammunition to kill a bug with a
-battery of artillery, but there seemed nothing incongruous about the
-getting up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock the turf
-from under an insect like himself.
-
-By and by the tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its
-object. The boy's first impulse was to be grateful, and reform. His
-second was to wait--for there might not be any more storms.
-
-The next day the doctors were back; Tom had relapsed. The three weeks
-he spent on his back this time seemed an entire age. When he got abroad
-at last he was hardly grateful that he had been spared, remembering how
-lonely was his estate, how companionless and forlorn he was. He drifted
-listlessly down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge in a
-juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder, in the presence of her
-victim, a bird. He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a
-stolen melon. Poor lads! they--like Tom--had suffered a relapse.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIII
-
-AT last the sleepy atmosphere was stirred--and vigorously: the murder
-trial came on in the court. It became the absorbing topic of village
-talk immediately. Tom could not get away from it. Every reference to
-the murder sent a shudder to his heart, for his troubled conscience and
-fears almost persuaded him that these remarks were put forth in his
-hearing as "feelers"; he did not see how he could be suspected of
-knowing anything about the murder, but still he could not be
-comfortable in the midst of this gossip. It kept him in a cold shiver
-all the time. He took Huck to a lonely place to have a talk with him.
-It would be some relief to unseal his tongue for a little while; to
-divide his burden of distress with another sufferer. Moreover, he
-wanted to assure himself that Huck had remained discreet.
-
-"Huck, have you ever told anybody about--that?"
-
-"'Bout what?"
-
-"You know what."
-
-"Oh--'course I haven't."
-
-"Never a word?"
-
-"Never a solitary word, so help me. What makes you ask?"
-
-"Well, I was afeard."
-
-"Why, Tom Sawyer, we wouldn't be alive two days if that got found out.
-YOU know that."
-
-Tom felt more comfortable. After a pause:
-
-"Huck, they couldn't anybody get you to tell, could they?"
-
-"Get me to tell? Why, if I wanted that half-breed devil to drownd me
-they could get me to tell. They ain't no different way."
-
-"Well, that's all right, then. I reckon we're safe as long as we keep
-mum. But let's swear again, anyway. It's more surer."
-
-"I'm agreed."
-
-So they swore again with dread solemnities.
-
-"What is the talk around, Huck? I've heard a power of it."
-
-"Talk? Well, it's just Muff Potter, Muff Potter, Muff Potter all the
-time. It keeps me in a sweat, constant, so's I want to hide som'ers."
-
-"That's just the same way they go on round me. I reckon he's a goner.
-Don't you feel sorry for him, sometimes?"
-
-"Most always--most always. He ain't no account; but then he hain't
-ever done anything to hurt anybody. Just fishes a little, to get money
-to get drunk on--and loafs around considerable; but lord, we all do
-that--leastways most of us--preachers and such like. But he's kind of
-good--he give me half a fish, once, when there warn't enough for two;
-and lots of times he's kind of stood by me when I was out of luck."
-
-"Well, he's mended kites for me, Huck, and knitted hooks on to my
-line. I wish we could get him out of there."
-
-"My! we couldn't get him out, Tom. And besides, 'twouldn't do any
-good; they'd ketch him again."
-
-"Yes--so they would. But I hate to hear 'em abuse him so like the
-dickens when he never done--that."
-
-"I do too, Tom. Lord, I hear 'em say he's the bloodiest looking
-villain in this country, and they wonder he wasn't ever hung before."
-
-"Yes, they talk like that, all the time. I've heard 'em say that if he
-was to get free they'd lynch him."
-
-"And they'd do it, too."
-
-The boys had a long talk, but it brought them little comfort. As the
-twilight drew on, they found themselves hanging about the neighborhood
-of the little isolated jail, perhaps with an undefined hope that
-something would happen that might clear away their difficulties. But
-nothing happened; there seemed to be no angels or fairies interested in
-this luckless captive.
-
-The boys did as they had often done before--went to the cell grating
-and gave Potter some tobacco and matches. He was on the ground floor
-and there were no guards.
-
-His gratitude for their gifts had always smote their consciences
-before--it cut deeper than ever, this time. They felt cowardly and
-treacherous to the last degree when Potter said:
-
-"You've been mighty good to me, boys--better'n anybody else in this
-town. And I don't forget it, I don't. Often I says to myself, says I,
-'I used to mend all the boys' kites and things, and show 'em where the
-good fishin' places was, and befriend 'em what I could, and now they've
-all forgot old Muff when he's in trouble; but Tom don't, and Huck
-don't--THEY don't forget him, says I, 'and I don't forget them.' Well,
-boys, I done an awful thing--drunk and crazy at the time--that's the
-only way I account for it--and now I got to swing for it, and it's
-right. Right, and BEST, too, I reckon--hope so, anyway. Well, we won't
-talk about that. I don't want to make YOU feel bad; you've befriended
-me. But what I want to say, is, don't YOU ever get drunk--then you won't
-ever get here. Stand a litter furder west--so--that's it; it's a prime
-comfort to see faces that's friendly when a body's in such a muck of
-trouble, and there don't none come here but yourn. Good friendly
-faces--good friendly faces. Git up on one another's backs and let me
-touch 'em. That's it. Shake hands--yourn'll come through the bars, but
-mine's too big. Little hands, and weak--but they've helped Muff Potter
-a power, and they'd help him more if they could."
-
-Tom went home miserable, and his dreams that night were full of
-horrors. The next day and the day after, he hung about the court-room,
-drawn by an almost irresistible impulse to go in, but forcing himself
-to stay out. Huck was having the same experience. They studiously
-avoided each other. Each wandered away, from time to time, but the same
-dismal fascination always brought them back presently. Tom kept his
-ears open when idlers sauntered out of the court-room, but invariably
-heard distressing news--the toils were closing more and more
-relentlessly around poor Potter. At the end of the second day the
-village talk was to the effect that Injun Joe's evidence stood firm and
-unshaken, and that there was not the slightest question as to what the
-jury's verdict would be.
-
-Tom was out late, that night, and came to bed through the window. He
-was in a tremendous state of excitement. It was hours before he got to
-sleep. All the village flocked to the court-house the next morning, for
-this was to be the great day. Both sexes were about equally represented
-in the packed audience. After a long wait the jury filed in and took
-their places; shortly afterward, Potter, pale and haggard, timid and
-hopeless, was brought in, with chains upon him, and seated where all
-the curious eyes could stare at him; no less conspicuous was Injun Joe,
-stolid as ever. There was another pause, and then the judge arrived and
-the sheriff proclaimed the opening of the court. The usual whisperings
-among the lawyers and gathering together of papers followed. These
-details and accompanying delays worked up an atmosphere of preparation
-that was as impressive as it was fascinating.
-
-Now a witness was called who testified that he found Muff Potter
-washing in the brook, at an early hour of the morning that the murder
-was discovered, and that he immediately sneaked away. After some
-further questioning, counsel for the prosecution said:
-
-"Take the witness."
-
-The prisoner raised his eyes for a moment, but dropped them again when
-his own counsel said:
-
-"I have no questions to ask him."
-
-The next witness proved the finding of the knife near the corpse.
-Counsel for the prosecution said:
-
-"Take the witness."
-
-"I have no questions to ask him," Potter's lawyer replied.
-
-A third witness swore he had often seen the knife in Potter's
-possession.
-
-"Take the witness."
-
-Counsel for Potter declined to question him. The faces of the audience
-began to betray annoyance. Did this attorney mean to throw away his
-client's life without an effort?
-
-Several witnesses deposed concerning Potter's guilty behavior when
-brought to the scene of the murder. They were allowed to leave the
-stand without being cross-questioned.
-
-Every detail of the damaging circumstances that occurred in the
-graveyard upon that morning which all present remembered so well was
-brought out by credible witnesses, but none of them were cross-examined
-by Potter's lawyer. The perplexity and dissatisfaction of the house
-expressed itself in murmurs and provoked a reproof from the bench.
-Counsel for the prosecution now said:
-
-"By the oaths of citizens whose simple word is above suspicion, we
-have fastened this awful crime, beyond all possibility of question,
-upon the unhappy prisoner at the bar. We rest our case here."
-
-A groan escaped from poor Potter, and he put his face in his hands and
-rocked his body softly to and fro, while a painful silence reigned in
-the court-room. Many men were moved, and many women's compassion
-testified itself in tears. Counsel for the defence rose and said:
-
-"Your honor, in our remarks at the opening of this trial, we
-foreshadowed our purpose to prove that our client did this fearful deed
-while under the influence of a blind and irresponsible delirium
-produced by drink. We have changed our mind. We shall not offer that
-plea." [Then to the clerk:] "Call Thomas Sawyer!"
-
-A puzzled amazement awoke in every face in the house, not even
-excepting Potter's. Every eye fastened itself with wondering interest
-upon Tom as he rose and took his place upon the stand. The boy looked
-wild enough, for he was badly scared. The oath was administered.
-
-"Thomas Sawyer, where were you on the seventeenth of June, about the
-hour of midnight?"
-
-Tom glanced at Injun Joe's iron face and his tongue failed him. The
-audience listened breathless, but the words refused to come. After a
-few moments, however, the boy got a little of his strength back, and
-managed to put enough of it into his voice to make part of the house
-hear:
-
-"In the graveyard!"
-
-"A little bit louder, please. Don't be afraid. You were--"
-
-"In the graveyard."
-
-A contemptuous smile flitted across Injun Joe's face.
-
-"Were you anywhere near Horse Williams' grave?"
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Speak up--just a trifle louder. How near were you?"
-
-"Near as I am to you."
-
-"Were you hidden, or not?"
-
-"I was hid."
-
-"Where?"
-
-"Behind the elms that's on the edge of the grave."
-
-Injun Joe gave a barely perceptible start.
-
-"Any one with you?"
-
-"Yes, sir. I went there with--"
-
-"Wait--wait a moment. Never mind mentioning your companion's name. We
-will produce him at the proper time. Did you carry anything there with
-you."
-
-Tom hesitated and looked confused.
-
-"Speak out, my boy--don't be diffident. The truth is always
-respectable. What did you take there?"
-
-"Only a--a--dead cat."
-
-There was a ripple of mirth, which the court checked.
-
-"We will produce the skeleton of that cat. Now, my boy, tell us
-everything that occurred--tell it in your own way--don't skip anything,
-and don't be afraid."
-
-Tom began--hesitatingly at first, but as he warmed to his subject his
-words flowed more and more easily; in a little while every sound ceased
-but his own voice; every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips
-and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of
-time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale. The strain upon
-pent emotion reached its climax when the boy said:
-
-"--and as the doctor fetched the board around and Muff Potter fell,
-Injun Joe jumped with the knife and--"
-
-Crash! Quick as lightning the half-breed sprang for a window, tore his
-way through all opposers, and was gone!
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIV
-
-TOM was a glittering hero once more--the pet of the old, the envy of
-the young. His name even went into immortal print, for the village
-paper magnified him. There were some that believed he would be
-President, yet, if he escaped hanging.
-
-As usual, the fickle, unreasoning world took Muff Potter to its bosom
-and fondled him as lavishly as it had abused him before. But that sort
-of conduct is to the world's credit; therefore it is not well to find
-fault with it.
-
-Tom's days were days of splendor and exultation to him, but his nights
-were seasons of horror. Injun Joe infested all his dreams, and always
-with doom in his eye. Hardly any temptation could persuade the boy to
-stir abroad after nightfall. Poor Huck was in the same state of
-wretchedness and terror, for Tom had told the whole story to the lawyer
-the night before the great day of the trial, and Huck was sore afraid
-that his share in the business might leak out, yet, notwithstanding
-Injun Joe's flight had saved him the suffering of testifying in court.
-The poor fellow had got the attorney to promise secrecy, but what of
-that? Since Tom's harassed conscience had managed to drive him to the
-lawyer's house by night and wring a dread tale from lips that had been
-sealed with the dismalest and most formidable of oaths, Huck's
-confidence in the human race was well-nigh obliterated.
-
-Daily Muff Potter's gratitude made Tom glad he had spoken; but nightly
-he wished he had sealed up his tongue.
-
-Half the time Tom was afraid Injun Joe would never be captured; the
-other half he was afraid he would be. He felt sure he never could draw
-a safe breath again until that man was dead and he had seen the corpse.
-
-Rewards had been offered, the country had been scoured, but no Injun
-Joe was found. One of those omniscient and awe-inspiring marvels, a
-detective, came up from St. Louis, moused around, shook his head,
-looked wise, and made that sort of astounding success which members of
-that craft usually achieve. That is to say, he "found a clew." But you
-can't hang a "clew" for murder, and so after that detective had got
-through and gone home, Tom felt just as insecure as he was before.
-
-The slow days drifted on, and each left behind it a slightly lightened
-weight of apprehension.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXV
-
-THERE comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has
-a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This
-desire suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe
-Harper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone
-fishing. Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck
-would answer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to
-him confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take a
-hand in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no
-capital, for he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time
-which is not money. "Where'll we dig?" said Huck.
-
-"Oh, most anywhere."
-
-"Why, is it hid all around?"
-
-"No, indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places, Huck
---sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a
-limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but
-mostly under the floor in ha'nted houses."
-
-"Who hides it?"
-
-"Why, robbers, of course--who'd you reckon? Sunday-school
-sup'rintendents?"
-
-"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and have
-a good time."
-
-"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it and
-leave it there."
-
-"Don't they come after it any more?"
-
-"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or
-else they die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by
-and by somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the
-marks--a paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because it's
-mostly signs and hy'roglyphics."
-
-"Hyro--which?"
-
-"Hy'roglyphics--pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to mean
-anything."
-
-"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?"
-
-"No."
-
-"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
-
-"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house or
-on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out.
-Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it again
-some time; and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch,
-and there's lots of dead-limb trees--dead loads of 'em."
-
-"Is it under all of them?"
-
-"How you talk! No!"
-
-"Then how you going to know which one to go for?"
-
-"Go for all of 'em!"
-
-"Why, Tom, it'll take all summer."
-
-"Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred
-dollars in it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di'monds.
-How's that?"
-
-Huck's eyes glowed.
-
-"That's bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundred
-dollars and I don't want no di'monds."
-
-"All right. But I bet you I ain't going to throw off on di'monds. Some
-of 'em's worth twenty dollars apiece--there ain't any, hardly, but's
-worth six bits or a dollar."
-
-"No! Is that so?"
-
-"Cert'nly--anybody'll tell you so. Hain't you ever seen one, Huck?"
-
-"Not as I remember."
-
-"Oh, kings have slathers of them."
-
-"Well, I don' know no kings, Tom."
-
-"I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to Europe you'd see a raft
-of 'em hopping around."
-
-"Do they hop?"
-
-"Hop?--your granny! No!"
-
-"Well, what did you say they did, for?"
-
-"Shucks, I only meant you'd SEE 'em--not hopping, of course--what do
-they want to hop for?--but I mean you'd just see 'em--scattered around,
-you know, in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard."
-
-"Richard? What's his other name?"
-
-"He didn't have any other name. Kings don't have any but a given name."
-
-"No?"
-
-"But they don't."
-
-"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want to be a king
-and have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say--where you
-going to dig first?"
-
-"Well, I don't know. S'pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on the
-hill t'other side of Still-House branch?"
-
-"I'm agreed."
-
-So they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on their
-three-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselves
-down in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke.
-
-"I like this," said Tom.
-
-"So do I."
-
-"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your
-share?"
-
-"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go to
-every circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time."
-
-"Well, ain't you going to save any of it?"
-
-"Save it? What for?"
-
-"Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by."
-
-"Oh, that ain't any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town some
-day and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you he'd
-clean it out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?"
-
-"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a red
-necktie and a bull pup, and get married."
-
-"Married!"
-
-"That's it."
-
-"Tom, you--why, you ain't in your right mind."
-
-"Wait--you'll see."
-
-"Well, that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and my
-mother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mighty
-well."
-
-"That ain't anything. The girl I'm going to marry won't fight."
-
-"Tom, I reckon they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now you
-better think 'bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What's the name
-of the gal?"
-
-"It ain't a gal at all--it's a girl."
-
-"It's all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl--both's
-right, like enough. Anyway, what's her name, Tom?"
-
-"I'll tell you some time--not now."
-
-"All right--that'll do. Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomer
-than ever."
-
-"No you won't. You'll come and live with me. Now stir out of this and
-we'll go to digging."
-
-They worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiled
-another half-hour. Still no result. Huck said:
-
-"Do they always bury it as deep as this?"
-
-"Sometimes--not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven't got the
-right place."
-
-So they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little,
-but still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for some
-time. Finally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops from
-his brow with his sleeve, and said:
-
-"Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?"
-
-"I reckon maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's over yonder on
-Cardiff Hill back of the widow's."
-
-"I reckon that'll be a good one. But won't the widow take it away from
-us, Tom? It's on her land."
-
-"SHE take it away! Maybe she'd like to try it once. Whoever finds one
-of these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don't make any difference
-whose land it's on."
-
-That was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said:
-
-"Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?"
-
-"It is mighty curious, Huck. I don't understand it. Sometimes witches
-interfere. I reckon maybe that's what's the trouble now."
-
-"Shucks! Witches ain't got no power in the daytime."
-
-"Well, that's so. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know what the matter
-is! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the
-shadow of the limb falls at midnight, and that's where you dig!"
-
-"Then consound it, we've fooled away all this work for nothing. Now
-hang it all, we got to come back in the night. It's an awful long way.
-Can you get out?"
-
-"I bet I will. We've got to do it to-night, too, because if somebody
-sees these holes they'll know in a minute what's here and they'll go
-for it."
-
-"Well, I'll come around and maow to-night."
-
-"All right. Let's hide the tools in the bushes."
-
-The boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat in
-the shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn by
-old traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurked
-in the murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the
-distance, an owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were
-subdued by these solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judged
-that twelve had come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began to
-dig. Their hopes commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, and
-their industry kept pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened,
-but every time their hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon
-something, they only suffered a new disappointment. It was only a stone
-or a chunk. At last Tom said:
-
-"It ain't any use, Huck, we're wrong again."
-
-"Well, but we CAN'T be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot."
-
-"I know it, but then there's another thing."
-
-"What's that?".
-
-"Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or too
-early."
-
-Huck dropped his shovel.
-
-"That's it," said he. "That's the very trouble. We got to give this
-one up. We can't ever tell the right time, and besides this kind of
-thing's too awful, here this time of night with witches and ghosts
-a-fluttering around so. I feel as if something's behind me all the time;
-and I'm afeard to turn around, becuz maybe there's others in front
-a-waiting for a chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here."
-
-"Well, I've been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in a
-dead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it."
-
-"Lordy!"
-
-"Yes, they do. I've always heard that."
-
-"Tom, I don't like to fool around much where there's dead people. A
-body's bound to get into trouble with 'em, sure."
-
-"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one here was to
-stick his skull out and say something!"
-
-"Don't Tom! It's awful."
-
-"Well, it just is. Huck, I don't feel comfortable a bit."
-
-"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try somewheres else."
-
-"All right, I reckon we better."
-
-"What'll it be?"
-
-Tom considered awhile; and then said:
-
-"The ha'nted house. That's it!"
-
-"Blame it, I don't like ha'nted houses, Tom. Why, they're a dern sight
-worse'n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don't come
-sliding around in a shroud, when you ain't noticing, and peep over your
-shoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. I
-couldn't stand such a thing as that, Tom--nobody could."
-
-"Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don't travel around only at night. They won't
-hender us from digging there in the daytime."
-
-"Well, that's so. But you know mighty well people don't go about that
-ha'nted house in the day nor the night."
-
-"Well, that's mostly because they don't like to go where a man's been
-murdered, anyway--but nothing's ever been seen around that house except
-in the night--just some blue lights slipping by the windows--no regular
-ghosts."
-
-"Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom,
-you can bet there's a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands to
-reason. Becuz you know that they don't anybody but ghosts use 'em."
-
-"Yes, that's so. But anyway they don't come around in the daytime, so
-what's the use of our being afeard?"
-
-"Well, all right. We'll tackle the ha'nted house if you say so--but I
-reckon it's taking chances."
-
-They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of
-the moonlit valley below them stood the "ha'nted" house, utterly
-isolated, its fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very
-doorsteps, the chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a
-corner of the roof caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting to
-see a blue light flit past a window; then talking in a low tone, as
-befitted the time and the circumstances, they struck far off to the
-right, to give the haunted house a wide berth, and took their way
-homeward through the woods that adorned the rearward side of Cardiff
-Hill.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVI
-
-ABOUT noon the next day the boys arrived at the dead tree; they had
-come for their tools. Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house;
-Huck was measurably so, also--but suddenly said:
-
-"Lookyhere, Tom, do you know what day it is?"
-
-Tom mentally ran over the days of the week, and then quickly lifted
-his eyes with a startled look in them--
-
-"My! I never once thought of it, Huck!"
-
-"Well, I didn't neither, but all at once it popped onto me that it was
-Friday."
-
-"Blame it, a body can't be too careful, Huck. We might 'a' got into an
-awful scrape, tackling such a thing on a Friday."
-
-"MIGHT! Better say we WOULD! There's some lucky days, maybe, but
-Friday ain't."
-
-"Any fool knows that. I don't reckon YOU was the first that found it
-out, Huck."
-
-"Well, I never said I was, did I? And Friday ain't all, neither. I had
-a rotten bad dream last night--dreampt about rats."
-
-"No! Sure sign of trouble. Did they fight?"
-
-"No."
-
-"Well, that's good, Huck. When they don't fight it's only a sign that
-there's trouble around, you know. All we got to do is to look mighty
-sharp and keep out of it. We'll drop this thing for to-day, and play.
-Do you know Robin Hood, Huck?"
-
-"No. Who's Robin Hood?"
-
-"Why, he was one of the greatest men that was ever in England--and the
-best. He was a robber."
-
-"Cracky, I wisht I was. Who did he rob?"
-
-"Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like.
-But he never bothered the poor. He loved 'em. He always divided up with
-'em perfectly square."
-
-"Well, he must 'a' been a brick."
-
-"I bet you he was, Huck. Oh, he was the noblest man that ever was.
-They ain't any such men now, I can tell you. He could lick any man in
-England, with one hand tied behind him; and he could take his yew bow
-and plug a ten-cent piece every time, a mile and a half."
-
-"What's a YEW bow?"
-
-"I don't know. It's some kind of a bow, of course. And if he hit that
-dime only on the edge he would set down and cry--and curse. But we'll
-play Robin Hood--it's nobby fun. I'll learn you."
-
-"I'm agreed."
-
-So they played Robin Hood all the afternoon, now and then casting a
-yearning eye down upon the haunted house and passing a remark about the
-morrow's prospects and possibilities there. As the sun began to sink
-into the west they took their way homeward athwart the long shadows of
-the trees and soon were buried from sight in the forests of Cardiff
-Hill.
-
-On Saturday, shortly after noon, the boys were at the dead tree again.
-They had a smoke and a chat in the shade, and then dug a little in
-their last hole, not with great hope, but merely because Tom said there
-were so many cases where people had given up a treasure after getting
-down within six inches of it, and then somebody else had come along and
-turned it up with a single thrust of a shovel. The thing failed this
-time, however, so the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling
-that they had not trifled with fortune, but had fulfilled all the
-requirements that belong to the business of treasure-hunting.
-
-When they reached the haunted house there was something so weird and
-grisly about the dead silence that reigned there under the baking sun,
-and something so depressing about the loneliness and desolation of the
-place, that they were afraid, for a moment, to venture in. Then they
-crept to the door and took a trembling peep. They saw a weed-grown,
-floorless room, unplastered, an ancient fireplace, vacant windows, a
-ruinous staircase; and here, there, and everywhere hung ragged and
-abandoned cobwebs. They presently entered, softly, with quickened
-pulses, talking in whispers, ears alert to catch the slightest sound,
-and muscles tense and ready for instant retreat.
-
-In a little while familiarity modified their fears and they gave the
-place a critical and interested examination, rather admiring their own
-boldness, and wondering at it, too. Next they wanted to look up-stairs.
-This was something like cutting off retreat, but they got to daring
-each other, and of course there could be but one result--they threw
-their tools into a corner and made the ascent. Up there were the same
-signs of decay. In one corner they found a closet that promised
-mystery, but the promise was a fraud--there was nothing in it. Their
-courage was up now and well in hand. They were about to go down and
-begin work when--
-
-"Sh!" said Tom.
-
-"What is it?" whispered Huck, blanching with fright.
-
-"Sh!... There!... Hear it?"
-
-"Yes!... Oh, my! Let's run!"
-
-"Keep still! Don't you budge! They're coming right toward the door."
-
-The boys stretched themselves upon the floor with their eyes to
-knot-holes in the planking, and lay waiting, in a misery of fear.
-
-"They've stopped.... No--coming.... Here they are. Don't whisper
-another word, Huck. My goodness, I wish I was out of this!"
-
-Two men entered. Each boy said to himself: "There's the old deaf and
-dumb Spaniard that's been about town once or twice lately--never saw
-t'other man before."
-
-"T'other" was a ragged, unkempt creature, with nothing very pleasant
-in his face. The Spaniard was wrapped in a serape; he had bushy white
-whiskers; long white hair flowed from under his sombrero, and he wore
-green goggles. When they came in, "t'other" was talking in a low voice;
-they sat down on the ground, facing the door, with their backs to the
-wall, and the speaker continued his remarks. His manner became less
-guarded and his words more distinct as he proceeded:
-
-"No," said he, "I've thought it all over, and I don't like it. It's
-dangerous."
-
-"Dangerous!" grunted the "deaf and dumb" Spaniard--to the vast
-surprise of the boys. "Milksop!"
-
-This voice made the boys gasp and quake. It was Injun Joe's! There was
-silence for some time. Then Joe said:
-
-"What's any more dangerous than that job up yonder--but nothing's come
-of it."
-
-"That's different. Away up the river so, and not another house about.
-'Twon't ever be known that we tried, anyway, long as we didn't succeed."
-
-"Well, what's more dangerous than coming here in the daytime!--anybody
-would suspicion us that saw us."
-
-"I know that. But there warn't any other place as handy after that
-fool of a job. I want to quit this shanty. I wanted to yesterday, only
-it warn't any use trying to stir out of here, with those infernal boys
-playing over there on the hill right in full view."
-
-"Those infernal boys" quaked again under the inspiration of this
-remark, and thought how lucky it was that they had remembered it was
-Friday and concluded to wait a day. They wished in their hearts they
-had waited a year.
-
-The two men got out some food and made a luncheon. After a long and
-thoughtful silence, Injun Joe said:
-
-"Look here, lad--you go back up the river where you belong. Wait there
-till you hear from me. I'll take the chances on dropping into this town
-just once more, for a look. We'll do that 'dangerous' job after I've
-spied around a little and think things look well for it. Then for
-Texas! We'll leg it together!"
-
-This was satisfactory. Both men presently fell to yawning, and Injun
-Joe said:
-
-"I'm dead for sleep! It's your turn to watch."
-
-He curled down in the weeds and soon began to snore. His comrade
-stirred him once or twice and he became quiet. Presently the watcher
-began to nod; his head drooped lower and lower, both men began to snore
-now.
-
-The boys drew a long, grateful breath. Tom whispered:
-
-"Now's our chance--come!"
-
-Huck said:
-
-"I can't--I'd die if they was to wake."
-
-Tom urged--Huck held back. At last Tom rose slowly and softly, and
-started alone. But the first step he made wrung such a hideous creak
-from the crazy floor that he sank down almost dead with fright. He
-never made a second attempt. The boys lay there counting the dragging
-moments till it seemed to them that time must be done and eternity
-growing gray; and then they were grateful to note that at last the sun
-was setting.
-
-Now one snore ceased. Injun Joe sat up, stared around--smiled grimly
-upon his comrade, whose head was drooping upon his knees--stirred him
-up with his foot and said:
-
-"Here! YOU'RE a watchman, ain't you! All right, though--nothing's
-happened."
-
-"My! have I been asleep?"
-
-"Oh, partly, partly. Nearly time for us to be moving, pard. What'll we
-do with what little swag we've got left?"
-
-"I don't know--leave it here as we've always done, I reckon. No use to
-take it away till we start south. Six hundred and fifty in silver's
-something to carry."
-
-"Well--all right--it won't matter to come here once more."
-
-"No--but I'd say come in the night as we used to do--it's better."
-
-"Yes: but look here; it may be a good while before I get the right
-chance at that job; accidents might happen; 'tain't in such a very good
-place; we'll just regularly bury it--and bury it deep."
-
-"Good idea," said the comrade, who walked across the room, knelt down,
-raised one of the rearward hearth-stones and took out a bag that
-jingled pleasantly. He subtracted from it twenty or thirty dollars for
-himself and as much for Injun Joe, and passed the bag to the latter,
-who was on his knees in the corner, now, digging with his bowie-knife.
-
-The boys forgot all their fears, all their miseries in an instant.
-With gloating eyes they watched every movement. Luck!--the splendor of
-it was beyond all imagination! Six hundred dollars was money enough to
-make half a dozen boys rich! Here was treasure-hunting under the
-happiest auspices--there would not be any bothersome uncertainty as to
-where to dig. They nudged each other every moment--eloquent nudges and
-easily understood, for they simply meant--"Oh, but ain't you glad NOW
-we're here!"
-
-Joe's knife struck upon something.
-
-"Hello!" said he.
-
-"What is it?" said his comrade.
-
-"Half-rotten plank--no, it's a box, I believe. Here--bear a hand and
-we'll see what it's here for. Never mind, I've broke a hole."
-
-He reached his hand in and drew it out--
-
-"Man, it's money!"
-
-The two men examined the handful of coins. They were gold. The boys
-above were as excited as themselves, and as delighted.
-
-Joe's comrade said:
-
-"We'll make quick work of this. There's an old rusty pick over amongst
-the weeds in the corner the other side of the fireplace--I saw it a
-minute ago."
-
-He ran and brought the boys' pick and shovel. Injun Joe took the pick,
-looked it over critically, shook his head, muttered something to
-himself, and then began to use it. The box was soon unearthed. It was
-not very large; it was iron bound and had been very strong before the
-slow years had injured it. The men contemplated the treasure awhile in
-blissful silence.
-
-"Pard, there's thousands of dollars here," said Injun Joe.
-
-"'Twas always said that Murrel's gang used to be around here one
-summer," the stranger observed.
-
-"I know it," said Injun Joe; "and this looks like it, I should say."
-
-"Now you won't need to do that job."
-
-The half-breed frowned. Said he:
-
-"You don't know me. Least you don't know all about that thing. 'Tain't
-robbery altogether--it's REVENGE!" and a wicked light flamed in his
-eyes. "I'll need your help in it. When it's finished--then Texas. Go
-home to your Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me."
-
-"Well--if you say so; what'll we do with this--bury it again?"
-
-"Yes. [Ravishing delight overhead.] NO! by the great Sachem, no!
-[Profound distress overhead.] I'd nearly forgot. That pick had fresh
-earth on it! [The boys were sick with terror in a moment.] What
-business has a pick and a shovel here? What business with fresh earth
-on them? Who brought them here--and where are they gone? Have you heard
-anybody?--seen anybody? What! bury it again and leave them to come and
-see the ground disturbed? Not exactly--not exactly. We'll take it to my
-den."
-
-"Why, of course! Might have thought of that before. You mean Number
-One?"
-
-"No--Number Two--under the cross. The other place is bad--too common."
-
-"All right. It's nearly dark enough to start."
-
-Injun Joe got up and went about from window to window cautiously
-peeping out. Presently he said:
-
-"Who could have brought those tools here? Do you reckon they can be
-up-stairs?"
-
-The boys' breath forsook them. Injun Joe put his hand on his knife,
-halted a moment, undecided, and then turned toward the stairway. The
-boys thought of the closet, but their strength was gone. The steps came
-creaking up the stairs--the intolerable distress of the situation woke
-the stricken resolution of the lads--they were about to spring for the
-closet, when there was a crash of rotten timbers and Injun Joe landed
-on the ground amid the debris of the ruined stairway. He gathered
-himself up cursing, and his comrade said:
-
-"Now what's the use of all that? If it's anybody, and they're up
-there, let them STAY there--who cares? If they want to jump down, now,
-and get into trouble, who objects? It will be dark in fifteen minutes
---and then let them follow us if they want to. I'm willing. In my
-opinion, whoever hove those things in here caught a sight of us and
-took us for ghosts or devils or something. I'll bet they're running
-yet."
-
-Joe grumbled awhile; then he agreed with his friend that what daylight
-was left ought to be economized in getting things ready for leaving.
-Shortly afterward they slipped out of the house in the deepening
-twilight, and moved toward the river with their precious box.
-
-Tom and Huck rose up, weak but vastly relieved, and stared after them
-through the chinks between the logs of the house. Follow? Not they.
-They were content to reach ground again without broken necks, and take
-the townward track over the hill. They did not talk much. They were too
-much absorbed in hating themselves--hating the ill luck that made them
-take the spade and the pick there. But for that, Injun Joe never would
-have suspected. He would have hidden the silver with the gold to wait
-there till his "revenge" was satisfied, and then he would have had the
-misfortune to find that money turn up missing. Bitter, bitter luck that
-the tools were ever brought there!
-
-They resolved to keep a lookout for that Spaniard when he should come
-to town spying out for chances to do his revengeful job, and follow him
-to "Number Two," wherever that might be. Then a ghastly thought
-occurred to Tom.
-
-"Revenge? What if he means US, Huck!"
-
-"Oh, don't!" said Huck, nearly fainting.
-
-They talked it all over, and as they entered town they agreed to
-believe that he might possibly mean somebody else--at least that he
-might at least mean nobody but Tom, since only Tom had testified.
-
-Very, very small comfort it was to Tom to be alone in danger! Company
-would be a palpable improvement, he thought.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVII
-
-THE adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night.
-Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it
-wasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and
-wakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay
-in the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he
-noticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away--somewhat as if
-they had happened in another world, or in a time long gone by. Then it
-occurred to him that the great adventure itself must be a dream! There
-was one very strong argument in favor of this idea--namely, that the
-quantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real. He had never seen
-as much as fifty dollars in one mass before, and he was like all boys
-of his age and station in life, in that he imagined that all references
-to "hundreds" and "thousands" were mere fanciful forms of speech, and
-that no such sums really existed in the world. He never had supposed
-for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be found
-in actual money in any one's possession. If his notions of hidden
-treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of a
-handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspable
-dollars.
-
-But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer
-under the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently found
-himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a
-dream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatch
-a hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on the
-gunwale of a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water and
-looking very melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the
-subject. If he did not do it, then the adventure would be proved to
-have been only a dream.
-
-"Hello, Huck!"
-
-"Hello, yourself."
-
-Silence, for a minute.
-
-"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' got
-the money. Oh, ain't it awful!"
-
-"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was.
-Dog'd if I don't, Huck."
-
-"What ain't a dream?"
-
-"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was."
-
-"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dream
-it was! I've had dreams enough all night--with that patch-eyed Spanish
-devil going for me all through 'em--rot him!"
-
-"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!"
-
-"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance for
-such a pile--and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to see
-him, anyway."
-
-"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway--and track him out--to
-his Number Two."
-
-"Number Two--yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can't
-make nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?"
-
-"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck--maybe it's the number of a house!"
-
-"Goody!... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in this
-one-horse town. They ain't no numbers here."
-
-"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here--it's the number of a
-room--in a tavern, you know!"
-
-"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find out
-quick."
-
-"You stay here, Huck, till I come."
-
-Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in public
-places. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No.
-2 had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied.
-In the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. The
-tavern-keeper's young son said it was kept locked all the time, and he
-never saw anybody go into it or come out of it except at night; he did
-not know any particular reason for this state of things; had had some
-little curiosity, but it was rather feeble; had made the most of the
-mystery by entertaining himself with the idea that that room was
-"ha'nted"; had noticed that there was a light in there the night before.
-
-"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2
-we're after."
-
-"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?"
-
-"Lemme think."
-
-Tom thought a long time. Then he said:
-
-"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes out
-into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap
-of a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find,
-and I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go there
-and try 'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because he
-said he was going to drop into town and spy around once more for a
-chance to get his revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and if
-he don't go to that No. 2, that ain't the place."
-
-"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!"
-
-"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you--and if he did,
-maybe he'd never think anything."
-
-"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono--I dono.
-I'll try."
-
-"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' found
-out he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money."
-
-"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!"
-
-"Now you're TALKING! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXVIII
-
-THAT night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung
-about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the
-alley at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the
-alley or left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the
-tavern door. The night promised to be a fair one; so Tom went home with
-the understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on,
-Huck was to come and "maow," whereupon he would slip out and try the
-keys. But the night remained clear, and Huck closed his watch and
-retired to bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve.
-
-Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck. Also Wednesday. But Thursday
-night promised better. Tom slipped out in good season with his aunt's
-old tin lantern, and a large towel to blindfold it with. He hid the
-lantern in Huck's sugar hogshead and the watch began. An hour before
-midnight the tavern closed up and its lights (the only ones
-thereabouts) were put out. No Spaniard had been seen. Nobody had
-entered or left the alley. Everything was auspicious. The blackness of
-darkness reigned, the perfect stillness was interrupted only by
-occasional mutterings of distant thunder.
-
-Tom got his lantern, lit it in the hogshead, wrapped it closely in the
-towel, and the two adventurers crept in the gloom toward the tavern.
-Huck stood sentry and Tom felt his way into the alley. Then there was a
-season of waiting anxiety that weighed upon Huck's spirits like a
-mountain. He began to wish he could see a flash from the lantern--it
-would frighten him, but it would at least tell him that Tom was alive
-yet. It seemed hours since Tom had disappeared. Surely he must have
-fainted; maybe he was dead; maybe his heart had burst under terror and
-excitement. In his uneasiness Huck found himself drawing closer and
-closer to the alley; fearing all sorts of dreadful things, and
-momentarily expecting some catastrophe to happen that would take away
-his breath. There was not much to take away, for he seemed only able to
-inhale it by thimblefuls, and his heart would soon wear itself out, the
-way it was beating. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Tom came
-tearing by him: "Run!" said he; "run, for your life!"
-
-He needn't have repeated it; once was enough; Huck was making thirty
-or forty miles an hour before the repetition was uttered. The boys
-never stopped till they reached the shed of a deserted slaughter-house
-at the lower end of the village. Just as they got within its shelter
-the storm burst and the rain poured down. As soon as Tom got his breath
-he said:
-
-"Huck, it was awful! I tried two of the keys, just as soft as I could;
-but they seemed to make such a power of racket that I couldn't hardly
-get my breath I was so scared. They wouldn't turn in the lock, either.
-Well, without noticing what I was doing, I took hold of the knob, and
-open comes the door! It warn't locked! I hopped in, and shook off the
-towel, and, GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!"
-
-"What!--what'd you see, Tom?"
-
-"Huck, I most stepped onto Injun Joe's hand!"
-
-"No!"
-
-"Yes! He was lying there, sound asleep on the floor, with his old
-patch on his eye and his arms spread out."
-
-"Lordy, what did you do? Did he wake up?"
-
-"No, never budged. Drunk, I reckon. I just grabbed that towel and
-started!"
-
-"I'd never 'a' thought of the towel, I bet!"
-
-"Well, I would. My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it."
-
-"Say, Tom, did you see that box?"
-
-"Huck, I didn't wait to look around. I didn't see the box, I didn't
-see the cross. I didn't see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the
-floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the
-room. Don't you see, now, what's the matter with that ha'nted room?"
-
-"How?"
-
-"Why, it's ha'nted with whiskey! Maybe ALL the Temperance Taverns have
-got a ha'nted room, hey, Huck?"
-
-"Well, I reckon maybe that's so. Who'd 'a' thought such a thing? But
-say, Tom, now's a mighty good time to get that box, if Injun Joe's
-drunk."
-
-"It is, that! You try it!"
-
-Huck shuddered.
-
-"Well, no--I reckon not."
-
-"And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe ain't
-enough. If there'd been three, he'd be drunk enough and I'd do it."
-
-There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom said:
-
-"Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any more till we know Injun
-Joe's not in there. It's too scary. Now, if we watch every night, we'll
-be dead sure to see him go out, some time or other, and then we'll
-snatch that box quicker'n lightning."
-
-"Well, I'm agreed. I'll watch the whole night long, and I'll do it
-every night, too, if you'll do the other part of the job."
-
-"All right, I will. All you got to do is to trot up Hooper Street a
-block and maow--and if I'm asleep, you throw some gravel at the window
-and that'll fetch me."
-
-"Agreed, and good as wheat!"
-
-"Now, Huck, the storm's over, and I'll go home. It'll begin to be
-daylight in a couple of hours. You go back and watch that long, will
-you?"
-
-"I said I would, Tom, and I will. I'll ha'nt that tavern every night
-for a year! I'll sleep all day and I'll stand watch all night."
-
-"That's all right. Now, where you going to sleep?"
-
-"In Ben Rogers' hayloft. He lets me, and so does his pap's nigger man,
-Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and
-any time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can
-spare it. That's a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don't
-ever act as if I was above him. Sometime I've set right down and eat
-WITH him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when
-he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing."
-
-"Well, if I don't want you in the daytime, I'll let you sleep. I won't
-come bothering around. Any time you see something's up, in the night,
-just skip right around and maow."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXIX
-
-THE first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news
---Judge Thatcher's family had come back to town the night before. Both
-Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a moment,
-and Becky took the chief place in the boy's interest. He saw her and
-they had an exhausting good time playing "hi-spy" and "gully-keeper"
-with a crowd of their school-mates. The day was completed and crowned
-in a peculiarly satisfactory way: Becky teased her mother to appoint
-the next day for the long-promised and long-delayed picnic, and she
-consented. The child's delight was boundless; and Tom's not more
-moderate. The invitations were sent out before sunset, and straightway
-the young folks of the village were thrown into a fever of preparation
-and pleasurable anticipation. Tom's excitement enabled him to keep
-awake until a pretty late hour, and he had good hopes of hearing Huck's
-"maow," and of having his treasure to astonish Becky and the picnickers
-with, next day; but he was disappointed. No signal came that night.
-
-Morning came, eventually, and by ten or eleven o'clock a giddy and
-rollicking company were gathered at Judge Thatcher's, and everything
-was ready for a start. It was not the custom for elderly people to mar
-the picnics with their presence. The children were considered safe
-enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few
-young gentlemen of twenty-three or thereabouts. The old steam ferryboat
-was chartered for the occasion; presently the gay throng filed up the
-main street laden with provision-baskets. Sid was sick and had to miss
-the fun; Mary remained at home to entertain him. The last thing Mrs.
-Thatcher said to Becky, was:
-
-"You'll not get back till late. Perhaps you'd better stay all night
-with some of the girls that live near the ferry-landing, child."
-
-"Then I'll stay with Susy Harper, mamma."
-
-"Very well. And mind and behave yourself and don't be any trouble."
-
-Presently, as they tripped along, Tom said to Becky:
-
-"Say--I'll tell you what we'll do. 'Stead of going to Joe Harper's
-we'll climb right up the hill and stop at the Widow Douglas'. She'll
-have ice-cream! She has it most every day--dead loads of it. And she'll
-be awful glad to have us."
-
-"Oh, that will be fun!"
-
-Then Becky reflected a moment and said:
-
-"But what will mamma say?"
-
-"How'll she ever know?"
-
-The girl turned the idea over in her mind, and said reluctantly:
-
-"I reckon it's wrong--but--"
-
-"But shucks! Your mother won't know, and so what's the harm? All she
-wants is that you'll be safe; and I bet you she'd 'a' said go there if
-she'd 'a' thought of it. I know she would!"
-
-The Widow Douglas' splendid hospitality was a tempting bait. It and
-Tom's persuasions presently carried the day. So it was decided to say
-nothing anybody about the night's programme. Presently it occurred to
-Tom that maybe Huck might come this very night and give the signal. The
-thought took a deal of the spirit out of his anticipations. Still he
-could not bear to give up the fun at Widow Douglas'. And why should he
-give it up, he reasoned--the signal did not come the night before, so
-why should it be any more likely to come to-night? The sure fun of the
-evening outweighed the uncertain treasure; and, boy-like, he determined
-to yield to the stronger inclination and not allow himself to think of
-the box of money another time that day.
-
-Three miles below town the ferryboat stopped at the mouth of a woody
-hollow and tied up. The crowd swarmed ashore and soon the forest
-distances and craggy heights echoed far and near with shoutings and
-laughter. All the different ways of getting hot and tired were gone
-through with, and by-and-by the rovers straggled back to camp fortified
-with responsible appetites, and then the destruction of the good things
-began. After the feast there was a refreshing season of rest and chat
-in the shade of spreading oaks. By-and-by somebody shouted:
-
-"Who's ready for the cave?"
-
-Everybody was. Bundles of candles were procured, and straightway there
-was a general scamper up the hill. The mouth of the cave was up the
-hillside--an opening shaped like a letter A. Its massive oaken door
-stood unbarred. Within was a small chamber, chilly as an ice-house, and
-walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat.
-It was romantic and mysterious to stand here in the deep gloom and look
-out upon the green valley shining in the sun. But the impressiveness of
-the situation quickly wore off, and the romping began again. The moment
-a candle was lighted there was a general rush upon the owner of it; a
-struggle and a gallant defence followed, but the candle was soon
-knocked down or blown out, and then there was a glad clamor of laughter
-and a new chase. But all things have an end. By-and-by the procession
-went filing down the steep descent of the main avenue, the flickering
-rank of lights dimly revealing the lofty walls of rock almost to their
-point of junction sixty feet overhead. This main avenue was not more
-than eight or ten feet wide. Every few steps other lofty and still
-narrower crevices branched from it on either hand--for McDougal's cave
-was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and
-out again and led nowhere. It was said that one might wander days and
-nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and chasms, and
-never find the end of the cave; and that he might go down, and down,
-and still down, into the earth, and it was just the same--labyrinth
-under labyrinth, and no end to any of them. No man "knew" the cave.
-That was an impossible thing. Most of the young men knew a portion of
-it, and it was not customary to venture much beyond this known portion.
-Tom Sawyer knew as much of the cave as any one.
-
-The procession moved along the main avenue some three-quarters of a
-mile, and then groups and couples began to slip aside into branch
-avenues, fly along the dismal corridors, and take each other by
-surprise at points where the corridors joined again. Parties were able
-to elude each other for the space of half an hour without going beyond
-the "known" ground.
-
-By-and-by, one group after another came straggling back to the mouth
-of the cave, panting, hilarious, smeared from head to foot with tallow
-drippings, daubed with clay, and entirely delighted with the success of
-the day. Then they were astonished to find that they had been taking no
-note of time and that night was about at hand. The clanging bell had
-been calling for half an hour. However, this sort of close to the day's
-adventures was romantic and therefore satisfactory. When the ferryboat
-with her wild freight pushed into the stream, nobody cared sixpence for
-the wasted time but the captain of the craft.
-
-Huck was already upon his watch when the ferryboat's lights went
-glinting past the wharf. He heard no noise on board, for the young
-people were as subdued and still as people usually are who are nearly
-tired to death. He wondered what boat it was, and why she did not stop
-at the wharf--and then he dropped her out of his mind and put his
-attention upon his business. The night was growing cloudy and dark. Ten
-o'clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased, scattered lights began
-to wink out, all straggling foot-passengers disappeared, the village
-betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the
-silence and the ghosts. Eleven o'clock came, and the tavern lights were
-put out; darkness everywhere, now. Huck waited what seemed a weary long
-time, but nothing happened. His faith was weakening. Was there any use?
-Was there really any use? Why not give it up and turn in?
-
-A noise fell upon his ear. He was all attention in an instant. The
-alley door closed softly. He sprang to the corner of the brick store.
-The next moment two men brushed by him, and one seemed to have
-something under his arm. It must be that box! So they were going to
-remove the treasure. Why call Tom now? It would be absurd--the men
-would get away with the box and never be found again. No, he would
-stick to their wake and follow them; he would trust to the darkness for
-security from discovery. So communing with himself, Huck stepped out
-and glided along behind the men, cat-like, with bare feet, allowing
-them to keep just far enough ahead not to be invisible.
-
-They moved up the river street three blocks, then turned to the left
-up a cross-street. They went straight ahead, then, until they came to
-the path that led up Cardiff Hill; this they took. They passed by the
-old Welshman's house, half-way up the hill, without hesitating, and
-still climbed upward. Good, thought Huck, they will bury it in the old
-quarry. But they never stopped at the quarry. They passed on, up the
-summit. They plunged into the narrow path between the tall sumach
-bushes, and were at once hidden in the gloom. Huck closed up and
-shortened his distance, now, for they would never be able to see him.
-He trotted along awhile; then slackened his pace, fearing he was
-gaining too fast; moved on a piece, then stopped altogether; listened;
-no sound; none, save that he seemed to hear the beating of his own
-heart. The hooting of an owl came over the hill--ominous sound! But no
-footsteps. Heavens, was everything lost! He was about to spring with
-winged feet, when a man cleared his throat not four feet from him!
-Huck's heart shot into his throat, but he swallowed it again; and then
-he stood there shaking as if a dozen agues had taken charge of him at
-once, and so weak that he thought he must surely fall to the ground. He
-knew where he was. He knew he was within five steps of the stile
-leading into Widow Douglas' grounds. Very well, he thought, let them
-bury it there; it won't be hard to find.
-
-Now there was a voice--a very low voice--Injun Joe's:
-
-"Damn her, maybe she's got company--there's lights, late as it is."
-
-"I can't see any."
-
-This was that stranger's voice--the stranger of the haunted house. A
-deadly chill went to Huck's heart--this, then, was the "revenge" job!
-His thought was, to fly. Then he remembered that the Widow Douglas had
-been kind to him more than once, and maybe these men were going to
-murder her. He wished he dared venture to warn her; but he knew he
-didn't dare--they might come and catch him. He thought all this and
-more in the moment that elapsed between the stranger's remark and Injun
-Joe's next--which was--
-
-"Because the bush is in your way. Now--this way--now you see, don't
-you?"
-
-"Yes. Well, there IS company there, I reckon. Better give it up."
-
-"Give it up, and I just leaving this country forever! Give it up and
-maybe never have another chance. I tell you again, as I've told you
-before, I don't care for her swag--you may have it. But her husband was
-rough on me--many times he was rough on me--and mainly he was the
-justice of the peace that jugged me for a vagrant. And that ain't all.
-It ain't a millionth part of it! He had me HORSEWHIPPED!--horsewhipped
-in front of the jail, like a nigger!--with all the town looking on!
-HORSEWHIPPED!--do you understand? He took advantage of me and died. But
-I'll take it out of HER."
-
-"Oh, don't kill her! Don't do that!"
-
-"Kill? Who said anything about killing? I would kill HIM if he was
-here; but not her. When you want to get revenge on a woman you don't
-kill her--bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils--you notch
-her ears like a sow!"
-
-"By God, that's--"
-
-"Keep your opinion to yourself! It will be safest for you. I'll tie
-her to the bed. If she bleeds to death, is that my fault? I'll not cry,
-if she does. My friend, you'll help me in this thing--for MY sake
---that's why you're here--I mightn't be able alone. If you flinch, I'll
-kill you. Do you understand that? And if I have to kill you, I'll kill
-her--and then I reckon nobody'll ever know much about who done this
-business."
-
-"Well, if it's got to be done, let's get at it. The quicker the
-better--I'm all in a shiver."
-
-"Do it NOW? And company there? Look here--I'll get suspicious of you,
-first thing you know. No--we'll wait till the lights are out--there's
-no hurry."
-
-Huck felt that a silence was going to ensue--a thing still more awful
-than any amount of murderous talk; so he held his breath and stepped
-gingerly back; planted his foot carefully and firmly, after balancing,
-one-legged, in a precarious way and almost toppling over, first on one
-side and then on the other. He took another step back, with the same
-elaboration and the same risks; then another and another, and--a twig
-snapped under his foot! His breath stopped and he listened. There was
-no sound--the stillness was perfect. His gratitude was measureless. Now
-he turned in his tracks, between the walls of sumach bushes--turned
-himself as carefully as if he were a ship--and then stepped quickly but
-cautiously along. When he emerged at the quarry he felt secure, and so
-he picked up his nimble heels and flew. Down, down he sped, till he
-reached the Welshman's. He banged at the door, and presently the heads
-of the old man and his two stalwart sons were thrust from windows.
-
-"What's the row there? Who's banging? What do you want?"
-
-"Let me in--quick! I'll tell everything."
-
-"Why, who are you?"
-
-"Huckleberry Finn--quick, let me in!"
-
-"Huckleberry Finn, indeed! It ain't a name to open many doors, I
-judge! But let him in, lads, and let's see what's the trouble."
-
-"Please don't ever tell I told you," were Huck's first words when he
-got in. "Please don't--I'd be killed, sure--but the widow's been good
-friends to me sometimes, and I want to tell--I WILL tell if you'll
-promise you won't ever say it was me."
-
-"By George, he HAS got something to tell, or he wouldn't act so!"
-exclaimed the old man; "out with it and nobody here'll ever tell, lad."
-
-Three minutes later the old man and his sons, well armed, were up the
-hill, and just entering the sumach path on tiptoe, their weapons in
-their hands. Huck accompanied them no further. He hid behind a great
-bowlder and fell to listening. There was a lagging, anxious silence,
-and then all of a sudden there was an explosion of firearms and a cry.
-
-Huck waited for no particulars. He sprang away and sped down the hill
-as fast as his legs could carry him.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXX
-
-AS the earliest suspicion of dawn appeared on Sunday morning, Huck
-came groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welshman's door.
-The inmates were asleep, but it was a sleep that was set on a
-hair-trigger, on account of the exciting episode of the night. A call
-came from a window:
-
-"Who's there!"
-
-Huck's scared voice answered in a low tone:
-
-"Please let me in! It's only Huck Finn!"
-
-"It's a name that can open this door night or day, lad!--and welcome!"
-
-These were strange words to the vagabond boy's ears, and the
-pleasantest he had ever heard. He could not recollect that the closing
-word had ever been applied in his case before. The door was quickly
-unlocked, and he entered. Huck was given a seat and the old man and his
-brace of tall sons speedily dressed themselves.
-
-"Now, my boy, I hope you're good and hungry, because breakfast will be
-ready as soon as the sun's up, and we'll have a piping hot one, too
---make yourself easy about that! I and the boys hoped you'd turn up and
-stop here last night."
-
-"I was awful scared," said Huck, "and I run. I took out when the
-pistols went off, and I didn't stop for three mile. I've come now becuz
-I wanted to know about it, you know; and I come before daylight becuz I
-didn't want to run across them devils, even if they was dead."
-
-"Well, poor chap, you do look as if you'd had a hard night of it--but
-there's a bed here for you when you've had your breakfast. No, they
-ain't dead, lad--we are sorry enough for that. You see we knew right
-where to put our hands on them, by your description; so we crept along
-on tiptoe till we got within fifteen feet of them--dark as a cellar
-that sumach path was--and just then I found I was going to sneeze. It
-was the meanest kind of luck! I tried to keep it back, but no use
---'twas bound to come, and it did come! I was in the lead with my pistol
-raised, and when the sneeze started those scoundrels a-rustling to get
-out of the path, I sung out, 'Fire boys!' and blazed away at the place
-where the rustling was. So did the boys. But they were off in a jiffy,
-those villains, and we after them, down through the woods. I judge we
-never touched them. They fired a shot apiece as they started, but their
-bullets whizzed by and didn't do us any harm. As soon as we lost the
-sound of their feet we quit chasing, and went down and stirred up the
-constables. They got a posse together, and went off to guard the river
-bank, and as soon as it is light the sheriff and a gang are going to
-beat up the woods. My boys will be with them presently. I wish we had
-some sort of description of those rascals--'twould help a good deal.
-But you couldn't see what they were like, in the dark, lad, I suppose?"
-
-"Oh yes; I saw them down-town and follered them."
-
-"Splendid! Describe them--describe them, my boy!"
-
-"One's the old deaf and dumb Spaniard that's ben around here once or
-twice, and t'other's a mean-looking, ragged--"
-
-"That's enough, lad, we know the men! Happened on them in the woods
-back of the widow's one day, and they slunk away. Off with you, boys,
-and tell the sheriff--get your breakfast to-morrow morning!"
-
-The Welshman's sons departed at once. As they were leaving the room
-Huck sprang up and exclaimed:
-
-"Oh, please don't tell ANYbody it was me that blowed on them! Oh,
-please!"
-
-"All right if you say it, Huck, but you ought to have the credit of
-what you did."
-
-"Oh no, no! Please don't tell!"
-
-When the young men were gone, the old Welshman said:
-
-"They won't tell--and I won't. But why don't you want it known?"
-
-Huck would not explain, further than to say that he already knew too
-much about one of those men and would not have the man know that he
-knew anything against him for the whole world--he would be killed for
-knowing it, sure.
-
-The old man promised secrecy once more, and said:
-
-"How did you come to follow these fellows, lad? Were they looking
-suspicious?"
-
-Huck was silent while he framed a duly cautious reply. Then he said:
-
-"Well, you see, I'm a kind of a hard lot,--least everybody says so,
-and I don't see nothing agin it--and sometimes I can't sleep much, on
-account of thinking about it and sort of trying to strike out a new way
-of doing. That was the way of it last night. I couldn't sleep, and so I
-come along up-street 'bout midnight, a-turning it all over, and when I
-got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed
-up agin the wall to have another think. Well, just then along comes
-these two chaps slipping along close by me, with something under their
-arm, and I reckoned they'd stole it. One was a-smoking, and t'other one
-wanted a light; so they stopped right before me and the cigars lit up
-their faces and I see that the big one was the deaf and dumb Spaniard,
-by his white whiskers and the patch on his eye, and t'other one was a
-rusty, ragged-looking devil."
-
-"Could you see the rags by the light of the cigars?"
-
-This staggered Huck for a moment. Then he said:
-
-"Well, I don't know--but somehow it seems as if I did."
-
-"Then they went on, and you--"
-
-"Follered 'em--yes. That was it. I wanted to see what was up--they
-sneaked along so. I dogged 'em to the widder's stile, and stood in the
-dark and heard the ragged one beg for the widder, and the Spaniard
-swear he'd spile her looks just as I told you and your two--"
-
-"What! The DEAF AND DUMB man said all that!"
-
-Huck had made another terrible mistake! He was trying his best to keep
-the old man from getting the faintest hint of who the Spaniard might
-be, and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble in
-spite of all he could do. He made several efforts to creep out of his
-scrape, but the old man's eye was upon him and he made blunder after
-blunder. Presently the Welshman said:
-
-"My boy, don't be afraid of me. I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head
-for all the world. No--I'd protect you--I'd protect you. This Spaniard
-is not deaf and dumb; you've let that slip without intending it; you
-can't cover that up now. You know something about that Spaniard that
-you want to keep dark. Now trust me--tell me what it is, and trust me
---I won't betray you."
-
-Huck looked into the old man's honest eyes a moment, then bent over
-and whispered in his ear:
-
-"'Tain't a Spaniard--it's Injun Joe!"
-
-The Welshman almost jumped out of his chair. In a moment he said:
-
-"It's all plain enough, now. When you talked about notching ears and
-slitting noses I judged that that was your own embellishment, because
-white men don't take that sort of revenge. But an Injun! That's a
-different matter altogether."
-
-During breakfast the talk went on, and in the course of it the old man
-said that the last thing which he and his sons had done, before going
-to bed, was to get a lantern and examine the stile and its vicinity for
-marks of blood. They found none, but captured a bulky bundle of--
-
-"Of WHAT?"
-
-If the words had been lightning they could not have leaped with a more
-stunning suddenness from Huck's blanched lips. His eyes were staring
-wide, now, and his breath suspended--waiting for the answer. The
-Welshman started--stared in return--three seconds--five seconds--ten
---then replied:
-
-"Of burglar's tools. Why, what's the MATTER with you?"
-
-Huck sank back, panting gently, but deeply, unutterably grateful. The
-Welshman eyed him gravely, curiously--and presently said:
-
-"Yes, burglar's tools. That appears to relieve you a good deal. But
-what did give you that turn? What were YOU expecting we'd found?"
-
-Huck was in a close place--the inquiring eye was upon him--he would
-have given anything for material for a plausible answer--nothing
-suggested itself--the inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper--a
-senseless reply offered--there was no time to weigh it, so at a venture
-he uttered it--feebly:
-
-"Sunday-school books, maybe."
-
-Poor Huck was too distressed to smile, but the old man laughed loud
-and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot,
-and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a-man's pocket,
-because it cut down the doctor's bill like everything. Then he added:
-
-"Poor old chap, you're white and jaded--you ain't well a bit--no
-wonder you're a little flighty and off your balance. But you'll come
-out of it. Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right, I hope."
-
-Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed such
-a suspicious excitement, for he had dropped the idea that the parcel
-brought from the tavern was the treasure, as soon as he had heard the
-talk at the widow's stile. He had only thought it was not the treasure,
-however--he had not known that it wasn't--and so the suggestion of a
-captured bundle was too much for his self-possession. But on the whole
-he felt glad the little episode had happened, for now he knew beyond
-all question that that bundle was not THE bundle, and so his mind was
-at rest and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to be
-drifting just in the right direction, now; the treasure must be still
-in No. 2, the men would be captured and jailed that day, and he and Tom
-could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear of
-interruption.
-
-Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door. Huck
-jumped for a hiding-place, for he had no mind to be connected even
-remotely with the late event. The Welshman admitted several ladies and
-gentlemen, among them the Widow Douglas, and noticed that groups of
-citizens were climbing up the hill--to stare at the stile. So the news
-had spread. The Welshman had to tell the story of the night to the
-visitors. The widow's gratitude for her preservation was outspoken.
-
-"Don't say a word about it, madam. There's another that you're more
-beholden to than you are to me and my boys, maybe, but he don't allow
-me to tell his name. We wouldn't have been there but for him."
-
-Of course this excited a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled
-the main matter--but the Welshman allowed it to eat into the vitals of
-his visitors, and through them be transmitted to the whole town, for he
-refused to part with his secret. When all else had been learned, the
-widow said:
-
-"I went to sleep reading in bed and slept straight through all that
-noise. Why didn't you come and wake me?"
-
-"We judged it warn't worth while. Those fellows warn't likely to come
-again--they hadn't any tools left to work with, and what was the use of
-waking you up and scaring you to death? My three negro men stood guard
-at your house all the rest of the night. They've just come back."
-
-More visitors came, and the story had to be told and retold for a
-couple of hours more.
-
-There was no Sabbath-school during day-school vacation, but everybody
-was early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed. News came
-that not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered. When the
-sermon was finished, Judge Thatcher's wife dropped alongside of Mrs.
-Harper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said:
-
-"Is my Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she would be
-tired to death."
-
-"Your Becky?"
-
-"Yes," with a startled look--"didn't she stay with you last night?"
-
-"Why, no."
-
-Mrs. Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly,
-talking briskly with a friend, passed by. Aunt Polly said:
-
-"Good-morning, Mrs. Thatcher. Good-morning, Mrs. Harper. I've got a
-boy that's turned up missing. I reckon my Tom stayed at your house last
-night--one of you. And now he's afraid to come to church. I've got to
-settle with him."
-
-Mrs. Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever.
-
-"He didn't stay with us," said Mrs. Harper, beginning to look uneasy.
-A marked anxiety came into Aunt Polly's face.
-
-"Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?"
-
-"No'm."
-
-"When did you see him last?"
-
-Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The people had
-stopped moving out of church. Whispers passed along, and a boding
-uneasiness took possession of every countenance. Children were
-anxiously questioned, and young teachers. They all said they had not
-noticed whether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the
-homeward trip; it was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any one was
-missing. One young man finally blurted out his fear that they were
-still in the cave! Mrs. Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly fell to
-crying and wringing her hands.
-
-The alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group, from street to
-street, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging and the
-whole town was up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant
-insignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled,
-skiffs were manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror
-was half an hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad and
-river toward the cave.
-
-All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead. Many women
-visited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher and tried to comfort them. They
-cried with them, too, and that was still better than words. All the
-tedious night the town waited for news; but when the morning dawned at
-last, all the word that came was, "Send more candles--and send food."
-Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. Judge Thatcher
-sent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they
-conveyed no real cheer.
-
-The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with
-candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck
-still in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with
-fever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas came
-and took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him,
-because, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's,
-and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected. The
-Welshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said:
-
-"You can depend on it. That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off.
-He never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his
-hands."
-
-Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into the
-village, but the strongest of the citizens continued searching. All the
-news that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were
-being ransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner
-and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one
-wandered through the maze of passages, lights were to be seen flitting
-hither and thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent
-their hollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles. In one
-place, far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names
-"BECKY & TOM" had been found traced upon the rocky wall with
-candle-smoke, and near at hand a grease-soiled bit of ribbon. Mrs.
-Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it. She said it was the
-last relic she should ever have of her child; and that no other memorial
-of her could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest from
-the living body before the awful death came. Some said that now and
-then, in the cave, a far-away speck of light would glimmer, and then a
-glorious shout would burst forth and a score of men go trooping down the
-echoing aisle--and then a sickening disappointment always followed; the
-children were not there; it was only a searcher's light.
-
-Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along, and
-the village sank into a hopeless stupor. No one had heart for anything.
-The accidental discovery, just made, that the proprietor of the
-Temperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered the
-public pulse, tremendous as the fact was. In a lucid interval, Huck
-feebly led up to the subject of taverns, and finally asked--dimly
-dreading the worst--if anything had been discovered at the Temperance
-Tavern since he had been ill.
-
-"Yes," said the widow.
-
-Huck started up in bed, wild-eyed:
-
-"What? What was it?"
-
-"Liquor!--and the place has been shut up. Lie down, child--what a turn
-you did give me!"
-
-"Only tell me just one thing--only just one--please! Was it Tom Sawyer
-that found it?"
-
-The widow burst into tears. "Hush, hush, child, hush! I've told you
-before, you must NOT talk. You are very, very sick!"
-
-Then nothing but liquor had been found; there would have been a great
-powwow if it had been the gold. So the treasure was gone forever--gone
-forever! But what could she be crying about? Curious that she should
-cry.
-
-These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's mind, and under the
-weariness they gave him he fell asleep. The widow said to herself:
-
-"There--he's asleep, poor wreck. Tom Sawyer find it! Pity but somebody
-could find Tom Sawyer! Ah, there ain't many left, now, that's got hope
-enough, or strength enough, either, to go on searching."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXI
-
-NOW to return to Tom and Becky's share in the picnic. They tripped
-along the murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the
-familiar wonders of the cave--wonders dubbed with rather
-over-descriptive names, such as "The Drawing-Room," "The Cathedral,"
-"Aladdin's Palace," and so on. Presently the hide-and-seek frolicking
-began, and Tom and Becky engaged in it with zeal until the exertion
-began to grow a trifle wearisome; then they wandered down a sinuous
-avenue holding their candles aloft and reading the tangled web-work of
-names, dates, post-office addresses, and mottoes with which the rocky
-walls had been frescoed (in candle-smoke). Still drifting along and
-talking, they scarcely noticed that they were now in a part of the cave
-whose walls were not frescoed. They smoked their own names under an
-overhanging shelf and moved on. Presently they came to a place where a
-little stream of water, trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone
-sediment with it, had, in the slow-dragging ages, formed a laced and
-ruffled Niagara in gleaming and imperishable stone. Tom squeezed his
-small body behind it in order to illuminate it for Becky's
-gratification. He found that it curtained a sort of steep natural
-stairway which was enclosed between narrow walls, and at once the
-ambition to be a discoverer seized him. Becky responded to his call,
-and they made a smoke-mark for future guidance, and started upon their
-quest. They wound this way and that, far down into the secret depths of
-the cave, made another mark, and branched off in search of novelties to
-tell the upper world about. In one place they found a spacious cavern,
-from whose ceiling depended a multitude of shining stalactites of the
-length and circumference of a man's leg; they walked all about it,
-wondering and admiring, and presently left it by one of the numerous
-passages that opened into it. This shortly brought them to a bewitching
-spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering
-crystals; it was in the midst of a cavern whose walls were supported by
-many fantastic pillars which had been formed by the joining of great
-stalactites and stalagmites together, the result of the ceaseless
-water-drip of centuries. Under the roof vast knots of bats had packed
-themselves together, thousands in a bunch; the lights disturbed the
-creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds, squeaking and
-darting furiously at the candles. Tom knew their ways and the danger of
-this sort of conduct. He seized Becky's hand and hurried her into the
-first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for a bat struck
-Becky's light out with its wing while she was passing out of the
-cavern. The bats chased the children a good distance; but the fugitives
-plunged into every new passage that offered, and at last got rid of the
-perilous things. Tom found a subterranean lake, shortly, which
-stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the shadows.
-He wanted to explore its borders, but concluded that it would be best
-to sit down and rest awhile, first. Now, for the first time, the deep
-stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the
-children. Becky said:
-
-"Why, I didn't notice, but it seems ever so long since I heard any of
-the others."
-
-"Come to think, Becky, we are away down below them--and I don't know
-how far away north, or south, or east, or whichever it is. We couldn't
-hear them here."
-
-Becky grew apprehensive.
-
-"I wonder how long we've been down here, Tom? We better start back."
-
-"Yes, I reckon we better. P'raps we better."
-
-"Can you find the way, Tom? It's all a mixed-up crookedness to me."
-
-"I reckon I could find it--but then the bats. If they put our candles
-out it will be an awful fix. Let's try some other way, so as not to go
-through there."
-
-"Well. But I hope we won't get lost. It would be so awful!" and the
-girl shuddered at the thought of the dreadful possibilities.
-
-They started through a corridor, and traversed it in silence a long
-way, glancing at each new opening, to see if there was anything
-familiar about the look of it; but they were all strange. Every time
-Tom made an examination, Becky would watch his face for an encouraging
-sign, and he would say cheerily:
-
-"Oh, it's all right. This ain't the one, but we'll come to it right
-away!"
-
-But he felt less and less hopeful with each failure, and presently
-began to turn off into diverging avenues at sheer random, in desperate
-hope of finding the one that was wanted. He still said it was "all
-right," but there was such a leaden dread at his heart that the words
-had lost their ring and sounded just as if he had said, "All is lost!"
-Becky clung to his side in an anguish of fear, and tried hard to keep
-back the tears, but they would come. At last she said:
-
-"Oh, Tom, never mind the bats, let's go back that way! We seem to get
-worse and worse off all the time."
-
-"Listen!" said he.
-
-Profound silence; silence so deep that even their breathings were
-conspicuous in the hush. Tom shouted. The call went echoing down the
-empty aisles and died out in the distance in a faint sound that
-resembled a ripple of mocking laughter.
-
-"Oh, don't do it again, Tom, it is too horrid," said Becky.
-
-"It is horrid, but I better, Becky; they might hear us, you know," and
-he shouted again.
-
-The "might" was even a chillier horror than the ghostly laughter, it
-so confessed a perishing hope. The children stood still and listened;
-but there was no result. Tom turned upon the back track at once, and
-hurried his steps. It was but a little while before a certain
-indecision in his manner revealed another fearful fact to Becky--he
-could not find his way back!
-
-"Oh, Tom, you didn't make any marks!"
-
-"Becky, I was such a fool! Such a fool! I never thought we might want
-to come back! No--I can't find the way. It's all mixed up."
-
-"Tom, Tom, we're lost! we're lost! We never can get out of this awful
-place! Oh, why DID we ever leave the others!"
-
-She sank to the ground and burst into such a frenzy of crying that Tom
-was appalled with the idea that she might die, or lose her reason. He
-sat down by her and put his arms around her; she buried her face in his
-bosom, she clung to him, she poured out her terrors, her unavailing
-regrets, and the far echoes turned them all to jeering laughter. Tom
-begged her to pluck up hope again, and she said she could not. He fell
-to blaming and abusing himself for getting her into this miserable
-situation; this had a better effect. She said she would try to hope
-again, she would get up and follow wherever he might lead if only he
-would not talk like that any more. For he was no more to blame than
-she, she said.
-
-So they moved on again--aimlessly--simply at random--all they could do
-was to move, keep moving. For a little while, hope made a show of
-reviving--not with any reason to back it, but only because it is its
-nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it by age
-and familiarity with failure.
-
-By-and-by Tom took Becky's candle and blew it out. This economy meant
-so much! Words were not needed. Becky understood, and her hope died
-again. She knew that Tom had a whole candle and three or four pieces in
-his pockets--yet he must economize.
-
-By-and-by, fatigue began to assert its claims; the children tried to
-pay attention, for it was dreadful to think of sitting down when time
-was grown to be so precious, moving, in some direction, in any
-direction, was at least progress and might bear fruit; but to sit down
-was to invite death and shorten its pursuit.
-
-At last Becky's frail limbs refused to carry her farther. She sat
-down. Tom rested with her, and they talked of home, and the friends
-there, and the comfortable beds and, above all, the light! Becky cried,
-and Tom tried to think of some way of comforting her, but all his
-encouragements were grown threadbare with use, and sounded like
-sarcasms. Fatigue bore so heavily upon Becky that she drowsed off to
-sleep. Tom was grateful. He sat looking into her drawn face and saw it
-grow smooth and natural under the influence of pleasant dreams; and
-by-and-by a smile dawned and rested there. The peaceful face reflected
-somewhat of peace and healing into his own spirit, and his thoughts
-wandered away to bygone times and dreamy memories. While he was deep in
-his musings, Becky woke up with a breezy little laugh--but it was
-stricken dead upon her lips, and a groan followed it.
-
-"Oh, how COULD I sleep! I wish I never, never had waked! No! No, I
-don't, Tom! Don't look so! I won't say it again."
-
-"I'm glad you've slept, Becky; you'll feel rested, now, and we'll find
-the way out."
-
-"We can try, Tom; but I've seen such a beautiful country in my dream.
-I reckon we are going there."
-
-"Maybe not, maybe not. Cheer up, Becky, and let's go on trying."
-
-They rose up and wandered along, hand in hand and hopeless. They tried
-to estimate how long they had been in the cave, but all they knew was
-that it seemed days and weeks, and yet it was plain that this could not
-be, for their candles were not gone yet. A long time after this--they
-could not tell how long--Tom said they must go softly and listen for
-dripping water--they must find a spring. They found one presently, and
-Tom said it was time to rest again. Both were cruelly tired, yet Becky
-said she thought she could go a little farther. She was surprised to
-hear Tom dissent. She could not understand it. They sat down, and Tom
-fastened his candle to the wall in front of them with some clay.
-Thought was soon busy; nothing was said for some time. Then Becky broke
-the silence:
-
-"Tom, I am so hungry!"
-
-Tom took something out of his pocket.
-
-"Do you remember this?" said he.
-
-Becky almost smiled.
-
-"It's our wedding-cake, Tom."
-
-"Yes--I wish it was as big as a barrel, for it's all we've got."
-
-"I saved it from the picnic for us to dream on, Tom, the way grown-up
-people do with wedding-cake--but it'll be our--"
-
-She dropped the sentence where it was. Tom divided the cake and Becky
-ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at his moiety. There was
-abundance of cold water to finish the feast with. By-and-by Becky
-suggested that they move on again. Tom was silent a moment. Then he
-said:
-
-"Becky, can you bear it if I tell you something?"
-
-Becky's face paled, but she thought she could.
-
-"Well, then, Becky, we must stay here, where there's water to drink.
-That little piece is our last candle!"
-
-Becky gave loose to tears and wailings. Tom did what he could to
-comfort her, but with little effect. At length Becky said:
-
-"Tom!"
-
-"Well, Becky?"
-
-"They'll miss us and hunt for us!"
-
-"Yes, they will! Certainly they will!"
-
-"Maybe they're hunting for us now, Tom."
-
-"Why, I reckon maybe they are. I hope they are."
-
-"When would they miss us, Tom?"
-
-"When they get back to the boat, I reckon."
-
-"Tom, it might be dark then--would they notice we hadn't come?"
-
-"I don't know. But anyway, your mother would miss you as soon as they
-got home."
-
-A frightened look in Becky's face brought Tom to his senses and he saw
-that he had made a blunder. Becky was not to have gone home that night!
-The children became silent and thoughtful. In a moment a new burst of
-grief from Becky showed Tom that the thing in his mind had struck hers
-also--that the Sabbath morning might be half spent before Mrs. Thatcher
-discovered that Becky was not at Mrs. Harper's.
-
-The children fastened their eyes upon their bit of candle and watched
-it melt slowly and pitilessly away; saw the half inch of wick stand
-alone at last; saw the feeble flame rise and fall, climb the thin
-column of smoke, linger at its top a moment, and then--the horror of
-utter darkness reigned!
-
-How long afterward it was that Becky came to a slow consciousness that
-she was crying in Tom's arms, neither could tell. All that they knew
-was, that after what seemed a mighty stretch of time, both awoke out of
-a dead stupor of sleep and resumed their miseries once more. Tom said
-it might be Sunday, now--maybe Monday. He tried to get Becky to talk,
-but her sorrows were too oppressive, all her hopes were gone. Tom said
-that they must have been missed long ago, and no doubt the search was
-going on. He would shout and maybe some one would come. He tried it;
-but in the darkness the distant echoes sounded so hideously that he
-tried it no more.
-
-The hours wasted away, and hunger came to torment the captives again.
-A portion of Tom's half of the cake was left; they divided and ate it.
-But they seemed hungrier than before. The poor morsel of food only
-whetted desire.
-
-By-and-by Tom said:
-
-"SH! Did you hear that?"
-
-Both held their breath and listened. There was a sound like the
-faintest, far-off shout. Instantly Tom answered it, and leading Becky
-by the hand, started groping down the corridor in its direction.
-Presently he listened again; again the sound was heard, and apparently
-a little nearer.
-
-"It's them!" said Tom; "they're coming! Come along, Becky--we're all
-right now!"
-
-The joy of the prisoners was almost overwhelming. Their speed was
-slow, however, because pitfalls were somewhat common, and had to be
-guarded against. They shortly came to one and had to stop. It might be
-three feet deep, it might be a hundred--there was no passing it at any
-rate. Tom got down on his breast and reached as far down as he could.
-No bottom. They must stay there and wait until the searchers came. They
-listened; evidently the distant shoutings were growing more distant! a
-moment or two more and they had gone altogether. The heart-sinking
-misery of it! Tom whooped until he was hoarse, but it was of no use. He
-talked hopefully to Becky; but an age of anxious waiting passed and no
-sounds came again.
-
-The children groped their way back to the spring. The weary time
-dragged on; they slept again, and awoke famished and woe-stricken. Tom
-believed it must be Tuesday by this time.
-
-Now an idea struck him. There were some side passages near at hand. It
-would be better to explore some of these than bear the weight of the
-heavy time in idleness. He took a kite-line from his pocket, tied it to
-a projection, and he and Becky started, Tom in the lead, unwinding the
-line as he groped along. At the end of twenty steps the corridor ended
-in a "jumping-off place." Tom got down on his knees and felt below, and
-then as far around the corner as he could reach with his hands
-conveniently; he made an effort to stretch yet a little farther to the
-right, and at that moment, not twenty yards away, a human hand, holding
-a candle, appeared from behind a rock! Tom lifted up a glorious shout,
-and instantly that hand was followed by the body it belonged to--Injun
-Joe's! Tom was paralyzed; he could not move. He was vastly gratified
-the next moment, to see the "Spaniard" take to his heels and get
-himself out of sight. Tom wondered that Joe had not recognized his
-voice and come over and killed him for testifying in court. But the
-echoes must have disguised the voice. Without doubt, that was it, he
-reasoned. Tom's fright weakened every muscle in his body. He said to
-himself that if he had strength enough to get back to the spring he
-would stay there, and nothing should tempt him to run the risk of
-meeting Injun Joe again. He was careful to keep from Becky what it was
-he had seen. He told her he had only shouted "for luck."
-
-But hunger and wretchedness rise superior to fears in the long run.
-Another tedious wait at the spring and another long sleep brought
-changes. The children awoke tortured with a raging hunger. Tom believed
-that it must be Wednesday or Thursday or even Friday or Saturday, now,
-and that the search had been given over. He proposed to explore another
-passage. He felt willing to risk Injun Joe and all other terrors. But
-Becky was very weak. She had sunk into a dreary apathy and would not be
-roused. She said she would wait, now, where she was, and die--it would
-not be long. She told Tom to go with the kite-line and explore if he
-chose; but she implored him to come back every little while and speak
-to her; and she made him promise that when the awful time came, he
-would stay by her and hold her hand until all was over.
-
-Tom kissed her, with a choking sensation in his throat, and made a
-show of being confident of finding the searchers or an escape from the
-cave; then he took the kite-line in his hand and went groping down one
-of the passages on his hands and knees, distressed with hunger and sick
-with bodings of coming doom.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXII
-
-TUESDAY afternoon came, and waned to the twilight. The village of St.
-Petersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found. Public
-prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private
-prayer that had the petitioner's whole heart in it; but still no good
-news came from the cave. The majority of the searchers had given up the
-quest and gone back to their daily avocations, saying that it was plain
-the children could never be found. Mrs. Thatcher was very ill, and a
-great part of the time delirious. People said it was heartbreaking to
-hear her call her child, and raise her head and listen a whole minute
-at a time, then lay it wearily down again with a moan. Aunt Polly had
-drooped into a settled melancholy, and her gray hair had grown almost
-white. The village went to its rest on Tuesday night, sad and forlorn.
-
-Away in the middle of the night a wild peal burst from the village
-bells, and in a moment the streets were swarming with frantic half-clad
-people, who shouted, "Turn out! turn out! they're found! they're
-found!" Tin pans and horns were added to the din, the population massed
-itself and moved toward the river, met the children coming in an open
-carriage drawn by shouting citizens, thronged around it, joined its
-homeward march, and swept magnificently up the main street roaring
-huzzah after huzzah!
-
-The village was illuminated; nobody went to bed again; it was the
-greatest night the little town had ever seen. During the first half-hour
-a procession of villagers filed through Judge Thatcher's house, seized
-the saved ones and kissed them, squeezed Mrs. Thatcher's hand, tried to
-speak but couldn't--and drifted out raining tears all over the place.
-
-Aunt Polly's happiness was complete, and Mrs. Thatcher's nearly so. It
-would be complete, however, as soon as the messenger dispatched with
-the great news to the cave should get the word to her husband. Tom lay
-upon a sofa with an eager auditory about him and told the history of
-the wonderful adventure, putting in many striking additions to adorn it
-withal; and closed with a description of how he left Becky and went on
-an exploring expedition; how he followed two avenues as far as his
-kite-line would reach; how he followed a third to the fullest stretch of
-the kite-line, and was about to turn back when he glimpsed a far-off
-speck that looked like daylight; dropped the line and groped toward it,
-pushed his head and shoulders through a small hole, and saw the broad
-Mississippi rolling by! And if it had only happened to be night he would
-not have seen that speck of daylight and would not have explored that
-passage any more! He told how he went back for Becky and broke the good
-news and she told him not to fret her with such stuff, for she was
-tired, and knew she was going to die, and wanted to. He described how he
-labored with her and convinced her; and how she almost died for joy when
-she had groped to where she actually saw the blue speck of daylight; how
-he pushed his way out at the hole and then helped her out; how they sat
-there and cried for gladness; how some men came along in a skiff and Tom
-hailed them and told them their situation and their famished condition;
-how the men didn't believe the wild tale at first, "because," said they,
-"you are five miles down the river below the valley the cave is in"
---then took them aboard, rowed to a house, gave them supper, made them
-rest till two or three hours after dark and then brought them home.
-
-Before day-dawn, Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him
-were tracked out, in the cave, by the twine clews they had strung
-behind them, and informed of the great news.
-
-Three days and nights of toil and hunger in the cave were not to be
-shaken off at once, as Tom and Becky soon discovered. They were
-bedridden all of Wednesday and Thursday, and seemed to grow more and
-more tired and worn, all the time. Tom got about, a little, on
-Thursday, was down-town Friday, and nearly as whole as ever Saturday;
-but Becky did not leave her room until Sunday, and then she looked as
-if she had passed through a wasting illness.
-
-Tom learned of Huck's sickness and went to see him on Friday, but
-could not be admitted to the bedroom; neither could he on Saturday or
-Sunday. He was admitted daily after that, but was warned to keep still
-about his adventure and introduce no exciting topic. The Widow Douglas
-stayed by to see that he obeyed. At home Tom learned of the Cardiff
-Hill event; also that the "ragged man's" body had eventually been found
-in the river near the ferry-landing; he had been drowned while trying
-to escape, perhaps.
-
-About a fortnight after Tom's rescue from the cave, he started off to
-visit Huck, who had grown plenty strong enough, now, to hear exciting
-talk, and Tom had some that would interest him, he thought. Judge
-Thatcher's house was on Tom's way, and he stopped to see Becky. The
-Judge and some friends set Tom to talking, and some one asked him
-ironically if he wouldn't like to go to the cave again. Tom said he
-thought he wouldn't mind it. The Judge said:
-
-"Well, there are others just like you, Tom, I've not the least doubt.
-But we have taken care of that. Nobody will get lost in that cave any
-more."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"Because I had its big door sheathed with boiler iron two weeks ago,
-and triple-locked--and I've got the keys."
-
-Tom turned as white as a sheet.
-
-"What's the matter, boy! Here, run, somebody! Fetch a glass of water!"
-
-The water was brought and thrown into Tom's face.
-
-"Ah, now you're all right. What was the matter with you, Tom?"
-
-"Oh, Judge, Injun Joe's in the cave!"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIII
-
-WITHIN a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads of
-men were on their way to McDougal's cave, and the ferryboat, well
-filled with passengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that
-bore Judge Thatcher.
-
-When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in
-the dim twilight of the place. Injun Joe lay stretched upon the ground,
-dead, with his face close to the crack of the door, as if his longing
-eyes had been fixed, to the latest moment, upon the light and the cheer
-of the free world outside. Tom was touched, for he knew by his own
-experience how this wretch had suffered. His pity was moved, but
-nevertheless he felt an abounding sense of relief and security, now,
-which revealed to him in a degree which he had not fully appreciated
-before how vast a weight of dread had been lying upon him since the day
-he lifted his voice against this bloody-minded outcast.
-
-Injun Joe's bowie-knife lay close by, its blade broken in two. The
-great foundation-beam of the door had been chipped and hacked through,
-with tedious labor; useless labor, too, it was, for the native rock
-formed a sill outside it, and upon that stubborn material the knife had
-wrought no effect; the only damage done was to the knife itself. But if
-there had been no stony obstruction there the labor would have been
-useless still, for if the beam had been wholly cut away Injun Joe could
-not have squeezed his body under the door, and he knew it. So he had
-only hacked that place in order to be doing something--in order to pass
-the weary time--in order to employ his tortured faculties. Ordinarily
-one could find half a dozen bits of candle stuck around in the crevices
-of this vestibule, left there by tourists; but there were none now. The
-prisoner had searched them out and eaten them. He had also contrived to
-catch a few bats, and these, also, he had eaten, leaving only their
-claws. The poor unfortunate had starved to death. In one place, near at
-hand, a stalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages,
-builded by the water-drip from a stalactite overhead. The captive had
-broken off the stalagmite, and upon the stump had placed a stone,
-wherein he had scooped a shallow hollow to catch the precious drop
-that fell once in every three minutes with the dreary regularity of a
-clock-tick--a dessertspoonful once in four and twenty hours. That drop
-was falling when the Pyramids were new; when Troy fell; when the
-foundations of Rome were laid; when Christ was crucified; when the
-Conqueror created the British empire; when Columbus sailed; when the
-massacre at Lexington was "news." It is falling now; it will still be
-falling when all these things shall have sunk down the afternoon of
-history, and the twilight of tradition, and been swallowed up in the
-thick night of oblivion. Has everything a purpose and a mission? Did
-this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be ready for
-this flitting human insect's need? and has it another important object
-to accomplish ten thousand years to come? No matter. It is many and
-many a year since the hapless half-breed scooped out the stone to catch
-the priceless drops, but to this day the tourist stares longest at that
-pathetic stone and that slow-dropping water when he comes to see the
-wonders of McDougal's cave. Injun Joe's cup stands first in the list of
-the cavern's marvels; even "Aladdin's Palace" cannot rival it.
-
-Injun Joe was buried near the mouth of the cave; and people flocked
-there in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms and
-hamlets for seven miles around; they brought their children, and all
-sorts of provisions, and confessed that they had had almost as
-satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the
-hanging.
-
-This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing--the petition to
-the governor for Injun Joe's pardon. The petition had been largely
-signed; many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a
-committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail
-around the governor, and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample
-his duty under foot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed five
-citizens of the village, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself
-there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names
-to a pardon-petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently
-impaired and leaky water-works.
-
-The morning after the funeral Tom took Huck to a private place to have
-an important talk. Huck had learned all about Tom's adventure from the
-Welshman and the Widow Douglas, by this time, but Tom said he reckoned
-there was one thing they had not told him; that thing was what he
-wanted to talk about now. Huck's face saddened. He said:
-
-"I know what it is. You got into No. 2 and never found anything but
-whiskey. Nobody told me it was you; but I just knowed it must 'a' ben
-you, soon as I heard 'bout that whiskey business; and I knowed you
-hadn't got the money becuz you'd 'a' got at me some way or other and
-told me even if you was mum to everybody else. Tom, something's always
-told me we'd never get holt of that swag."
-
-"Why, Huck, I never told on that tavern-keeper. YOU know his tavern
-was all right the Saturday I went to the picnic. Don't you remember you
-was to watch there that night?"
-
-"Oh yes! Why, it seems 'bout a year ago. It was that very night that I
-follered Injun Joe to the widder's."
-
-"YOU followed him?"
-
-"Yes--but you keep mum. I reckon Injun Joe's left friends behind him,
-and I don't want 'em souring on me and doing me mean tricks. If it
-hadn't ben for me he'd be down in Texas now, all right."
-
-Then Huck told his entire adventure in confidence to Tom, who had only
-heard of the Welshman's part of it before.
-
-"Well," said Huck, presently, coming back to the main question,
-"whoever nipped the whiskey in No. 2, nipped the money, too, I reckon
---anyways it's a goner for us, Tom."
-
-"Huck, that money wasn't ever in No. 2!"
-
-"What!" Huck searched his comrade's face keenly. "Tom, have you got on
-the track of that money again?"
-
-"Huck, it's in the cave!"
-
-Huck's eyes blazed.
-
-"Say it again, Tom."
-
-"The money's in the cave!"
-
-"Tom--honest injun, now--is it fun, or earnest?"
-
-"Earnest, Huck--just as earnest as ever I was in my life. Will you go
-in there with me and help get it out?"
-
-"I bet I will! I will if it's where we can blaze our way to it and not
-get lost."
-
-"Huck, we can do that without the least little bit of trouble in the
-world."
-
-"Good as wheat! What makes you think the money's--"
-
-"Huck, you just wait till we get in there. If we don't find it I'll
-agree to give you my drum and every thing I've got in the world. I
-will, by jings."
-
-"All right--it's a whiz. When do you say?"
-
-"Right now, if you say it. Are you strong enough?"
-
-"Is it far in the cave? I ben on my pins a little, three or four days,
-now, but I can't walk more'n a mile, Tom--least I don't think I could."
-
-"It's about five mile into there the way anybody but me would go,
-Huck, but there's a mighty short cut that they don't anybody but me
-know about. Huck, I'll take you right to it in a skiff. I'll float the
-skiff down there, and I'll pull it back again all by myself. You
-needn't ever turn your hand over."
-
-"Less start right off, Tom."
-
-"All right. We want some bread and meat, and our pipes, and a little
-bag or two, and two or three kite-strings, and some of these
-new-fangled things they call lucifer matches. I tell you, many's
-the time I wished I had some when I was in there before."
-
-A trifle after noon the boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen who
-was absent, and got under way at once. When they were several miles
-below "Cave Hollow," Tom said:
-
-"Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the way down from the
-cave hollow--no houses, no wood-yards, bushes all alike. But do you see
-that white place up yonder where there's been a landslide? Well, that's
-one of my marks. We'll get ashore, now."
-
-They landed.
-
-"Now, Huck, where we're a-standing you could touch that hole I got out
-of with a fishing-pole. See if you can find it."
-
-Huck searched all the place about, and found nothing. Tom proudly
-marched into a thick clump of sumach bushes and said:
-
-"Here you are! Look at it, Huck; it's the snuggest hole in this
-country. You just keep mum about it. All along I've been wanting to be
-a robber, but I knew I'd got to have a thing like this, and where to
-run across it was the bother. We've got it now, and we'll keep it
-quiet, only we'll let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in--because of course
-there's got to be a Gang, or else there wouldn't be any style about it.
-Tom Sawyer's Gang--it sounds splendid, don't it, Huck?"
-
-"Well, it just does, Tom. And who'll we rob?"
-
-"Oh, most anybody. Waylay people--that's mostly the way."
-
-"And kill them?"
-
-"No, not always. Hive them in the cave till they raise a ransom."
-
-"What's a ransom?"
-
-"Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and
-after you've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them.
-That's the general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the
-women, but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and
-awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take
-your hat off and talk polite. They ain't anybody as polite as robbers
---you'll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and
-after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and
-after that you couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd
-turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books."
-
-"Why, it's real bully, Tom. I believe it's better'n to be a pirate."
-
-"Yes, it's better in some ways, because it's close to home and
-circuses and all that."
-
-By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole, Tom
-in the lead. They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel,
-then made their spliced kite-strings fast and moved on. A few steps
-brought them to the spring, and Tom felt a shudder quiver all through
-him. He showed Huck the fragment of candle-wick perched on a lump of
-clay against the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the
-flame struggle and expire.
-
-The boys began to quiet down to whispers, now, for the stillness and
-gloom of the place oppressed their spirits. They went on, and presently
-entered and followed Tom's other corridor until they reached the
-"jumping-off place." The candles revealed the fact that it was not
-really a precipice, but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet
-high. Tom whispered:
-
-"Now I'll show you something, Huck."
-
-He held his candle aloft and said:
-
-"Look as far around the corner as you can. Do you see that? There--on
-the big rock over yonder--done with candle-smoke."
-
-"Tom, it's a CROSS!"
-
-"NOW where's your Number Two? 'UNDER THE CROSS,' hey? Right yonder's
-where I saw Injun Joe poke up his candle, Huck!"
-
-Huck stared at the mystic sign awhile, and then said with a shaky voice:
-
-"Tom, less git out of here!"
-
-"What! and leave the treasure?"
-
-"Yes--leave it. Injun Joe's ghost is round about there, certain."
-
-"No it ain't, Huck, no it ain't. It would ha'nt the place where he
-died--away out at the mouth of the cave--five mile from here."
-
-"No, Tom, it wouldn't. It would hang round the money. I know the ways
-of ghosts, and so do you."
-
-Tom began to fear that Huck was right. Misgivings gathered in his
-mind. But presently an idea occurred to him--
-
-"Lookyhere, Huck, what fools we're making of ourselves! Injun Joe's
-ghost ain't a going to come around where there's a cross!"
-
-The point was well taken. It had its effect.
-
-"Tom, I didn't think of that. But that's so. It's luck for us, that
-cross is. I reckon we'll climb down there and have a hunt for that box."
-
-Tom went first, cutting rude steps in the clay hill as he descended.
-Huck followed. Four avenues opened out of the small cavern which the
-great rock stood in. The boys examined three of them with no result.
-They found a small recess in the one nearest the base of the rock, with
-a pallet of blankets spread down in it; also an old suspender, some
-bacon rind, and the well-gnawed bones of two or three fowls. But there
-was no money-box. The lads searched and researched this place, but in
-vain. Tom said:
-
-"He said UNDER the cross. Well, this comes nearest to being under the
-cross. It can't be under the rock itself, because that sets solid on
-the ground."
-
-They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down discouraged.
-Huck could suggest nothing. By-and-by Tom said:
-
-"Lookyhere, Huck, there's footprints and some candle-grease on the
-clay about one side of this rock, but not on the other sides. Now,
-what's that for? I bet you the money IS under the rock. I'm going to
-dig in the clay."
-
-"That ain't no bad notion, Tom!" said Huck with animation.
-
-Tom's "real Barlow" was out at once, and he had not dug four inches
-before he struck wood.
-
-"Hey, Huck!--you hear that?"
-
-Huck began to dig and scratch now. Some boards were soon uncovered and
-removed. They had concealed a natural chasm which led under the rock.
-Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as he
-could, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposed to
-explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descended
-gradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then to
-the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, and
-exclaimed:
-
-"My goodness, Huck, lookyhere!"
-
-It was the treasure-box, sure enough, occupying a snug little cavern,
-along with an empty powder-keg, a couple of guns in leather cases, two
-or three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish
-well soaked with the water-drip.
-
-"Got it at last!" said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins with
-his hand. "My, but we're rich, Tom!"
-
-"Huck, I always reckoned we'd get it. It's just too good to believe,
-but we HAVE got it, sure! Say--let's not fool around here. Let's snake
-it out. Lemme see if I can lift the box."
-
-It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkward
-fashion, but could not carry it conveniently.
-
-"I thought so," he said; "THEY carried it like it was heavy, that day
-at the ha'nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think of
-fetching the little bags along."
-
-The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross
-rock.
-
-"Now less fetch the guns and things," said Huck.
-
-"No, Huck--leave them there. They're just the tricks to have when we
-go to robbing. We'll keep them there all the time, and we'll hold our
-orgies there, too. It's an awful snug place for orgies."
-
-"What orgies?"
-
-"I dono. But robbers always have orgies, and of course we've got to
-have them, too. Come along, Huck, we've been in here a long time. It's
-getting late, I reckon. I'm hungry, too. We'll eat and smoke when we
-get to the skiff."
-
-They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warily
-out, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in the
-skiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got
-under way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting
-cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark.
-
-"Now, Huck," said Tom, "we'll hide the money in the loft of the
-widow's woodshed, and I'll come up in the morning and we'll count it
-and divide, and then we'll hunt up a place out in the woods for it
-where it will be safe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till
-I run and hook Benny Taylor's little wagon; I won't be gone a minute."
-
-He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two
-small sacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started
-off, dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the
-Welshman's house, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move
-on, the Welshman stepped out and said:
-
-"Hallo, who's that?"
-
-"Huck and Tom Sawyer."
-
-"Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting.
-Here--hurry up, trot ahead--I'll haul the wagon for you. Why, it's not
-as light as it might be. Got bricks in it?--or old metal?"
-
-"Old metal," said Tom.
-
-"I judged so; the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool
-away more time hunting up six bits' worth of old iron to sell to the
-foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But
-that's human nature--hurry along, hurry along!"
-
-The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about.
-
-"Never mind; you'll see, when we get to the Widow Douglas'."
-
-Huck said with some apprehension--for he was long used to being
-falsely accused:
-
-"Mr. Jones, we haven't been doing nothing."
-
-The Welshman laughed.
-
-"Well, I don't know, Huck, my boy. I don't know about that. Ain't you
-and the widow good friends?"
-
-"Yes. Well, she's ben good friends to me, anyway."
-
-"All right, then. What do you want to be afraid for?"
-
-This question was not entirely answered in Huck's slow mind before he
-found himself pushed, along with Tom, into Mrs. Douglas' drawing-room.
-Mr. Jones left the wagon near the door and followed.
-
-The place was grandly lighted, and everybody that was of any
-consequence in the village was there. The Thatchers were there, the
-Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor,
-and a great many more, and all dressed in their best. The widow
-received the boys as heartily as any one could well receive two such
-looking beings. They were covered with clay and candle-grease. Aunt
-Polly blushed crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head
-at Tom. Nobody suffered half as much as the two boys did, however. Mr.
-Jones said:
-
-"Tom wasn't at home, yet, so I gave him up; but I stumbled on him and
-Huck right at my door, and so I just brought them along in a hurry."
-
-"And you did just right," said the widow. "Come with me, boys."
-
-She took them to a bedchamber and said:
-
-"Now wash and dress yourselves. Here are two new suits of clothes
---shirts, socks, everything complete. They're Huck's--no, no thanks,
-Huck--Mr. Jones bought one and I the other. But they'll fit both of you.
-Get into them. We'll wait--come down when you are slicked up enough."
-
-Then she left.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXIV
-
-HUCK said: "Tom, we can slope, if we can find a rope. The window ain't
-high from the ground."
-
-"Shucks! what do you want to slope for?"
-
-"Well, I ain't used to that kind of a crowd. I can't stand it. I ain't
-going down there, Tom."
-
-"Oh, bother! It ain't anything. I don't mind it a bit. I'll take care
-of you."
-
-Sid appeared.
-
-"Tom," said he, "auntie has been waiting for you all the afternoon.
-Mary got your Sunday clothes ready, and everybody's been fretting about
-you. Say--ain't this grease and clay, on your clothes?"
-
-"Now, Mr. Siddy, you jist 'tend to your own business. What's all this
-blow-out about, anyway?"
-
-"It's one of the widow's parties that she's always having. This time
-it's for the Welshman and his sons, on account of that scrape they
-helped her out of the other night. And say--I can tell you something,
-if you want to know."
-
-"Well, what?"
-
-"Why, old Mr. Jones is going to try to spring something on the people
-here to-night, but I overheard him tell auntie to-day about it, as a
-secret, but I reckon it's not much of a secret now. Everybody knows
---the widow, too, for all she tries to let on she don't. Mr. Jones was
-bound Huck should be here--couldn't get along with his grand secret
-without Huck, you know!"
-
-"Secret about what, Sid?"
-
-"About Huck tracking the robbers to the widow's. I reckon Mr. Jones
-was going to make a grand time over his surprise, but I bet you it will
-drop pretty flat."
-
-Sid chuckled in a very contented and satisfied way.
-
-"Sid, was it you that told?"
-
-"Oh, never mind who it was. SOMEBODY told--that's enough."
-
-"Sid, there's only one person in this town mean enough to do that, and
-that's you. If you had been in Huck's place you'd 'a' sneaked down the
-hill and never told anybody on the robbers. You can't do any but mean
-things, and you can't bear to see anybody praised for doing good ones.
-There--no thanks, as the widow says"--and Tom cuffed Sid's ears and
-helped him to the door with several kicks. "Now go and tell auntie if
-you dare--and to-morrow you'll catch it!"
-
-Some minutes later the widow's guests were at the supper-table, and a
-dozen children were propped up at little side-tables in the same room,
-after the fashion of that country and that day. At the proper time Mr.
-Jones made his little speech, in which he thanked the widow for the
-honor she was doing himself and his sons, but said that there was
-another person whose modesty--
-
-And so forth and so on. He sprung his secret about Huck's share in the
-adventure in the finest dramatic manner he was master of, but the
-surprise it occasioned was largely counterfeit and not as clamorous and
-effusive as it might have been under happier circumstances. However,
-the widow made a pretty fair show of astonishment, and heaped so many
-compliments and so much gratitude upon Huck that he almost forgot the
-nearly intolerable discomfort of his new clothes in the entirely
-intolerable discomfort of being set up as a target for everybody's gaze
-and everybody's laudations.
-
-The widow said she meant to give Huck a home under her roof and have
-him educated; and that when she could spare the money she would start
-him in business in a modest way. Tom's chance was come. He said:
-
-"Huck don't need it. Huck's rich."
-
-Nothing but a heavy strain upon the good manners of the company kept
-back the due and proper complimentary laugh at this pleasant joke. But
-the silence was a little awkward. Tom broke it:
-
-"Huck's got money. Maybe you don't believe it, but he's got lots of
-it. Oh, you needn't smile--I reckon I can show you. You just wait a
-minute."
-
-Tom ran out of doors. The company looked at each other with a
-perplexed interest--and inquiringly at Huck, who was tongue-tied.
-
-"Sid, what ails Tom?" said Aunt Polly. "He--well, there ain't ever any
-making of that boy out. I never--"
-
-Tom entered, struggling with the weight of his sacks, and Aunt Polly
-did not finish her sentence. Tom poured the mass of yellow coin upon
-the table and said:
-
-"There--what did I tell you? Half of it's Huck's and half of it's mine!"
-
-The spectacle took the general breath away. All gazed, nobody spoke
-for a moment. Then there was a unanimous call for an explanation. Tom
-said he could furnish it, and he did. The tale was long, but brimful of
-interest. There was scarcely an interruption from any one to break the
-charm of its flow. When he had finished, Mr. Jones said:
-
-"I thought I had fixed up a little surprise for this occasion, but it
-don't amount to anything now. This one makes it sing mighty small, I'm
-willing to allow."
-
-The money was counted. The sum amounted to a little over twelve
-thousand dollars. It was more than any one present had ever seen at one
-time before, though several persons were there who were worth
-considerably more than that in property.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXXV
-
-THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a
-mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a
-sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked
-about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the
-citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every
-"haunted" house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was
-dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for
-hidden treasure--and not by boys, but men--pretty grave, unromantic
-men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were
-courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that
-their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were
-treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be
-regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and
-saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up
-and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village
-paper published biographical sketches of the boys.
-
-The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge
-Thatcher did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each lad had
-an income, now, that was simply prodigious--a dollar for every week-day
-in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got
---no, it was what he was promised--he generally couldn't collect it. A
-dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge, and school a boy in
-those old simple days--and clothe him and wash him, too, for that
-matter.
-
-Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no
-commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When
-Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her
-whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded
-grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that
-whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine
-outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie--a lie that
-was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to
-breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! Becky
-thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he
-walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight
-off and told Tom about it.
-
-Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some
-day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the
-National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school
-in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or
-both.
-
-Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow
-Douglas' protection introduced him into society--no, dragged him into
-it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he
-could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and
-brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had
-not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know
-for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use
-napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to
-church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in
-his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of
-civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.
-
-He bravely bore his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up
-missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in
-great distress. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched
-high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third
-morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads
-down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found
-the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some
-stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with
-his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of
-rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and
-happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing,
-and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil content, and
-took a melancholy cast. He said:
-
-"Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't
-work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to
-me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just
-at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to
-thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them
-blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don't seem to any air
-git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set
-down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a
-cellar-door for--well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and
-sweat and sweat--I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in
-there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by
-a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell--everything's
-so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."
-
-"Well, everybody does that way, Huck."
-
-"Tom, it don't make no difference. I ain't everybody, and I can't
-STAND it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy--I don't
-take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I
-got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask to do
-everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got
-to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in
-my mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she
-wouldn't let me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor
-scratch, before folks--" [Then with a spasm of special irritation and
-injury]--"And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a
-woman! I HAD to shove, Tom--I just had to. And besides, that school's
-going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, I wouldn't stand THAT,
-Tom. Looky here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's
-just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead
-all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and
-I ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into
-all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take
-my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not
-many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable
-hard to git--and you go and beg off for me with the widder."
-
-"Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if
-you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it."
-
-"Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long
-enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed
-smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and
-I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a
-cave, and all just fixed to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to
-come up and spile it all!"
-
-Tom saw his opportunity--
-
-"Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning
-robber."
-
-"No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?"
-
-"Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you
-into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know."
-
-Huck's joy was quenched.
-
-"Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?"
-
-"Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a
-pirate is--as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up
-in the nobility--dukes and such."
-
-"Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me
-out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, WOULD you, Tom?"
-
-"Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I DON'T want to--but what would people
-say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! pretty low characters in
-it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't."
-
-Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally
-he said:
-
-"Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if
-I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom."
-
-"All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the
-widow to let up on you a little, Huck."
-
-"Will you, Tom--now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of
-the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd
-through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?"
-
-"Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation
-to-night, maybe."
-
-"Have the which?"
-
-"Have the initiation."
-
-"What's that?"
-
-"It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's
-secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and
-all his family that hurts one of the gang."
-
-"That's gay--that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you."
-
-"Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at
-midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted
-house is the best, but they're all ripped up now."
-
-"Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom."
-
-"Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with
-blood."
-
-"Now, that's something LIKE! Why, it's a million times bullier than
-pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be
-a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon
-she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet."
-
-
-
-CONCLUSION
-
-SO endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a BOY, it
-must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming
-the history of a MAN. When one writes a novel about grown people, he
-knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but when he
-writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.
-
-Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are
-prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the
-story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they
-turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that
-part of their lives at present.
diff --git a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/acinclude.m4 b/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/acinclude.m4
deleted file mode 100644
index daa73af9..00000000
--- a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/acinclude.m4
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,72 +0,0 @@
-dnl
-dnl Check whether _Unwind_GetIPInfo is available without doing a link
-dnl test so we can use this with libstdc++-v3 and libjava. Need to
-dnl use $target to set defaults because automatic checking is not possible
-dnl without a link test (and maybe even with a link test).
-dnl
-
-AC_DEFUN([GCC_CHECK_UNWIND_GETIPINFO], [
- AC_ARG_WITH(system-libunwind,
- [ --with-system-libunwind use installed libunwind])
- # If system-libunwind was not specifically set, pick a default setting.
- if test x$with_system_libunwind = x; then
- case ${target} in
- ia64-*-hpux*) with_system_libunwind=yes ;;
- *) with_system_libunwind=no ;;
- esac
- fi
- # Based on system-libunwind and target, do we have ipinfo?
- if test x$with_system_libunwind = xyes; then
- case ${target} in
- ia64-*-*) have_unwind_getipinfo=no ;;
- *) have_unwind_getipinfo=yes ;;
- esac
- else
- # Darwin before version 9 does not have _Unwind_GetIPInfo.
- changequote(,)
- case ${target} in
- *-*-darwin[3-8]|*-*-darwin[3-8].*) have_unwind_getipinfo=no ;;
- *) have_unwind_getipinfo=yes ;;
- esac
- changequote([,])
- fi
-
- if test x$have_unwind_getipinfo = xyes; then
- AC_DEFINE(HAVE_GETIPINFO, 1, [Define if _Unwind_GetIPInfo is available.])
- fi
-])
-
-# ACX_PROG_CC_WARNING_OPTS(WARNINGS, [VARIABLE = WARN_CFLAGS])
-# Sets @VARIABLE@ to the subset of the given options which the
-# compiler accepts.
-AC_DEFUN([ACX_PROG_CC_WARNING_OPTS],
-[AC_REQUIRE([AC_PROG_CC])dnl
-AC_LANG_PUSH(C)
-m4_pushdef([acx_Var], [m4_default([$2], [WARN_CFLAGS])])dnl
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diff --git a/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/aclocal.m4 b/sgx_backtrace/sgx_backtrace_sys/libbacktrace/aclocal.m4
deleted file mode 100644
index 32a1811f..00000000
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