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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Part 1 - Mark Sawyer · Classic Children's Stories Collection

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Speaker 1: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's Comrade, by Mark Twain. Notice.
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Speaker 1: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will
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Speaker 1: be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in it
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Speaker 1: will be banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in
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Speaker 1: it will be shot by order of the author per g. G.
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Speaker 1: Chief of Ordinance. Explanatory. In this book, a number of
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Speaker 1: dialects are used to wit the Missouri Negro dialect, the
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Speaker 1: extremest form of the backwards Southwestern dialect, the ordinary Pike
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Speaker 1: County dialect, and four modified varieties of this last. The
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Speaker 1: shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion or
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Speaker 1: by guesswork, but painstakingly and with the trustworthy guidance and
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Speaker 1: support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
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Speaker 1: I make this explanation for the reason that without it,
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Speaker 1: many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying
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Speaker 1: to talk alike in not succeeding the author. Chapter one,
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Speaker 1: you don't know much about me without you have read
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Speaker 1: a book by the name of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
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Speaker 1: But that ain't no matter. That book was made by
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Speaker 1: mister Mark Twain, and he told the truth. Mainly. There
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Speaker 1: was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
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Speaker 1: That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one
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Speaker 1: time or another without it was Aunt Polly or the widow,
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Speaker 1: or maybe Mary, Aunt Polly, Tom's aunt Polly. She is
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Speaker 1: and Mary and the widow Douglas is all told about
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Speaker 1: in that book, which is mostly a true book with
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Speaker 1: some stretchers. As I said before, now, the way that
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Speaker 1: the book winds up is this. Tom and me found
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Speaker 1: the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and
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Speaker 1: it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece,
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Speaker 1: all gold. It was an awful sight of money when
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Speaker 1: it was piled up. Well, judge thatcher. He took it
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Speaker 1: an put it out at interest, and it fetched us
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Speaker 1: a dollar a day apiece all the year round. More
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Speaker 1: than a body could tell what to do with the
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Speaker 1: widow Douglas. She took me for her son and allowed
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Speaker 1: she would civilize me. But it was rough living in
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Speaker 1: the house all the time, considering how dismal, regular and
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Speaker 1: decent the widow was in all her ways. And so
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Speaker 1: when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out.
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Speaker 1: I got into my old rags and my sugar hogs
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Speaker 1: had again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom sawyer.
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Speaker 1: He hunted me up and said he was going to
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Speaker 1: start a band of robbers, and I might join if
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Speaker 1: I would go back to the widow and be respectable.
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Speaker 1: So I went back the widow. She cried over me
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Speaker 1: and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called
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Speaker 1: me a lot of other names too, but she never
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Speaker 1: meant no harm by it. She put me in them
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Speaker 1: new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat
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Speaker 1: and sweat and feel all cramped up. Well, then the
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Speaker 1: old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper,
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Speaker 1: and you had to come to time. When you got
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Speaker 1: to the table, you couldn't go right to eating, but
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Speaker 1: you had to wait for the widow to tuck down
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Speaker 1: her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though
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Speaker 1: there weren't really anything the matter with them. That is, nothing,
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Speaker 1: only everything that's cooked by itself, and a barrel of
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Speaker 1: odds and ends. That is different, things get mixed up,
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Speaker 1: and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things
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Speaker 1: go better. After supper, she get out her book and
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Speaker 1: learned me about Moses and the bull rushers, and I
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Speaker 1: was in a sweat find out all about him. But
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Speaker 1: by and by she let it out that Moses had
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Speaker 1: been dead a considerable long time. So then I didn't
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Speaker 1: care no more about him, because I don't take no
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Speaker 1: stock in dead people. Pretty Soon I wanted to smoke
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Speaker 1: and asked the widow to let me, but she wouldn't.
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Speaker 1: She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean,
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Speaker 1: and I'm you must try to not do it anymore.
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Speaker 1: That is just the way with some people, to get
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Speaker 1: down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it.
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Speaker 1: Here she was of botherin about Moses, which was no
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Speaker 1: kin to her and no use to anybody being gone,
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Speaker 1: you see, yet finding a power a fault with me
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Speaker 1: for doing a thing that had some good in it.
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Speaker 1: And she took snuff too. Of course that was all right,
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Speaker 1: because she done it herself. Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable,
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Speaker 1: slim old maid with goggles on, had just come to
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Speaker 1: live with her and took a set at me now
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Speaker 1: with a spelling book. She worked me middling hard for
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Speaker 1: about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it much longer. Then for an hour
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Speaker 1: it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson
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Speaker 1: would say, don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry, and
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Speaker 1: don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry. Set up straight, and
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Speaker 1: pretty soon she would say, don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry.
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Speaker 1: Why don't you try to behave Then she told me
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Speaker 1: all about the bad place, and I said I wished
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Speaker 1: I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't
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Speaker 1: mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres.
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Speaker 1: All I wanted was a change. I warn't particular. She
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Speaker 1: said it was wicked to say what I said, said
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Speaker 1: she wouldn't say it for the whole world. She was
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Speaker 1: going to live so as to go to the good place. Well,
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Speaker 1: I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going,
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Speaker 1: so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.
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Speaker 1: But I never said so, because it would only make trouble.
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Speaker 1: Wouldn't do no good. Now she had got a start,
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Speaker 1: and she went on and told me all about the
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Speaker 1: good place. She said all the body would have to
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Speaker 1: do there was to go around all day with a
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Speaker 1: harp and sing forever and ever so I didn't think
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Speaker 1: much of it, but I never said so. I asked
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Speaker 1: her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and
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Speaker 1: she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad
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Speaker 1: about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.
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Speaker 1: Miss Watson. She kept pecking at me, and it got
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Speaker 1: tiresome and lonesome. By and bye, they fetched the niggers
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Speaker 1: in and had prayers, and then everybody was a bed.
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Speaker 1: I went up to my room with a piece of
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Speaker 1: candle and put it on the table. Then I set
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Speaker 1: down in a chair by the window and tried to
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Speaker 1: think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I
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Speaker 1: felt so lonesome. I most wished I was dead. The
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Speaker 1: stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods,
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Speaker 1: ever so mournful. And I heard an owl away off
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Speaker 1: hoo hooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippa
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Speaker 1: will and a dog crying about somebody that was going
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Speaker 1: to die. And the wind was trying to whisper something
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Speaker 1: to me, and I couldn't make out what it was,
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Speaker 1: and so it made the cold shivers run over me.
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Speaker 1: Then away out in the woods, I heard that kind
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Speaker 1: of a sound that a ghost makes it at wants
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Speaker 1: to tell about something that's on its mind and can't
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Speaker 1: make itself understood, and so can't breast easy in its grave,
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Speaker 1: and has to go about that way every night grieving.
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Speaker 1: I got so downhearted and scared I did wish I
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Speaker 1: had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up
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Speaker 1: my shoulder, and I flipped it off and did it
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Speaker 1: lit in the candle, and before I could budge it
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Speaker 1: was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell
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Speaker 1: me that that was an awful bad sign and would
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Speaker 1: fetch me some bad luck. So I was scared, and
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Speaker 1: most shook the clothes off of me. I got up
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Speaker 1: and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed
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Speaker 1: my breast every time. And then I tied up a
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Speaker 1: little lock of my hair with a thread to keep
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Speaker 1: witches away. But I hadn't no confidence. You do that
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Speaker 1: when you've lost a horseshoe that you found, instead of
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Speaker 1: nailing it up over the door. But I hadn't never
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Speaker 1: heard anybody say it was any way to keep off
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Speaker 1: bad luck when you'd kill the spider. I sat down again,
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Speaker 1: a shaken all over, and got out my pipe for smoke,
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Speaker 1: for the house was all as still as death now,
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Speaker 1: and so the widow wouldn't know well. After a long time,
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Speaker 1: I heard the clock away off in the town go boom, boom, boom.
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Speaker 1: Twelve flicks, and all still again, stiller than ever. Pretty
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Speaker 1: soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark
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Speaker 1: amongst the trees. Something was astirring. I sat still and
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Speaker 1: listened directly. I could just barely hear a meow meow
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Speaker 1: down there. That was good, says I. Meow meow as
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Speaker 1: soft as I could, and then I put out the
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Speaker 1: light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed.
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Speaker 1: Then I slipped down to the ground and crawled in
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Speaker 1: among the trees, and sure enough there was Tom Sawyer
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Speaker 1: waiting for me. End of chapter one. Chapter two. We
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Speaker 1: went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees, back towards
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Speaker 1: the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as
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Speaker 1: the branches wouldn't scrape our heads. When we was passing
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Speaker 1: by the kitchen, I fell over a root and made
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Speaker 1: a noise. We scratched down and laid still. Miss Watson's
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Speaker 1: big nigger named Jim was settin in the kitchen door.
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Speaker 1: We could see him pretty clear because there was a
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Speaker 1: light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck
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Speaker 1: out about a minute listening, Then he says, who dare
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Speaker 1: He listened some more, Then he came tiptoeing down and
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Speaker 1: stood right between us. We could have touched him nearly
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Speaker 1: well likely. It was minutes and minutes that there warn't
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Speaker 1: a sound, and we all there so close together. There
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Speaker 1: was a place on my ankle that got to itchin',
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Speaker 1: but I daresn't scratch it, And then my ear begun
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Speaker 1: to itch, and next my back right between my shoulders.
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Speaker 1: Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. Well, I've
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Speaker 1: noticed that thing plenty times since. If you are with
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Speaker 1: a quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go
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Speaker 1: to sleep when you ain't sleepy, if you are anywheres
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Speaker 1: where it won't do for you to scratch, why you
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Speaker 1: will itch all over and upwards of a thousand places.
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Speaker 1: Pretty soon, Jim says, say, who is you? Why is you? Dog?
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Speaker 1: My cats? If I didn't hear somethin', well I know
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Speaker 1: what I was gwine to do. I was gwine to
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Speaker 1: sit down here and listen till I hears it again,
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Speaker 1: so he sat down on the ground betwixt me and Tom.
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Speaker 1: He leaned his back up against it and stretched his
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Speaker 1: legs out till one of them most touched one of mine.
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Speaker 1: My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears
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Speaker 1: come into my eyes, but I doesn't scratch. Then I
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Speaker 1: begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to
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Speaker 1: itching underneath. I didn't know how I was going to
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Speaker 1: set still. This miserableness went on as much as six
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Speaker 1: or seven minutes, but it seemed to sit longer than that.
10:24
Speaker 1: I was itching in eleven different places. Now I reckoned.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it moren a minute longer, but I
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Speaker 1: set my teeth hard and got ready to try. Just
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Speaker 1: then Jim begun to breathe heavy. Next he begun to snore,
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Speaker 1: and then it was pretty soon comfortable again. Tom he
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Speaker 1: made a sign to me, kind of a little noise
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Speaker 1: with his mouth, and we went creeping away on our
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Speaker 1: hands and knees. When we was ten foot off, Tom
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Speaker 1: whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the
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Speaker 1: tree for fun, but I said no. He might waken
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Speaker 1: Maggie asturbance, and then they'd find out I warned ten.
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Speaker 1: Then Tom said he hadn't got caned enough and he
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Speaker 1: would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I
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Speaker 1: didn't want him to try. I said Jim might wake
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Speaker 1: up and come, but Tom wanted to resk it. So
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Speaker 1: we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom
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Speaker 1: laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we
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Speaker 1: got out, and I was in a sweat to get away,
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Speaker 1: but nothing would do. Tom but he must crawl to
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Speaker 1: where Jim was on his hands and knees and play
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Speaker 1: something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good
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Speaker 1: while everything was so still and lonesome. As soon as
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Speaker 1: Tom was back, we cut along the path around the
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Speaker 1: garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the
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Speaker 1: steep top of the hill the other side of the house.
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Speaker 1: Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off his head and
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Speaker 1: hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim
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Speaker 1: stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards, Jim said
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Speaker 1: the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance
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Speaker 1: and rode him all over the state, and then set
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Speaker 1: him under the trees again and hung his hat on
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Speaker 1: a limb to show who done it. And next time
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Speaker 1: Jim told it, he said they rode him down to
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Speaker 1: New More, Orleans. And after that, every time he told
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Speaker 1: it he spread it more and more till by and
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Speaker 1: by he said, they rode him all over the world
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Speaker 1: and tired him most to death, and his back was
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Speaker 1: all over saddle boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it,
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Speaker 1: an he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers.
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Speaker 1: Niggers would come miles ye hear Jim tell about it,
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Speaker 1: An he was more looked up to than any nigger
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Speaker 1: in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths
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Speaker 1: open and look him all over, same as if he
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Speaker 1: was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in
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Speaker 1: the dark by the kitchen fire. But whenever one was
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Speaker 1: talking and letting on to know all about such things,
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Speaker 1: Jim would happen in and say, hum, what you know
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Speaker 1: about witches? And that nigger was corked up and had
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Speaker 1: to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five
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Speaker 1: center piece around his neck with a string and said
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Speaker 1: it was a charm the devil give to him with
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Speaker 1: his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody
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Speaker 1: with it, and fetch witches whenever he wanted to jest
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Speaker 1: by saying something to it, but he never told what
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Speaker 1: it was. As he said to it. Niggers would come
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Speaker 1: from all around there and give them anything they had
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Speaker 1: just for a sight of that five centerpiece, but they
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Speaker 1: wouldn't touch it because the devil had had his hands
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Speaker 1: on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant because
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Speaker 1: he got stuck up on account of having seen the
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Speaker 1: devil and been rowed by witches. Well, when Tom and
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Speaker 1: me got to the edge of the hilltop, we looked
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Speaker 1: away down into the village and could see three or
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Speaker 1: four lights twinkling where there was sick folks maybe, and
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Speaker 1: the stars over us was sparkling ever so fine. And
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Speaker 1: down by the village was the river, a whole mile
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Speaker 1: broad and awful still and grand. We went down the
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Speaker 1: hill and found Joe Harper and Ben Rogers, and two
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Speaker 1: or three more of the boys hid in the old taniard.
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Speaker 1: So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river
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Speaker 1: two mile and a half to the big scar on
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Speaker 1: the hillside, and went ashore. We went to a clump
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Speaker 1: of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the secret,
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Speaker 1: and then showed them a hole in the hill, right
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Speaker 1: in the thick part of the bushes. Then we lit
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Speaker 1: the candles and crawled in on our hands and knees.
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Speaker 1: We went about two hundred yards and then the cave
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Speaker 1: opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages and pretty
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Speaker 1: soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't have noticed
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Speaker 1: that there was a hole. We went along a narrow
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Speaker 1: place and got into a kind of room, all damp
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Speaker 1: and sweaty and cold, and there we stopped. Tom says,
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Speaker 1: now we'll start this band of robbers and call it
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Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got
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Speaker 1: to take an oath and write his name in blood.
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Speaker 1: Everybody was willing, so Tom got out a sheet of
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Speaker 1: paper that he had wrote the oath on and read it.
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Speaker 1: It swore every boy to stick to the band and
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Speaker 1: never tell any of the secrets. And if anybody done
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Speaker 1: anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was
14:48
Speaker 1: ordered to kill, that person and his family must do it,
14:51
Speaker 1: and he mustn't eat, and he mustn't sleep till he
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Speaker 1: had killed them and hacked across in their breasts, which
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Speaker 1: was the sign of the band, and nobody that didn't
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Speaker 1: belong to the band could use that mark, and if
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Speaker 1: he did, he must be sued, and if he done
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Speaker 1: it again, he must be killed. And if anybody that
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Speaker 1: belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have
15:10
Speaker 1: its throat cut and then have his carcass burnt up,
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Speaker 1: and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted
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Speaker 1: off of the list with blood, and never mentioned again
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Speaker 1: by the gang, but have a curse put on it,
15:21
Speaker 1: and be forgot forever. Everybody said it was a real
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Speaker 1: beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he had got it
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Speaker 1: out of his own head. He said some of it,
15:31
Speaker 1: but the rest was out of pirate books and robber books,
15:33
Speaker 1: and every gang that was high toned had it. Some
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Speaker 1: thought it would be good to kill the families of
15:38
Speaker 1: boys that told the secrets. Tom said it was a
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Speaker 1: good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote it in.
15:44
Speaker 1: Then Ben Rogers says, here's Huck Finn. He ain't got
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Speaker 1: no family. What you going to do about him? Well,
15:52
Speaker 1: hain't he got a father, says Tom Sawyer. Yes, he's
15:56
Speaker 1: got a father, but you can't never find him these days.
15:59
Speaker 1: He used to lay drunk with the hogs and the Taniard.
16:01
Speaker 1: But he ain't been seen in these parts for a
16:03
Speaker 1: year or more. They talked it over an they was
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Speaker 1: goin to rule me out, because they said every boy
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Speaker 1: must have a family or somebody to kill, or else
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Speaker 1: it wouldn't be fair and square for the others. Well,
16:14
Speaker 1: nobody could think of anything to do. Everybody was stumped
16:18
Speaker 1: and set still. I was most ready to cry, but
16:21
Speaker 1: all at once I thought of a way, and so
16:23
Speaker 1: I offered them miss Watson. They could kill her. Everybody said, oh,
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Speaker 1: she'll do that's all right, Huck can come in. Then
16:32
Speaker 1: they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get
16:34
Speaker 1: blood to sign with. And I made my mark on
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Speaker 1: the paper. Now, says Ben Rogers. What's the line of
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Speaker 1: business of this gang? Nothing? Only robbery and murder? Tom said,
16:47
Speaker 1: But who we goin to rob houses or cattle or stuff?
16:52
Speaker 1: Stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery. It's burglary, says
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Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer. We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style.
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Speaker 1: We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the
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Speaker 1: road with masks on, and kill the people and take
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Speaker 1: their watches and money. Must we always kill the people. Oh,
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Speaker 1: certainly it's best. Some authorities think differently, but mostly it's
17:15
Speaker 1: considered best to kill them, except some that you bring
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Speaker 1: to the cave here and keep them till they're ransomed. Ransomed?
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Speaker 1: What's that? I don't know, but that's what they do.
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Speaker 1: I've seen it in books and so of course that's
17:27
Speaker 1: what we've got to do. But how can we do
17:30
Speaker 1: it if we don't know what it is? Why blame
17:33
Speaker 1: it all? We've got to do it, don't I tell
17:36
Speaker 1: you it's in the books. Do you want to go
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Speaker 1: to doing different from what's in the books and get
17:40
Speaker 1: things all muddled up? Oh that's very fine to say,
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Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer. But how in the nation are these fellows
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Speaker 1: going to be ransom if we don't know how to
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Speaker 1: do it to them? That's the thing I want to
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Speaker 1: get at. Now, what do you reckon it is? Well?
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Speaker 1: I don't know. But perhaps if we keep them till
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Speaker 1: they're ransomed, it means that we keep them till they're dead.
18:01
Speaker 1: Now that's something like that'll answer why couldn't you said
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Speaker 1: that before? We'll keep them till they're ransom to death
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Speaker 1: and to bother some lot. They'll be too eating up everything,
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Speaker 1: and always trying to get loose. How you talk, Ben Rogers,
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Speaker 1: How can they get loose when there's a guard over them,
18:18
Speaker 1: ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?
18:21
Speaker 1: A guard? Well that is good. So somebody's got to
18:25
Speaker 1: sit up all night, never get any sleep, just so
18:28
Speaker 1: as to watch them. I think that's foolishness. Why can't
18:32
Speaker 1: a body take a club and ransom them as soon
18:34
Speaker 1: as they get here? Because it ain't in the books.
18:37
Speaker 1: So that's why. Now, Ben Rogers, do you want to
18:40
Speaker 1: do things regular or don't you that's the idea. Don't
18:44
Speaker 1: you reckon that? The people that made the books knows
18:46
Speaker 1: what's the correct thing to do. Do you reckon? You
18:49
Speaker 1: can learn them anything, not buy a good deal, No, sir,
18:52
Speaker 1: we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way,
18:56
Speaker 1: all right. I don't mind, but I say it's a
18:58
Speaker 1: fool's way anyhow, say do we kill the women too? Well,
19:03
Speaker 1: Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you, I
19:05
Speaker 1: wouldn't let on kill the women. No nobody ever saw
19:10
Speaker 1: anything in the books like that. You fetch them to
19:12
Speaker 1: the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them,
19:15
Speaker 1: an by and by they fall in love with you
19:18
Speaker 1: and never want to go home any more. Well, if
19:21
Speaker 1: that's the way, I'm agreed, but I don't take no
19:24
Speaker 1: stock in it. Mighty soon we'll have the cave so
19:27
Speaker 1: cluttered up with women an fellows waitin to be ransomed,
19:30
Speaker 1: that there won't be no place for the robbers. But
19:32
Speaker 1: go ahead. I ain't got nothin to say. Little Tommy
19:36
Speaker 1: Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up,
19:39
Speaker 1: he was scared and cried and said he wanted to
19:41
Speaker 1: go home to his ma and didn't want to be
19:43
Speaker 1: a robber anymore. So they all made fun of him
19:46
Speaker 1: and called him cry baby, an that made him mad,
19:48
Speaker 1: and he said he would go straight an tell all
19:50
Speaker 1: the secrets. But time give him five cents to keep quiet,
19:54
Speaker 1: and said we would all go home and meet next
19:56
Speaker 1: week and rob somebody an kill some people. Ben said
20:00
Speaker 1: he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he
20:03
Speaker 1: wanted to begin next Sunday. But all the boys said
20:05
Speaker 1: it'd be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that
20:08
Speaker 1: settled the thing. They agreed to get together and fix
20:11
Speaker 1: a day as soon as they could, and then we
20:13
Speaker 1: elected tom Sawyer first captain and Joe Harper, second captain
20:17
Speaker 1: of the gang, and so started home. I clumb up
20:21
Speaker 1: the shed and crept into my window just before day
20:24
Speaker 1: was breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey,
20:28
Speaker 1: and I was dog tired. End of chapter two, Chapter three. Well,
20:38
Speaker 1: I got a good going over in the morning from
20:40
Speaker 1: old Miss Watson on account of my clothes. But the
20:43
Speaker 1: widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease
20:45
Speaker 1: and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I
20:47
Speaker 1: would behave a while if I could. Then Miss Watson
20:51
Speaker 1: she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing
20:53
Speaker 1: come of it. She told me to pray every day
20:56
Speaker 1: and whatever I asked for I would get it. But
20:59
Speaker 1: it weren't so oh. I tried it once. I got
21:02
Speaker 1: a fish line, but no hooks. It warn't any good
21:05
Speaker 1: to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three
21:08
Speaker 1: or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work.
21:12
Speaker 1: By and by one day I asked Miss Watson to
21:14
Speaker 1: try for me, but she said I was a fool.
21:17
Speaker 1: She never told me why, and I couldn't make it
21:19
Speaker 1: out no way. I sat down one time back in
21:22
Speaker 1: the woods and had a long think about it. I
21:25
Speaker 1: says to myself, if a body can get anything they
21:28
Speaker 1: pray for, why can't Deacon win get back the money
21:31
Speaker 1: he lost on pork. Why can't the widow get back
21:34
Speaker 1: her silver snuff box that was stole? Why can't miss
21:37
Speaker 1: Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain't
21:41
Speaker 1: nothin in it. I went and told the widow about it,
21:45
Speaker 1: an she said the thing a body could get by
21:47
Speaker 1: prayin for it was spiritual gifts. This was too many
21:51
Speaker 1: for me, but she told me what she meant. I
21:54
Speaker 1: must help other people and do everything I could for
21:57
Speaker 1: other people, and look out for them all the time,
22:00
Speaker 1: and never think about myself. This was including miss Watson.
22:04
Speaker 1: As eye took it. I went out in the woods
22:06
Speaker 1: and turned it over in my mind a long time,
22:09
Speaker 1: but I couldn't see no advantage about it except for
22:12
Speaker 1: the other people. So at last I reckoned I wouldn't
22:15
Speaker 1: worry about it anymore, but just let it go. Sometimes
22:19
Speaker 1: a widow would take me one side and talk about
22:22
Speaker 1: providence and a way to make a body's mouth water.
22:25
Speaker 1: But maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and
22:27
Speaker 1: knock it all down again. I judged. I could see
22:31
Speaker 1: that there was two providences, and a poor chap Wild's
22:34
Speaker 1: dawn considerable show with a widow's providence. But if miss
22:37
Speaker 1: Watson's got him, there warn't no help for him anymore.
22:41
Speaker 1: I thought it all out and reckoned I would belong
22:44
Speaker 1: to the widows if he wanted me, though I couldn't
22:46
Speaker 1: make out how he was going to be any better
22:48
Speaker 1: off than than what he was before, seeing I was
22:52
Speaker 1: so ignorant and so kind of low down an ornery pap.
22:56
Speaker 1: He hadn't been seen for more than a year, and
22:59
Speaker 1: that was comfortable for me. I didn't one to see
23:02
Speaker 1: him no more. He used to always whaal me when
23:04
Speaker 1: he was sober and could get his hands on me,
23:07
Speaker 1: though I used to take to the woods most of
23:09
Speaker 1: the time when he was around. Well about this time
23:12
Speaker 1: he was found in the river Drownded, about twelve mile
23:15
Speaker 1: above town. So people say they judged it was him anyway,
23:20
Speaker 1: said this drownded man was just his size and was
23:23
Speaker 1: ragged and had uncommon long hair, which was all like Pap.
23:27
Speaker 1: But they couldn't make nothing out of the face because
23:29
Speaker 1: it had been in the water so long, and warn't
23:31
Speaker 1: much like a face at all. They said he was
23:34
Speaker 1: floating on his back in the water. They took him
23:37
Speaker 1: and buried him on the bank. But I warn't comfortable
23:40
Speaker 1: long because I happened to think somethin'. I knowed mighty
23:44
Speaker 1: well that a drownded man don't float on his back,
23:47
Speaker 1: but on his face. So I knowed then that this
23:50
Speaker 1: warn't pop but a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.
23:54
Speaker 1: So I was uncomfortable again. I judged the old man
23:57
Speaker 1: would turn up again by and by I wished he wouldn't.
24:02
Speaker 1: We played robber now and then about a month, and
24:04
Speaker 1: then I resigned. All the boys did. We hadn't robbed nobody,
24:08
Speaker 1: hadn't killed any people, but only just pretended. We used
24:12
Speaker 1: to hop out of the woods and go charging down
24:14
Speaker 1: on hog drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff
24:17
Speaker 1: to market, but we never hid any of them. Tom
24:21
Speaker 1: Sawyer called the hogs ingots, and he called the turnips
24:24
Speaker 1: and stuff jewelry. And we would go to the cave
24:27
Speaker 1: and pow wow over what we had done and how
24:30
Speaker 1: many people we had killed and marked, But I couldn't
24:32
Speaker 1: see no profit in it. One time Tom sent a
24:35
Speaker 1: boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which
24:38
Speaker 1: he called a slogan, which was the signed for the
24:41
Speaker 1: gang to get together. And then he said he had
24:43
Speaker 1: got secret news by his spies that next day a
24:46
Speaker 1: whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich a Rabs was
24:50
Speaker 1: going to camp and Cave Hollow, with two hundred elephants
24:54
Speaker 1: and six hundred camels and over a thousand sumpter mules,
24:58
Speaker 1: all loaded down with diamond. And they didn't have only
25:01
Speaker 1: a guard of four hundred soldiers. And so we would
25:05
Speaker 1: lay an ambuscade, as he called it, and kill the
25:07
Speaker 1: lot and scoop the things. He said, we must slick
25:11
Speaker 1: up our swords and guns an get ready. He never
25:14
Speaker 1: could go after even a turnip cart, but he must
25:16
Speaker 1: have the swords and guns all scoured up for it,
25:19
Speaker 1: though they was only laugh and broomsticks. And you might
25:22
Speaker 1: scour at them till you're righted. Then they warn't worth
25:25
Speaker 1: a mouthful of ashes more than what they was before.
25:28
Speaker 1: I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd as
25:30
Speaker 1: Spaniards and a Rabs, but I wanted to see the
25:33
Speaker 1: camels and elephants, so I was on hand next day Saturday,
25:37
Speaker 1: in the ambuscade. And when we got the word, we
25:40
Speaker 1: rushed out of the woods and down the hill. But
25:42
Speaker 1: there warn't no spaniards and a rabs, and there warn't
25:45
Speaker 1: no camels, nor no elephants. It warn't nothing but a
25:48
Speaker 1: Sunday school picnic, and only a primer class at that.
25:52
Speaker 1: We busted it up and chased the children up the hollow,
25:55
Speaker 1: but we never got anything but some doughnuts and jam,
25:58
Speaker 1: though Ben Roders got a rag and Joe Harper got
26:01
Speaker 1: a hymn book and a tract. And then the teacher
26:03
Speaker 1: charged in and made us drop everything and cut. I
26:07
Speaker 1: didn't see no diamonds, and I told Tom Sawyer, So
26:10
Speaker 1: he said there was loads of em there anyway, And
26:13
Speaker 1: he said there was Arabs there too, and elephants and things.
26:17
Speaker 1: I said, why couldn't we see them? Then he said,
26:19
Speaker 1: if I warn't so ignorant but had read a book
26:22
Speaker 1: called Don Quixote, I would know without asking. He said
26:26
Speaker 1: it was all done by enchantment. He said there was
26:29
Speaker 1: hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasures and so on,
26:33
Speaker 1: but we had enemies, which he called magicians, and they
26:36
Speaker 1: had turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday School.
26:39
Speaker 1: Just out of spite, I said, all right, then the
26:42
Speaker 1: thing for us to do was to go for the magicians.
26:45
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer said, I was a numbskull. Why said he?
26:50
Speaker 1: A magician could call up a lot of genies and
26:52
Speaker 1: they would hash you up like nothin before you could say,
26:55
Speaker 1: Jack Robinson. They are as tall as a dree, as
26:58
Speaker 1: big around as a church. Well, I says, suppose we
27:03
Speaker 1: got some genies to help us, can't we lick the
27:05
Speaker 1: other crowd? Then how you goin to get them? I
27:09
Speaker 1: don't know how did they get them? Why they rub
27:13
Speaker 1: an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then
27:15
Speaker 1: the genies come tearin in with a thunder and lightnin
27:18
Speaker 1: and rippin around, and the smoke a rollin' an everything
27:21
Speaker 1: they're told to do, they up an do it. They
27:24
Speaker 1: don't think nothing of pulling a shot tower up by
27:26
Speaker 1: the roots, an belt in a Sunday School superintendent over
27:29
Speaker 1: the head with it, or any other man who makes
27:33
Speaker 1: them tear around. So why whoever rubs the lamp or
27:37
Speaker 1: the ring they belong to, whoever rubs the lamp or
27:40
Speaker 1: the ring, an they've got to do whatever, he says,
27:43
Speaker 1: if he tells them to build a palace forty miles
27:45
Speaker 1: long out of diamonds, an fill it full of chewing
27:48
Speaker 1: gum or whatever you want, an fetch an emperor's daughter
27:51
Speaker 1: from China for you to marry. They've got to do it,
27:54
Speaker 1: and they've got to do it before sun up next
27:56
Speaker 1: mornin' too, and more. They've got to waltz that palace
28:00
Speaker 1: us a round over the country wherever you want it.
28:02
Speaker 1: You understand, well, says I. I think they are a
28:07
Speaker 1: pack of flatheads for not keeping the palace themselvestead of
28:10
Speaker 1: fooling them away like that. And what's more, if I
28:12
Speaker 1: was one of them, I would see a man in
28:14
Speaker 1: Jericho before I would drop my business and come to
28:17
Speaker 1: him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp. How
28:20
Speaker 1: you talk, huck Finn, Why you'd have to come when
28:23
Speaker 1: he rubbed it, whether you wanted to or not? What
28:28
Speaker 1: an I as high as a tree and as big
28:29
Speaker 1: as a church? All right, then I would come, But
28:32
Speaker 1: I lay, I'd make that man climb the highest tree
28:35
Speaker 1: there was in the country. Shucks, it ain't no use
28:38
Speaker 1: to talk to you, huck Finn. You don't seem to
28:41
Speaker 1: know anything. Somehow perfect sap head. I thought all this
28:46
Speaker 1: over for two or three days, and then I reckoned,
28:49
Speaker 1: I would see if there was anything in it. I
28:51
Speaker 1: got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and
28:54
Speaker 1: went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till
28:56
Speaker 1: I sweat like an injun. Calculatin to build a palace
28:59
Speaker 1: and sell it. But it warn't no use. None of
29:02
Speaker 1: the genies come. So then I judged that all that
29:04
Speaker 1: stuff was only just one of time Sawyer's lies. I reckoned.
29:08
Speaker 1: He believed in the Arabs and the elephants, but as
29:11
Speaker 1: for me, I think different. It had all the marks
29:15
Speaker 1: of a Sunday school. End of chapter three, Chapter four, well,
29:23
Speaker 1: three or four months run along, and it was well
29:26
Speaker 1: into the winter. Now I had been to school most
29:29
Speaker 1: all of the time, and could spell and read and
29:31
Speaker 1: write just a little, and could say the multiplication table
29:35
Speaker 1: up to six times seven is thirty five. And I
29:37
Speaker 1: don't reckon I could ever get any further than that
29:40
Speaker 1: if I was to live forever. I don't take no
29:42
Speaker 1: stock of mathematics anyway. At first I hated the school,
29:47
Speaker 1: but by and by I got so I could stand it.
29:50
Speaker 1: Whenever I got uncommon tired, I played hooky and the hide,
29:54
Speaker 1: and I got next day done me good and cheered
29:56
Speaker 1: me up. So the longer I went to school, the
29:59
Speaker 1: easier it got to be. I was gettin sort o
30:02
Speaker 1: used to the widow's ways too, and they warn't so
30:05
Speaker 1: rasp beyond me. Livin in a house and sleeping in
30:08
Speaker 1: a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, But before
30:12
Speaker 1: the cold weather I used to slide out an sleep
30:14
Speaker 1: in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest
30:17
Speaker 1: to me. I liked the old ways best, but I
30:21
Speaker 1: was gettin, so I liked the new ways too a
30:23
Speaker 1: little bit. The widow said I was comin along slow
30:27
Speaker 1: but sure, and doing very satisfactory. She said she warn't
30:31
Speaker 1: ashamed to me at all. One mornin' I happened to
30:35
Speaker 1: turn over the salt cellar at breakfast. I reached for
30:38
Speaker 1: some of it as quick as I could, to throw
30:40
Speaker 1: over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck.
30:43
Speaker 1: But Miss Watson was in ahead of me and crossed
30:45
Speaker 1: me off. She says, take your hands away, huncle Berry,
30:49
Speaker 1: what a mess you were always makin. The widow put
30:52
Speaker 1: in a good word for me, but that warn't going
30:54
Speaker 1: to keep off the bad luck. I knowed that well enough.
30:58
Speaker 1: I started out after breakfast, feelin worried, an shaky, an
31:01
Speaker 1: wonderin' where it was goin to fall on me? An
31:04
Speaker 1: what it was goin to be. There's ways to keep
31:07
Speaker 1: off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one
31:10
Speaker 1: of them kind. So I never tried to do anything,
31:13
Speaker 1: but jes poked along low spirited, an on the watch out.
31:17
Speaker 1: I went down to the front garden, an clumb over
31:20
Speaker 1: the stile where you go through the high board fence.
31:23
Speaker 1: There was an inch o new snow on the ground.
31:25
Speaker 1: An I seen somebody's tracks. They had come up from
31:28
Speaker 1: the quarry. AN stood around the stile awhile, and then
31:32
Speaker 1: went on around the garden fence. It was funny they
31:35
Speaker 1: hadn't come in after standin around, so I couldn't make
31:39
Speaker 1: it out. It was very curious. Somehow. I was goin
31:43
Speaker 1: to follow around, but I stooped down to look at
31:46
Speaker 1: the tracks. First. I didn't notice anything at first, but
31:50
Speaker 1: next I did. There was a cross an the left
31:53
Speaker 1: boot heel made with big nails to keep off the devil.
31:57
Speaker 1: I was up an a second, an shinnin down the hill.
32:01
Speaker 1: I looked over my shoulder every now and then but
32:03
Speaker 1: I didn't see nobody. I was at Judge Thatcher's as
32:06
Speaker 1: quick as I could get there. He said, why, my boy,
32:10
Speaker 1: you are all out of breath. Did you come for
32:13
Speaker 1: your interest? No, sir, I says, is there some for me? Oh? Yes,
32:19
Speaker 1: A half yearly is in last night over a hundred
32:23
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars. Quite a fortune for you. You had
32:26
Speaker 1: better let me invest it along with your six thousand,
32:28
Speaker 1: cause if you take it, you'll spend it. No, sir,
32:32
Speaker 1: I says, I don't want to spend it. I don't
32:34
Speaker 1: want it at all, nor the six thousand. Another. I
32:37
Speaker 1: want you to take it. I want to give it
32:40
Speaker 1: to you the six thousand in all. He looked surprised.
32:44
Speaker 1: He couldn't seem to make it out. He says, why,
32:47
Speaker 1: what can you mean? My boy? I says, don't you
32:51
Speaker 1: ask me no questions about it? Please? You'll take it,
32:54
Speaker 1: won't you? He says, well, I'm puzzled. It's something the matter.
33:00
Speaker 1: Please take it, says I, and don't ask me nothing.
33:04
Speaker 1: Then I won't have to tell no lies. He studied, awhile,
33:07
Speaker 1: and then he says, oh, I think I see you
33:12
Speaker 1: want to sell all your property to me, not to
33:15
Speaker 1: give it. That's the correct idea. Then he wrote something
33:19
Speaker 1: on a paper and read it over and says, there
33:23
Speaker 1: you see it says for a consideration. That means I
33:27
Speaker 1: have bought it of you and paid you for it.
33:29
Speaker 1: Here's a dollar for you, now you sign it. So
33:34
Speaker 1: I signed it and left Miss Watson's nigger. Jim had
33:38
Speaker 1: a hair ball as big as your fist which had
33:40
Speaker 1: been took out of the fourth stomach of an Ox,
33:43
Speaker 1: and he used to do magic with it. He said
33:46
Speaker 1: there was a spirit inside of it and it knowed everything.
33:49
Speaker 1: So I went to him that night and told him
33:51
Speaker 1: Pap was here again, for I found his tracks in
33:54
Speaker 1: the snow. What I wanted to know was what he
33:57
Speaker 1: was goin to do, and was he goin to stay.
34:00
Speaker 1: Jim got out his hair ball and said something over it,
34:04
Speaker 1: and then he held it up and dropped it on
34:06
Speaker 1: the floor. It fell pretty solid and only rolled about
34:09
Speaker 1: an inch. Jim tried it again and then another time,
34:13
Speaker 1: and it acted just the same. Jim got down on
34:16
Speaker 1: his knees and put his ear against it and listened.
34:19
Speaker 1: But it warn't no use. He said it wouldn't talk.
34:22
Speaker 1: He said sometimes it wouldn't talk without money, I told
34:26
Speaker 1: him I had an old slit counterfeit quarter that warn't
34:29
Speaker 1: no good because the brass showed through the silver a little,
34:32
Speaker 1: and it wouldn't pass nohow. Even if the brass didn't show,
34:35
Speaker 1: because it was so slick, it felt greasy, and so
34:37
Speaker 1: that would tell on it. Every time I reckoned, I
34:40
Speaker 1: wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got from the judge.
34:44
Speaker 1: I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the
34:46
Speaker 1: hair ball would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know
34:48
Speaker 1: the difference. Jim smelt it and bit it and rubbed it,
34:53
Speaker 1: and said he would manage so the hair ball would
34:55
Speaker 1: think it was good. He said he would split open
34:57
Speaker 1: a raw Irish potato and stick the order in between,
35:00
Speaker 1: and keep it there all night. An next mornin' you
35:03
Speaker 1: couldn't see no brass, an it wouldn't feel greasy no more,
35:06
Speaker 1: And so anybody in town would take it in a minute,
35:09
Speaker 1: let alone a hairball. Well, I knowed a potato would
35:12
Speaker 1: do that before, but I'd forgot it. Jim put the
35:16
Speaker 1: quarter under the hair ball and got down and listened again.
35:20
Speaker 1: This time he said the hair ball was all right.
35:22
Speaker 1: He said it would tell my whole fortune if I
35:24
Speaker 1: wanted it to I says, go on. So the hair
35:28
Speaker 1: ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.
35:31
Speaker 1: He says, you, old father don't know yet what he's
35:35
Speaker 1: a gwine to do. Sometimes he's speck he'll go away,
35:38
Speaker 1: and then again he's beck he'll stay. The best way
35:41
Speaker 1: is dress easy, and let the old man take his
35:43
Speaker 1: own way. Day's two angels hovering round about him. One
35:48
Speaker 1: of em is white and shiny, and the other one
35:51
Speaker 1: is black. The white one gets him to go right
35:53
Speaker 1: a little while, then the black one sail in an
35:56
Speaker 1: bust it all up. A body can't tell yet which
35:59
Speaker 1: one gwan f fetch him at the last. But you's
36:02
Speaker 1: all right. You goin to have considerable trouble in your life,
36:05
Speaker 1: in considerable joy. Sometimes you goin to get hurt, and
36:09
Speaker 1: sometimes you go on to get sick. But every time
36:12
Speaker 1: he's goin to get well again. Day's two gales flying
36:16
Speaker 1: about you and your life. One of 'em's light and
36:19
Speaker 1: the other one is dark. One is rich, and the
36:22
Speaker 1: other's pole. You's gwine to marry the pole one first,
36:26
Speaker 1: and a rich one by and by. You wants to
36:29
Speaker 1: keep away from the water as much as you can
36:31
Speaker 1: and don't run no risk case it's down into bills
36:34
Speaker 1: that you's gwine to get hung. When I lit my
36:38
Speaker 1: candle and went up to my room that night, there
36:41
Speaker 1: sat pap his own self. End of chapter four, Chapter five.
36:48
Speaker 1: I had shut the door too. Then I turned around,
36:51
Speaker 1: and there he was. I used to be scared of
36:54
Speaker 1: him all the time. He tanned me so much. I reckoned.
36:58
Speaker 1: I was scared now too, But in a minute I
37:00
Speaker 1: see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt,
37:04
Speaker 1: as you may say, when my breath's sort of hitched.
37:07
Speaker 1: He beIN so unexpected. But right away after I see him,
37:11
Speaker 1: I warn't scared him worth botherin bout. He was most fifty,
37:15
Speaker 1: and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled
37:18
Speaker 1: and greasy and hung down, and you could see his
37:21
Speaker 1: eyes shining through like he was behind fines. It was
37:25
Speaker 1: all black, no gray, So was his long mixed up whiskers.
37:29
Speaker 1: There warn't no color in his face. Where his face
37:32
Speaker 1: showed it was white, not like another man's white, but
37:36
Speaker 1: a white to make a body sick, a white to
37:39
Speaker 1: make a body's flesh crawl, a tree toad white, a
37:43
Speaker 1: fish belly white. As for his clothes, just rags. That
37:47
Speaker 1: was all. He had. One ankle rested on the other knee.
37:51
Speaker 1: The boot on that foot was busted, and two of
37:54
Speaker 1: his toes stuck through, and he worked them now. And
37:57
Speaker 1: then his hat was layin on the floor, an old
38:00
Speaker 1: black slouch with the top caved in like a lid.
38:04
Speaker 1: I stood a lookin at him. He's set there, lookin
38:08
Speaker 1: at me with his chair tilted back a little. I
38:11
Speaker 1: set the candle down. I noticed the window was up,
38:15
Speaker 1: so he had clumb in by the shed. He kept
38:18
Speaker 1: a lookin me all over by and by, he says,
38:22
Speaker 1: starchy clothes. Very. You think you're a good deal of
38:25
Speaker 1: a big bug, don't you? Maybe I am? Maybe I ain't,
38:30
Speaker 1: I says, don't you give me none? O? Your lip
38:33
Speaker 1: says he. You've put on consider'ble many frills since I've
38:37
Speaker 1: been away. I'll take you down a peg before I
38:40
Speaker 1: get done with you. You're educated, too, they say, kin
38:43
Speaker 1: read an write? You think you're better an yer father? Now,
38:46
Speaker 1: don't you? Because he can't, I'll take it out o you.
38:50
Speaker 1: Who told you you might meddle with such high falutin foolishness? Hey?
38:53
Speaker 1: Who told you you could? The widow she told me
38:58
Speaker 1: the widow. Eh an who told the widow she could
39:01
Speaker 1: put in her shovel about a thing that ain't none
39:02
Speaker 1: of her business. Nobody never told her. Well, I'll learn
39:08
Speaker 1: her how to meddle. And look you here, you drop
39:10
Speaker 1: that school, you hear, I'll learn people to bring up
39:13
Speaker 1: a boy to put on airs over his own father
39:16
Speaker 1: and let on to be better an what he is.
39:18
Speaker 1: You let me catch you fooling around that school again.
39:20
Speaker 1: You hear your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write
39:23
Speaker 1: another before she died. None of the family couldn't before
39:27
Speaker 1: they died. I can't. And here you're a swellin yourself
39:31
Speaker 1: up like this. I ain't the man to stand it,
39:34
Speaker 1: you hear. See, let me hear you read. I took
39:38
Speaker 1: up a book and begun something about General Washington and
39:41
Speaker 1: the Wars. When I'd read about half a minute, he
39:44
Speaker 1: fetched the book a whack with his hand and knocked
39:46
Speaker 1: it across the house. He says, it's so you can
39:51
Speaker 1: do it. I have my doubts when you told me, now,
39:54
Speaker 1: looky here, you stopped that putting on frills. I won't
39:58
Speaker 1: have it. I'll lay for you, smarty, And if I
40:01
Speaker 1: catch you about that school. I'll ten you good first.
40:04
Speaker 1: You know you'll get religion too. I never see such
40:08
Speaker 1: a son. He took up a little blue and yeller
40:11
Speaker 1: picture of some cows and a boy and says, what's this?
40:16
Speaker 1: It's something they give me for learning my lessons. Good.
40:19
Speaker 1: He tore it up and says, I'll give you something better.
40:23
Speaker 1: I'll give you a cow hide. He's sat there a
40:27
Speaker 1: mumbling and a growl in a minute, and then he says,
40:31
Speaker 1: ain't you a sweet scented dandy? Though a bed and
40:34
Speaker 1: bed clothes and a looking glass and a piece of
40:37
Speaker 1: carpet on the floor, and your own father got to
40:40
Speaker 1: sleep with the hogs and the taniard. I never see
40:43
Speaker 1: such a son. I bet I'll take some of these
40:45
Speaker 1: froze out of you before I'm done with you. Why
40:48
Speaker 1: there ain't no end to your heirs? They say you're rich? Hey,
40:52
Speaker 1: how's that? They lie? That's how? Lookye here? Mind how
40:57
Speaker 1: you talk to me. I'm a standing about all I
40:59
Speaker 1: can standing now, So don't give me no sass. I've
41:02
Speaker 1: been in town two days and I hain't heard nothing
41:05
Speaker 1: but about you being rich. I heard about it away
41:07
Speaker 1: down the river too. That's why I came, you get
41:11
Speaker 1: me that money tomorrow. I want it. I ain't got
41:15
Speaker 1: no money. It's a lie. Judge Thatcher's got it, you
41:18
Speaker 1: get it. I want it. I ain't got no money.
41:22
Speaker 1: I tell you, you asked Judge Thatcher. I'll tell you
41:25
Speaker 1: the same, all right. I'll ask him and I'll make
41:28
Speaker 1: him bungle too, or I'll know the reason why. Say
41:33
Speaker 1: how much you got in your pocket? I want it.
41:36
Speaker 1: I hain't got only a dollar and I want that too.
41:39
Speaker 1: It don't make no difference what you want it for,
41:41
Speaker 1: you just shell it out. He took it and bid
41:44
Speaker 1: it to see if it was good, and then he
41:47
Speaker 1: said he was going downtown to get some whiskey. Said
41:50
Speaker 1: he hadn't had a drink all day. When he had
41:53
Speaker 1: got out on the shed, he put his head in
41:55
Speaker 1: again and cussed me for putting on frills and trying
41:58
Speaker 1: to be better than him. And when I I reckoned
42:00
Speaker 1: he was gone. He'd come back and put his head
42:02
Speaker 1: in again, an told me to mind about that school,
42:05
Speaker 1: cause he was goin to lay for me and lick
42:07
Speaker 1: me if I didn't drop That next day, he was
42:11
Speaker 1: drunk when he went to Judge Thatcher's and bully ragged
42:14
Speaker 1: him and tried to make him give up the money,
42:16
Speaker 1: but he couldn't. An. Then he swore he'd make the
42:19
Speaker 1: law force him. The judge An the widow went to
42:22
Speaker 1: law to get the court to take me away from him.
42:24
Speaker 1: An let one of them be my guardian. But it
42:27
Speaker 1: was a new judge that had just come an he
42:28
Speaker 1: didn't know the old man, so he said courts mustn't
42:31
Speaker 1: interfere and separate families if they could help it. Said
42:35
Speaker 1: he'd rather not take a child away from its father.
42:38
Speaker 1: So Judge Thatcher An the widow had to quit on
42:40
Speaker 1: the business that pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.
42:44
Speaker 1: He said he'd cow hide me till I was black
42:46
Speaker 1: and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.
42:49
Speaker 1: I borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher and Pap took it.
42:52
Speaker 1: An got drunk and went to blowin around an cussin
42:54
Speaker 1: an whoopin an carryin on an. He kept it up
42:57
Speaker 1: all over town with a tin pan till most midnight.
43:01
Speaker 1: Then they jailed him, and next day they had him
43:04
Speaker 1: before a court and jailed him again for a week.
43:07
Speaker 1: But he said he was satisfied, said he was the
43:10
Speaker 1: boss of his son, an he'd make it warm for
43:12
Speaker 1: him when he got out. The new judge said he
43:15
Speaker 1: was goin to make a man of him, So he
43:18
Speaker 1: took him to his own house and dressed him up
43:20
Speaker 1: clean an nice, and had him to breakfast and dinner
43:22
Speaker 1: and supper with the family, and was just old pie
43:25
Speaker 1: to him, so to speak. And after supper he talked
43:28
Speaker 1: to him about temperance and such things till the old
43:31
Speaker 1: man cried and said he'd been a fool, an fooled
43:34
Speaker 1: away his life, but now he was goin to turn
43:37
Speaker 1: over a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't
43:40
Speaker 1: be ashamed of, and he hoped the judge would help
43:43
Speaker 1: him and not looked down on him. The judge said
43:46
Speaker 1: he could hug him for them words. So he cried,
43:49
Speaker 1: and his wife, she cried again. Perhaps said he'd been
43:52
Speaker 1: a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the
43:55
Speaker 1: judge said he believed it. The old man said that
43:58
Speaker 1: what a man wanted that was down was sympathy, and
44:01
Speaker 1: the judge said it was so, so they cried again,
44:05
Speaker 1: and when it was bedtime, the old man rose up
44:07
Speaker 1: and held out his hand and says, look at it.
44:10
Speaker 1: Gentlemen and ladies, all take hold of it. Shake it.
44:13
Speaker 1: There's a hand that was the hand of a hog,
44:16
Speaker 1: but it ain't so no more. It's the hand of
44:18
Speaker 1: a man that started in on a new life, and
44:21
Speaker 1: he'll die before he'll go back. You mark them words,
44:24
Speaker 1: don't forget, I said them. It's a clean hand. Now
44:28
Speaker 1: shake it, don't be afeared. So they shook it, one
44:32
Speaker 1: after the other, all around, and cried the judge's wife.
44:36
Speaker 1: She kissed it. Then the old man he signed a pledge,
44:39
Speaker 1: made his mark. The judge said it was the holiest
44:42
Speaker 1: time on record, or somethin like that. Then they tucked
44:46
Speaker 1: the old man into a beautiful room, which was the
44:49
Speaker 1: spare room. And in the night sometime he got powerful
44:52
Speaker 1: thirsty and clumb out on to the porch roof and
44:55
Speaker 1: slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for
44:58
Speaker 1: a jug of forty rod, and clumb back again and
45:01
Speaker 1: had a good old time. And towards daylight he crawled
45:04
Speaker 1: out again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the
45:07
Speaker 1: porch and broke his left arm in two places, and
45:09
Speaker 1: was most froze to death when somebody found him after
45:12
Speaker 1: sun up, and when they come to look at that
45:14
Speaker 1: spare room. They had to take soundings before they could
45:17
Speaker 1: navigate it. The judge he felt kind o sore. He said,
45:22
Speaker 1: he reckoned. A body could reform the old man with
45:24
Speaker 1: a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way.
45:29
Speaker 1: End of chapter five, Chapter six. Well, pretty soon the
45:35
Speaker 1: old man was up and around again. And then he
45:38
Speaker 1: went for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him
45:40
Speaker 1: give up that money. And he went for me too,
45:42
Speaker 1: for not stopping school. He catched me a couple of
45:45
Speaker 1: times and thrashed me. But I went to school just
45:48
Speaker 1: the same, an dodged him or out running him most
45:51
Speaker 1: of the time. I didn't want to go to school
45:53
Speaker 1: much before, but I reckon i'd go now to spite Pap.
45:57
Speaker 1: That law trial was a slow business. Appeared like there
46:00
Speaker 1: warn't ever going to get started on it. So every
46:03
Speaker 1: now an then I'd borrow two or three dollars off
46:05
Speaker 1: of the judge for him to keep from gettin a
46:08
Speaker 1: cow hidin'. Every time he got money, he got drunk,
46:11
Speaker 1: and every time he got drunk he raised caine around town,
46:15
Speaker 1: and every time he raised caine, he got jailed. He
46:18
Speaker 1: was just suited this kind of thing was right in
46:21
Speaker 1: his line. He got to hanging around the widows too much,
46:25
Speaker 1: and so she told him at last that if he
46:27
Speaker 1: didn't quit usin around there, she would make trouble for him. Well,
46:32
Speaker 1: wasn't he mad? He said he would show who was
46:34
Speaker 1: huck Finn's boss. So he watched out for me. One
46:38
Speaker 1: day in the spring, An catched me and took me
46:40
Speaker 1: up the river about three miles in a skiff and
46:43
Speaker 1: crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody
46:46
Speaker 1: an there warn't no houses but an old log hutting
46:48
Speaker 1: a place where the temper was so thick you couldn't
46:51
Speaker 1: find it if you didn't know where it was. He
46:53
Speaker 1: kept me with him all the time, and I never
46:55
Speaker 1: got a chance to run off. We lived in that
46:58
Speaker 1: old cabin and he all locked the door and put
47:01
Speaker 1: the key under his head. Nights. He had a gun
47:03
Speaker 1: which he had stole I reckon and we fished an hunted,
47:07
Speaker 1: and that was what we lived on. Every little while.
47:10
Speaker 1: He locked me in and went down to the store
47:12
Speaker 1: three miles to the ferry and traded fishin' game for whiskey,
47:16
Speaker 1: and fetched it home and got drunk and had a
47:18
Speaker 1: good time and licked me. The widow she found out
47:21
Speaker 1: where I was, by and by, and she sent a
47:23
Speaker 1: man over to try to get a hold of me,
47:26
Speaker 1: but Pap drove him off with a gun. And it
47:28
Speaker 1: warn't long after that till I was used to being
47:30
Speaker 1: where I wasn't liked it all but the cowhide part.
47:34
Speaker 1: It was kind of lazy and jolly, layin off comfortable
47:37
Speaker 1: all day, smokin' and fishin and no books nor study.
47:41
Speaker 1: Two months or more run along, and my clothes got
47:44
Speaker 1: to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see
47:46
Speaker 1: how I'd ever got to like it so well at
47:48
Speaker 1: the widow's where he had to wash and eat on
47:50
Speaker 1: a plate and comb up an go to bed and
47:52
Speaker 1: get up regular and be forever botherin over a book
47:56
Speaker 1: and have old miss Watson peckin at you all the
47:58
Speaker 1: time to go back no more. I had stopped cussin
48:02
Speaker 1: because the widow didn't like it, But now I took
48:05
Speaker 1: to it again because Pap hadn't no objections. It was
48:08
Speaker 1: pretty good times up in the woods there, take it
48:10
Speaker 1: all around. But by and by Pap got too handy
48:14
Speaker 1: with his hickory, and I couldn't stand it. I was
48:17
Speaker 1: all over welts he got to goin' away so much
48:21
Speaker 1: too and locking me in. Once he locked me in
48:23
Speaker 1: and was gone three days, it was dreadful, lonesome. I
48:27
Speaker 1: judged he had drowned, and I wasn't ever goin to
48:30
Speaker 1: get out anymore. I was scared. I made up my
48:33
Speaker 1: mind I would fix up some way to leave there.
48:36
Speaker 1: I had tried to get out of that cabin many
48:38
Speaker 1: a time, but I couldn't find no way. There warn't
48:41
Speaker 1: a window to it big enough for a dog to
48:43
Speaker 1: get through. I couldn't get up the chimbley, it was
48:46
Speaker 1: too narrow. The door was thick solid oak slabs. Pap
48:51
Speaker 1: was pretty careful not to leave an eye for anything
48:53
Speaker 1: in the cabin when he was away. I reckon I
48:56
Speaker 1: had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times. Well,
48:59
Speaker 1: I was most all the time at it, because it
49:01
Speaker 1: was about the only way to put in the time.
49:04
Speaker 1: But this time I found something At last, I found
49:07
Speaker 1: an old rusty wood saw without any handle. It was
49:10
Speaker 1: laid in between a rafter and the clappards of the roof.
49:14
Speaker 1: I greased it up and went to work. There was
49:16
Speaker 1: an old horse blanket nailed against the logs at the
49:19
Speaker 1: far end of the cabin, behind the table to keep
49:22
Speaker 1: the wind from blowing through the chinks and putting the
49:24
Speaker 1: candle out. I got under the table and raised the
49:27
Speaker 1: blanket and went to work to saw a section of
49:29
Speaker 1: the big bottom log out big enough to let me through. Well,
49:34
Speaker 1: it was a good long job, but I was getting
49:36
Speaker 1: towards the end of it when I heard PAP's gun
49:38
Speaker 1: in the woods. I got rid of the signs of
49:41
Speaker 1: my work and dropped the blanket and hid my saw,
49:43
Speaker 1: and pretty soon Pap came in. Pap warn't in a
49:47
Speaker 1: good humor, so he was his natural self. He said
49:51
Speaker 1: he was downtown and everything was going wrong. His lawyer
49:54
Speaker 1: said he reckoned. He would win his lawsuit and get
49:56
Speaker 1: the money if they ever got started on the trial,
50:00
Speaker 1: And there was ways to put it off a long time,
50:02
Speaker 1: and Judge Thatcher knowed how to do it, and he
50:05
Speaker 1: said people aloud, there'd be another trial to get me
50:07
Speaker 1: away from him and give me to the widow for
50:09
Speaker 1: my guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.
50:13
Speaker 1: This shook me up considerable because I didn't want to
50:16
Speaker 1: go back to the widows anymore, be so cramped up
50:18
Speaker 1: an civilized as they called it. Then the old man
50:22
Speaker 1: got to cuss in, an cussed everything and everybody he
50:25
Speaker 1: could think of, and then cussed them all over again
50:28
Speaker 1: to make sure he hadn't skipped any And after that
50:30
Speaker 1: he polished off with a kind of a general cuss
50:33
Speaker 1: all around, including a considerable parcel of people which he
50:36
Speaker 1: didn't know the names of, and so called them what's
50:39
Speaker 1: his name? When he got to them and went right
50:41
Speaker 1: along with his cussin, he said he would like to
50:44
Speaker 1: see the widow get me. He said he would watch out,
50:47
Speaker 1: and if they tried to come any such game on him,
50:50
Speaker 1: he knowed of a place six or seven mile off
50:52
Speaker 1: to stowe me in where they might hunt till they dropped,
50:55
Speaker 1: and they couldn't find me. That made me pretty uneasy again,
50:59
Speaker 1: but only for a minute, I reckoned. He wouldn't stay
51:02
Speaker 1: on hand till he got that chance. The old man
51:06
Speaker 1: made me go to the skiff and fetch the things
51:08
Speaker 1: he had got. There was a fifty pound sack of
51:10
Speaker 1: corn meal and a sight of bacon ammunition, and a
51:14
Speaker 1: four gallon drug, a whiskey, and an old book and
51:17
Speaker 1: two newspapers for wadding, beside some tow I towed it
51:21
Speaker 1: up a load and went back and set down on
51:23
Speaker 1: the ba of the skiff to rest. I thought it
51:26
Speaker 1: all over, and I reckoned I would walk off with
51:29
Speaker 1: a gun, an some lines, an take to the woods.
51:32
Speaker 1: When I run away, I guessed I wouldn't stay at
51:35
Speaker 1: one place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly
51:38
Speaker 1: night times, an hunting fish to keep alive, and so
51:42
Speaker 1: get so far away that the old man nor the
51:44
Speaker 1: widow couldn't ever find me any more. I judged I
51:47
Speaker 1: would thaw out an leave that night. If Pap got
51:49
Speaker 1: drunk enough and I reckoned, he would I got so
51:53
Speaker 1: full of it I didn't notice how long I was
51:54
Speaker 1: stayin till the old man hollered and asked me whether
51:57
Speaker 1: I was asleep or drownded. I got the things all
52:01
Speaker 1: up to the cabin, an then it was about dark.
52:04
Speaker 1: While I was cooking supper. The old man took a
52:06
Speaker 1: swig or two, an got sort o, warmed up, and
52:09
Speaker 1: went to rippin again. He had been drunk over in
52:12
Speaker 1: town an laid in the gutter all night. An he
52:14
Speaker 1: was a sight to look at. A body woulda thought
52:17
Speaker 1: he was at him. He was just all mud. Whenever
52:21
Speaker 1: his liquor begun to work. He most always went for
52:23
Speaker 1: the government. This time, he says, call this a government.
52:28
Speaker 1: Why just look at it and see what it's like.
52:31
Speaker 1: Here's the law standin ready to take a man's son
52:33
Speaker 1: away from him, a man's own son, which he has
52:36
Speaker 1: had all the trouble, an all the anxiety, an all
52:39
Speaker 1: the expense, O raisin, Yes, jest as that man has
52:42
Speaker 1: got that son raised at last, an ready to go
52:44
Speaker 1: to work, an begin to do somethin for him, An
52:47
Speaker 1: give 'em a rest. The law up an goes for him.
52:50
Speaker 1: An they called that government. That ain't all another. The
52:54
Speaker 1: law backs that old judge thatcher up an helps him
52:56
Speaker 1: to keep me out of my property. Ear's what the
52:59
Speaker 1: law does. The law takes a man worth six thousand
53:02
Speaker 1: dollars an upwards, an jam's em into an old trap
53:04
Speaker 1: of gabin like this, and lets em go round and clothes.
53:07
Speaker 1: It ain't fittin for a hog. They call that government.
53:11
Speaker 1: A man can't get his rights in a government like this.
53:14
Speaker 1: Sometimes I've a mighty notion to just leave the country
53:17
Speaker 1: for good and all. Yes, An, I told him so.
53:20
Speaker 1: I told old thatcher so to his face. Lots of em.
53:23
Speaker 1: Hermain can tell what I said, says I. For two cents,
53:27
Speaker 1: I'd leave the blame's country and never comin near it again.
53:30
Speaker 1: Dam's the very words, I says. Look at my hat.
53:34
Speaker 1: If you call it a hat, but the lid raises
53:36
Speaker 1: up and the rest, if it goes down till it's
53:38
Speaker 1: below my chin, An, then it ain't rightly a hat
53:41
Speaker 1: at all, but more like my head was shoved up
53:43
Speaker 1: through a gentle stove pipe. Look at it, I says,
53:47
Speaker 1: Such a hat for me to wear, one of the
53:49
Speaker 1: wealthiest men in this town, if I could get my rights.
53:52
Speaker 1: Oh yes, this is a wonderful government. Wonderful Why look
53:57
Speaker 1: ye here he was a free nigger there from Ohio.
54:00
Speaker 1: I'm a lotter, most as white as any man. He
54:04
Speaker 1: had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and
54:06
Speaker 1: the shiniest hat. An, there ain't a man in that
54:09
Speaker 1: town that's got as fine clothes as what he had.
54:11
Speaker 1: And he had a gold watch and chain and a
54:13
Speaker 1: silver had a cane, the awfullest old gray head, and
54:17
Speaker 1: a bob in the state. And what do you think
54:20
Speaker 1: they said? He was a professor in a college and
54:22
Speaker 1: could talk all kinds of languages and note everything, and
54:25
Speaker 1: that ain't the worst. They said he could vote when
54:28
Speaker 1: he was at home. Well, that let me out, thinks I.
54:32
Speaker 1: What is the country you're coming to? It was election day.
54:35
Speaker 1: I was just about to go and vote myself, if
54:37
Speaker 1: I weren't too drunk to get there. But when they
54:40
Speaker 1: told me there was a state in this country where
54:42
Speaker 1: they let that nigger vote, I draw it out. I says,
54:45
Speaker 1: I'll never vote again. Them's the very words I said.
54:48
Speaker 1: They all heard me, and the country may write for
54:51
Speaker 1: all me. I'll never vote again as long as I live.
54:55
Speaker 1: And to see the cool way of that nigger. Why
54:57
Speaker 1: he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't
54:59
Speaker 1: shoved him out of the way, I says to the people,
55:03
Speaker 1: Why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold?
55:05
Speaker 1: That's what I want to know. And what do you reckon?
55:08
Speaker 1: They said? Why? They said he couldn't be sold till
55:11
Speaker 1: he'd been in the state six months, and he an't
55:13
Speaker 1: been there that long yet. There, now that's a specimen.
55:17
Speaker 1: They call that a government that can't sell a free
55:21
Speaker 1: nigger till he's been in the state six months. Here's
55:24
Speaker 1: a government that calls itself a government and lets it
55:26
Speaker 1: on to be a government, and thinks that it's a government,
55:29
Speaker 1: and it's got to set Stocksville for six on months.
55:32
Speaker 1: Fucking get a hold of a prowling thieve in infernal
55:35
Speaker 1: white shirted free nigger and pap was a going on,
55:38
Speaker 1: so he never noticed where his old limber legs was
55:40
Speaker 1: taking him to. So he went head over heels over
55:43
Speaker 1: the tub of salt pork and barked both shins, and
55:47
Speaker 1: the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind
55:49
Speaker 1: of language, mostly hot the nigger and the government, though
55:53
Speaker 1: it give the tub some too. While along here and
55:55
Speaker 1: there he hopped around the cabin considerable first on one
55:59
Speaker 1: leg and then on the other, holding first one shin
56:02
Speaker 1: an then the other one, and at last he let
56:04
Speaker 1: out with his left foot all of a sudden and
56:06
Speaker 1: fetched the tub a rattling kick. But it warn't a
56:09
Speaker 1: good judgment, because that was the boot that had a
56:12
Speaker 1: couple of his toes leaking out of the front end
56:14
Speaker 1: of it, So now it raised a howl that fairly
56:16
Speaker 1: made a body's hair raise. And down he went in
56:19
Speaker 1: the dirt and rolled there and held his toes and
56:22
Speaker 1: the cussin' he done, then laid over anything he had
56:25
Speaker 1: ever done previous. He said so his own self. Afterwards
56:29
Speaker 1: he had heard old so Berry Hagen in his best days,
56:32
Speaker 1: and he said it laid over him too. But I
56:34
Speaker 1: reckon that was sort of pilin' at all. Maybe After supper,
56:38
Speaker 1: Pap took the jug and said he had enough whisky
56:41
Speaker 1: there for two drunks and one delirium trumends. That was
56:45
Speaker 1: always his word. I'd judge he'd be blind drunkin about
56:48
Speaker 1: an hour, and then I would steal the key or
56:50
Speaker 1: saw myself out one or the other. He drank and
56:54
Speaker 1: drank and tumbled down on his plankets by and by,
56:57
Speaker 1: But luck didn't run my way. He didn't go so
57:00
Speaker 1: to sleep, but was uneasy. He groaned and moaned and
57:03
Speaker 1: thrashed around this way and that for a long time.
57:06
Speaker 1: And last I got so sleepy I couldn't keep my
57:08
Speaker 1: eyes open. All I could do, And so before I
57:11
Speaker 1: knowed what I was about, I was sound asleep and
57:14
Speaker 1: the candle burning. I don't know how long I was asleep,
57:18
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden there was an awful scream,
57:20
Speaker 1: and I was up. There was Pap, looking wild and
57:24
Speaker 1: skipping around every which way and yelling about snakes. He said,
57:27
Speaker 1: they was crawling up his legs, and then he would
57:29
Speaker 1: give a jump and screaming, say one had bit him
57:31
Speaker 1: on the cheek, but I couldn't see no snakes. He
57:35
Speaker 1: started and run around and round the cap and hollerin'.
57:38
Speaker 1: Tack him off, Tack him off. He's biting me on
57:40
Speaker 1: the neck. I never see a man look so wild
57:43
Speaker 1: in the eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out
57:46
Speaker 1: and fell down panting. Then he rolled over and over
57:49
Speaker 1: wonderful fast, kicking things every which way and striking and
57:53
Speaker 1: grabbing at the air with his hands and screaming and
57:56
Speaker 1: saying there was devils a hole to him. He wore
57:59
Speaker 1: out by by and laid still awhile moanin'. Then he
58:03
Speaker 1: laid stiller and then make a sound. I could hear
58:07
Speaker 1: the owls and the wolves away off in the woods,
58:09
Speaker 1: and it seemed terrible. Still he was layin over by
58:13
Speaker 1: the corner by and by. He raised up partway and
58:16
Speaker 1: listened with his head to one side. He says, very low,
58:20
Speaker 1: tramp tramp tramp, that's the dead tramp tramp tramp. They're
58:26
Speaker 1: comin after me, but I won't go. Oh they're here,
58:31
Speaker 1: don't touch me, don't hands off, they're gold. Let go oh,
58:36
Speaker 1: let a poor devil alone. Then he went down on
58:40
Speaker 1: all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him alone.
58:44
Speaker 1: And he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed
58:47
Speaker 1: in under the old pine table, still a beggin'. And
58:50
Speaker 1: then he went to cryin. I could hear him through
58:53
Speaker 1: the blanket. By and by he rolled out and jumped
58:56
Speaker 1: up on his feet, looking wild, and he seen me,
58:59
Speaker 1: An went for me. He chased me round around the
59:02
Speaker 1: place with the claps knife, callin me the angel o death,
59:05
Speaker 1: An sayin he would kill me. An then I couldn't
59:08
Speaker 1: come for him no more. I begged and told him
59:10
Speaker 1: I was only hook. But he laughed such a screechy laugh.
59:14
Speaker 1: An roared and cussed and kept on chasin me up.
59:18
Speaker 1: Once when I turned short, An dodged under his arm.
59:20
Speaker 1: He made a grab An got me by the jacket
59:22
Speaker 1: between my shoulders. An I thought I was gone, but
59:25
Speaker 1: I slid out of the jacket quick as lightnin' An
59:28
Speaker 1: saved myself. Pretty soon. He was all tired out and
59:31
Speaker 1: dropped down with his back against the door, and said
59:34
Speaker 1: he would rest a minute, an then kill me. He
59:37
Speaker 1: put his knife under him and said he would sleep
59:40
Speaker 1: an get strong an then he would see who was who?
59:43
Speaker 1: So he dozed off pretty soon by an by I
59:46
Speaker 1: got the old split bottom chair. An clumb up as
59:49
Speaker 1: easy as I could, not to make any noise. An
59:52
Speaker 1: got down the gun. I slipped the ram ride down
59:55
Speaker 1: it to make sure it was loaded. Then I laid
59:57
Speaker 1: it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards Pap. An set
1:00:00
Speaker 1: down behind it to wait for him to stir. And
1:00:03
Speaker 1: how slow An still did the time drag along? End
1:00:08
Speaker 1: of chapter six, Chapter seven, Get up what you bout?
1:00:15
Speaker 1: I opened my eyes and looked around, tryin to make
1:00:17
Speaker 1: out where I was. It was after sun up. An
1:00:21
Speaker 1: I had been sound asleep. Pap was standin over me,
1:00:24
Speaker 1: lookin sour, an sick too. He says, what you doin
1:00:28
Speaker 1: with this gun? I judged he didn't know nothing about
1:00:32
Speaker 1: what he had been doin. So I says, somebody tried
1:00:36
Speaker 1: to get in, so I was layin for him. Why
1:00:39
Speaker 1: didn't you roust me out? Well? I tried to, but
1:00:42
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't budge you. Well, all right, don't
1:00:47
Speaker 1: stand there palaverin all day, but out with you and
1:00:49
Speaker 1: see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.
1:00:52
Speaker 1: I'll be long in a minute. He unlocked the door,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: and I cleared out up the river bank. I noticed
1:00:59
Speaker 1: a pieces of limb and such things floatin down, and
1:01:02
Speaker 1: a sprinklin a bark, so I knowed the river had
1:01:04
Speaker 1: begun to rise. I reckoned. I would have great times
1:01:08
Speaker 1: now if I was over at the town. The June
1:01:11
Speaker 1: rise used to be always luck for me, because as
1:01:14
Speaker 1: soon as that rise begins, here comes cordwood floatin down,
1:01:18
Speaker 1: an pieces of log rafts, sometimes a dozen logs together,
1:01:21
Speaker 1: So all you have to do is catch 'em an
1:01:23
Speaker 1: sell him to the woodyards and the sawmill. I went
1:01:26
Speaker 1: along up the bank with one eye out for pap an,
1:01:29
Speaker 1: the other one out for what the rise might fetch along. Well,
1:01:33
Speaker 1: all at once here comes a canoe, just a beauty too,
1:01:36
Speaker 1: about thirteen or fourteen foot long, ridin high like a duck.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: I shot head first off of the bank like a frog,
1:01:44
Speaker 1: closin' all on an struck out for the canoe. I
1:01:48
Speaker 1: just expected there'd be somebody layin down in it, because
1:01:51
Speaker 1: people often done that to fool folks. And when a
1:01:54
Speaker 1: chap had pulled a skiff out most to it. They'd
1:01:57
Speaker 1: raise up and laugh at him, but it warn't so
1:01:59
Speaker 1: this time I'm it was a drift canoe sure enough,
1:02:02
Speaker 1: and I clumb in a paddled her ashore. Thinks I
1:02:06
Speaker 1: the old man will be glad when he sees this.
1:02:08
Speaker 1: She's worth ten dollars. But when I got to shore,
1:02:12
Speaker 1: Pep wasn't in sight yet. And as I was running
1:02:15
Speaker 1: her into a little creek like a gully, all hung
1:02:17
Speaker 1: over with vines and willows, I struck another idea. I
1:02:22
Speaker 1: judged i'd hide her good an then instead of taking
1:02:25
Speaker 1: to the woods when I run off, I'd go down
1:02:28
Speaker 1: the river about fifty mile an camp in one place
1:02:30
Speaker 1: for good and i'd have such a rough time trampin'
1:02:33
Speaker 1: on foot. It was pretty close to the shanty, and
1:02:36
Speaker 1: I thought I heard the old man coming all the time.
1:02:39
Speaker 1: But I got her head an then I out an
1:02:41
Speaker 1: looked around a bunch of willows, an there was the
1:02:43
Speaker 1: old man down the path apiece, just drawin a bead
1:02:46
Speaker 1: on a bird with his gun, so he hadn't seen anything.
1:02:50
Speaker 1: When he got along. I was hard at it, takin
1:02:52
Speaker 1: up a trot line. He abused me a little for
1:02:55
Speaker 1: beIN so slow, but I told him I fell in
1:02:58
Speaker 1: the river. An that was what made me so long.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: I knowed you would see I was wet, an then
1:03:02
Speaker 1: he would be askin questions. We got five catfish off
1:03:06
Speaker 1: the lines and went home. While we laid off after
1:03:09
Speaker 1: breakfast to sleep up, both of us beIN about war out.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: I got to thinkin that if I could fix up
1:03:15
Speaker 1: some way to keep papin the widow from tryin to
1:03:17
Speaker 1: follow me, it would be a certainer thing than trustin
1:03:20
Speaker 1: to luck to get far enough off before they missed me.
1:03:23
Speaker 1: You see, all kinds of things might happen. Well, I
1:03:27
Speaker 1: didn't see no way for a while. But by and
1:03:29
Speaker 1: by pep raised up a minute to drink another barrel
1:03:32
Speaker 1: o water. An, he says, another time a man comes
1:03:35
Speaker 1: a prowlin round here, you rouse me out, ye hear.
1:03:38
Speaker 1: That man warn't here for no good. I'd a shot him.
1:03:42
Speaker 1: Next time you brows me out, ye hear. Then he
1:03:45
Speaker 1: dropped down and went to sleep again. But what he
1:03:47
Speaker 1: had been saying give me the very idea I wanted,
1:03:51
Speaker 1: I says to myself, I can fix it now, so
1:03:54
Speaker 1: nobody won't think of followin me. About twelve o'clock we
1:03:58
Speaker 1: turned out and went along up the bank. The river
1:04:01
Speaker 1: was comin up pretty fast, and lots of drift wood
1:04:03
Speaker 1: going by on the rise. By and by along comes
1:04:07
Speaker 1: part of a log raft, nine logs fast. Together. We
1:04:10
Speaker 1: went out with skiff and towed it ashore. Then we
1:04:13
Speaker 1: had dinner. Anybody but Pap would have waited and seen
1:04:17
Speaker 1: the day through so as to catch more stuff. But
1:04:20
Speaker 1: that warn't pap style. Nine logs was enough for one time.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: He must shove right over to town and sell. So
1:04:27
Speaker 1: he locked me in and took the skiff and started
1:04:29
Speaker 1: off towing the raft. About half past three. I judged
1:04:33
Speaker 1: he wouldn't come back that night. I waited till I
1:04:36
Speaker 1: reckoned he had got a good start. Then I out
1:04:38
Speaker 1: with my saw and went to work on that log again.
1:04:42
Speaker 1: Before he was the other side of the river, I
1:04:44
Speaker 1: was out of the hole. Him and his raft was
1:04:47
Speaker 1: just a speck on the water, away off yonder. I
1:04:50
Speaker 1: took the sack of corn meal and took it to
1:04:52
Speaker 1: where the canoe was hid, an shoved the vines and
1:04:55
Speaker 1: branches apart and put it in. Then I'd done the
1:04:58
Speaker 1: same with the side of bacon, then the whisky jug.
1:05:01
Speaker 1: I took all the coffee an sugar there was, and
1:05:04
Speaker 1: all the ammunition. I took the widing. I took the
1:05:07
Speaker 1: bucket and gourd. I took a dipper and a tin cup,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: and my old saw, and two blankets, and the skillet
1:05:12
Speaker 1: and the coffee pot. I took fish lines, an matches
1:05:16
Speaker 1: and other things, everything that was worth the scent. I
1:05:19
Speaker 1: cleaned out the place. I wanted an axe, but there
1:05:22
Speaker 1: wasn't any, only the one out at the woodpile. And
1:05:26
Speaker 1: I knowed why I was goin to leave that. I
1:05:29
Speaker 1: fetched out the gun, and now I was done. I
1:05:32
Speaker 1: had worn the ground a good deal, crawling out of
1:05:34
Speaker 1: the hole and dragging out so many things. So I
1:05:37
Speaker 1: fixed that as good as I could from the outside
1:05:39
Speaker 1: by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the
1:05:42
Speaker 1: smoothness and the sawdust. Then I fixed a piece of
1:05:45
Speaker 1: log back into its place, and put two rocks under
1:05:47
Speaker 1: it and one against it to hold it there, for
1:05:50
Speaker 1: it was bent up at that place and didn't quite
1:05:52
Speaker 1: touch ground. If you stood four or five feet away
1:05:55
Speaker 1: and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice it.
1:05:59
Speaker 1: An Besides, this was the back of the cabin, an
1:06:02
Speaker 1: it warn't likely anybody would go foolin around there. It
1:06:05
Speaker 1: was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't
1:06:08
Speaker 1: left a track. I followed around to see I stood
1:06:12
Speaker 1: on the bank and looked out over the river. All safe.
1:06:16
Speaker 1: So I took the gun and went up a piece
1:06:18
Speaker 1: into the woods and was hunting around for some birds
1:06:21
Speaker 1: when I see a wild pig. Hogs soon went wild
1:06:24
Speaker 1: in them bottoms after they had got away from the
1:06:26
Speaker 1: prairie farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp.
1:06:31
Speaker 1: I took the axe and smashed in the door. I
1:06:34
Speaker 1: beat it an hacked it considerable a doin' it. I
1:06:37
Speaker 1: fetched the pig in an took him back nearly to
1:06:40
Speaker 1: the table and hacked into his throat with the axe
1:06:43
Speaker 1: and laid him down on the ground to bleed. I
1:06:46
Speaker 1: say ground because it was ground, hard packed and no boards. Well. Next,
1:06:51
Speaker 1: I took an old sack an put a lot of
1:06:53
Speaker 1: big rocks in it, all like a drag, and I
1:06:56
Speaker 1: started it from the pig, an dragged it to the
1:06:59
Speaker 1: door and threw the woods down to the river and
1:07:01
Speaker 1: dumped it in and down it sunk out of sight.
1:07:05
Speaker 1: You could easy see that something had been dragged over
1:07:07
Speaker 1: the ground. I did wish Tom Sawyer was there. I
1:07:11
Speaker 1: knowed he would take an interest in this kind of
1:07:13
Speaker 1: business and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread
1:07:17
Speaker 1: himself like Tom Sawyer, and such a thing as that. Well, last,
1:07:22
Speaker 1: I pulled out some of my hair and blooded the
1:07:24
Speaker 1: axe good and stuck it on the backside, and slung
1:07:27
Speaker 1: the axe in the corner. Then I took up the
1:07:30
Speaker 1: pig and held him to my breast with my jacket
1:07:32
Speaker 1: so he couldn't drip till I got a good piece
1:07:35
Speaker 1: below the house, and then dumped them into the river.
1:07:39
Speaker 1: Now I thought of something else, so I went and
1:07:41
Speaker 1: got the bag of meal and my old saw out
1:07:44
Speaker 1: of the canoe and fetch them to the house. I
1:07:47
Speaker 1: took the bag to where it used to stand and
1:07:49
Speaker 1: ripped a hole in the bottom of it with a saw,
1:07:51
Speaker 1: for there warn't no knives and forks on the place.
1:07:54
Speaker 1: Pep done everything with his clasp knife about the cookin.
1:07:58
Speaker 1: Then I carried the sack about a hundred yards across
1:08:00
Speaker 1: the grass and through the willows east of the house
1:08:03
Speaker 1: to a shallow lake that was five mile wide and
1:08:06
Speaker 1: full of rushes and ducks too. You might say. In
1:08:09
Speaker 1: the season there was a slough or a creek leading
1:08:12
Speaker 1: out of it on the other side that went miles away,
1:08:15
Speaker 1: I don't nowhere, but it didn't go to the river.
1:08:18
Speaker 1: The meal sifted out and made a little track all
1:08:20
Speaker 1: the way to the lake. I dropped paps wetstone there too,
1:08:24
Speaker 1: so as to look like it had been done by accident.
1:08:27
Speaker 1: Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack
1:08:29
Speaker 1: with a string so it wouldn't leak no more, and
1:08:31
Speaker 1: took it and my saw to the canoe again. It
1:08:35
Speaker 1: was about dark now, so I dropped the canoe down
1:08:37
Speaker 1: the river under some willows that hung over the bank,
1:08:40
Speaker 1: and waited for the moon to rise. I made fast
1:08:43
Speaker 1: to a willow. Then I took a bike to eat,
1:08:46
Speaker 1: and by and by laid down in the canoe to
1:08:48
Speaker 1: smoke a pipe and lay out a plan, I says
1:08:52
Speaker 1: to myself. They'll follow the track of that sack full
1:08:55
Speaker 1: of rocks to the shore and then drag the river
1:08:57
Speaker 1: for me. And they'll follow that meal track to the lake.
1:09:00
Speaker 1: Can go browsing down the creek that leads out of
1:09:02
Speaker 1: it to find the robbers that killed me and took
1:09:04
Speaker 1: of things. They won't ever hunt the river for anything
1:09:07
Speaker 1: but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that
1:09:10
Speaker 1: and won't bother no more about me. All right, I
1:09:13
Speaker 1: can stop anywhere I want to. Jackson's Island is good
1:09:17
Speaker 1: enough for me. I know that island pretty well, and
1:09:20
Speaker 1: nobody ever comes there, and then I can paddle over
1:09:23
Speaker 1: to town nights and slink around and pick up things
1:09:25
Speaker 1: I want. Jackson's Island's the place. I was pretty tired,
1:09:31
Speaker 1: and the first thing I knowed I was asleep. When
1:09:34
Speaker 1: I woke up, I don't know where I was for
1:09:36
Speaker 1: a minute. I sat up and looked around a little scared.
1:09:40
Speaker 1: Then I remembered the river looked miles and miles across.
1:09:45
Speaker 1: The moon was so bright I could have counted the
1:09:47
Speaker 1: drift logs that went to slipping along black and still
1:09:51
Speaker 1: hundreds of yards out from shore. Everything was dead quiet,
1:09:56
Speaker 1: and it looked late and smelt late. You know what
1:09:59
Speaker 1: I mean. I don't know the words to put it in.
1:10:02
Speaker 1: I took a good gap and a stretch and was
1:10:05
Speaker 1: just going to unhitch and start when I heard a
1:10:07
Speaker 1: sound away over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I
1:10:12
Speaker 1: made it out. It was that dull kind of a
1:10:14
Speaker 1: regular sound that comes from oars working in row locks.
1:10:18
Speaker 1: When it's a still night. I peeped out through the
1:10:21
Speaker 1: willow branches, and there it was a skiff away across
1:10:24
Speaker 1: the water. I couldn't tell how many was in it.
1:10:28
Speaker 1: It kept a comin, and when it was abreast to me,
1:10:31
Speaker 1: I see there warn't but one man in it. Thinks
1:10:33
Speaker 1: I maybe it's Pap, though I warn't expecting him. He
1:10:38
Speaker 1: dropped below me with the current, and by and by
1:10:40
Speaker 1: he came a swingin up shore in the easy water,
1:10:43
Speaker 1: and he went by so close I could have reached
1:10:46
Speaker 1: out of the gun and touched him. Well. It was Pap,
1:10:49
Speaker 1: sure enough, and sober too, by the way he laid
1:10:52
Speaker 1: his oars. I didn't lose no time. The next minute
1:10:57
Speaker 1: I was a spinnin' down stream, soft but quick in
1:10:59
Speaker 1: the shape to the bank. I made two mile and
1:11:02
Speaker 1: a half, and then struck out a quarter of a
1:11:04
Speaker 1: mile or more towards the middle of the river, because
1:11:06
Speaker 1: pretty soon i'd be passing the ferry landing and people
1:11:10
Speaker 1: might see me and hail me. I got out amongst
1:11:13
Speaker 1: the driftwood and then laid down in the bottom of
1:11:15
Speaker 1: the canoe and let her float. I laid there and
1:11:19
Speaker 1: had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe,
1:11:22
Speaker 1: looking away into the sky, not a cloud in it.
1:11:26
Speaker 1: The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down
1:11:28
Speaker 1: on your back in the moonshine. I never knowed it before,
1:11:32
Speaker 1: And how far a body can hear on the water
1:11:35
Speaker 1: such nights. I heard people talking at the faery landin'
1:11:39
Speaker 1: I heard what they said, too, every word of it.
1:11:42
Speaker 1: One man said it was gettin towards the long days
1:11:45
Speaker 1: and the short nights now. The other one said, this
1:11:48
Speaker 1: warn't one of the short ones. He reckoned, and then
1:11:51
Speaker 1: they laughed, and he set it over again, and they
1:11:54
Speaker 1: laughed again. Then they waked up another fella and told
1:11:58
Speaker 1: him and laughed, but he he didn't laugh. He ripped
1:12:01
Speaker 1: out somethin brisk and said let him alone. The first
1:12:05
Speaker 1: fellow said he allowed to tell it to his old woman.
1:12:07
Speaker 1: She would think it was pretty good. But he said
1:12:10
Speaker 1: that warn't nothin to some things he had said in
1:12:12
Speaker 1: his time. I heard one man say it was nearly
1:12:15
Speaker 1: three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than
1:12:18
Speaker 1: about a week longer. After that, the talk got further
1:12:22
Speaker 1: and further away, and I couldn't make out the words
1:12:25
Speaker 1: any more. But I could hear the mumble an now an,
1:12:28
Speaker 1: then a laugh too, but it seemed a long ways off.
1:12:32
Speaker 1: I was away below the ferry. Now I rose up
1:12:35
Speaker 1: an there was Jackson's Island about two mile and a
1:12:38
Speaker 1: half down stream, heavy timbered, a standin' up out of
1:12:42
Speaker 1: the middle of the river, big an dark and solid
1:12:45
Speaker 1: like a steamboat without any lights. There warn't any signs
1:12:49
Speaker 1: of the bar at the head. It was all under water. Now.
1:12:53
Speaker 1: It didn't take me long to get there. I shot
1:12:56
Speaker 1: past the head at a rippin' rate. The current was
1:12:58
Speaker 1: so swift, and then I got into the dead water
1:13:01
Speaker 1: and landed on the side towards the Illinois shore. I
1:13:05
Speaker 1: run the canoe into a deep dent in the bank
1:13:07
Speaker 1: that I knowed about. I had to part the willow
1:13:10
Speaker 1: branches to get in, and when I made fast, nobody
1:13:13
Speaker 1: could have seen the canoe from the outside. I went
1:13:17
Speaker 1: up and set down on a log at the head
1:13:18
Speaker 1: of the island and looked out on the big river
1:13:21
Speaker 1: and the black drift wood and away over to the
1:13:24
Speaker 1: town three mile away, where there was three or four
1:13:27
Speaker 1: lights twinkling. A monstrous, big lumber raft was about a
1:13:31
Speaker 1: mile up stream, coming along down with a lantern in
1:13:34
Speaker 1: the middle of it. I watched it come creeping down,
1:13:38
Speaker 1: and when it was most abreast to where I stood,
1:13:41
Speaker 1: I heard a man say, stern oars there eave her
1:13:45
Speaker 1: head to starboard. I heard that just as plaint as
1:13:48
Speaker 1: if the man was by my side. There was a
1:13:51
Speaker 1: little gray in the sky now, so I stepped into
1:13:54
Speaker 1: the woods and laid down for a nap before breakfast,
1:13:59
Speaker 1: and of chapter seven Chapter eight. The sun was up
1:14:05
Speaker 1: so high when I waked that I judged it was
1:14:08
Speaker 1: after eight o'clock. I laid there in the grass, in
1:14:11
Speaker 1: the cool shade, thinking about things, and feeling rested and
1:14:15
Speaker 1: rather comfortable and satisfied. I could see the sun out
1:14:18
Speaker 1: at one or two holes, but mostly it was big
1:14:21
Speaker 1: trees all about and gloomy in there. Amongst them there
1:14:25
Speaker 1: was freckle places on the ground where the light sifted
1:14:28
Speaker 1: down through the leaves, and the freckle places swapped about
1:14:31
Speaker 1: a little, showing there was a little breeze up there.
1:14:34
Speaker 1: A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered
1:14:37
Speaker 1: at me, very friendly. I was powerful, lazy and comfortable,
1:14:42
Speaker 1: didn't want to get up and cook breakfast. Well. I
1:14:46
Speaker 1: was dozing off again. When I thinks I hear a
1:14:48
Speaker 1: deep sound of boom away up the river. I rouses
1:14:52
Speaker 1: up and rests on my elbow and listens. Pretty soon
1:14:55
Speaker 1: I hears it again. I hopped up and went and
1:14:58
Speaker 1: looked out at a hole in the leave an. I
1:15:00
Speaker 1: see a bunch of smoke layin on the water along
1:15:03
Speaker 1: ways up about abreast of the faery, and there was
1:15:06
Speaker 1: the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed
1:15:10
Speaker 1: what was the matter. Now, boom, I see the white
1:15:14
Speaker 1: smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's side. Ye see, they
1:15:18
Speaker 1: was firin cannin over the water, tryin to make my
1:15:22
Speaker 1: carcass come to the top. I was pretty hungry, but
1:15:26
Speaker 1: it warn't goin to do for me to start a fire,
1:15:28
Speaker 1: because they might see the smoke. So I set there
1:15:31
Speaker 1: and watched the cannon smoke and listened to the boom.
1:15:34
Speaker 1: The river was a mile wide there, and it always
1:15:37
Speaker 1: looks pretty on a summer mornin'. So I was having
1:15:39
Speaker 1: a good enough time seeing them hunt from my remainders
1:15:42
Speaker 1: if I only had a bite to eat. Well, then
1:15:46
Speaker 1: I happened to think how they always put quicksilver and
1:15:48
Speaker 1: loaves of bread an float them off, because they always
1:15:51
Speaker 1: go right to the drowned carcass and stop there. So
1:15:55
Speaker 1: says I. I'll keep a lookout, an if any of
1:15:57
Speaker 1: them's floating around after me, I'll give the Emma show.
1:16:01
Speaker 1: I changed to the Illinois edge of the island to
1:16:04
Speaker 1: see what luck I could have, and I warn't disappointed.
1:16:08
Speaker 1: A big double loaf come along, and I most got
1:16:10
Speaker 1: it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and
1:16:13
Speaker 1: she floated out further. Of course, I was where the
1:16:16
Speaker 1: currents set in the closest to the shore. I knowed
1:16:18
Speaker 1: enough for that. But by and by along comes another one,
1:16:22
Speaker 1: and this time I won. I took out the plug
1:16:26
Speaker 1: and shook out the little dab of quicksilver and set
1:16:28
Speaker 1: my teeth in. It was baker's bread. What the quality eat?
1:16:33
Speaker 1: Noney'er a low down corn pone. I got a good
1:16:36
Speaker 1: place amongst the leaves and set there on a log,
1:16:39
Speaker 1: munching the bread and watching the ferry boat, and very
1:16:42
Speaker 1: well satisfied. And then something struck me. I says, now,
1:16:47
Speaker 1: I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed
1:16:50
Speaker 1: that this bread would find me, And here it has
1:16:52
Speaker 1: gone and done it. So there ain't no doubt, But
1:16:54
Speaker 1: there's somethin in that. That is, there's somethin in it
1:16:57
Speaker 1: when a body like the widow or the parson prays.
1:17:00
Speaker 1: But it don't work for me, and I reckon it
1:17:02
Speaker 1: don't work for only just the right kind. I lit
1:17:05
Speaker 1: a pipe, an had a good long smokin went on
1:17:08
Speaker 1: watchin the ferry boat was floating with the current, and
1:17:11
Speaker 1: I allowed i'd have a chance to see who was
1:17:13
Speaker 1: aboard when she come along, because she would come in
1:17:16
Speaker 1: close where the bread did. When she got pretty well
1:17:19
Speaker 1: long down towards me, I put out my pipe and
1:17:21
Speaker 1: went to where I fished out the bread and laid
1:17:24
Speaker 1: down behind a log on the bank, in a little
1:17:26
Speaker 1: open place where the log forked, I could peep through.
1:17:31
Speaker 1: By and by she come along, and she drifted in
1:17:33
Speaker 1: so close that they could a run out a plank
1:17:36
Speaker 1: an walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat, pap
1:17:40
Speaker 1: an Judge Thatcher, and Bessy Thatcher, and Joe Harper, and
1:17:44
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer and his old aunt Polly An sittin merry
1:17:47
Speaker 1: an plenty more. Everybody was talkin about the murder. But
1:17:51
Speaker 1: the captain broke in and says, look sharp now the
1:17:54
Speaker 1: current sets in the closest here an maybe he's washed ashore,
1:17:57
Speaker 1: an got tangled amongst the brush at the water ud,
1:18:00
Speaker 1: I hope so anyway, I didn't hope. So they all
1:18:05
Speaker 1: crowded up an leaned over the rails nearly in my face,
1:18:08
Speaker 1: and kept still watching with all their might. I could
1:18:11
Speaker 1: see them first rate, but they couldn't see me. Then
1:18:14
Speaker 1: the captain sung out stand away, and the cannon let
1:18:18
Speaker 1: off such a blast right before me that it made
1:18:21
Speaker 1: me deaf with a noise and pretty near blind with
1:18:23
Speaker 1: the smoke. And I'd judged I was gone. If they'd
1:18:27
Speaker 1: ha had some bullets in, I reckoned they'd a got
1:18:29
Speaker 1: the corpse they was after. Well, I see I warn't hurt,
1:18:32
Speaker 1: Thanks to goodness. The boat floated on and went out
1:18:35
Speaker 1: of sight around the shoulder of the island. I could
1:18:38
Speaker 1: hear the booming now, an then further and further off,
1:18:41
Speaker 1: and by and by. After an hour, I didn't hear
1:18:44
Speaker 1: it no more. The island was three mile long. I
1:18:48
Speaker 1: judged they had got to the foot and was givin
1:18:50
Speaker 1: it up, but they didn't yet. Awhile they turned around
1:18:54
Speaker 1: the foot of the island and started up the channel,
1:18:56
Speaker 1: on the Missouri side under steam an boomin wonce in
1:19:00
Speaker 1: a while. As they went I crossed over to that
1:19:03
Speaker 1: side and watched them. When they got abreast the head
1:19:05
Speaker 1: of the island, they quit shootin An dropped over to
1:19:08
Speaker 1: the Missouri shore and went home to the town. I
1:19:11
Speaker 1: knowed I was all right now, nobody else will come
1:19:14
Speaker 1: a huntin after me. I got my traps out of
1:19:17
Speaker 1: the canoe. AN made me a nice camp in the
1:19:19
Speaker 1: thick woods. I made a kind of tent out o
1:19:22
Speaker 1: my blankets to put my things under so the rain
1:19:24
Speaker 1: couldn't get at them. I catched a catfish, an haggled
1:19:27
Speaker 1: him open with my saw, and towards sundown, I started
1:19:30
Speaker 1: my camp fire and had supper. Then I set out
1:19:33
Speaker 1: a line to catch some fish for breakfast. When it
1:19:36
Speaker 1: was dark, I set by my camp fire smokin' an
1:19:39
Speaker 1: feelin pretty well satisfied. But by and by he got
1:19:42
Speaker 1: sort o lonesome. An So I went An set on
1:19:45
Speaker 1: the bank and listened to the currents swashin along, An
1:19:48
Speaker 1: counted the stars, an drift logs, an rafts that come down.
1:19:51
Speaker 1: An then went to bed. There ain't no better way
1:19:54
Speaker 1: to put in time when you were lonesome. You can't
1:19:57
Speaker 1: stay so you soon get over it. And so for
1:20:00
Speaker 1: three days and nights, no difference, just the same thing.
1:20:04
Speaker 1: But the next day I went explorin around down through
1:20:07
Speaker 1: the island. I was boss of it. It all belonged
1:20:10
Speaker 1: to me, so to say, and I wanted to know
1:20:13
Speaker 1: all about it, but mainly I wanted to put in
1:20:15
Speaker 1: the time. I found plenty of strawberries, ripe and prime,
1:20:20
Speaker 1: and green summer grapes and green raspberries, and the green
1:20:23
Speaker 1: blackberries was just beginning to show. They would all come
1:20:27
Speaker 1: handy by and by I judged well. I went foolin
1:20:30
Speaker 1: along in the deep woods till I judged I warn't
1:20:33
Speaker 1: far from the foot of the island. I had my
1:20:35
Speaker 1: gun along, but I hadn't shot nothin'. It was for protection.
1:20:39
Speaker 1: Thought I would kill some game nigh home. About this
1:20:43
Speaker 1: time I mighty near stepped on a good sized snake.
1:20:45
Speaker 1: An it went sliding off through the grass and flowers,
1:20:48
Speaker 1: and I after it, trying to get a shot at it.
1:20:51
Speaker 1: I clipped along an all of a sudden I bounded
1:20:54
Speaker 1: right on to the ashes of a camp fire that
1:20:56
Speaker 1: was still smokin'. My heart jumped up amongst my lungs.
1:21:00
Speaker 1: I never waited for her to look further, but uncocked
1:21:03
Speaker 1: my gun and went sneakin back on my tiptoes as
1:21:05
Speaker 1: fast as ever I could. Every now and then I
1:21:08
Speaker 1: stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened. But
1:21:11
Speaker 1: my breath comes so hard I couldn't hear nothing else.
1:21:14
Speaker 1: I slunk along another piece further, then listened again, and
1:21:18
Speaker 1: so on and so on. If I see a stump,
1:21:21
Speaker 1: I took it for a man. If I tried on
1:21:24
Speaker 1: a stick and broke, it made me feel like a
1:21:26
Speaker 1: person had cut one of my breaths in two, and
1:21:28
Speaker 1: I only got half, and the short half too. When
1:21:32
Speaker 1: I got to camp, I warn't feeling very brash. There
1:21:35
Speaker 1: warn't much sand in my craw, But I says, this
1:21:38
Speaker 1: ain't no time to be foolin around. So I got
1:21:40
Speaker 1: all my traps into my canoe again so as to
1:21:43
Speaker 1: have them out of sight. And I put out the
1:21:45
Speaker 1: fire and scattered the ashes around to look like an
1:21:48
Speaker 1: old last year's camp, and then clumb a tree I reckon.
1:21:52
Speaker 1: I was up in the tree two hours, but I
1:21:54
Speaker 1: didn't see nothing. I didn't hear nothing. I only thought
1:21:57
Speaker 1: I heard an seen as much as a thousand things. Well,
1:22:01
Speaker 1: I couldn't stay up there forever, so at last I
1:22:03
Speaker 1: got down. But I kept in the thick woods and
1:22:06
Speaker 1: on the lookout all the time. All I could get
1:22:09
Speaker 1: to eat was berries and what was left over from breakfast.
1:22:12
Speaker 1: By the time it was night, I was pretty hungry.
1:22:15
Speaker 1: So when it was good and dark, I slid up
1:22:17
Speaker 1: from shore before moonrise and paddled over to the Illinois
1:22:21
Speaker 1: bank about a quarter of a mile. I went out
1:22:24
Speaker 1: in the woods and cooked a supper, and I had
1:22:26
Speaker 1: about made up my mind I would stay there all night.
1:22:28
Speaker 1: When I hear it plunketty plunk, plunketty plunk, and says
1:22:32
Speaker 1: to myself, horses coming, and next I hear people's voices.
1:22:36
Speaker 1: I got everything into the canoe as quick as I could,
1:22:39
Speaker 1: and then went creeping through the woods to see what
1:22:40
Speaker 1: I could find out. I hadn't got far when I
1:22:43
Speaker 1: hear a man say, we better camp here if we
1:22:46
Speaker 1: can find a good place. The horses about beat out,
1:22:49
Speaker 1: let's look around. I didn't wait, but shoved out and
1:22:52
Speaker 1: paddled away easy. I tied up in the old place
1:22:55
Speaker 1: and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. I didn't
1:22:58
Speaker 1: sleep much I couldn't somehow for thinkin', and every time
1:23:02
Speaker 1: I waked up, I thought somebody had me by the neck.
1:23:05
Speaker 1: So the sleep didn't do me no good. By and by,
1:23:09
Speaker 1: I says to myself, I can't live this way. I'm
1:23:12
Speaker 1: a goin to find out who it is that's here
1:23:14
Speaker 1: on the island with me. I'll find it out or bust. Well,
1:23:18
Speaker 1: I felt better right off, so I took my paddle
1:23:21
Speaker 1: an slid out from shore just a step or two
1:23:24
Speaker 1: an then let the canoe drop along down amongst the shadows.
1:23:28
Speaker 1: The moon was shinin and outside of the shadows, it
1:23:31
Speaker 1: made it most as light as day. I poked along
1:23:34
Speaker 1: well on to an hour, everything still as rocks and
1:23:37
Speaker 1: sound asleep. Well, by this time I was most down
1:23:40
Speaker 1: to the foot of the island. A little ripply cool
1:23:43
Speaker 1: breeze begun to blow, and that was as good as sayin'.
1:23:46
Speaker 1: The night was about done. I gave a return with
1:23:49
Speaker 1: a paddle and brung her nose to shore, and I
1:23:52
Speaker 1: got my gun and slipped out an into the edge
1:23:54
Speaker 1: of the woods. I sat down there on a log
1:23:57
Speaker 1: and looked out through the leaves. I see the moon
1:24:00
Speaker 1: and go off watch and the darkness begin to blanket
1:24:02
Speaker 1: the river. But in a little while I see a
1:24:05
Speaker 1: pale streak over the tree tops. An knowed the day
1:24:08
Speaker 1: was comin. So I took my gun an slipped off
1:24:11
Speaker 1: towards where I had run across that camp fire, stoppin
1:24:14
Speaker 1: every minute or two to listen. But I hadn't no luck.
1:24:17
Speaker 1: Somehow I couldn't seem to find the place. But by
1:24:20
Speaker 1: an by, sure enough I catched a glimpse of fire
1:24:22
Speaker 1: away through the trees. I went for it cautious, an
1:24:26
Speaker 1: slow by, and by I was close enough to have
1:24:29
Speaker 1: a look. An there laid a man on the ground.
1:24:32
Speaker 1: It must give me the fantits. He had a blanket
1:24:35
Speaker 1: round his head, and his hand was nearly in the fire.
1:24:38
Speaker 1: I sat there behind a clump of bushes and about
1:24:40
Speaker 1: six foot o him. An kept my eyes on him steady.
1:24:44
Speaker 1: It was gettin gray daylight. Now pretty soon he gasped
1:24:48
Speaker 1: and stretched himself an hove off the blanket. An it
1:24:51
Speaker 1: was miss Watson's jim. I bet I was glad to
1:24:54
Speaker 1: see him, I says, hullo Jim An skipped out. He
1:24:59
Speaker 1: bounced out up and stared at me wild. Then he
1:25:02
Speaker 1: drops down on his knees An puts his hand together
1:25:04
Speaker 1: and says, don't hurt me, don't. I ain't never done
1:25:07
Speaker 1: no harm, do o gos? I always like dead people.
1:25:10
Speaker 1: An done all I could for. 'm you go an
1:25:13
Speaker 1: gettin the river again? What you belongs an? Don't do
1:25:16
Speaker 1: nothin to old Jim, I was always your friend. Well,
1:25:20
Speaker 1: I warn't long makin him understand I warn't dead. I
1:25:23
Speaker 1: was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn't lonesome.
1:25:26
Speaker 1: Now I told him I warn't afraid of him. Tellin
1:25:28
Speaker 1: the people where I was. I talked along, But he
1:25:31
Speaker 1: only sat there an looked at me, never said nothin.
1:25:34
Speaker 1: Then I says, it's good daylight, Let's get breakfast, make
1:25:38
Speaker 1: up your camp fire? Good? What's to use in makin
1:25:41
Speaker 1: up to camp fire? To cook? Strawberries on sitch truck?
1:25:45
Speaker 1: You got a gun, hain't you? Then we can get
1:25:47
Speaker 1: somethin better than strawberries. Strawberries an such truck, I says,
1:25:52
Speaker 1: is that what you live on? I couldn't git nothin else?
1:25:56
Speaker 1: He says, why how long you've been on the island, Jim?
1:26:00
Speaker 1: I come here to night after you's killed? What all
1:26:03
Speaker 1: that time? Yes, indeedy an, you hain't had nothin but
1:26:07
Speaker 1: that kind o rubbish to eat, no sighnfin else, Well,
1:26:11
Speaker 1: you must be most starved, ain't yer? I reckon I
1:26:14
Speaker 1: could eat a hoss? I think I could. How long
1:26:17
Speaker 1: you been on to island since the night I got killed? No?
1:26:22
Speaker 1: Why what has you lived on? But you got a gun? Oh, yes,
1:26:26
Speaker 1: you got a gun. Dat's good. Now you kill suthin an,
1:26:29
Speaker 1: I'll make up to fire. So we went over to
1:26:32
Speaker 1: where the canoe was. An while he built a fire
1:26:35
Speaker 1: in a grassy open place amongst the trees, I fetched meal,
1:26:38
Speaker 1: an bacon and coffee, an coffee pot, an fryin pan,
1:26:41
Speaker 1: an sugar, and tin cups. An. The nigger was set
1:26:43
Speaker 1: back considerable because he reckoned. It was all done with witchcraft.
1:26:48
Speaker 1: I catched a good big catfish too. An Jim cleaned
1:26:51
Speaker 1: him with his knife and fried him. When breakfast was ready,
1:26:54
Speaker 1: we lolled on the grass an eat it smokin' hot.
1:26:57
Speaker 1: Jim laid it in with all his might, for he
1:26:59
Speaker 1: was most about starved. Then, when he had got pretty
1:27:02
Speaker 1: well stuffed, we laid off n lazied by and by.
1:27:05
Speaker 1: Jim says, look ye here Huck who was a dad
1:27:09
Speaker 1: as killed in that shindy if it weren't you. Then
1:27:12
Speaker 1: I told him the whole thing and he said it
1:27:14
Speaker 1: was smart. He said Tom Sawyer couldn't get up no
1:27:17
Speaker 1: better plan than what I had. Then I says, how
1:27:20
Speaker 1: do you come to be here? Jim? And how'd you
1:27:22
Speaker 1: get here? He looked pretty uneasy and didn't say nothing
1:27:26
Speaker 1: for a minute. Then he says, maybe I'd better not
1:27:29
Speaker 1: tell why? Jim? Well, these reasons, but you wouldn't tell
1:27:35
Speaker 1: on me. If I was to tell you, would you
1:27:37
Speaker 1: Huck blamed? If I would? Jim? Well, I believe you, Huck.
1:27:42
Speaker 1: I I've run off Jim. But mind you said you
1:27:47
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell, you'd know. You said you wouldn't tell, Huck, Well,
1:27:50
Speaker 1: I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it,
1:27:53
Speaker 1: honest injun I will. People will call me a low
1:27:56
Speaker 1: down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum, But that
1:27:59
Speaker 1: don't mean no difference. I ain't a goin to tell
1:28:02
Speaker 1: an I ain't a goin back there anyways. So now
1:28:04
Speaker 1: let's know all about it? Well, ye see it was
1:28:08
Speaker 1: this way, ol missus, that's miss Watson. She pecks on
1:28:12
Speaker 1: me all the time, An treats me pooty rough an.
1:28:15
Speaker 1: She always says she wouldn't sell me down to or Orleans.
1:28:18
Speaker 1: But I noticed there was a nigger trade around the
1:28:20
Speaker 1: place considerable lately, and I begin to get uneasy. Well,
1:28:24
Speaker 1: one night I creeped to the door, putty late and
1:28:27
Speaker 1: don't want quite shut an. I hear old Missus tell
1:28:30
Speaker 1: the wider she'd goin to sell me to ol' Leans.
1:28:32
Speaker 1: But she didn't want to. But she could get eight
1:28:34
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for me. An, it's such a big stack
1:28:37
Speaker 1: o money. She couldn't resist the widder. She tried to
1:28:40
Speaker 1: get her to say she wouldn't do it, But I
1:28:42
Speaker 1: never waited to hear the rest. I lit out mighty quick,
1:28:45
Speaker 1: I tell you, I tuck out an shin down the hill.
1:28:49
Speaker 1: A'spect to steal a skift long to show somewheers above
1:28:52
Speaker 1: the town. But they was people astirring yet, so I
1:28:55
Speaker 1: hid in the old tumble down copper shop on the
1:28:57
Speaker 1: bank to wait for everybody to go away. Well, I
1:29:00
Speaker 1: was there all night. There was somebody round all the time.
1:29:04
Speaker 1: Long bout six in the mornin' skiff's begun to go by.
1:29:07
Speaker 1: An' bout eight or nine, every skiffa went long, was
1:29:10
Speaker 1: talkin'bout how yo pap come over to town and says,
1:29:12
Speaker 1: you's killed. These last skiffs was full of ladies and
1:29:16
Speaker 1: gentlemen a goin' over for to see the place. Sometimes
1:29:19
Speaker 1: they'd pull up at the shore an take a rest
1:29:21
Speaker 1: before they started across, so by to talk. I got
1:29:24
Speaker 1: ya know all about to killin'. I was powerful, sorry
1:29:28
Speaker 1: you was killed, huck, but I ain't no moan now.
1:29:31
Speaker 1: I laid there under the shaven's all day. I was hungry,
1:29:35
Speaker 1: but I warn't a feared, because I knowed ol missus
1:29:37
Speaker 1: and the winter was goin to start to the camp
1:29:39
Speaker 1: meetin' right after breakfast, an be goin' all day. An
1:29:42
Speaker 1: they knows I goes off with the gattle about daylight,
1:29:45
Speaker 1: so they wouldn't bet to see me round the place,
1:29:47
Speaker 1: an so they wouldn't miss me till after dark in
1:29:49
Speaker 1: the evenin' d'e other servants wouldn't miss me, cause dy'd
1:29:53
Speaker 1: shin out an take holiday soon as de ol folks
1:29:55
Speaker 1: is out an the way. Well, when it come dark,
1:29:58
Speaker 1: I took out up the river Roa and went about
1:30:00
Speaker 1: two miles or more to get where they warn't no houses.
1:30:03
Speaker 1: I'd made up my mind bout what I's awan to do.
1:30:06
Speaker 1: Ye see, if I kept on tryin to get away afoot,
1:30:09
Speaker 1: the dogs d track me. If I stole a skiff
1:30:12
Speaker 1: to cross over, they'd miss that skift, ye see, An
1:30:15
Speaker 1: they'd know about where I land on the other side,
1:30:18
Speaker 1: an where pick up my track? So I says, er
1:30:21
Speaker 1: raff is what I after. It don't make no track.
1:30:25
Speaker 1: I see a light o comin' round to point by
1:30:27
Speaker 1: and by, so I wade in an shove a log ahead,
1:30:29
Speaker 1: a mean swum more'n half way across the river. An
1:30:32
Speaker 1: got in amongst the drift wood and kept my head
1:30:34
Speaker 1: down low an kinder swum against a current till the
1:30:37
Speaker 1: raft come along. Then I swum too the stern of it,
1:30:40
Speaker 1: an tuck a halt. It clattered up. An It's pretty
1:30:43
Speaker 1: dark for a little while, so I clumb up an
1:30:46
Speaker 1: lay down onto planks. The men is all way yonder
1:30:49
Speaker 1: in the middle where the lantern was, the river was
1:30:52
Speaker 1: arisin' an they was a good current. So I reckoned
1:30:55
Speaker 1: that by full in the mornin' i'd be twenty five
1:30:57
Speaker 1: mile down the river. An then I'd slip in jest
1:31:00
Speaker 1: before daylight and swim ashore an take too the woods
1:31:03
Speaker 1: onto Illinois side. But I didn't have no luck. When
1:31:07
Speaker 1: we was most down to the head of the island,
1:31:09
Speaker 1: a man begin to come aft with the lantern. I
1:31:11
Speaker 1: see it warn't no use for to wait, So I
1:31:13
Speaker 1: slid overboard and struck out for the island. Well, I
1:31:17
Speaker 1: had a notion I could land most anywheres, but I
1:31:19
Speaker 1: couldn't bank two bluff. I was most to the foot
1:31:22
Speaker 1: of the island before I found some good place. I
1:31:25
Speaker 1: went into the woods an jagged. I wouldn't fool wood
1:31:28
Speaker 1: rafts no more long as they moved the lantern around.
1:31:30
Speaker 1: So I had my pipe and a plugger dog leg
1:31:34
Speaker 1: an some matches in my cap. An they warn't wet,
1:31:36
Speaker 1: so I was all right. And so you ain't had
1:31:39
Speaker 1: no meat nor bread to eat all this time? Why
1:31:42
Speaker 1: didn't you get mud trickles? How you goin to get 'em?
1:31:45
Speaker 1: You can't slip up on em an grab em? An?
1:31:47
Speaker 1: How's a body goin to hit him wi a rock?
1:31:50
Speaker 1: How could a body do it in to night? An?
1:31:52
Speaker 1: I warn't goin to show myself on to bank in daytime? Well,
1:31:56
Speaker 1: that's so you've had to keep in the woods all
1:31:58
Speaker 1: the time. O course, did ye hear him shootin the cannon? Oh? Yes,
1:32:03
Speaker 1: I know, day was our to you. I see him
1:32:05
Speaker 1: go by here, watched him through the bushes. Some young
1:32:09
Speaker 1: birds come along, flyin a yard or two at a time,
1:32:11
Speaker 1: en lightin. Jim said it was a sign it was
1:32:14
Speaker 1: goin to rain. He said it was a sign when
1:32:16
Speaker 1: young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it
1:32:18
Speaker 1: was the same way when young birds done it. I
1:32:21
Speaker 1: was goin to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn't
1:32:23
Speaker 1: let me. He said it was death. He said his
1:32:26
Speaker 1: father laid mighty sick once an some of em catched
1:32:29
Speaker 1: a bird an his old granny said his father would
1:32:31
Speaker 1: die an he did. And Jim said, you mustn't count
1:32:34
Speaker 1: the things you're goin to cook for dinner, cause that
1:32:36
Speaker 1: would bring bad luck, the same if you shook the
1:32:39
Speaker 1: tablecloth after sundown. And he said, if a man owned
1:32:42
Speaker 1: a bee hive, an that man died, the bees must
1:32:45
Speaker 1: be told about it before sun up next mornin', or
1:32:48
Speaker 1: else the bees would all weaken down an quit work
1:32:50
Speaker 1: and die. Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots. But I
1:32:53
Speaker 1: didn't believe that because I had tried them lost of
1:32:55
Speaker 1: times myself, an they wouldn't sting me. I had heard
1:32:59
Speaker 1: about some of the things before, but not all of them.
1:33:02
Speaker 1: Jim knowed all kinds of signs, he said, he knowed
1:33:05
Speaker 1: most everything. I said. It looked to me like all
1:33:08
Speaker 1: the signs was about bad luck. So I asked him
1:33:10
Speaker 1: if there warn't any good luck signs? He says, mighty few.
1:33:15
Speaker 1: An they ain't no use to a body. What you
1:33:17
Speaker 1: want to know when good luck's a comin? For? Want
1:33:19
Speaker 1: to keep it off? Andy said, if you's got hairy
1:33:23
Speaker 1: arms an a hairy breast, it's a sign that us
1:33:26
Speaker 1: agwine to be rich. Well, they's some use in a
1:33:29
Speaker 1: sign like that, cause it's so furr head you see.
1:33:32
Speaker 1: Maybe he's got to be poe a long time first,
1:33:34
Speaker 1: and so you might get discouraged an kill yerself if
1:33:37
Speaker 1: you didn't known by the sign that you gwine to
1:33:39
Speaker 1: be rich by and by have you got hairy arm
1:33:42
Speaker 1: and a hairy breast? Jim, what's do you use to
1:33:45
Speaker 1: aks that question? Don't you see? I has well? Are
1:33:49
Speaker 1: you rich? No? But I've been rich once? An I
1:33:52
Speaker 1: gwine to be rich again once I had fourteen dollars,
1:33:56
Speaker 1: but I tuck to speculatin' an got busted out. What
1:34:00
Speaker 1: did y speculate in, Jim? Well, first I tackled stock.
1:34:04
Speaker 1: What kind of stock? Why live stock? Cattle? You know,
1:34:08
Speaker 1: I put ten dollars in a cow, but I ain't
1:34:11
Speaker 1: goin to ask no more money in stock? The cow
1:34:14
Speaker 1: up an died on my hands. So you lost a
1:34:17
Speaker 1: ten dollars. No, I didn't lose it all. I only
1:34:20
Speaker 1: lost about nine of it. I sold a hide an
1:34:23
Speaker 1: taler for a dollar and ten cents. You had a
1:34:26
Speaker 1: dollar and ten cents left. Did you speculate any more? Yes?
1:34:31
Speaker 1: You know that one linkin nigger that belongs to old
1:34:33
Speaker 1: mister bradish. Well, he sat up a bank an say
1:34:36
Speaker 1: anybody to put in a dollar would get four dollars
1:34:38
Speaker 1: more at the end of the year. Well, all de
1:34:42
Speaker 1: niggers went in, but they didn't have much. I was
1:34:44
Speaker 1: the only one to have much, so I stuck out
1:34:47
Speaker 1: from more'n four dollars. An. I said, if I didn't
1:34:49
Speaker 1: get it, I'd start a bank myself. Well, O course,
1:34:52
Speaker 1: dat nigga want to keep me out o the business,
1:34:54
Speaker 1: because he says there warn't business enough for two banks.
1:34:57
Speaker 1: So he said I could put in my five dollars,
1:35:00
Speaker 1: an he pay me thirty five at the end o
1:35:02
Speaker 1: the year. So I done it. Then I reckon I'd
1:35:05
Speaker 1: invest the thirty five dollars right off an keep things
1:35:08
Speaker 1: a movin. They was a nigger named Bob that had
1:35:10
Speaker 1: catched a wood flat, an his marster didn't know it.
1:35:13
Speaker 1: An I bought it off in him an told him
1:35:15
Speaker 1: to take the thirty five dollars when de Ennert the
1:35:18
Speaker 1: year come. But somebody stole the wood flat that night.
1:35:21
Speaker 1: An next day, the one legged nigger said the banks
1:35:24
Speaker 1: busted so they didn't. None of us get no money.
1:35:28
Speaker 1: What did you do with the ten cents, Jim? Well,
1:35:31
Speaker 1: I was goin to spend it, but I had a dream,
1:35:34
Speaker 1: and a dream told me to give it to a
1:35:36
Speaker 1: nigger named Ballum. Ballum's ass, they called him for short.
1:35:39
Speaker 1: He's one o them chuckle heads, you know. But he's lucky,
1:35:42
Speaker 1: they say, An, I see, I warn't lucky. The dream says,
1:35:46
Speaker 1: let Ballum invest a ten cents, an he'd make a
1:35:49
Speaker 1: raise for me. Well, Ballum, he took the money. An
1:35:52
Speaker 1: when he was a church he heard a preacher say,
1:35:55
Speaker 1: tat whoever give two de pole lent to de lord
1:35:59
Speaker 1: an bound to give his money back a hundred times?
1:36:01
Speaker 1: So Ballum he took an give to ten cents to
1:36:04
Speaker 1: the pole and laid low to see what was goin
1:36:06
Speaker 1: to come of it. Well what did come of it? Jim?
1:36:10
Speaker 1: Nothing never came of it. I couldn't manage to collect
1:36:13
Speaker 1: that money, no way, an Balum, he couldn't. I ain't
1:36:17
Speaker 1: gwin to lend no more money, doubt, I see to
1:36:19
Speaker 1: security bound to get yo money back a hundred times.
1:36:22
Speaker 1: The preacher says, if I could get to ten cents back,
1:36:26
Speaker 1: I'd call it square an be gladder to chance. Well
1:36:29
Speaker 1: it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're goin to
1:36:32
Speaker 1: be rich again some time or other. Yes, An I's
1:36:35
Speaker 1: rich now. Come to look at it, I owns myself.
1:36:39
Speaker 1: An I's worth eight hundred dollars. I wished I had
1:36:42
Speaker 1: the money. I wouldn't want no more. End of chapter eight.
1:36:48
Speaker 1: Chapter nine. I wanted to go and look at a
1:36:51
Speaker 1: place right about the middle of the island that I'd
1:36:53
Speaker 1: found when I was explorin. So we started and soon
1:36:56
Speaker 1: got to it. Cause Yallen was only three miles long
1:36:59
Speaker 1: in a quarter of a mile wide. This place was
1:37:02
Speaker 1: a tolerable, long steep hill or ridge about forty foot high.
1:37:06
Speaker 1: We had a rough time getting to the top. The
1:37:09
Speaker 1: sides was so steep and the bushes so thick. We
1:37:12
Speaker 1: tramped and clumb around all over it, and by and
1:37:15
Speaker 1: by found a good big cavern in the rock most
1:37:18
Speaker 1: up to the top, on the side towards Illinois. The
1:37:21
Speaker 1: cavern was as big as two or three rooms bunched together,
1:37:24
Speaker 1: and Jim could stand up straight in it. It was
1:37:27
Speaker 1: cool in there. Jim was for putting our traps in
1:37:30
Speaker 1: there right away, but I said we didn't want to
1:37:33
Speaker 1: be climbing up and down there all the time. Jim said,
1:37:36
Speaker 1: if we had the canoe hidden a good place and
1:37:39
Speaker 1: had all the traps in the cavern, we could rush
1:37:42
Speaker 1: there if anybody was to come to the island, and
1:37:44
Speaker 1: they would never find us without dogs. An besides, he said,
1:37:48
Speaker 1: them little birds as said it was going to rain,
1:37:50
Speaker 1: and did I want the things to get wet. So
1:37:53
Speaker 1: we went back and got the canoe and paddled up
1:37:55
Speaker 1: abreast the cavern and lugged all the traps up there.
1:37:59
Speaker 1: Then we hunted up a place close by to hide
1:38:02
Speaker 1: the canoe in amongst the thick willows. We took some
1:38:06
Speaker 1: fish off of the lines and set them again, and
1:38:08
Speaker 1: begun to get ready for dinner. The door of the
1:38:11
Speaker 1: cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and
1:38:14
Speaker 1: on one side of the door the floor stuck out
1:38:16
Speaker 1: a little bit and was flat and a good place
1:38:19
Speaker 1: to build a fire on. So we built it there
1:38:21
Speaker 1: and cooked dinner. We spread the blankets inside for a carpet,
1:38:25
Speaker 1: and eat our dinner in there. We put all the
1:38:28
Speaker 1: other things handy at the back of the cavern. Pretty
1:38:31
Speaker 1: soon it darkened up and begun to thunder and lighten,
1:38:34
Speaker 1: so the birds was right about it. Directly it begun
1:38:38
Speaker 1: to rain, and it falled like all fury too, And
1:38:41
Speaker 1: I never seen the wind blow, So it was one
1:38:44
Speaker 1: of these regular summer storms. It would get so dark
1:38:47
Speaker 1: that it looked all blue black outside and lovely, and
1:38:51
Speaker 1: the rain would thrash along by so thick that the
1:38:54
Speaker 1: trees awful little ways looked dim and spider webby, and
1:38:58
Speaker 1: here would come a blast of wind that would bend
1:39:01
Speaker 1: the trees down, an turn up the pale underside of
1:39:03
Speaker 1: the leaves, and then a perfect ripper of a gust
1:39:06
Speaker 1: would follow along and set the branches to toss in
1:39:09
Speaker 1: their arms as if they was just wild. And next,
1:39:13
Speaker 1: when it was just about the bluest and blackest fist,
1:39:17
Speaker 1: it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a
1:39:19
Speaker 1: little glimpse of tree tops a plungin about away off
1:39:23
Speaker 1: yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you
1:39:26
Speaker 1: could see before, dark as sin. Again in a second,
1:39:30
Speaker 1: and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an
1:39:32
Speaker 1: awful crash, and then go rumblin', grumblin' tumblin' down the
1:39:37
Speaker 1: sky towards the under side of the world, like rollin'
1:39:40
Speaker 1: empty barrels downstairs where it's long stairs, an they bounce
1:39:44
Speaker 1: a good deal, you know, Jim, this is nice, I says,
1:39:49
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but here, pass
1:39:52
Speaker 1: me along another hunk of fish in some hot corn bread. Well,
1:39:56
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have been here if it hadn't been for Jim.
1:39:59
Speaker 1: You'd been down there in the woods without any dinner,
1:40:02
Speaker 1: and get most drownded too, that you would honey chicken's
1:40:06
Speaker 1: nose when it s gwand a rain, and so due
1:40:08
Speaker 1: to bird's child The river went on raisin and raisin
1:40:12
Speaker 1: for ten or twelve days till at last it was
1:40:14
Speaker 1: over the banks. The water was three or four feet
1:40:17
Speaker 1: deep on the island in the low places, and on
1:40:20
Speaker 1: the Illinois bottom. On that side it was a good
1:40:23
Speaker 1: many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was
1:40:27
Speaker 1: the same old distance across a half a mile, because
1:40:30
Speaker 1: the Missouri shore was just a wall of high bluffs.
1:40:34
Speaker 1: Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe.
1:40:37
Speaker 1: It was mighty cool and shady in the deep woods,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: even if the sun was blazing outside. We went winding
1:40:44
Speaker 1: in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines
1:40:47
Speaker 1: hung so thick we had to back away and go
1:40:49
Speaker 1: some other way. Well, on every old, broken down tree
1:40:53
Speaker 1: you could see rabbits and snakes and such things. And
1:40:56
Speaker 1: when the island had been overflowed a day or two,
1:40:59
Speaker 1: they got so tame on account of beIN hungry that
1:41:02
Speaker 1: you could peddle right up and put your hand on
1:41:04
Speaker 1: them if you wanted to, But not the snakes and turtles.
1:41:07
Speaker 1: They would slide off in the water. The ridge our
1:41:10
Speaker 1: cavern was in was full of em We could have
1:41:12
Speaker 1: had pets enough if we'd wanted them. One night we
1:41:16
Speaker 1: catched a little section of a lumber raft, nice pine planks.
1:41:21
Speaker 1: It was twelve foot wide an about fifteen or sixteen
1:41:24
Speaker 1: foot long, and the top stood above water six or
1:41:27
Speaker 1: seven inches a solid level floor. We could see saw
1:41:31
Speaker 1: logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let
1:41:34
Speaker 1: them go. We didn't show ourselves in daylight. Another night,
1:41:39
Speaker 1: when we was up at the head of the island,
1:41:41
Speaker 1: just before daylight, here comes a frame house down on
1:41:44
Speaker 1: the west side. She was a two story and tilted
1:41:47
Speaker 1: over considerable. We paddled out and got aboard clumb in
1:41:52
Speaker 1: at an upstairs window. But it was too dark to
1:41:55
Speaker 1: see yet, so we made the canoe fast and said
1:41:57
Speaker 1: in her to wait for daylight. The light begun to
1:42:01
Speaker 1: come before we got to the foot of the island.
1:42:03
Speaker 1: Then we looked in at the window. We can make
1:42:06
Speaker 1: out a bed and a table, and two old chairs,
1:42:08
Speaker 1: and lots of things around about on the floor, and
1:42:11
Speaker 1: there was clothes hanging against the wall. There was something
1:42:14
Speaker 1: layin on the floor in the far corner that looked
1:42:16
Speaker 1: like a man. So Jim says, hello you, but it
1:42:21
Speaker 1: didn't budge. So I hollered again, and then Jim says,
1:42:26
Speaker 1: the man ain't asleep, he's dead. You hold still, I'll
1:42:29
Speaker 1: go and see. He went and bent down and looked
1:42:33
Speaker 1: and says it's a dead man. Yes, indeedy naked too.
1:42:38
Speaker 1: He's been shot in the back. I reckon he's been
1:42:41
Speaker 1: dead two or three days. Come in, huck, but don't
1:42:44
Speaker 1: look at his face. It's too ghashly. I didn't look
1:42:49
Speaker 1: at him at all. Jim throwed some old rags over him,
1:42:52
Speaker 1: but he needn't done it. I didn't want to see him.
1:42:55
Speaker 1: There was heaps of old, greasy cards scattered around over
1:42:58
Speaker 1: the floor, an old whiskey bottom, and a couple of
1:43:00
Speaker 1: masks made out of black cloth. And all over the
1:43:04
Speaker 1: walls was the ignorantest kind o words and pictures made
1:43:07
Speaker 1: with charcoal. There was two old, dirty calico dresses and
1:43:12
Speaker 1: a sun bonnet, and some women's underclothes hanging against the wall,
1:43:16
Speaker 1: and some men's clothing too. We put the lot into
1:43:19
Speaker 1: the canoe. It might come good. There was a boy's
1:43:23
Speaker 1: old speckled straw hat on the floor. I took that too,
1:43:27
Speaker 1: And there was a bottle that had had milk in it,
1:43:29
Speaker 1: and it had a rag stopper for a baby to suck.
1:43:32
Speaker 1: We would have took the bottle, but it was broke.
1:43:35
Speaker 1: There was a seedy old chest and an old hair
1:43:38
Speaker 1: trunk with the hinges broke. They stood open, but there
1:43:41
Speaker 1: warn't nothing left in them that was any account. The
1:43:44
Speaker 1: way things were scattered about. We reckoned the people left
1:43:47
Speaker 1: in a hurry an warn't fixed, so as to carry
1:43:49
Speaker 1: off most of their stuff. We got an old tin
1:43:52
Speaker 1: lantern and a butcher knife without any handle, and a
1:43:56
Speaker 1: brand new barlow knife worth two bits in any store,
1:43:59
Speaker 1: and a line of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick,
1:44:02
Speaker 1: and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty
1:44:05
Speaker 1: old bed quilled off the bed, and a reticule with
1:44:08
Speaker 1: needles and pins and beeswax and buttons and thread and
1:44:12
Speaker 1: all such truck in it, and a hatchet and some nails,
1:44:15
Speaker 1: and a fish line as thick as my little finger
1:44:18
Speaker 1: with some monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin,
1:44:22
Speaker 1: and a leather dog collar and a horseshoe, and some
1:44:25
Speaker 1: bials of medicine that didn't have no label on them.
1:44:28
Speaker 1: And just as we was leaving, I found a tolerable
1:44:30
Speaker 1: good curry comb. An Jim he found a ratty old
1:44:33
Speaker 1: fiddle bow and a wooden leg. The straps was broke
1:44:37
Speaker 1: off of it, but barn that it was a good
1:44:40
Speaker 1: enough leg, though it was too long for me and
1:44:42
Speaker 1: not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find the
1:44:45
Speaker 1: other one. Though we hunted all around, and so take
1:44:49
Speaker 1: it all around. We made a good haul. When we
1:44:52
Speaker 1: was ready to shove off, we was a quarter of
1:44:54
Speaker 1: a mile below the island, and it was pretty broad day.
1:44:58
Speaker 1: So I made Jim lay down in the ca you
1:45:00
Speaker 1: and cover up with the quilt, because if he set up,
1:45:02
Speaker 1: people could tell he was a nigger. A good ways off,
1:45:06
Speaker 1: I paddled over to the Illinois shore and drifted down
1:45:09
Speaker 1: most a half a mile doin' it. I crept up
1:45:12
Speaker 1: the dead water under the bank and hadn't no accidents
1:45:14
Speaker 1: and didn't see nobody. We got home all safe. End
1:45:20
Speaker 1: of Chapter nine, Chapter ten. After breakfast, I wanted to
1:45:27
Speaker 1: talk about the dead man and guess out how he
1:45:30
Speaker 1: came to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He
1:45:33
Speaker 1: said it would fetch bad luck, and besides, he said
1:45:36
Speaker 1: he might come and haunt us. He said a man
1:45:39
Speaker 1: that wasn't buried was more likely to go a haunting
1:45:41
Speaker 1: around than one that was planted and comfortable. That sounded
1:45:45
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable, so I didn't say no more. But I
1:45:48
Speaker 1: couldn't keep from studyin over it an wishin' I knowed
1:45:51
Speaker 1: who shot the man, an what they'd done it for.
1:45:54
Speaker 1: We rummaged the clothes we'd got and found eight dollars
1:45:57
Speaker 1: in silver sewed up in the linin of an old
1:45:59
Speaker 1: blanket overcoat. Jim said he reckoned the people in that
1:46:02
Speaker 1: house stole the coat, because if they'd knowed the money
1:46:05
Speaker 1: was there, they wouldn't have left it. I said, I
1:46:08
Speaker 1: reckon they killed him too, But Jim didn't want to
1:46:11
Speaker 1: talk about that. I says, now, you think it's bad luck.
1:46:15
Speaker 1: But what did you say when I fetched in the
1:46:17
Speaker 1: snake skin that I found on the top of the
1:46:19
Speaker 1: ridge day before yesterday? You said it was the worst
1:46:22
Speaker 1: bad luck in the world to touch snake's skin with
1:46:24
Speaker 1: my hands. Well, here's your bad luck. We've raked in
1:46:28
Speaker 1: all this truck an eight dollars. Besides, I wish we
1:46:31
Speaker 1: could have some bad luck like this every day. Jim,
1:46:34
Speaker 1: Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don't you get
1:46:37
Speaker 1: too pert. It's a comin mind, I tell you it's
1:46:40
Speaker 1: a comin'. It did come too. It was a Tuesday
1:46:45
Speaker 1: that we had that talk. Well after dinner Friday, we
1:46:48
Speaker 1: was layin around in the grass at the upper end
1:46:51
Speaker 1: of the ridge and got out of tobacco. I went
1:46:53
Speaker 1: to the cavern to get some and found a rattlesnake
1:46:56
Speaker 1: in there. I killed him and curled him up on
1:46:58
Speaker 1: the foot of Jim's blanket. Ever so natural tink, could
1:47:01
Speaker 1: there be some fun when Jim found him there. Well
1:47:04
Speaker 1: by night I forgot all about the snake, And when
1:47:07
Speaker 1: Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck
1:47:09
Speaker 1: a light, the snake's mate was there an bit him.
1:47:13
Speaker 1: He jumped up yellin' an The first thing the light
1:47:16
Speaker 1: showed was the varmint, curled up and ready for another spring.
1:47:20
Speaker 1: I laid him out in a second with a stick.
1:47:22
Speaker 1: An Jim grabbed PAP's whisky jug and began to pour
1:47:25
Speaker 1: it down. He was barefooted, and the snake bit him
1:47:28
Speaker 1: right on the heel. That all comes am I bein'
1:47:31
Speaker 1: such a fool as to not remember that wherever you
1:47:34
Speaker 1: leave a dead snake, its mate always comes there an
1:47:36
Speaker 1: curls around it. Jim told me to chop off the
1:47:39
Speaker 1: snake's head and throw it away. An then skin the
1:47:41
Speaker 1: body an roast a piece of it. I done it,
1:47:44
Speaker 1: an he eat it, an said it would help cure him.
1:47:47
Speaker 1: He made me take off the rattles an tie them
1:47:49
Speaker 1: around his wrist too. He said that that would help.
1:47:53
Speaker 1: Then I slid out quiet an throwed the snakes clear
1:47:55
Speaker 1: away amongst the bushes, for I warn't goin to let
1:47:58
Speaker 1: Jim find out. It was all my fault, not if
1:48:00
Speaker 1: I could help it. Jim sucked and sucked at the jug,
1:48:04
Speaker 1: and now and then he got out of his head
1:48:06
Speaker 1: and pitched around and yelled. But every time he come
1:48:09
Speaker 1: to himself he went to suckin at the jug again.
1:48:12
Speaker 1: His foot swelled up pretty big, and so did his leg.
1:48:15
Speaker 1: But by and by the drunk begun to come, and
1:48:18
Speaker 1: so I judged he was all right. But I'd rather
1:48:20
Speaker 1: been bit with a snake than PAP's whiskey. Jim was
1:48:24
Speaker 1: laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling
1:48:27
Speaker 1: was all gone, an he was around again. I made
1:48:30
Speaker 1: up my mind I wouldn't ever take a hold of
1:48:32
Speaker 1: a snake skin again with my hands, now that I
1:48:35
Speaker 1: see what had come of it. Jim said he reckoned,
1:48:38
Speaker 1: I would believe him next time. And he said that
1:48:41
Speaker 1: handlin a snake skin was such awful bad luck that
1:48:44
Speaker 1: maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet.
1:48:46
Speaker 1: He said he'd rather see the new moon over his
1:48:48
Speaker 1: left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take
1:48:51
Speaker 1: up a snake skin in his hand. Well, I was
1:48:55
Speaker 1: gettin to feel that way myself, though, I've always reckoned
1:48:58
Speaker 1: that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder
1:49:00
Speaker 1: is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body
1:49:03
Speaker 1: can do. Old Hank Bunker done at once, an bragged
1:49:06
Speaker 1: about it, and in less than two years he got
1:49:09
Speaker 1: drunk and fell off of the shout tower and spread
1:49:11
Speaker 1: himself out so that he was just a kind of layer,
1:49:14
Speaker 1: as you may say. And they slid him edgeways between
1:49:17
Speaker 1: two barn doors for a coffin and buried him. So so,
1:49:20
Speaker 1: they say, But I didn't see it, Pap told me.
1:49:24
Speaker 1: But anyway, it all come of looking at the moon
1:49:26
Speaker 1: that way like a fool. Well, the days went along,
1:49:29
Speaker 1: and the river went down between its banks again, and
1:49:32
Speaker 1: about the first thing we'd done was to bait one
1:49:34
Speaker 1: of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set
1:49:37
Speaker 1: it and catch a catfish that was as big as
1:49:39
Speaker 1: a man beIN six foot two inches long and weighed
1:49:43
Speaker 1: over two hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course,
1:49:46
Speaker 1: he would have flung us into Illinois. We just sat
1:49:49
Speaker 1: there and watched him rip and tear around till he drowned.
1:49:53
Speaker 1: We found a brass button in his stomach, and a
1:49:56
Speaker 1: round ball an lots of rubbage. We split the ball
1:49:59
Speaker 1: open with hatchet, and there was a spool in it.
1:50:03
Speaker 1: Jim said he'd had it there a long time to
1:50:05
Speaker 1: coat it over so and make a ball of it.
1:50:07
Speaker 1: It was as big a fish as was ever catched
1:50:09
Speaker 1: in the Mississippi. I reckon. Jim said he hadn't ever
1:50:13
Speaker 1: seen a bigger one. He would have been worth a
1:50:15
Speaker 1: good deal over at the village. They peddle out such
1:50:18
Speaker 1: a fish as that by the pound in the market
1:50:20
Speaker 1: house there. Everybody buys some of em. His meats as
1:50:24
Speaker 1: white as snow, and makes a good fry. Next mornin',
1:50:28
Speaker 1: I said it was gettin slow and dull, and I
1:50:29
Speaker 1: wanted to get a stirring up some way, I said,
1:50:32
Speaker 1: I reckoned. I would slip over the river and find
1:50:34
Speaker 1: out what was goin on. Jim liked that notion, but
1:50:38
Speaker 1: he said I must go in the dark and look sharp.
1:50:41
Speaker 1: Then he studied it over and said, couldn't I put
1:50:43
Speaker 1: on some of them old things and dress up like
1:50:45
Speaker 1: a girl. That was a good notion too, So we
1:50:48
Speaker 1: shortened up one of the calico gowns, and I turned
1:50:51
Speaker 1: up my trouser legs to my knees and got into it.
1:50:54
Speaker 1: Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was
1:50:56
Speaker 1: a fair fit. I put on the sunbonnet and tied
1:50:59
Speaker 1: it under my an. Then for a body to look
1:51:02
Speaker 1: in and see my face was like lookin down a
1:51:04
Speaker 1: joint of stove pipe. Jim said, nobody would know me
1:51:08
Speaker 1: even in the daytime, hardly. I practiced around all day
1:51:12
Speaker 1: to get the hang of the things. An by and
1:51:14
Speaker 1: by I could do pretty well in them. Only Jim
1:51:16
Speaker 1: said I didn't walk like a girl, and he said
1:51:18
Speaker 1: I must quit pullin up my gown to get at
1:51:20
Speaker 1: my breeches pocket. I took notice a done better. I
1:51:24
Speaker 1: started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.
1:51:28
Speaker 1: I started across to the town from a little below
1:51:30
Speaker 1: the ferry landin' and the drift of the current fetched
1:51:33
Speaker 1: me in at the bottom of the town. I tied
1:51:36
Speaker 1: up an started along the bank. There was a light
1:51:39
Speaker 1: burnin in a little shanty that hadn't been lived in
1:51:41
Speaker 1: for a long time, and I wondered who had took
1:51:43
Speaker 1: up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in at
1:51:46
Speaker 1: the window. There was a woman about forty year old
1:51:49
Speaker 1: in there, knitting by a candle that was on a
1:51:51
Speaker 1: pine table. I didn't know her face. She was a stranger,
1:51:55
Speaker 1: for you couldn't start a face in that town that
1:51:57
Speaker 1: I didn't know. Now this was lucky, because I was weakenin.
1:52:02
Speaker 1: I was gettin afraid I had come. People might know
1:52:04
Speaker 1: my voice an find me out. But if this woman
1:52:07
Speaker 1: had been in such a little town two days, she
1:52:09
Speaker 1: could tell me all I wanted to know. So I
1:52:12
Speaker 1: knocked at the door and made up my mind I
1:52:14
Speaker 1: wouldn't forget I was a girl. End of chapter ten,
1:52:20
Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. Come in, says the woman. An I did,
1:52:26
Speaker 1: She says, take a cheer, I done it. She looked
1:52:30
Speaker 1: me all over with her little shiny eyes and says,
1:52:33
Speaker 1: what might yer name be, Sarah Williams? Whereabouts do you
1:52:37
Speaker 1: live in this neighborhood? Nom in Hookerville, seven mile below.
1:52:42
Speaker 1: I've walked all the way, an I'm all tired out,
1:52:45
Speaker 1: hungry too, I reckon, I'll find ye somethin'. Nom I
1:52:50
Speaker 1: ain't hungry. I was so hungry I had to stop
1:52:52
Speaker 1: two miles below here at a farm. So I ain't
1:52:54
Speaker 1: hungry no more. It's what makes me so late. My
1:52:58
Speaker 1: mother's down sick, an id o money and everything. An
1:53:01
Speaker 1: I've come to tell my uncle Abner Moore. He lives
1:53:03
Speaker 1: at the upper end of the town. She says, I
1:53:06
Speaker 1: hain't ever been here before. Do you know him? No,
1:53:10
Speaker 1: but I don't know everybody yet. I haven't lived here
1:53:13
Speaker 1: quite two weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper
1:53:16
Speaker 1: end of the town. You'd better stay here all night.
1:53:19
Speaker 1: Take off your bonnet, no, I says, ill rest awhile
1:53:23
Speaker 1: I reckon an go on. I ain't a fear to
1:53:25
Speaker 1: the dark. She said. She wouldn't let me go by myself,
1:53:29
Speaker 1: but her husband would be in by an by maybe
1:53:32
Speaker 1: in an hour and a half. An she'd send him
1:53:34
Speaker 1: along with me. Then she got to talkin about her husband,
1:53:37
Speaker 1: an about her relations up the river and her relations
1:53:40
Speaker 1: down the river, an about how much better off they
1:53:43
Speaker 1: used to was an how they didn't know, but they'd
1:53:45
Speaker 1: made a mistake comin to our town instead of letting
1:53:48
Speaker 1: Well alone, And so on and so on till I
1:53:51
Speaker 1: was afeared I had made a mistake comin to her
1:53:54
Speaker 1: to find out what was going on in the town.
1:53:56
Speaker 1: But by and by she dropped on to Pap and
1:53:58
Speaker 1: the murder, and I was pretty willin' let her clatter
1:54:01
Speaker 1: ride along. She told about me and Tom Sawyer finding
1:54:05
Speaker 1: the six thousand dollars, only she got it ten and
1:54:09
Speaker 1: all about Pap and what a hard lot he was
1:54:11
Speaker 1: and what a hard lot I was. And at last
1:54:13
Speaker 1: she got down to where I was murdered. I says,
1:54:17
Speaker 1: who done it? We've heard considerable about these goin's on
1:54:21
Speaker 1: down in Hookerville, but we don't know who twas that
1:54:23
Speaker 1: killed Huck Finn. Well, I reckon, there's a right smart
1:54:27
Speaker 1: chance of people here that I'd like to know who
1:54:29
Speaker 1: killed him. Some think old Finn done it himself. No
1:54:34
Speaker 1: is that so? Most everybody thought it At first, he'll
1:54:38
Speaker 1: never know how nigh he came to Gettin lynched. But
1:54:41
Speaker 1: before night they changed around and judged it was done
1:54:44
Speaker 1: by a runaway nigger named Jim. Why he I stopped,
1:54:49
Speaker 1: I reckoned, I better keep still. She run on, an
1:54:52
Speaker 1: never noticed I had put in at all. The nigger
1:54:55
Speaker 1: run off the very night Huck Finn was killed. So
1:54:57
Speaker 1: there's a reward out for him three hundred dollars. An
1:55:00
Speaker 1: there's a reward out for Old Finn too, two hundred dollars.
1:55:04
Speaker 1: Ye see, he came to town the mornin' after the
1:55:06
Speaker 1: murder and told about it, and was out with him
1:55:09
Speaker 1: on the ferry boat hunt. And right away after he
1:55:11
Speaker 1: up an left before night. They wanted to lynch him,
1:55:14
Speaker 1: but he was gone, you see. Well, next day they
1:55:17
Speaker 1: found out the nigger was gone. They found out he
1:55:20
Speaker 1: hadn't been seen since ten o'clock the night the murder
1:55:22
Speaker 1: was done. So then they put it on him, you see.
1:55:25
Speaker 1: An while they was full of it. Next day back
1:55:28
Speaker 1: comes Old Finn and went Boom, who went to Judge
1:55:30
Speaker 1: Thatcher to get money to hunt for the nigger all
1:55:32
Speaker 1: over Illinois with the judge gave him some an that
1:55:35
Speaker 1: evenin' he got drunk and was around till after midnight
1:55:38
Speaker 1: with a couple of mighty hard looking strangers and then
1:55:41
Speaker 1: went off with them. Well he hain't come back since
1:55:44
Speaker 1: an they ain't lookin for him back till this thing
1:55:46
Speaker 1: blows over a little for people thinks now that he
1:55:49
Speaker 1: killed his boy and fixed things, so folks would think
1:55:51
Speaker 1: robbers done it. An then he'd get Huck's money without
1:55:54
Speaker 1: havin to bother a long time with a lawsuit. People
1:55:57
Speaker 1: do say he warn't any too good to do it.
1:56:00
Speaker 1: Oh he's sly. I reckon. If he don't come back
1:56:03
Speaker 1: for a year, he'll be all right. He can't prove
1:56:05
Speaker 1: anything on him. You know, everything will be quieted down
1:56:08
Speaker 1: then an he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothin'. Yes,
1:56:13
Speaker 1: I reckon, so, ma'am, I don't see nothin in the
1:56:15
Speaker 1: way of it. Has everybody quit thinkin' the nigger done it? Oh? No,
1:56:20
Speaker 1: not everybody. A good many thinks he done it. But
1:56:23
Speaker 1: they'll get the nigger pretty soon now An maybe they
1:56:26
Speaker 1: can scare it out o him. Why are they after
1:56:29
Speaker 1: him yet? Well, you're innocent, ain't you. Jus three hundred
1:56:33
Speaker 1: dollars lay around every day for people to pick up.
1:56:36
Speaker 1: Some folks think the nigger ain't far from here. I'm
1:56:38
Speaker 1: one of em, But I hain't talked it around a
1:56:41
Speaker 1: few days ago. I was talkin with an old couple
1:56:43
Speaker 1: that lives next door in the log shanty. An they
1:56:46
Speaker 1: happened to say, hardly anybody ever goes to that island
1:56:48
Speaker 1: over yonder that they call Jackson's Island. Don't anybody live there,
1:56:53
Speaker 1: says I, No, nobody, they says. I didn't say any more,
1:56:57
Speaker 1: but I done some thinkin I was pretty near, and
1:57:00
Speaker 1: i'd seen smoke over there about the head of the
1:57:02
Speaker 1: island a day or two before that. So I says
1:57:05
Speaker 1: to myself, like, as not that nigger's hidin' over there anyway,
1:57:09
Speaker 1: says I, it's worth the trouble to give the place
1:57:11
Speaker 1: a hunt. I ain't seen any smoke, sense, so I reckon,
1:57:14
Speaker 1: maybe he's gone if it was him, But my husband's
1:57:17
Speaker 1: going over to see him and another man he was
1:57:20
Speaker 1: gone up the river, but he got back today, and
1:57:22
Speaker 1: I told him as soon as he got here two
1:57:24
Speaker 1: hours ago. I had got so uneasy I couldn't set still.
1:57:29
Speaker 1: I had to do something with my hands, so I
1:57:31
Speaker 1: took up a needle off of the table and went
1:57:33
Speaker 1: to threadn it. My hands shook an I was makin
1:57:36
Speaker 1: a bad job of it. When the woman stopped talking.
1:57:39
Speaker 1: I looked up and she was looking at me pretty
1:57:41
Speaker 1: curious and smiling a little. I put down the needle
1:57:45
Speaker 1: and thread and led on to be interested. And I
1:57:48
Speaker 1: was too, and says, three hundred dollars is a power
1:57:52
Speaker 1: o money I wish my mother could get it. Is
1:57:55
Speaker 1: your husband going over there tonight? Oh? Yes, he went
1:57:59
Speaker 1: up town with a man. I was telling you of
1:58:01
Speaker 1: to get a boat and see if they could borrow
1:58:02
Speaker 1: another gun. They'll go over after midnight. Couldn't they see
1:58:07
Speaker 1: better if they was to wait till daytime? Yes? And
1:58:10
Speaker 1: couldn't the nigger see better too? After midnight he'll likely
1:58:13
Speaker 1: be asleep and they can slip around the woods and
1:58:16
Speaker 1: hunt up his camp fire. All the better for the
1:58:18
Speaker 1: dark if he's got one. I didn't think of that.
1:58:22
Speaker 1: The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I
1:58:25
Speaker 1: didn't feel a bit comfortable. Pretty Soon she says, what
1:58:29
Speaker 1: did you say? Your name was, honey, m Mary Williams.
1:58:34
Speaker 1: Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it
1:58:36
Speaker 1: was mir before, so I didn't look up. Seemed to
1:58:39
Speaker 1: me I said it was Sarah. So I felt sort
1:58:41
Speaker 1: of concerned, and it was afeared. Maybe I was looking
1:58:44
Speaker 1: at too. I wish the woman would say something more.
1:58:47
Speaker 1: The longer she sat still, the uneasier I was. But
1:58:50
Speaker 1: now she says, honey, I thought you said it was
1:58:53
Speaker 1: Sarah when you first came in. Oh, yes I did.
1:58:57
Speaker 1: Sarah Mary Williams. Sarah's my first name. Some calls me Sarah,
1:59:01
Speaker 1: some calls me Mary. Oh that's the way of it.
1:59:05
Speaker 1: Yes'm I was feelin better then, but I wished I
1:59:08
Speaker 1: was out o there anyway. I couldn't look up yet. Well,
1:59:13
Speaker 1: the woman fell to talking about how hard times was,
1:59:16
Speaker 1: and how poor they had to live, and how the
1:59:17
Speaker 1: rats was as free as if they owned the place,
1:59:20
Speaker 1: and so forth and so on. An then I got
1:59:22
Speaker 1: easy again. She was right about the rats you'd see
1:59:26
Speaker 1: when stick his nose out of a hole in the
1:59:27
Speaker 1: corner every little while. She said she hadn't had things
1:59:31
Speaker 1: hand you'd throw at them when she was alone, but
1:59:33
Speaker 1: they wouldn't give her no peace. She showed me a
1:59:36
Speaker 1: bar lead twisted up into a knot, and said she
1:59:39
Speaker 1: was a good shot with it generally, But she'd wrenched
1:59:41
Speaker 1: her arm a day or two ago and didn't know
1:59:43
Speaker 1: whether she could throw true now. But she watched for
1:59:46
Speaker 1: a chance, and directly banged away at a rat, but
1:59:49
Speaker 1: she missed him wide and said ouch, it hurt her arm.
1:59:53
Speaker 1: So then she told me to try for the next one.
1:59:56
Speaker 1: I wanted to be gettin away before the old man
1:59:58
Speaker 1: got back, but a course I didn't let on. I
2:00:02
Speaker 1: got the thing, and the first rat that showed his
2:00:04
Speaker 1: nose I let drive an if he'd a stayed where
2:00:07
Speaker 1: he was, he'd have been a tolerable sick rat. She
2:00:10
Speaker 1: said that was first straight, and she reckoned I would
2:00:12
Speaker 1: hie the next one. She went and got the lump
2:00:15
Speaker 1: o lead and fetched it back and brought along a
2:00:17
Speaker 1: hank o yarn, which she wanted me to help her with.
2:00:20
Speaker 1: I held up my two hands and she put the
2:00:22
Speaker 1: hank over them and went on talking about her and
2:00:25
Speaker 1: her husband's matters. But she broke off to say, keep
2:00:29
Speaker 1: your eye on the rats. You'd better have the lead
2:00:31
Speaker 1: in your lap, handy. So she dropped the lump into
2:00:34
Speaker 1: my lap just at that moment, and I clapped my
2:00:36
Speaker 1: legs together on it, and she went on talkin but
2:00:40
Speaker 1: only about a minute. Then she took off the hank
2:00:43
Speaker 1: and looked at me straight in the face and very
2:00:45
Speaker 1: pleasant and says, come, now, what's your real name? Wha
2:00:50
Speaker 1: what mum, what's your real name? Is it Bill or
2:00:54
Speaker 1: Tom or Bob or what is it? I reckon, I
2:00:57
Speaker 1: shook like a leaf, and I didn't know harm what
2:01:00
Speaker 1: to do. But I says, please don't poke fun at
2:01:03
Speaker 1: a poor girl like me. Mum. If I'm in the
2:01:06
Speaker 1: way here, I'll no, you won't sit down, an stay
2:01:09
Speaker 1: where you are. I ain't goin to hurt you. An,
2:01:11
Speaker 1: I ain't goin to tell on you nuther. You just
2:01:13
Speaker 1: tell me your secret, an trust me, I'll keep it.
2:01:16
Speaker 1: An what's more, I'll help you, so h my old
2:01:19
Speaker 1: man if you want him to. You see, there's a
2:01:22
Speaker 1: runaway prentice, that's all. It ain't nothin. There ain't no
2:01:25
Speaker 1: harm in it. You've been treated bad, an you made
2:01:28
Speaker 1: up your mind to cut bless you child. I wouldn't
2:01:31
Speaker 1: tell on you. Tell me all about it now. That's
2:01:33
Speaker 1: a good boy. So I said, it wouldn't be no
2:01:37
Speaker 1: use to try to play it any longer. An I
2:01:39
Speaker 1: would jest make a clean breast an tell her everything,
2:01:41
Speaker 1: but she mustn't go back on a promise. Then I
2:01:44
Speaker 1: told her my father an mother was dead and the
2:01:47
Speaker 1: law had bound me out to a mean old farmer
2:01:49
Speaker 1: in the country, thirty mile back from the river. An
2:01:52
Speaker 1: he true to me so bad I couldn't stand it
2:01:54
Speaker 1: no longer. He went away to be gone a couple
2:01:57
Speaker 1: of days, and so I took my chance and stole
2:01:59
Speaker 1: some of his daughter's old clothes and cleared out. An.
2:02:02
Speaker 1: I had been three nights comin the thirty miles. I
2:02:05
Speaker 1: traveled nights and had daytimes and slept. And the bag
2:02:08
Speaker 1: of bread and meat I carried from home lest to
2:02:10
Speaker 1: me all the way. An I had a plenty. I said,
2:02:14
Speaker 1: I believe my uncle Abner Moore would take care O
2:02:16
Speaker 1: me an, so that was why I struck out for
2:02:18
Speaker 1: this town, O Goshen, Goshen, child, This ain't Goshen. This
2:02:22
Speaker 1: is Saint Petersburg, Gophin's, ten mile further up the river.
2:02:26
Speaker 1: Who told you this was Goshen? Why I met a
2:02:30
Speaker 1: man at daybreak this mornin', just as I was goin
2:02:32
Speaker 1: to turn into the woods for my regular sleep. He
2:02:35
Speaker 1: told me when the roads forked, I must take the
2:02:37
Speaker 1: right hand. A five mile would fetch me to Goshen.
2:02:41
Speaker 1: He was drunk, I reckon, he told you jest exactly wrong. Well,
2:02:45
Speaker 1: he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't
2:02:47
Speaker 1: no matter. Now I got to be movin along. I'll
2:02:50
Speaker 1: fetch goshen before daylight. Hold on a minute, I'll put
2:02:54
Speaker 1: you up a snack to eat. You might want it.
2:02:57
Speaker 1: So she put me up a snack and says, say,
2:03:01
Speaker 1: when a cow's layin down, which end of her gets
2:03:03
Speaker 1: up first? Answer up? Prompt Now, don't stop to study
2:03:06
Speaker 1: over it. Which end gets up first? The hind end? Mum? Well,
2:03:12
Speaker 1: then a horse the forward end? Mum? Which side of
2:03:16
Speaker 1: a tree does the moss grow on? North side? If
2:03:20
Speaker 1: fifteen cows is browsin on a hill side, how many
2:03:23
Speaker 1: that meets with their heads pointin in the same direction
2:03:26
Speaker 1: the whole fifteen? Mum? Well, I reckon, you have lived
2:03:29
Speaker 1: in the country. I thought maybe you was tryin to
2:03:32
Speaker 1: hookess me again. What's your real name now, George Peters? Mum,
2:03:38
Speaker 1: well try to remember it, George, don't forget an tell
2:03:40
Speaker 1: me it's Alexander before you go an, then get out
2:03:43
Speaker 1: by saying it's George Alexander when I catch you an.
2:03:46
Speaker 1: Don't go about women in that old kalico. You do.
2:03:49
Speaker 1: A girl tolerable, poor, but you might fool men. Maybe
2:03:53
Speaker 1: bless you child when you set out to thread a needle.
2:03:56
Speaker 1: Don't hold the thread still an fetch the needle up
2:03:58
Speaker 1: to it, hold the knee. You'll still empoke the fred
2:04:01
Speaker 1: at it. That's the way a woman most always does it,
2:04:04
Speaker 1: but a man always does it the other way. When
2:04:06
Speaker 1: you throw it a rat or anything, hitch yourself up
2:04:09
Speaker 1: a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head
2:04:11
Speaker 1: as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about
2:04:14
Speaker 1: six or seven foot. Throw a stiff armed from the
2:04:17
Speaker 1: shoulder like there was a pivot there, frid to turn
2:04:19
Speaker 1: on like a girl, not from the wrist an elbow,
2:04:22
Speaker 1: with your arm out to one side like a boy.
2:04:25
Speaker 1: And mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything
2:04:27
Speaker 1: in her lap, she throws her knees apart. She don't
2:04:29
Speaker 1: clap them together the way you did when you catch
2:04:31
Speaker 1: the lump of lead. Why I spotted you for a
2:04:34
Speaker 1: boy when you as thread the needle, and I can
2:04:36
Speaker 1: try the other things, just to make certain. Now try
2:04:39
Speaker 1: it along to your uncle, Sarah, Mary Williams, George Alexander
2:04:43
Speaker 1: Peters An. If you get into trouble, you send word
2:04:46
Speaker 1: to missus Judith Loftus, which is me, and I'll do
2:04:49
Speaker 1: what I can to get you out of it. Keep
2:04:51
Speaker 1: the river road all the way an next time you tramp,
2:04:54
Speaker 1: takes shoes and socks with you. The river road's a
2:04:56
Speaker 1: rocky one, and your feet'll be in a condition when
2:04:58
Speaker 1: you get to Goshen. I reckon. I went up the
2:05:02
Speaker 1: bank about fifty yards, and then I doubled on my
2:05:04
Speaker 1: tracks an slipped back to where my canoe was a
2:05:07
Speaker 1: good piece below the house. I jumped in and was
2:05:10
Speaker 1: off in a hurry. I went up stream far enough
2:05:13
Speaker 1: to make the head of the island, and then started across.
2:05:16
Speaker 1: I took off the sun bonnet, for I didn't want
2:05:18
Speaker 1: no blinders on. Then when I was about the middle,
2:05:21
Speaker 1: I heard the clock begin to strike, so I stops
2:05:24
Speaker 1: and listens. The sound come faint over the water, but
2:05:27
Speaker 1: clear eleven. When I struck the head of the island,
2:05:31
Speaker 1: I never waited to blow, though I was most winded,
2:05:35
Speaker 1: but I shoved right into the timber where my old
2:05:37
Speaker 1: camp used to be, and started a good fire there
2:05:39
Speaker 1: on a high and dry spot. Then I jumped in
2:05:42
Speaker 1: the canoe and dug out for our place a mile
2:05:45
Speaker 1: and a half below. As hard as I could go,
2:05:48
Speaker 1: I landed and slapped through the timber and up the
2:05:50
Speaker 1: ridge an into the cavern. There Jim laid sound asleep
2:05:54
Speaker 1: on the ground. I roused a mountain, says, get up
2:05:58
Speaker 1: and hump yourself. Jim, there ain't an't it to lose.
2:06:00
Speaker 1: They're after us. Jim never asked no questions, He never
2:06:04
Speaker 1: said a word, but the way he worked for the
2:06:06
Speaker 1: next half an hour showed about how he was scared.
2:06:09
Speaker 1: By that time, everything we had in the world was
2:06:12
Speaker 1: on our raft, and she was ready to be shoved
2:06:14
Speaker 1: up from the willow cove where she was hid. We
2:06:17
Speaker 1: put out the camp fire at the cavern the first thing,
2:06:19
Speaker 1: and didn't show a candle outside. After that, I took
2:06:23
Speaker 1: the canoe out from the shore a little piece and
2:06:25
Speaker 1: took a look. But if there was a boat around,
2:06:28
Speaker 1: I couldn't see it, for stars and shadows ain't good
2:06:30
Speaker 1: to see. By then we got out the raft and
2:06:33
Speaker 1: slipped along down in the shade past the foot of
2:06:36
Speaker 1: the island, dead, still, never saying a word. End of
2:06:41
Speaker 1: chapter eleven, Chapter twelve. It must have been close on
2:06:47
Speaker 1: to one o'clock when we got below the island at last,
2:06:50
Speaker 1: and the raft did seem to go mighty slow. If
2:06:53
Speaker 1: a boat was to come along we was goin to
2:06:55
Speaker 1: take to the canoe and break for the Illinois shore,
2:06:57
Speaker 1: and it was well a boat didn't come. For we
2:07:00
Speaker 1: had never thought to put the gun in the canoe,
2:07:02
Speaker 1: or a fishing line or anything to eat. We was
2:07:05
Speaker 1: a brother too much of a sweat to think of
2:07:07
Speaker 1: so many things. It warn't good judgment to put everything
2:07:10
Speaker 1: on the raft. If the men went to the island,
2:07:13
Speaker 1: I just expect they found the campfire eye built and
2:07:16
Speaker 1: watched it all night for Jim to come. Anyways, they
2:07:19
Speaker 1: stayed away from us, and if my building the fire
2:07:22
Speaker 1: never fooled them, it warn't no fault to mine. I
2:07:25
Speaker 1: played it as low down on them as I could.
2:07:28
Speaker 1: When the first streak a day began to show, we
2:07:31
Speaker 1: tied up to a towhead and a big bend on
2:07:33
Speaker 1: the Illinois side and hacked off cottonwood branches with the
2:07:36
Speaker 1: hatchet and covered up the raft with them, so she
2:07:39
Speaker 1: looked like there had been a cave in and the
2:07:41
Speaker 1: bank there. A towhead is a sandbar that has cottonwoods
2:07:44
Speaker 1: on it as thick as harrow teeth. We had mountains
2:07:47
Speaker 1: on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois side,
2:07:51
Speaker 1: and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place,
2:07:54
Speaker 1: so we warn't afraid of anybody running across us. We
2:07:57
Speaker 1: laid there all day and watched the rafts and steamboats
2:08:00
Speaker 1: bend down the Missouri shore and upbound steamboats fight the
2:08:03
Speaker 1: big river in the middle. I told Jim all about
2:08:06
Speaker 1: the time I had jabberin with that woman, and Jim
2:08:09
Speaker 1: said she was a smart one, and if she was
2:08:11
Speaker 1: to start after us herself, she wouldn't sit down and
2:08:13
Speaker 1: watch camp fire, No, sir, she'd fetch a dog. Well,
2:08:17
Speaker 1: then I said, why couldn't she tell her husband to
2:08:20
Speaker 1: fetch a dog. Jim said he'd bet she did think
2:08:23
Speaker 1: of it by the time the men was ready to start,
2:08:25
Speaker 1: and he believed they must have gone uptown to get
2:08:27
Speaker 1: a dog. And so they lost all that time, or
2:08:30
Speaker 1: else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or
2:08:33
Speaker 1: seventeen mile below the village. No, indeedy we would be
2:08:36
Speaker 1: in that same old town again. So I said, I
2:08:39
Speaker 1: didn't care what the reason was they didn't get us,
2:08:41
Speaker 1: as long as they didn't get us. When it was
2:08:44
Speaker 1: beginning to come on dark, we've poked our heads out
2:08:47
Speaker 1: of the cottonwood thicket and looked up and down and
2:08:49
Speaker 1: across nothing in sight. So Jim took up some of
2:08:53
Speaker 1: the top planks of the raft and built a snug
2:08:56
Speaker 1: wigwam to get under in blazon weather and rainy and
2:08:59
Speaker 1: to keep the thing. Jim made a floor for the
2:09:02
Speaker 1: wigwam and raised it a foot or more above the
2:09:05
Speaker 1: level of the raft. So now the blankets and all
2:09:07
Speaker 1: the traps was out to reach a steamboat waves right
2:09:10
Speaker 1: in the middle of the wigwam. We made a layer
2:09:13
Speaker 1: of dirt about five or six inches deep, with a
2:09:15
Speaker 1: frame around it for to hold it to its place.
2:09:18
Speaker 1: This was to build a fire on in sloppy weather
2:09:21
Speaker 1: or chili. The wigwam would keep it from being seen.
2:09:24
Speaker 1: We made an extra steering or two because one of
2:09:27
Speaker 1: the others might get broke on a snag or something.
2:09:30
Speaker 1: We fixed up a short forked stick to keep the
2:09:32
Speaker 1: old lantern on, because we must always light the lantern
2:09:35
Speaker 1: whenever we see a steamboat coming down stream to keep
2:09:39
Speaker 1: from getting run over. But we wouldn't have to light
2:09:41
Speaker 1: it for upstream boats unless we was in what they'd
2:09:44
Speaker 1: call a crossing, for the river was pretty high yet
2:09:48
Speaker 1: very low banks being still a little under water, so upbound.
2:09:51
Speaker 1: Boats didn't always run the channel, but hunted easy water.
2:09:55
Speaker 1: The second night we run between seven and eight hours
2:09:58
Speaker 1: with a current that was making over four or mile
2:10:00
Speaker 1: an hour. We catched fish and talked, and we took
2:10:03
Speaker 1: a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It
2:10:06
Speaker 1: was kind of solemn drifting down the big still river,
2:10:09
Speaker 1: laying on our backs, looking up at the stars. And
2:10:12
Speaker 1: we didn't never feel like talking loud, and it warn't
2:10:15
Speaker 1: often that we laughed, only a little kind of a
2:10:18
Speaker 1: low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing,
2:10:21
Speaker 1: and nothing ever happened to us at all that night,
2:10:25
Speaker 1: nor the next, nor the next. Every night we passed towns,
2:10:30
Speaker 1: some of them away up on black hillsides, nothing but
2:10:33
Speaker 1: just a shining bed of lights. Not a house, could
2:10:35
Speaker 1: you see. The fifth night we passed Saint Louis, and
2:10:39
Speaker 1: it was like the whole world lit up in Saint Petersburg.
2:10:43
Speaker 1: They used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand
2:10:45
Speaker 1: people in Saint Louis, but I never believed it till
2:10:48
Speaker 1: I see that wonderful spread of lights at two o'clock
2:10:51
Speaker 1: that still night. There weren't a sound there. Everybody was asleep.
2:10:57
Speaker 1: Every night. Now, I used to slip ashore towards ten
2:10:59
Speaker 1: o'clock some little village and buy ten or fifteen cents
2:11:02
Speaker 1: worth of meal or bacon or other stuff to eat.
2:11:05
Speaker 1: And sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting comfortable
2:11:08
Speaker 1: and took him along. Pap always said, take a chicken
2:11:11
Speaker 1: when you get a chance, because if you don't want
2:11:14
Speaker 1: em yourself, you can easy find somebody that does an
2:11:17
Speaker 1: a good deed. Ain't ever forgot. I never see Pap
2:11:20
Speaker 1: when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is
2:11:23
Speaker 1: what he used to say. Anyway, mornin's before daylight, I
2:11:28
Speaker 1: slipped into corn fields and borrowed a watermelon or a mushmelon,
2:11:31
Speaker 1: or a pumpkin, or some new corn, or things of
2:11:34
Speaker 1: that kind. Pap always said it warn't no harm to
2:11:37
Speaker 1: borrow things if you was meanin to pay them back sometime.
2:11:40
Speaker 1: But the widow said it warn't anything but a soft
2:11:42
Speaker 1: name for stealin', and no decent body would do it.
2:11:46
Speaker 1: Jim said he reckoned. The widow was partly right, and
2:11:48
Speaker 1: Pap was partly right. So the best way would be
2:11:51
Speaker 1: for us to pick out two or three things from
2:11:53
Speaker 1: the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more.
2:11:56
Speaker 1: Then he reckoned it wouldn't be no harm to borrow
2:11:58
Speaker 1: the others. So we talked over all one night, driftin
2:12:02
Speaker 1: along down the river, trying to make up our minds
2:12:04
Speaker 1: whether to drop the watermelons or the cantelopes, or the
2:12:07
Speaker 1: mushmelons or what. But towards daylight we got it all
2:12:11
Speaker 1: settled satisfactory and concluded to drop crab apples and percimmons.
2:12:16
Speaker 1: We warn't feelin just right before that, but it was
2:12:18
Speaker 1: all comfortable now. I was glad the way it come out, too,
2:12:22
Speaker 1: because crab apples ain't ever good, an the precimons wouldn't
2:12:25
Speaker 1: be right for two or three months. Yet we shot
2:12:28
Speaker 1: a water fowl now, an then he got up too
2:12:31
Speaker 1: early in the mornin' or didn't go to bed early
2:12:33
Speaker 1: enough in the evenin'. Take it all around. We lived
2:12:36
Speaker 1: pretty high. The fifth night below Saint Louis, we had
2:12:40
Speaker 1: a big storm after midnight, with a power of thunder
2:12:43
Speaker 1: and lightnin, and the rain poured down in a solid sheet.
2:12:47
Speaker 1: We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take
2:12:49
Speaker 1: care of itself. When the lightnin glared out, we could
2:12:52
Speaker 1: see a big straight river ahead and high rocky bluffs
2:12:56
Speaker 1: on both sides. By and By says I have hello, Jim,
2:13:01
Speaker 1: looky yonder. It was a steamboat that had killed herself
2:13:05
Speaker 1: on a rock. We was driftin' straight down for her.
2:13:08
Speaker 1: The lightnin' showed her very distinct. She was leanin over
2:13:12
Speaker 1: with part o her upper deck above water. An you
2:13:15
Speaker 1: could see every little chimbly guy clean an clear an
2:13:19
Speaker 1: a chair by the big bell with an old slouch
2:13:21
Speaker 1: hat hangin on the back of it. When the flashes come. Well,
2:13:25
Speaker 1: it beIN away in the night and stormy, an all
2:13:28
Speaker 1: so mysterious. Like I felt just the way any other
2:13:31
Speaker 1: boy would a felt when I see that wreck layin there,
2:13:34
Speaker 1: so mournful an lonesome in the middle of the river.
2:13:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to get a board of her, an slink
2:13:39
Speaker 1: around a little, an see what there was there. So
2:13:43
Speaker 1: I says, let's land on her, Jim. But Jim was
2:13:46
Speaker 1: dead against it at first. He says, I dun't wanna
2:13:50
Speaker 1: go foolin long or no rack. We's don blame well an,
2:13:54
Speaker 1: we'd better let blame Well alone, as the Good Book says,
2:13:57
Speaker 1: like as not Day's watchman on that rack, watch mun
2:14:01
Speaker 1: Yer grandmother, I says, there ain't nothin to watch but
2:14:04
Speaker 1: the Texas and the pilot house. An do you reckon
2:14:07
Speaker 1: anybody's goin to resk his life for a Texas in
2:14:09
Speaker 1: a pilot house such a night as this, when it's
2:14:12
Speaker 1: likely to break up an wash off down the river
2:14:14
Speaker 1: any minute. Jim couldn't say nothin to that, so he
2:14:17
Speaker 1: didn't try. An Besides, I says we might borrow somethin
2:14:21
Speaker 1: worth havin out of the captain's state room. Ceegars, I
2:14:25
Speaker 1: bet you an cost five cents apiece, solid cash steamboat
2:14:29
Speaker 1: captain's is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month.
2:14:31
Speaker 1: An they don't care a cent of what a thing costs,
2:14:34
Speaker 1: you know, long as they wanted stick a candle in
2:14:37
Speaker 1: your pocket. I can't rest him till we give her
2:14:39
Speaker 1: a rummagein? Do you reckon to him? Sawyer? Would ever
2:14:42
Speaker 1: go buy this thing? Not for pie? He wouldn't. He'd
2:14:46
Speaker 1: call it an adventure, That's what he'd call it. An
2:14:48
Speaker 1: he'd land on that wreck if it was his last act,
2:14:52
Speaker 1: And wouldn't he throw style into it? Wouldn't he spread himself?
2:14:55
Speaker 1: Nor nothin' Why you'd think it was Christopher Columbus discovering Kingdom. Come.
2:15:01
Speaker 1: I wish Tom Sawyer was here. Jim, he grumbled a little,
2:15:05
Speaker 1: but give in. He said we mustn't talk any more
2:15:08
Speaker 1: than we could help, and then talk mighty low lightnin
2:15:12
Speaker 1: showed us the wreck again just in time, and we
2:15:15
Speaker 1: fetched the stobbard derreck and made fast there. The deck
2:15:19
Speaker 1: was high. Out here we went sneaking down the slope
2:15:22
Speaker 1: of to the labbard in the dark, towards the Texas,
2:15:25
Speaker 1: feeling our way slow with our feet and spreading our
2:15:27
Speaker 1: hands out to fend off the guys, for it was
2:15:30
Speaker 1: so dark we couldn't see no sign of them. Pretty
2:15:33
Speaker 1: soon we struck the forward end of the skylight and
2:15:35
Speaker 1: clumb on to it, and the next step fetched us
2:15:38
Speaker 1: in front of the captain's door, which was open, and
2:15:41
Speaker 1: by Jim and he away down through the Texas hall.
2:15:43
Speaker 1: We see a light, and all in the same second
2:15:46
Speaker 1: we seemed to hear low voices in yonder. Jim whispered
2:15:50
Speaker 1: and said he was feelin powerful sick, and told me
2:15:53
Speaker 1: to come along. I says all right, and was going
2:15:56
Speaker 1: to start for the raft. But just then I heard
2:15:59
Speaker 1: a voice wail out and say, oh, please, don't, boys.
2:16:02
Speaker 1: I swear I won't ever tell. Another voice said, pretty loud,
2:16:07
Speaker 1: it's a lie, Jim Turner. You've acted this way before.
2:16:11
Speaker 1: You always want more'n your share of the truck, and
2:16:13
Speaker 1: you've always got it too, because you've swore if you didn't,
2:16:15
Speaker 1: you'd tell. But this time you've said it just one
2:16:18
Speaker 1: time too many. You're the meanest, treacherousest town in this country.
2:16:24
Speaker 1: By this time, Jim was gone for the raft. I
2:16:26
Speaker 1: was just a violin with curiosity, and I says to myself,
2:16:30
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, and so I won't either.
2:16:34
Speaker 1: I'm a goin to see what's going on here. So
2:16:37
Speaker 1: I dropped on my hands and knees in the little
2:16:39
Speaker 1: passage and crept aft in the dark till there warn't
2:16:42
Speaker 1: but one stateroom betwixt me and the cross hall of
2:16:44
Speaker 1: the Texas. Then and there I see a man stretched
2:16:48
Speaker 1: on the floor and tied hand and foot, and two
2:16:51
Speaker 1: men standing over him, and one of them had a
2:16:53
Speaker 1: dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had
2:16:56
Speaker 1: a pistol. This one kept pointing the pistol at the
2:16:59
Speaker 1: man's head on the floor and saying I'd like to,
2:17:03
Speaker 1: and I ordered to a mean skunk. The man on
2:17:07
Speaker 1: the floor would shrivel up and say, oh please, don't, Bill,
2:17:11
Speaker 1: I ain't ever goin to tell. And every time he
2:17:14
Speaker 1: said that, the man with the lantern would laugh and say, deed,
2:17:17
Speaker 1: you ain't. You never said no truer thing an that
2:17:20
Speaker 1: you bet you? And once he said hear him beg an.
2:17:24
Speaker 1: Yet if we hadn't got the best of him an
2:17:27
Speaker 1: tied him, he'd a killed us both. And what for?
2:17:30
Speaker 1: Jist for nothin' jest because we stood on our rights,
2:17:34
Speaker 1: That's what for. But I lay you ain't a goin
2:17:36
Speaker 1: to threaten nobody anymore. Jim Turner put up that pistol Bill.
2:17:42
Speaker 1: Bill says, I don't want you Jack Packard. I'm for
2:17:45
Speaker 1: killin him. And didn't he kill Old Hatfield just the
2:17:48
Speaker 1: same way? And don't you deserve it? But I don't
2:17:52
Speaker 1: want him killed, and I've got my reasons for it.
2:17:55
Speaker 1: Bless your heart for them words, Jake Packard. I'll never
2:17:59
Speaker 1: forget you long I live, says the man on the floor,
2:18:02
Speaker 1: sort of blubberin'. Packer didn't take no notice o that,
2:18:06
Speaker 1: but hung up his lantern on a nail An started
2:18:08
Speaker 1: towards where I was there in the dark, An motioned
2:18:11
Speaker 1: Bill to come. I crawfished as fast as I could
2:18:14
Speaker 1: about two yards, but the boat slanted so that I
2:18:17
Speaker 1: couldn't make very good time. So to keep from gettin
2:18:20
Speaker 1: run over An catched, I crawled into a stateroom on
2:18:23
Speaker 1: the upper side. The man came a pawn along in
2:18:26
Speaker 1: the dark, and when Packer got to my stateroom, he says, here,
2:18:30
Speaker 1: come in here, and then he come an Bill after him.
2:18:34
Speaker 1: But before they got in, I was up in the
2:18:36
Speaker 1: upper berth, cornered An, sorry, I come. Then they stood
2:18:41
Speaker 1: there with their hands on the ledge of the berth,
2:18:42
Speaker 1: An talked. I couldn't see them, but I could tell
2:18:46
Speaker 1: where they was by the whisky they'd been havin. I
2:18:49
Speaker 1: was glad I didn't drink whisky, but it wouldn't made
2:18:52
Speaker 1: much difference anyway, because most of the time they couldn't
2:18:54
Speaker 1: a treated me because I didn't breathe. I was too scared.
2:18:59
Speaker 1: An besides, body couldn't breathe an to hear such talk.
2:19:02
Speaker 1: They talked low and earnest. Bill wanted to kill Turner.
2:19:07
Speaker 1: He says, he's said, I'll tell, and he will if
2:19:11
Speaker 1: we was to give both our shares to him. Now
2:19:13
Speaker 1: it would make no difference after the row an the
2:19:15
Speaker 1: way we've served him. Sure as you're born, her'll turn
2:19:18
Speaker 1: state evidence. Now you hear me, I'm fer puttin him
2:19:22
Speaker 1: out of his troubles, So am, I says Packard, very quiet,
2:19:27
Speaker 1: blamin I'd sort of begun to think you wasn't. Well,
2:19:30
Speaker 1: then that's all right, let's go an do it. Hold
2:19:34
Speaker 1: on a minna, I ain't had my say yet. You
2:19:37
Speaker 1: listen to me. Shootin's good, but there's quieter ways if
2:19:40
Speaker 1: the thing has got to be done. But what I
2:19:43
Speaker 1: say is this, it ain't good sense to go courtin
2:19:46
Speaker 1: around after a halter. If you can get it what
2:19:48
Speaker 1: you're up to in some way, it's just as good.
2:19:51
Speaker 1: An at the same time, don't bring you into no resks.
2:19:54
Speaker 1: Ain't that so you bet? It is by how you
2:19:57
Speaker 1: goin to manage it this time? Well, my idea is this.
2:20:01
Speaker 1: We'll rustle around an gather up whatever pickin's we've overlooked
2:20:05
Speaker 1: in the state rooms, an shove for shore an hide
2:20:07
Speaker 1: the truck. Then we'll wait. Now, I say it ain't
2:20:11
Speaker 1: a goin to be morn two hours before this rack
2:20:13
Speaker 1: breaks up an washes off down the river. See, he'll
2:20:17
Speaker 1: be drowned and won't have nobody to blame for it
2:20:19
Speaker 1: but his own self. I reckon, it's a considerable sight
2:20:22
Speaker 1: better a killin of him. I'm unfavorable to killin a man,
2:20:26
Speaker 1: as long as you can git around it. But ain't
2:20:28
Speaker 1: good sense? But ain't good morals? Ain't I right? Yes?
2:20:33
Speaker 1: I reckon you are? But s'pose she don't break up
2:20:36
Speaker 1: an wash off? Well, we can wait the two hours anyway, an, See,
2:20:40
Speaker 1: can't we all right? Then? Come along? So they started
2:20:44
Speaker 1: and I lit out all in a cold sweat. An
2:20:47
Speaker 1: scrambled forward. It was darkest pitch there. But I said,
2:20:51
Speaker 1: in a kind of a hoarse whisper, jim, an He
2:20:54
Speaker 1: answered up right at my elbow with a sort of
2:20:57
Speaker 1: a moan an, I says, quick, jim, it ain't no
2:21:00
Speaker 1: time for fooling around a moanin'. There's a gang of
2:21:02
Speaker 1: murderers in yonder. And if we don't hunt up their
2:21:05
Speaker 1: boat and sent her driftin down the river, so these
2:21:07
Speaker 1: fellows can't get away from the wreck, there's one of
2:21:09
Speaker 1: em goin to be in a bad fix. But if
2:21:12
Speaker 1: we find their boat, we can put all of them
2:21:14
Speaker 1: in a bad fix for the sheriff'll get 'em quick, hurry.
2:21:18
Speaker 1: I'll hunt the labbard side. You hunt the stobboard. You
2:21:21
Speaker 1: started the raft, and oh, my lord, a lord e raf,
2:21:26
Speaker 1: they ain't no raft no more. She done broke loose
2:21:29
Speaker 1: and gone, and here we is. End of chapter twelve,
2:21:36
Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen. Well, I catch my breath and most fainted,
2:21:42
Speaker 1: shut up on a wreck with such a gang as that.
2:21:45
Speaker 1: But it warn't no time to be sentimentarin'. We'd got
2:21:48
Speaker 1: to find that boat now, had to have it for ourselves.
2:21:52
Speaker 1: So we went a quakin an shaking down the stabbard
2:21:55
Speaker 1: side and slow work. It was too seemed a week
2:21:59
Speaker 1: before we got to then no sign of a boat.
2:22:03
Speaker 1: Jim said he didn't believe he could go any further,
2:22:05
Speaker 1: so scared he hadn't hardly any strength left, he said,
2:22:09
Speaker 1: But I said, come on, if we get left on
2:22:11
Speaker 1: this wreck, we are in a fixed shore. So on
2:22:15
Speaker 1: we prowled again. We struck for the stern at the
2:22:18
Speaker 1: Texas and found it, and then scrabbled along forwards on
2:22:21
Speaker 1: the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the
2:22:25
Speaker 1: edge of the skylight was in the water. When we
2:22:28
Speaker 1: got pretty close to the cross hall door, there was
2:22:30
Speaker 1: the skiff. Sure enough I could just barely see her.
2:22:34
Speaker 1: I felt ever so thankful. An another second I would
2:22:38
Speaker 1: have been aboard of her. But just then the door opened.
2:22:41
Speaker 1: One of the men stuck his head out, only about
2:22:44
Speaker 1: a couple of foot from me, and I thought I
2:22:46
Speaker 1: was gone, but he dercked it in again and says
2:22:51
Speaker 1: he've that blame lantern out of sight. Bill. He flung
2:22:54
Speaker 1: a bag of something into the boat and then got
2:22:57
Speaker 1: in himself an set down. It was Packard. Then Bill,
2:23:01
Speaker 1: he come out an got in. Packard says in a
2:23:04
Speaker 1: low voice, all ready shove off. I couldn't hardly hang
2:23:09
Speaker 1: on to the shutters. I was so weak. But Bill says,
2:23:13
Speaker 1: hold on. Do you go through him? No? Didn't you? No,
2:23:18
Speaker 1: so he's got his share of the cash yet, Well,
2:23:21
Speaker 1: then come along. No use to take truck an leave money.
2:23:26
Speaker 1: See won't he be suspicious what we're up to? Maybe
2:23:29
Speaker 1: he won't, but we got to have it anyway. Come along.
2:23:33
Speaker 1: So they got out and went in the door slammed
2:23:36
Speaker 1: too because it was on the Kareem's side, And in
2:23:39
Speaker 1: a half second I was in the boat an, Jim
2:23:41
Speaker 1: come tumblin after me. I out with my knife, An
2:23:45
Speaker 1: cut the rope, and away we went. We didn't touch
2:23:48
Speaker 1: nor an, We didn't speak, nor whisper, nor hardly even breathe.
2:23:52
Speaker 1: We went glide and swift along, dead silent, past the
2:23:56
Speaker 1: tip of the paddle box and past the stern. Then
2:23:59
Speaker 1: in a second or two more we was a hundred
2:24:01
Speaker 1: yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up,
2:24:05
Speaker 1: every last sight of her, and we was safe and
2:24:08
Speaker 1: knowed it. When we was three or four hundred yards downstream,
2:24:12
Speaker 1: we see the lantern show like a little spark at
2:24:15
Speaker 1: the Texas Dore for a second, and we know by
2:24:18
Speaker 1: that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was
2:24:20
Speaker 1: beginnin to understand that they was in just as much
2:24:23
Speaker 1: trouble now as Jim Turner was. Then Jim manned the
2:24:27
Speaker 1: oars and we took out after our raft. Now it
2:24:30
Speaker 1: was the first time that I'd begun to worry about
2:24:32
Speaker 1: the men I reckon. I hadn't had time to before
2:24:36
Speaker 1: I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for
2:24:39
Speaker 1: murderers to be in such a fix. I says to myself,
2:24:43
Speaker 1: there ain't no tellin but I might come to be
2:24:45
Speaker 1: a murderer myself yet, and then how would I like it?
2:24:49
Speaker 1: So I says to Jim. The first light we see,
2:24:52
Speaker 1: we'll land a hundred yards below it or above it,
2:24:54
Speaker 1: in a place where it's a good hidin' place for
2:24:56
Speaker 1: you and the skiff, And then I'll go and fix
2:24:59
Speaker 1: up some kind of a yarn rning' get somebody to
2:25:01
Speaker 1: go for that gang an get them out of their
2:25:03
Speaker 1: scrape so they can be hung when their time comes.
2:25:07
Speaker 1: But that idea was a failure, for pretty soon it
2:25:09
Speaker 1: begun to storm again, an this time worse than ever.
2:25:13
Speaker 1: The rain poured down, and never a light showed. Everybody
2:25:17
Speaker 1: in bed I reckon. We boomed along down the river,
2:25:20
Speaker 1: watching for lights and watching for our raft. After a
2:25:24
Speaker 1: long time the rain led up, but the clouds stayed
2:25:28
Speaker 1: and the lightning kept whimpering. And by and by a
2:25:31
Speaker 1: flash showed us a black thing ahead floating, and we
2:25:35
Speaker 1: made for it. It was the raft, and mighty glad
2:25:39
Speaker 1: was we to get aboard of it again. We seen
2:25:41
Speaker 1: a light now away down to the right on shore,
2:25:44
Speaker 1: so I said, I will go for it. The skiff
2:25:47
Speaker 1: was half full of plunder, which that gang had stole
2:25:49
Speaker 1: there on the wreck. We hustled it on to the
2:25:52
Speaker 1: raft in a pile, and I told Jim to float
2:25:54
Speaker 1: along down and show a light when he judged she
2:25:56
Speaker 1: had gone about two mile, and keep it burning till
2:25:59
Speaker 1: I come. Then I manned my oars an shoved for
2:26:03
Speaker 1: the light. As I got down towards it, three or
2:26:05
Speaker 1: four more showed up on a hillside. It was a village.
2:26:09
Speaker 1: I closed in above the shore light and laid on
2:26:12
Speaker 1: my oars and floated. As I went by, I see
2:26:15
Speaker 1: it was a lantern hanging off the jackstaff of a
2:26:18
Speaker 1: double hull ferry boat. I skimmed around for the watchman,
2:26:22
Speaker 1: or wonderin whereabouts he slept, And by and by I
2:26:25
Speaker 1: found him roostin on the bits forward, with his head
2:26:28
Speaker 1: down between his knees. I gave his shoulder two or
2:26:31
Speaker 1: three little shoves and begun to cry. He stirred up
2:26:35
Speaker 1: in a kind of a startlish way, but when he
2:26:38
Speaker 1: see it was only me, he took a good gap
2:26:40
Speaker 1: and stretch an. Then he says, hullo, what's up? Don't
2:26:44
Speaker 1: cry bub? What's the trouble? I says, pap an ma'am
2:26:49
Speaker 1: insists an. Then I broke down, he says, Oh, dang it, now,
2:26:54
Speaker 1: don't take on. So we all ask to have our
2:26:57
Speaker 1: troubles an this aun'll come out, all right. What's the
2:27:01
Speaker 1: matter with them there? There? Are you the watchman of
2:27:05
Speaker 1: the boat, yes, he says, kind of pretty well satisfied.
2:27:10
Speaker 1: Like I'm the captain and the owner, and the mate
2:27:13
Speaker 1: and the pilot and watchman and head deckhand, and sometimes
2:27:17
Speaker 1: I'm the freighting passengers. I ain't as rich as old
2:27:20
Speaker 1: Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame generous and
2:27:24
Speaker 1: good to Tom Dick. And Harry is what he is
2:27:26
Speaker 1: and slam around money the way he does. But I've
2:27:29
Speaker 1: told him many a time that I wouldn't trade places
2:27:32
Speaker 1: with him, for says I. A sailor's life's the life
2:27:35
Speaker 1: for me. And I'm durned if I'd live two miles
2:27:38
Speaker 1: out of town where there ain't nothing ever going on
2:27:40
Speaker 1: now for all his spondylicks, and as much more on
2:27:43
Speaker 1: top of it, says I, I broke in and says
2:27:47
Speaker 1: they're in an awful peck of trouble. And who is why?
2:27:52
Speaker 1: Pap an ma'am insists, and miss hook her And if
2:27:55
Speaker 1: you take your ferry boat and go up there, up.
2:27:57
Speaker 1: Where where are they on? What wreck? Why? There ain't
2:28:03
Speaker 1: but one? What you don't mean the Walter Scott, Yes,
2:28:08
Speaker 1: good land? What are they doing there? For gracious sakes? Well,
2:28:12
Speaker 1: they didn't go there a purpose? I bet they didn't. Why,
2:28:16
Speaker 1: great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em if they
2:28:18
Speaker 1: don't get off mighty quick. Why how in the nation
2:28:21
Speaker 1: did they ever get into such a scrape? Easy enough?
2:28:25
Speaker 1: Miss Hooker was a visitin' up there to the town, Yes,
2:28:29
Speaker 1: Booth's landon go on, she was a visitin there at
2:28:32
Speaker 1: Booth's landin', And just in the edge of the evening
2:28:35
Speaker 1: she started over with her nigger woman and the horse
2:28:38
Speaker 1: ferry to stay all night at her friend's house. Miss
2:28:41
Speaker 1: what you may call her, I just remember her name.
2:28:44
Speaker 1: And they lost their steering oar and swung around and
2:28:47
Speaker 1: went to floating down stern first about two mile an
2:28:50
Speaker 1: saddle bags on the wreck, and the ferrymen and the
2:28:53
Speaker 1: nigger woman and the horses was all lost. But miss
2:28:56
Speaker 1: Hooker she made a grab and got aboard the wreck. Well,
2:28:59
Speaker 1: about an hour after dark we come along down in
2:29:01
Speaker 1: our trading skow an. It was so dark we didn't
2:29:04
Speaker 1: notice the wreck till we was right on it. An
2:29:07
Speaker 1: so we saddle bags it. But all of us was saved.
2:29:10
Speaker 1: But Bill Whipple an, oh, he was the best creetur.
2:29:14
Speaker 1: I most wish it had been me. I do, my George,
2:29:18
Speaker 1: it's the beatin'est thing I ever struck. An then what
2:29:21
Speaker 1: did you all do? Well? We hollered an took on,
2:29:25
Speaker 1: But it's so wide there that we couldn't make nobody hear.
2:29:29
Speaker 1: So Pahaps said, somebody got to get ashore, an get
2:29:31
Speaker 1: help somehow. I was the only one that could swim,
2:29:34
Speaker 1: so I made a dash for it. An Miss Hooker,
2:29:37
Speaker 1: she said, if I didn't strike help sooner, come here
2:29:39
Speaker 1: an hunt up her uncle, an he'd fix a thing.
2:29:43
Speaker 1: I made the land about a mile below an been
2:29:45
Speaker 1: foolin along ever since, tryin to get people to do something,
2:29:49
Speaker 1: But they said, why an such a night, an such
2:29:51
Speaker 1: a current, There ain't no sense in it. Go for
2:29:54
Speaker 1: the steam fairy, now, if you'll go an buy Jackson.
2:29:58
Speaker 1: I'd like to an blame it. I don't know, but
2:30:01
Speaker 1: I will. But who in the ding nations O goin
2:30:04
Speaker 1: to pay for it? Do you reckon? Yer? Pap? Why
2:30:08
Speaker 1: that's all right? Miss Hooker? She told me particular that
2:30:12
Speaker 1: her uncle Hornback great guns is he her uncle? Lookye, here,
2:30:16
Speaker 1: you break for that light over yonder way, an turn
2:30:19
Speaker 1: out west when you get there, an about a quarter
2:30:21
Speaker 1: of a mile out, you'll come to the tavern. Tell
2:30:24
Speaker 1: him to dart you out to Jim Hornback's an he'll
2:30:27
Speaker 1: foot the bill. An, don't you fool around, Anny, because
2:30:29
Speaker 1: he'll want to know the news. Tell him I'll have
2:30:32
Speaker 1: his niece all safe before he can get to town.
2:30:35
Speaker 1: Hump yourself now, I'm a goin up around the corner
2:30:37
Speaker 1: here to roust out my engineer. I struck for the light,
2:30:41
Speaker 1: but as soon as he turned the corner, I went
2:30:43
Speaker 1: back and got into my skiff an bailed her out.
2:30:46
Speaker 1: An then pulled up shore in the easy water about
2:30:48
Speaker 1: six hundred yards. An tucked myself in among some wood boats,
2:30:53
Speaker 1: for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the
2:30:55
Speaker 1: ferry boat start. But take it all around, I was
2:30:58
Speaker 1: feelin ruther comfortable on account of taken all this trouble
2:31:01
Speaker 1: for that gang, for not many would a done it.
2:31:04
Speaker 1: I wish the widow knowed about it. I judge she
2:31:07
Speaker 1: would be proud o me for helping those rapscallions, cause rapscallions.
2:31:10
Speaker 1: An dead beats is the kind the widow an good
2:31:12
Speaker 1: people takes the most interestin'. Well before long, here comes
2:31:17
Speaker 1: the wreck dim an dusky slidin' along down. A kind
2:31:21
Speaker 1: o cold shiver went through me. An then I struck
2:31:24
Speaker 1: out for her. She was very deep, an I see
2:31:28
Speaker 1: in a minute there warn't much chance for anybody beIN
2:31:31
Speaker 1: alive in her. I pulled all around her and hollered
2:31:34
Speaker 1: a little, but there wasn't any answer. All dead still.
2:31:39
Speaker 1: I felt a little bit heavy hearted about the gang,
2:31:42
Speaker 1: but not much for I reckoned if they could stand it,
2:31:44
Speaker 1: I could. Then here comes the ferry boat. So I
2:31:47
Speaker 1: shoved for the middle of the river on a long
2:31:50
Speaker 1: down stream slant. An when I judged I was out
2:31:52
Speaker 1: of eye reach, I laid on my oars an looked
2:31:55
Speaker 1: back an see her go an smell around the wreck
2:31:58
Speaker 1: for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her
2:32:01
Speaker 1: uncle Hornback would want them. And then pretty soon the
2:32:04
Speaker 1: ferryboat give it up and went for the shore, and
2:32:07
Speaker 1: I laid into my work and went to booming down
2:32:09
Speaker 1: the river. It did seem a powerful long time before
2:32:13
Speaker 1: Jim's light showed up. When it did show, it looked
2:32:16
Speaker 1: like it was a thousand mile off. By the time
2:32:19
Speaker 1: I got there, the sky was beginning to get a
2:32:21
Speaker 1: little gray in the east. So we struck for an
2:32:24
Speaker 1: island and hid the raft and sunk the skiff and
2:32:27
Speaker 1: turned in and slept like dead people. End of chapter thirteen,
2:32:34
Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, by and bye. When we got up, we
2:32:40
Speaker 1: turned over the truck the gang had stole off o
2:32:42
Speaker 1: the wreck, and found boots and blankets and clothes and
2:32:46
Speaker 1: all sorts of other things, and a lot of books,
2:32:49
Speaker 1: and a spyglass and three boxes of cigars. We had
2:32:53
Speaker 1: never been this rich before in neither of our lives.
2:32:56
Speaker 1: The cigars was prime. We laid off all the afternoon
2:33:01
Speaker 1: in the woods, talkin' an me readin' the books, an
2:33:04
Speaker 1: havin a general good time. I told Jim all about
2:33:07
Speaker 1: what happened inside the wreck an at the ferry boat,
2:33:10
Speaker 1: and I said, these kinds o things was adventures. But
2:33:13
Speaker 1: he said he didn't want no more adventures. He said
2:33:16
Speaker 1: that when I went in the texas An he crawled
2:33:19
Speaker 1: back to get on the raft and found her gone.
2:33:21
Speaker 1: He nearly died because he judged it was all up
2:33:24
Speaker 1: for him anyway it could be fixed, for if he
2:33:27
Speaker 1: didn't get saved, he would get drownded. And if he
2:33:30
Speaker 1: did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back
2:33:33
Speaker 1: home so as to get the reward an, then Miss
2:33:35
Speaker 1: Watson would sell him south shore. Well, he was right,
2:33:40
Speaker 1: He was most always right. He had an uncommon level
2:33:43
Speaker 1: head for a nigger. I read considerable to Jim about
2:33:47
Speaker 1: kings and dukes and earls and such, and how gaudy
2:33:50
Speaker 1: they dressed, and how much style they put on. An
2:33:53
Speaker 1: called each other your majesty and your grace and your lordship,
2:33:58
Speaker 1: and so onstead of Miss ter An. Jim's eyes bugged out,
2:34:02
Speaker 1: and he was interested. He says, I didn't know they
2:34:06
Speaker 1: was so many of 'em. I hain't heard about none
2:34:08
Speaker 1: of 'em. Scarcely but old King Solomon, unless you count
2:34:12
Speaker 1: stem kings that's in a packer yards. How much do
2:34:16
Speaker 1: a king get? Gin? I says, why they get a
2:34:20
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a month? If they want it, they can
2:34:23
Speaker 1: have just as much as they want. Everything belongs to them.
2:34:27
Speaker 1: Ain't that gay an? What they got to do? Huck?
2:34:31
Speaker 1: They don't do nothin'. Why how you talk? They just
2:34:35
Speaker 1: set around. No, is that so? Of course it is?
2:34:41
Speaker 1: They just set around, except maybe when there's a war,
2:34:44
Speaker 1: then they go to the war. But other times they
2:34:47
Speaker 1: just lazy around or go hawkin' jes hawkin'. An s
2:34:51
Speaker 1: sh Do you hear a noise? We skipped out? An looked,
2:34:56
Speaker 1: but it warn't nothin but the flutter of a steamboat's wheel.
2:34:59
Speaker 1: Weigh down comin round the point, so we come back, yes,
2:35:04
Speaker 1: says I. An. Other times, when things is dull, they
2:35:08
Speaker 1: fuss with the parliament. An if everybody don't go jest,
2:35:11
Speaker 1: so he whacks their heads off. But mostly they hang
2:35:14
Speaker 1: round the harem, round a witch harem? What's the harem?
2:35:21
Speaker 1: The place where he keeps his wives? Don't you know
2:35:23
Speaker 1: about the harem? Solomon had one, He had about a
2:35:27
Speaker 1: million wives. Why, yes, that's so I I had done
2:35:32
Speaker 1: forgot it. A harem's a boardin' house. I reckon. Most
2:35:36
Speaker 1: likely day has rackety times into nursery. I reckon to wives.
2:35:40
Speaker 1: Quarrels considerable. An that creased a rackety day, Say Solomon,
2:35:45
Speaker 1: the wisest man did ever live. I don't take no
2:35:47
Speaker 1: stockin' that be case. Why would a wise man wants
2:35:51
Speaker 1: to live in the midst such a blim blamin' all
2:35:53
Speaker 1: the time. No deed, he wouldn't a wise man had
2:35:57
Speaker 1: taken bill a biler factory, an then he could shut
2:36:01
Speaker 1: down to builer factory when he want to rest well.
2:36:05
Speaker 1: But he was the wisest man anyway, because the widow
2:36:09
Speaker 1: she told me so her own self. I don't care
2:36:12
Speaker 1: what the widow say. He warn't no wise man another
2:36:16
Speaker 1: he had some of the dad fetched his ways. I
2:36:18
Speaker 1: ever see, does you know about that child that he
2:36:21
Speaker 1: has gwine to choppin' too? Yes, the widow told me
2:36:25
Speaker 1: all about it. Well, then warn't that the beatin' notion
2:36:29
Speaker 1: in the world. You jest. Take a look at it
2:36:31
Speaker 1: a minute. That's the stump there. That's one of the women.
2:36:36
Speaker 1: He is you, that's the other one. I Solomon an
2:36:40
Speaker 1: dis yer dollar bills to child. Both of you claims it.
2:36:44
Speaker 1: What does I do? Does I shin around amongst the
2:36:47
Speaker 1: neighbors an find out which un you de bill do
2:36:49
Speaker 1: belong to? An hand it over to the right one,
2:36:52
Speaker 1: all safe and sound, the way that anybody that had
2:36:54
Speaker 1: any gumption would No. I take an whack the bill
2:36:58
Speaker 1: in two and give half an it to you. An
2:37:01
Speaker 1: the other half to the other woman. That's the way
2:37:03
Speaker 1: Solomon was gwine to do wi the child. Now, I
2:37:07
Speaker 1: want to ask you, what's de use O dat half
2:37:09
Speaker 1: a bill can't buy nothin wi it an? What use
2:37:12
Speaker 1: is half a child? I wouldn't give a dern fer
2:37:15
Speaker 1: a million a um. But hang it, Jim, you've clean
2:37:19
Speaker 1: miss the point. Blame it, you've missed it a thousand
2:37:21
Speaker 1: mile Who me golong? Don't talk to me about your points.
2:37:27
Speaker 1: I reckon, I know sense when I sees it. An dey,
2:37:30
Speaker 1: ain't no sense in such doin's as that dispute. Warn't
2:37:33
Speaker 1: bout half a child. Dispute was about a whole child.
2:37:37
Speaker 1: An demand to think he can settle a speit by
2:37:39
Speaker 1: a whole child. Witt a half a child? Dunn know
2:37:41
Speaker 1: enough to come in out an de rain. Don't talk
2:37:44
Speaker 1: to me bout Solomon huck. I knows him boy to back.
2:37:48
Speaker 1: But I tell you you don't get the point. Blame
2:37:51
Speaker 1: the point. I reckon, I knows what I knows an
2:37:55
Speaker 1: mind you the real points down further. It's down deeper.
2:38:00
Speaker 1: It lays into wayte Solomon was raised. You take a
2:38:03
Speaker 1: man that's got only one o two chillin'. Is dat
2:38:06
Speaker 1: man gwin' to be wasteful O chillin', No he ain't.
2:38:09
Speaker 1: He can't afford it. He know how to value him.
2:38:13
Speaker 1: But you take a man, this guy about five million,
2:38:15
Speaker 1: chillin' run a round house. An, it's different. He as
2:38:19
Speaker 1: soon chopped childin too as a cat. Day's plenty more
2:38:23
Speaker 1: a child or two more or less. Warn't no consequence
2:38:26
Speaker 1: of Solomon, Dad Fetchum. I never see such a nigger.
2:38:31
Speaker 1: If he got a notion in his head once, there
2:38:33
Speaker 1: warn't no gettin it out again. He was the most
2:38:36
Speaker 1: down on Solomon of any nigger I ever see. So
2:38:39
Speaker 1: I went to talkin about other kings. An let Solomon slide.
2:38:43
Speaker 1: I told about Louis sixteenth an got his head cut
2:38:46
Speaker 1: off in France long time ago. An about his little
2:38:49
Speaker 1: boy the dolphin, that would have been a king, but
2:38:52
Speaker 1: they took a shut him up in jail. An. Some
2:38:55
Speaker 1: say he died there, poor little chap, But some says
2:38:59
Speaker 1: he got out an got away. An come to America.
2:39:03
Speaker 1: Dat's good, but he'll be booty lonesome. They ain't no
2:39:06
Speaker 1: kings here, is day huck. No, then he can't git
2:39:10
Speaker 1: no situation. What he gwin to do well. I don't know.
2:39:15
Speaker 1: Some of em gets on the police, and some of
2:39:18
Speaker 1: them learns people how to talk French. Why huk doin'
2:39:22
Speaker 1: to French? People talk the same way we does? No, Jim,
2:39:26
Speaker 1: you cann't understand a word? They said, not a single word. Well,
2:39:31
Speaker 1: now I be ding busted. How did that come? I
2:39:35
Speaker 1: don't know, but it's so I got some of their
2:39:38
Speaker 1: jabber out of a book. Suppose a man was to
2:39:41
Speaker 1: come to you and say, pollyvoo phrenzy, what would you think.
2:39:46
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think nothin. I'd take a bust'm over to
2:39:49
Speaker 1: head dad is if he warn't white, I wouldn't lie.
2:39:51
Speaker 1: No nigger to call me dad shucks. It ain't calling
2:39:55
Speaker 1: you anything. It's only saying do you know how to
2:39:58
Speaker 1: talk French? Well? Then why couldn't he say it? Why
2:40:03
Speaker 1: he is a saying it? That's a Frenchman's way of
2:40:06
Speaker 1: saying it. Well, it's a blame ridiculous way. An I
2:40:10
Speaker 1: don't wanna hear no more about it. There ain't no
2:40:12
Speaker 1: sense in it looking here, Jim, does a cat talk
2:40:16
Speaker 1: like we do? No? A cat don't? Well? Does a cow? No? Cow?
2:40:22
Speaker 1: Don't nuther does a cat talk like a cow or
2:40:26
Speaker 1: a cow talk like a cat? No, they don't. It's
2:40:29
Speaker 1: natural and right for him to talk different from each other,
2:40:32
Speaker 1: ain't it course? And ain't it natural and right for
2:40:35
Speaker 1: a cat and a cat to talk different from us? Why?
2:40:39
Speaker 1: Most surely it is? Well, then why ain't it natural
2:40:43
Speaker 1: and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us?
2:40:47
Speaker 1: You answer me? That is a cat a man? Hook? No, well,
2:40:53
Speaker 1: then there ain't no sense in a cat talkin like
2:40:55
Speaker 1: a man. Is a cow a man? Or is a
2:40:58
Speaker 1: cow a cat? No? She ain't either of them? Well, Dan,
2:41:02
Speaker 1: she ain't got no business to talk like either one
2:41:05
Speaker 1: or the other of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man? Yes? Well,
2:41:11
Speaker 1: then dad blame it? Why don't he talk like a man?
2:41:14
Speaker 1: You answer me, dat, I see it. Warn't no use
2:41:18
Speaker 1: wasting words. You can't learn a nigger to argue, So
2:41:22
Speaker 1: I quit. End of chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen. We judged it.
2:41:32
Speaker 1: Three nights more would fetch us to Kroe, at the
2:41:34
Speaker 1: bottom of Illinois where the Ohio River comes in, And
2:41:38
Speaker 1: that was what we was after. We would sell the
2:41:41
Speaker 1: raft and get on a steamboat an go away up
2:41:43
Speaker 1: the Ohio amongst the free states and then be out
2:41:46
Speaker 1: of trouble. Well, the second night, a fog begun to
2:41:50
Speaker 1: come on, and we made for a tow head to
2:41:52
Speaker 1: tye too, for it wouldn't do to try to run
2:41:54
Speaker 1: in a fog. But when I paddled ahead in the
2:41:57
Speaker 1: canoe with a line to make fast, there weren't anything
2:42:00
Speaker 1: but little Saplin's to tie too. I passed a line
2:42:03
Speaker 1: around one of them, right on the edge of the
2:42:05
Speaker 1: cup bank, but there was a stiff current an the
2:42:08
Speaker 1: raft come booming down so lively she tore it out
2:42:11
Speaker 1: by the roots and away she went. I see the
2:42:13
Speaker 1: fog closin down an it made me so sick and scared.
2:42:16
Speaker 1: I couldn't budge for most a half a minute, it
2:42:18
Speaker 1: seemed to me an then there warn't no raft in sight.
2:42:22
Speaker 1: You couldn't see twenty yards. I jumped into the canoe
2:42:26
Speaker 1: and run back to the stern and grabbed the paddle
2:42:28
Speaker 1: and set her back stroke. But she didn't come. I
2:42:32
Speaker 1: was in such a hurry I hadn't untied her. I
2:42:35
Speaker 1: got up and tried to untie her, but I was
2:42:37
Speaker 1: so excited my hands struck, so I couldn't hardly do
2:42:40
Speaker 1: anything with them. As soon as I got started, I
2:42:43
Speaker 1: took out after the raft, hot an heavy right down
2:42:45
Speaker 1: the toe head. That was all right as far as
2:42:48
Speaker 1: it went. But the tow head warn't sixty yards long.
2:42:51
Speaker 1: An the minute I flew by the foot of it,
2:42:53
Speaker 1: I shot out into the solid white fog, and hadn't
2:42:56
Speaker 1: no more idea which way I was going than a
2:42:58
Speaker 1: dead man thinks. I it won't do it to paddle first.
2:43:02
Speaker 1: I know I'll runnin into the bank, or a toe
2:43:04
Speaker 1: hat or somethin. I got to set still and float
2:43:08
Speaker 1: an Yet it's mighty fidgety business to have to hold
2:43:10
Speaker 1: your hands still at such a time. I whooped and
2:43:13
Speaker 1: listened away down there somewheres, I hears a small whoop,
2:43:17
Speaker 1: an up comes my spirits. I went tearin after it,
2:43:21
Speaker 1: listening sharp to hear it again. The next time it come,
2:43:24
Speaker 1: I see, I warn't headin for it, but headin' away
2:43:27
Speaker 1: to the right of it. And the next time I
2:43:29
Speaker 1: was heading away to the left of it, and not
2:43:32
Speaker 1: gainin on it much either, for I was flyin around
2:43:35
Speaker 1: this way, an that, an the other, but it was
2:43:37
Speaker 1: going straight ahead all the time. I did wish the
2:43:40
Speaker 1: fool would think to beat a tin pan an beat
2:43:42
Speaker 1: it all the time, but he never did. An. It
2:43:45
Speaker 1: was the still places between the whoops that was makin
2:43:48
Speaker 1: the trouble for me. Well, I fought along and directly,
2:43:52
Speaker 1: I hears the whoop behind me. I was tangled. Good
2:43:55
Speaker 1: Now that was somebody else's whoop or else I was
2:43:59
Speaker 1: turned around. I throwed the paddle down. I hear the
2:44:03
Speaker 1: whoop again. He was behind me yet, but in a
2:44:05
Speaker 1: different place. It kept comin, an kept changing its place.
2:44:09
Speaker 1: An I kept answerin till by and by it was
2:44:12
Speaker 1: in front o me again. An I know the current
2:44:14
Speaker 1: had swung the canoe's head down stream. An I was
2:44:17
Speaker 1: all right if that was Jim An not some other
2:44:20
Speaker 1: raftsmen hollerin'. I couldn't tell nothin about voices in a fog,
2:44:24
Speaker 1: for nothin don't look natural, ner sound natural in a fog.
2:44:29
Speaker 1: The whoopin went on an inn about a minute. I
2:44:31
Speaker 1: come a boomin down on a cut bank with smoky
2:44:34
Speaker 1: ghosts of big trees on it. An the current throw
2:44:37
Speaker 1: me off to the left. An shot by amongst a
2:44:40
Speaker 1: lot of snacks that fairly roared. The current was tearin
2:44:43
Speaker 1: by them so swift. An another second or two it
2:44:46
Speaker 1: was solid white an still again. I sat perfectly still,
2:44:50
Speaker 1: then listenin to my heart thump an, I reckon. I
2:44:53
Speaker 1: didn't draw a breath while at thumped a hundred. I
2:44:56
Speaker 1: jest give up. Then I knowed what the matter was.
2:45:00
Speaker 1: That cut Bank was an island, and Jim had gone
2:45:02
Speaker 1: down the other side of it. It warn't no Toehad
2:45:05
Speaker 1: that you could float by in ten minutes. It had
2:45:07
Speaker 1: the big timber of a regular island. It might be
2:45:10
Speaker 1: five or six miles long and more than half a
2:45:13
Speaker 1: mile wide. I kept quiet with my ears cocked. About
2:45:17
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, I reckoned. I was floating along, of course,
2:45:21
Speaker 1: four or five miles an hour. But you don't ever
2:45:23
Speaker 1: think o that. No, you feel like you were layin
2:45:27
Speaker 1: dead still on the water. And if a little glimpse
2:45:29
Speaker 1: of a snag slips by, you don't think to yourself
2:45:32
Speaker 1: how fast you're goin', But you catch your breath, an
2:45:35
Speaker 1: think my, how that snag's tearin along? If you think
2:45:39
Speaker 1: it ain't dismal and lonesome out an a fog that
2:45:41
Speaker 1: way by yourself in the night, you try it once.
2:45:44
Speaker 1: You'll see next for about a half an hour, I whoops,
2:45:49
Speaker 1: now an. Then at last I hears the answer a
2:45:51
Speaker 1: long ways off and tries to follow it. But I
2:45:55
Speaker 1: couldn't do it, And directly I judged I'd got into
2:45:58
Speaker 1: a nest of toe heads. Ere I had little dim
2:46:00
Speaker 1: glimpses of them on both sides of me, sometimes just
2:46:04
Speaker 1: a narrow channel between, and some that I couldn't see.
2:46:07
Speaker 1: I knowed was there, because i'd hear the wash of
2:46:09
Speaker 1: the current against the old dead brush and trash that
2:46:12
Speaker 1: hung over the banks. Well, I warn't long losing the
2:46:16
Speaker 1: whoops now amongst the towheads, and I only tried to
2:46:19
Speaker 1: chase them a little while anyway, because it was worse
2:46:21
Speaker 1: than chasin a jack o' lantern. You never noticed sound
2:46:24
Speaker 1: dodge around so an, swap places so quick an so much.
2:46:29
Speaker 1: I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively,
2:46:31
Speaker 1: four or five times to keep from knockin the islands
2:46:34
Speaker 1: out of the river. And so I judge the raft
2:46:36
Speaker 1: must be button into the bank every now and then,
2:46:39
Speaker 1: or else it would get further ahead an clear out
2:46:41
Speaker 1: of hearin. It was floatin' a little faster than what
2:46:44
Speaker 1: I was. Well, I seemed to be in the open
2:46:47
Speaker 1: river again by and by, but I couldn't hear no
2:46:50
Speaker 1: sign of a whoop nowheres. I reckon Jim had fetched
2:46:53
Speaker 1: up on a snag mayby an it was all up
2:46:56
Speaker 1: with him. I was good an tired, so I laid
2:46:59
Speaker 1: down in the I knew, and said I wouldn't bother
2:47:01
Speaker 1: no more. I didn't want to go to sleep, of course,
2:47:05
Speaker 1: but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it. So
2:47:07
Speaker 1: I thought I would take just one little cat nap.
2:47:11
Speaker 1: But I reckon it was more than a cat nap,
2:47:13
Speaker 1: for when I waked up, the stars was shining bright,
2:47:16
Speaker 1: the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down
2:47:18
Speaker 1: a big bend stern. First first, I didn't know where
2:47:22
Speaker 1: I was. I thought I was dreaming. When things began
2:47:25
Speaker 1: to come back to me, they seemed to come up
2:47:27
Speaker 1: dim out of last week. It was a monstrous, big
2:47:30
Speaker 1: river here, with the tallest and the thickest kind of
2:47:33
Speaker 1: timber on both banks, just a solid wall as well
2:47:36
Speaker 1: as I could see by the stars. I looked away downstream,
2:47:40
Speaker 1: and seeing a black speck on the water, I took
2:47:43
Speaker 1: after it. But when I got to it, it warn't
2:47:46
Speaker 1: nothing but a couple of saw logs made fast together.
2:47:49
Speaker 1: Then I'd see another speck and chase that, then another,
2:47:53
Speaker 1: and this time I was right. It was the raft.
2:47:56
Speaker 1: When I got to it, Jim was sitting there with
2:47:58
Speaker 1: his head down between his knees, sleep, with his right
2:48:01
Speaker 1: arm hanging over the steerin oar. The other oar was
2:48:04
Speaker 1: smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves
2:48:07
Speaker 1: and branches and dirt, so she'd had a rough time.
2:48:11
Speaker 1: I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on
2:48:14
Speaker 1: the raft and began to gasp and stretched my fists
2:48:17
Speaker 1: out against Jim and says, hello, Jim, have I been asleep?
2:48:22
Speaker 1: Why didn't you stir me up? Good? Gracious is that
2:48:26
Speaker 1: you huck an? You ain't dead, You ain't drowned us
2:48:29
Speaker 1: back again. It's too good for true, honey, it's too
2:48:32
Speaker 1: good for true. Lemme look at you, child, Lemme feel you. No,
2:48:36
Speaker 1: you ain't dead. He's back again, live a sound jest.
2:48:40
Speaker 1: The same old huck, the same old huck. Thanks to goodness.
2:48:45
Speaker 1: What's the matter with you, Jim? You been a drinkin? Drinkin?
2:48:49
Speaker 1: Has I been a drinkin'? Has I had a chance
2:48:52
Speaker 1: to be a drinkin? Well? Then, what makes you talk
2:48:55
Speaker 1: so wild? How does I talk wild? How Why hain't
2:49:01
Speaker 1: you been talkin about my comin back? An all that
2:49:03
Speaker 1: as if i'd been gone away? Huck huck finn. You
2:49:07
Speaker 1: look me in the eye, look me into eye. Hain't
2:49:11
Speaker 1: you been gone away? Gone away? Why? What'n't the nation?
2:49:15
Speaker 1: Do you mean? I hain't been gone anywheres? Where would
2:49:19
Speaker 1: I go to? Well? Look, ye here, boss, day's somethin wrong?
2:49:23
Speaker 1: They is? Is I me? Or who is I? Is
2:49:28
Speaker 1: I here? Or where is I? Now? DA's what I
2:49:31
Speaker 1: wants to know? Well, I think you're here plain enough,
2:49:35
Speaker 1: But I think you're a tangle headed old fool Jim
2:49:38
Speaker 1: I is is? I? Will you answer me this? Didn't
2:49:42
Speaker 1: you toe out the line in the canoe for to
2:49:43
Speaker 1: make fast to to toe head? Now? I didn't what towhead?
2:49:47
Speaker 1: I ain't seen no toe head? You hain't seen no
2:49:51
Speaker 1: toe head? Look ye here? Didn't the lion pull loosen
2:49:54
Speaker 1: d' raft go at hummin down de river? An leave
2:49:56
Speaker 1: you in the canoe behind? In to fog? What fog?
2:50:00
Speaker 1: Why de fog? The fog that's been round all night? An?
2:50:05
Speaker 1: Didn't you whoopin? Didn't I whoop till we got mixed
2:50:08
Speaker 1: up into islands, but one of us got lost, an
2:50:10
Speaker 1: t other one was jest as good as lost case
2:50:12
Speaker 1: he didn't know where he was, an didn't I bust
2:50:15
Speaker 1: up again? A lot o dam islands, an have a
2:50:17
Speaker 1: troubled time, A most get drownded. Now, ain't that so? Boss?
2:50:21
Speaker 1: Ain't it? So you answer me? Dat? Well, this is
2:50:25
Speaker 1: too many for me, Jim, I ain't seen no fog,
2:50:28
Speaker 1: nor no islands, nor no troubles nor nothin'. I've been
2:50:32
Speaker 1: sittin here talkin with you all night till you went
2:50:34
Speaker 1: to sleep about ten minutes ago. An, I reckon I
2:50:37
Speaker 1: done the same. You couldn't a got drunk in that time,
2:50:40
Speaker 1: So of course you've been dreamin', Dad, fetch it, how
2:50:43
Speaker 1: was I gwine to dream all that an ten minutes? Well?
2:50:47
Speaker 1: Hang it all you did dream it, because there didn't
2:50:49
Speaker 1: any of it happen. But Huck, it's all jest as
2:50:52
Speaker 1: plain to me as it don't make no difference how
2:50:55
Speaker 1: plain it is. There ain't nothin in it. I know
2:50:58
Speaker 1: because I've been here all the time. Jim didn't say
2:51:02
Speaker 1: nothin for about five minutes, but set there, studyin over it.
2:51:06
Speaker 1: Then he says, well, then I reckon I did dream it, huck.
2:51:11
Speaker 1: But dog my cats, if it ain't the powerful at
2:51:13
Speaker 1: dream I ever see, an I ain't ever had no
2:51:16
Speaker 1: dream before. It's tie me like this one. Oh well,
2:51:20
Speaker 1: that's all right, because the dream does tie a body
2:51:23
Speaker 1: like everything sometimes. But this one was a stavin' dream.
2:51:26
Speaker 1: Tell me all about it, Jim. So Jim went to
2:51:30
Speaker 1: work and told me the whole thing right through, just
2:51:32
Speaker 1: as it happened, only he painted it up considerable. Then
2:51:35
Speaker 1: he said he must start in interpret it because it
2:51:38
Speaker 1: was sent for a warnin'. He said. The first toehad
2:51:41
Speaker 1: stood for a man that would try to do us
2:51:44
Speaker 1: some good, but the current was another man that would
2:51:46
Speaker 1: get us away from him. The whoops was warnin's that
2:51:50
Speaker 1: would come to us every now and then, and if
2:51:52
Speaker 1: we didn't try hard to make out to understand them,
2:51:55
Speaker 1: they'd just take us into bad luck instead of keeping
2:51:57
Speaker 1: us out of it. The light of toeheads was troubles
2:52:00
Speaker 1: we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and
2:52:03
Speaker 1: all kinds of mean folks. But if we minded our
2:52:06
Speaker 1: business and didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would
2:52:09
Speaker 1: pull through and get out of the fog and into
2:52:11
Speaker 1: the big clear river which was the Free States, and
2:52:14
Speaker 1: wouldn't have no more trouble. It had clattered up pretty
2:52:18
Speaker 1: dark just after I got on to the raft, but
2:52:20
Speaker 1: it was clearing up again. Now, oh, well, that's all
2:52:24
Speaker 1: interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim, I says,
2:52:28
Speaker 1: but what does these things stand for? It was the
2:52:32
Speaker 1: leaves and rubbish on the raft, and the smashed or
2:52:35
Speaker 1: you could see them first rate. Now Jim looked at
2:52:38
Speaker 1: the trash, and then looked at me, and back at
2:52:41
Speaker 1: the trash again. He had got the dream fixed so
2:52:44
Speaker 1: strong in his head that he couldn't seem to shake
2:52:46
Speaker 1: it loose and get the facts back into its place
2:52:49
Speaker 1: again right away. But when he did get the things
2:52:51
Speaker 1: straightened around, he looked at me steady, without ever smiling,
2:52:56
Speaker 1: and says, what do days stand for? I was on
2:53:00
Speaker 1: to tell you when I got all war out, would
2:53:03
Speaker 1: work and would callin for you. An went to sleep.
2:53:06
Speaker 1: My heart was most broke because you was lost, and
2:53:09
Speaker 1: I didn't care no more. What become o me and
2:53:11
Speaker 1: a raff? And when I wake up AN find you
2:53:14
Speaker 1: back again, all safe and sound, the tears come an.
2:53:17
Speaker 1: I could have got down on my knees and kiss
2:53:19
Speaker 1: your foot. I was so thankful, and all you was
2:53:22
Speaker 1: thinkin about was how you could make a fool of
2:53:24
Speaker 1: old Jim with a lie that truck is trash. An
2:53:28
Speaker 1: trash is what people is to puts dirt onto head
2:53:30
Speaker 1: erder friends and makes him ashamed. Then he got up
2:53:35
Speaker 1: and walked to the wigwam and went in there without
2:53:37
Speaker 1: saying anything but that. But that was enough. It made
2:53:40
Speaker 1: me feel so mean I could almost kiss his foot
2:53:43
Speaker 1: to get him to take it back. It was fifteen
2:53:46
Speaker 1: minutes before I could work myself up to go an
2:53:49
Speaker 1: humble myself to a nigger. But I done it, and
2:53:52
Speaker 1: I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards neither. I didn't
2:53:55
Speaker 1: do him no more mean tricks. An I wouldn't have
2:53:58
Speaker 1: done that one. If I dunn, it would make him
2:54:00
Speaker 1: feel that way. End of chapter fifteen. Chapter sixteen. We
2:54:10
Speaker 1: slept most all day and started out at night a
2:54:13
Speaker 1: little ways behind a monstrous long raft that was as
2:54:16
Speaker 1: long going by as a procession. She had four long
2:54:19
Speaker 1: sweeps at each end, so we judge she carried as
2:54:22
Speaker 1: many as thirty men. Likely she had five big wigwams
2:54:27
Speaker 1: aboard wide apart, and an open camp fire in the
2:54:30
Speaker 1: middle and a tall flagpole at each end. There was
2:54:34
Speaker 1: a power of style about her. It amounted to something
2:54:38
Speaker 1: being a raftsman on such a craft as that. We
2:54:41
Speaker 1: went drifting down into a big bend, and the night
2:54:44
Speaker 1: clouded up and got hot. The river was very wide
2:54:48
Speaker 1: and was walled with solid timber on both sides. You
2:54:52
Speaker 1: couldn't see a breakin it hardly ever, or a light.
2:54:55
Speaker 1: We talked about k Row and wondered whether we would
2:54:58
Speaker 1: know it when we got to it. I said likely
2:55:00
Speaker 1: we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but
2:55:03
Speaker 1: about a dozen houses there, an if they didn't happen
2:55:06
Speaker 1: to have them lit up, how was we goin to
2:55:08
Speaker 1: know we was passin a town? Jim said if the
2:55:12
Speaker 1: two big rivers joined together there that would show. But
2:55:15
Speaker 1: I said, maybe we might think we was passing the
2:55:17
Speaker 1: foot of an island an comin into the same old river. Again.
2:55:21
Speaker 1: That disturbed Jim an me too. So the question was
2:55:26
Speaker 1: what to do? I said, paddle ashore the first time
2:55:30
Speaker 1: a light showed an tell them. Pap was behind comin
2:55:34
Speaker 1: along with a tradin scow and was a green hand
2:55:36
Speaker 1: at the business and wanted to know how far it
2:55:39
Speaker 1: was to kro Jim thought it was a good idea,
2:55:42
Speaker 1: so we took a smoke on it and waited. There
2:55:45
Speaker 1: warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp
2:55:48
Speaker 1: for the town and not pass it without seeing it.
2:55:51
Speaker 1: He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, because
2:55:54
Speaker 1: he'd be a free man the minute he's seen it.
2:55:56
Speaker 1: But if he missed it, he'd be in a slave
2:55:58
Speaker 1: country again, and no more show for freedom. Every little
2:56:03
Speaker 1: while he jumps up and says, desh she is, But
2:56:07
Speaker 1: it warn't. It was Jack o'lantern's or lightnin' bugs. So
2:56:11
Speaker 1: he sat down again and went to watch him, same
2:56:13
Speaker 1: as before. Jim said it made him all over trembling
2:56:16
Speaker 1: and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I
2:56:20
Speaker 1: can tell you it made me all over trembling and
2:56:23
Speaker 1: feverish too to hear him, because I'd begun to get
2:56:25
Speaker 1: it through my head that he was most free, and
2:56:29
Speaker 1: who was to blame for it? Why? Me? I couldn't
2:56:33
Speaker 1: get that out of my conscience, No how, nor no way.
2:56:37
Speaker 1: It got to trouble in me, so I couldn't rest.
2:56:39
Speaker 1: I couldn't stay still in one place. It hadn't never
2:56:43
Speaker 1: come to me before what this thing was that I
2:56:45
Speaker 1: was doing. But now it did, and it stayed with
2:56:49
Speaker 1: me and scorched me more and more. I tried to
2:56:53
Speaker 1: make out to myself that I warn't to blame because
2:56:55
Speaker 1: I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner. But
2:56:58
Speaker 1: it warn't no use. Huncheons up and says every time,
2:57:02
Speaker 1: but you knowed he was running for his freedom. And
2:57:04
Speaker 1: you could have paddled ashore and told somebody that was
2:57:08
Speaker 1: so I couldn't get around that no way. That was
2:57:11
Speaker 1: where it pinched. Conscience. Says to me, what a poor
2:57:15
Speaker 1: miss Watson done to you? That you could see her
2:57:17
Speaker 1: nigger go off right under your eyes and never say
2:57:19
Speaker 1: one single word? What did that poor old woman do
2:57:22
Speaker 1: to you that you could treat her so mean? Why
2:57:26
Speaker 1: she tried to learn you your book, She tried to
2:57:28
Speaker 1: learn you your manners. She tried to be good to
2:57:30
Speaker 1: you every way she knowed how that's what she done.
2:57:35
Speaker 1: I got to feelin so mean and so miserable I
2:57:38
Speaker 1: most wished I was dead. I fidgeted up and down
2:57:42
Speaker 1: the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was fidgeting
2:57:46
Speaker 1: up and down past me. We neither of us could
2:57:49
Speaker 1: keep still. Every time he danced around and says das
2:57:53
Speaker 1: Caro and went through me like a shot. And I thought,
2:57:57
Speaker 1: if it was Caro, I reckon and I would die
2:58:00
Speaker 1: of miserableness. Jim talked out loud all the time while
2:58:04
Speaker 1: I was talking to myself. He was saying how the
2:58:07
Speaker 1: first thing he would do when he got to a
2:58:09
Speaker 1: free state he would go to saving up money and
2:58:12
Speaker 1: never spend a single cent, and when he got enough,
2:58:15
Speaker 1: he would buy his wife, which was owned on a
2:58:17
Speaker 1: farm close to where miss Watson lived, and then they
2:58:20
Speaker 1: would both work to buy the two children, and if
2:58:22
Speaker 1: their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an abolishnist to
2:58:26
Speaker 1: go and steal them. It most froze me to hear
2:58:29
Speaker 1: such talk. He wouldn't ever dare to talk such talk
2:58:32
Speaker 1: in his life before. Just see what a difference it
2:58:35
Speaker 1: made in him the minute he judged he was about free.
2:58:39
Speaker 1: It was according to the old sayin' give a nigger
2:58:42
Speaker 1: an inch an hold, take an ell, thenks I, this
2:58:45
Speaker 1: is what comes of my not thinkin here was this
2:58:48
Speaker 1: nigger which I had as good as help to run away,
2:58:51
Speaker 1: coming right out flat footed and saying he would steal
2:58:54
Speaker 1: his children, children that belonged to a man I didn't
2:58:57
Speaker 1: even know, a man that hadn't never done me no harm.
2:59:01
Speaker 1: I was sorry to hear Jim say that it was
2:59:03
Speaker 1: such a lower end of him. My conscience got to
2:59:06
Speaker 1: stir me up hotter than ever, until at last I says,
2:59:10
Speaker 1: to it, let up on me. It ain't too late yet.
2:59:13
Speaker 1: I'll paddle ashore at the first light and tell I
2:59:17
Speaker 1: felt easy, an happy, and light as a feather. Right off,
2:59:20
Speaker 1: all my troubles was gone. I went to lookin out
2:59:23
Speaker 1: sharp for a light, a sort of singin to myself.
2:59:27
Speaker 1: By an by one showed. Jim sings out, we's safe, Hook,
2:59:31
Speaker 1: We's safe. Jump up and crack your heels. That's the
2:59:35
Speaker 1: good old k row. At last, I jest knows it.
2:59:39
Speaker 1: I says, I'll take the canoe an go and see
2:59:42
Speaker 1: Jim an mightn't be you know. He jumped an, got
2:59:46
Speaker 1: the canoe ready and put his old coat in the
2:59:48
Speaker 1: bottom for me to set on. An give me the paddle,
2:59:51
Speaker 1: and as I shoved off, he says, boot's sun. I'll
2:59:54
Speaker 1: be as shotin fer joy an. I'll say it's all
2:59:58
Speaker 1: on accounts of Hook as a freeman man, and I
3:00:00
Speaker 1: couldn't never been free if it hadn't been for Huck
3:00:03
Speaker 1: Huck done it. Jim won't ever forget you. Huck Us,
3:00:07
Speaker 1: the best friend Jim's ever had and used, the only
3:00:11
Speaker 1: friend Old Jim's got. Now. I was paddling off all
3:00:15
Speaker 1: in a sweat to tell on him, But when he
3:00:18
Speaker 1: says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck
3:00:21
Speaker 1: all out of me. I went along slow then, and
3:00:24
Speaker 1: I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I
3:00:26
Speaker 1: started or whether I warn't. When I was fifty yards off,
3:00:31
Speaker 1: Jim says, dare you goes the old true huck, the
3:00:35
Speaker 1: only white gentleman that ever kept his promised Old Jim. Well,
3:00:40
Speaker 1: I just felt sick, but I says, I got to
3:00:43
Speaker 1: do it. I can't get out of it right. Then
3:00:47
Speaker 1: along comes the skiff with two men in it with guns,
3:00:50
Speaker 1: and they stopped, and I stopped. One of them says,
3:00:54
Speaker 1: what's that yonder? A piece of a raft? I says,
3:00:58
Speaker 1: do you belong on it? Yes, sir, any men on it?
3:01:03
Speaker 1: Only one? Sir? Well, there's five niggers run off tonight
3:01:08
Speaker 1: up yonder above the head of the bend, as yr
3:01:11
Speaker 1: man white or black. I didn't answer up prompt I
3:01:16
Speaker 1: tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I tried for
3:01:19
Speaker 1: a second or two to brace up An out with it,
3:01:22
Speaker 1: but I warn't man enough, hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.
3:01:26
Speaker 1: I see, I was weakenin', so I just give up
3:01:29
Speaker 1: tryin' an up An says, he's white. I reckon, we'll
3:01:34
Speaker 1: go an see for ourselves. I wish you would, says I,
3:01:39
Speaker 1: because it's Pap that's there, An, maybe you'd help me
3:01:42
Speaker 1: tow the raft ashore where the light is. He's sick, an,
3:01:45
Speaker 1: so is mam An Mary Ann, Oh the devil. We're
3:01:50
Speaker 1: in a hurry, boy, But I suppose we've got to come.
3:01:54
Speaker 1: Buckle to your paddle, An, let's get along. I buckled
3:01:58
Speaker 1: to my paddle. An. They laid to their oars when
3:02:01
Speaker 1: we had made a stroke or two, I says, Pap
3:02:04
Speaker 1: will be mighty obleeged to you. I can tell you
3:02:08
Speaker 1: everybody goes away when I want them to help me
3:02:10
Speaker 1: to the raft ashore, and I can't do it by myself.
3:02:14
Speaker 1: Well that's infernal. Mean I too, say, boy, what's the
3:02:20
Speaker 1: matter with your father? It's the uh, the well, it
3:02:26
Speaker 1: ain't anything much. They stopped pulling. It warn't by the
3:02:30
Speaker 1: mighty little waist to the raft. Now, one says, boy,
3:02:35
Speaker 1: that's a lie. What is the matter with your pap?
3:02:39
Speaker 1: Answer up square now and it'll be the better for you.
3:02:43
Speaker 1: I will, sir, I will, honest, But don't leave us. Please,
3:02:47
Speaker 1: it's the the gentleman. If you'll only pull ahead and
3:02:51
Speaker 1: let me leave you the headline, you won't have to
3:02:53
Speaker 1: come anear the raft. Please do set her back, John,
3:02:57
Speaker 1: set her back, says one. They backed water. Keep away, boy,
3:03:03
Speaker 1: keep the lard confounded, I jest expect the wind has
3:03:06
Speaker 1: blowed it to us. You perhaps got the smallpox, and
3:03:09
Speaker 1: you know it precious well? Why didn't you come out
3:03:12
Speaker 1: and say so? Do you want to spread it all over? Well?
3:03:17
Speaker 1: Says I a blubberin I've told everybody before. An they
3:03:20
Speaker 1: jest went away an left us, poor devil. There's somethin
3:03:25
Speaker 1: in that. We're right down, sorry fer you, but we
3:03:29
Speaker 1: well hang it. We don't want the small POxy. See
3:03:33
Speaker 1: look here, I'll tell you what to do. Don't you
3:03:35
Speaker 1: try to land by yourself, or you'll smash everything to beeces.
3:03:39
Speaker 1: You float along down about twenty miles an you'll come
3:03:42
Speaker 1: to a town on the left hand side, of the
3:03:44
Speaker 1: river will be long after sun up. Then when you
3:03:48
Speaker 1: ask for help, you tell them your folks are all
3:03:50
Speaker 1: down with chills and fever. Don't be a fool again.
3:03:54
Speaker 1: Let people guess what is the matter. Now. We're tryin
3:03:57
Speaker 1: to do you a kindness, So you jest put twenty
3:04:00
Speaker 1: miles between us. That's a good boy. It wouldn't do
3:04:03
Speaker 1: any good. Land yonder where the light is. It's only
3:04:06
Speaker 1: a woodyard. Say I reckon your father's poor an, I'm
3:04:11
Speaker 1: bound to say he's in pretty hard luck. Here. I'll
3:04:15
Speaker 1: put a twenty dollar gold piece on this board, an
3:04:17
Speaker 1: you get it when it floats by. I feel mighty
3:04:21
Speaker 1: mean to leave you, but my kingdom, it won't do
3:04:23
Speaker 1: to fool with small pox, don't you see. Hold On, Parker,
3:04:28
Speaker 1: says the other man. Here's a twenty to put on
3:04:30
Speaker 1: the board for me. Goodbye, boy. You do as mister
3:04:34
Speaker 1: Parker told you, and you'll be all right. That's so,
3:04:38
Speaker 1: my boy, Goodbye, goodbye. If you see any runaway niggers,
3:04:42
Speaker 1: you can help and nab them, an you can make
3:04:44
Speaker 1: some money by it. Goodbye, sir, says I. I won't
3:04:49
Speaker 1: let no runaway niggers get by me. If I can
3:04:51
Speaker 1: help it. They went off. An I got aboard the raft,
3:04:55
Speaker 1: feelin bad an low, because I knowed very well I
3:04:59
Speaker 1: had done wrong. An I see it, warn't no use
3:05:01
Speaker 1: for me to try to learn to do right. An
3:05:03
Speaker 1: body that don't get started right when he's little ain't
3:05:06
Speaker 1: got no show. When the pinch comes, there ain't nothin
3:05:09
Speaker 1: to back him up an keep him to his work.
3:05:12
Speaker 1: An so he gets beat. Then I thought a minute
3:05:14
Speaker 1: and says to myself, hold on, s'pose you'd a done right,
3:05:18
Speaker 1: an give Jim up. Would you felt better than what
3:05:21
Speaker 1: you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad. I'd
3:05:25
Speaker 1: feel jest the same way I do now. Well, then
3:05:28
Speaker 1: says I, what's the use you learnin to do right
3:05:31
Speaker 1: when it's troublesome to do right? An ain't no trouble
3:05:34
Speaker 1: to do wrong? An the wages is jest about the same.
3:05:38
Speaker 1: I was stuck. I couldn't answer that, so I reckoned.
3:05:41
Speaker 1: I wouldn't bother no more about it. But after this,
3:05:44
Speaker 1: always do whichever come handiest. At the time I went
3:05:48
Speaker 1: into the wigwam, Jim warn't there. I looked all around,
3:05:53
Speaker 1: he warn't anywhere. I says, Jim, you right is huck
3:05:59
Speaker 1: is day out of sight, yet don't talk loud. He
3:06:03
Speaker 1: was in the river under the stern oar with just
3:06:06
Speaker 1: his nose out. I told him they were out of sight,
3:06:09
Speaker 1: so he'd come aboard. He says, I was a listen
3:06:13
Speaker 1: to all to talk. An I slips into the river
3:06:15
Speaker 1: and was gwine to shove for shore if they came aboard.
3:06:19
Speaker 1: Then I was gwine to swim to the raft again
3:06:21
Speaker 1: when day was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool
3:06:24
Speaker 1: um huck tat was the smartest dodge I tell you, child,
3:06:29
Speaker 1: I speckit. Save old Jim. Old Jim ain't goin to
3:06:32
Speaker 1: forget you for that, honey. Then we talked about the money.
3:06:36
Speaker 1: It was a pretty good raise, twenty dollars apiece. Jim
3:06:40
Speaker 1: said we could take deck passage on a steamboat now,
3:06:43
Speaker 1: an the money would last us as far as we
3:06:45
Speaker 1: wanted to go in the Free States. He said twenty
3:06:48
Speaker 1: mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but
3:06:51
Speaker 1: he wished we was all ready there. Towards daybreak we
3:06:54
Speaker 1: tied up, an Jim was mighty particular about hidin' the
3:06:58
Speaker 1: raft good. Then he worked all day fixin things, a bundles,
3:07:02
Speaker 1: an gettin all ready to quit raftin That night, about
3:07:06
Speaker 1: ten we hovin' sight o the lights of a town
3:07:08
Speaker 1: away down in the left hand bend. I went off
3:07:12
Speaker 1: in the canoe to ask about it. Pretty soon I
3:07:15
Speaker 1: found a man out in the river with a skiff
3:07:18
Speaker 1: settin a trot line. I ranged up and says, mister,
3:07:22
Speaker 1: is that town k Ro Kroe? No, you must be
3:07:26
Speaker 1: a blame fool. What town is it? Mister? If you
3:07:30
Speaker 1: want to know, go and find out. If you stay
3:07:33
Speaker 1: here botherin me for about half a minute longer, you'll
3:07:35
Speaker 1: get somethin you won't want. I've paddled to the raft.
3:07:39
Speaker 1: Jim was awful disappointed, but I said, never mind. Kro
3:07:42
Speaker 1: would be the next place I reckoned. We passed another
3:07:46
Speaker 1: time before daylight an I was goin out again, but
3:07:49
Speaker 1: it was high ground, so I didn't go no high
3:07:52
Speaker 1: ground about Kro. Jim said I had forgot it. We
3:07:56
Speaker 1: laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable close
3:07:59
Speaker 1: to the left left hand bank. I began to suspicion something,
3:08:04
Speaker 1: so did Jim. I says, maybe we went by Kro
3:08:09
Speaker 1: and the fog that night. He says, don't, let's talk
3:08:13
Speaker 1: about it. Huck poh niggas can't have no luck. I
3:08:17
Speaker 1: always suspected that rattlesneak skin warn't done with its work.
3:08:22
Speaker 1: I wish i'd never seen that snake skin, Jim, I
3:08:25
Speaker 1: do wish I'd never laid eyes on it. It ain't
3:08:28
Speaker 1: you old fault hook. You didn't know. Don't you blame
3:08:31
Speaker 1: yourself about it? When it was daylight, here was the
3:08:35
Speaker 1: clear Ohio water in shore sure enough, and outside was
3:08:39
Speaker 1: the old regular muddy. So it was all up with
3:08:43
Speaker 1: kro We talked it all over. It wouldn't do to
3:08:48
Speaker 1: take to the shore. We couldn't take the raft up
3:08:50
Speaker 1: the stream, of course. There warn't no way but to
3:08:53
Speaker 1: wait for dark and start back in the canoe and
3:08:55
Speaker 1: take the chances. So we slept all day amongst the
3:08:59
Speaker 1: cottonwood thicket so as to be fresh for the work.
3:09:03
Speaker 1: And when we went back to the raft about dark
3:09:05
Speaker 1: the canoe was gone. We didn't say a word for
3:09:09
Speaker 1: a good while. There warn't anything to say. We both
3:09:13
Speaker 1: knowed well enough it was some more work of the
3:09:15
Speaker 1: rattlesnake skin. So what was the use to talk about it?
3:09:19
Speaker 1: It would only look like we was finding fault, and
3:09:22
Speaker 1: that would be bound to fetch more bad luck, and
3:09:24
Speaker 1: keep on fetching it too, till we knowed enough to
3:09:27
Speaker 1: keep still. By and by, we talked about what we'd
3:09:30
Speaker 1: better do, and find out there warn't no way but
3:09:33
Speaker 1: to go along down with the raft till we got
3:09:35
Speaker 1: a chance to buy a canoe to go back in.
3:09:38
Speaker 1: We weren't going to borrow it when there warn't anybody
3:09:41
Speaker 1: around the way pap would do, for that might set
3:09:44
Speaker 1: people after us. So we shoved out after dark on
3:09:48
Speaker 1: the raft. Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness
3:09:52
Speaker 1: to handle a snake skin, after all that that snake
3:09:55
Speaker 1: skin done for us, we'll believe it now if they
3:09:57
Speaker 1: read on and see what more it done for us.
3:10:00
Speaker 1: The place to buy canoes is off of rafts layin'
3:10:03
Speaker 1: up it shore. But we didn't see no rafts layin' up,
3:10:07
Speaker 1: So we went along during three hours and more. Well,
3:10:10
Speaker 1: the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the
3:10:13
Speaker 1: next meanest thing to fog. You can't tell the shape
3:10:16
Speaker 1: of the river an you can't see no distance. He
3:10:19
Speaker 1: got to be very late and still an then along
3:10:22
Speaker 1: comes a steamboat up the river. We lit the lantern
3:10:26
Speaker 1: an judge she would see us. Of stream boats don't
3:10:29
Speaker 1: generally come close to us. They go out an follow
3:10:32
Speaker 1: the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs.
3:10:35
Speaker 1: But nights like this they bull right up the channel
3:10:38
Speaker 1: against the whole river. We could hear her poundin along,
3:10:43
Speaker 1: but we didn't see her good till she was close.
3:10:45
Speaker 1: She aimed right for us. Often they do that and
3:10:49
Speaker 1: try to see how close they can come without touching.
3:10:52
Speaker 1: Sometimes the wheel bites off a sweep an then the
3:10:54
Speaker 1: pilot sticks his head out and laughs an thinks he's
3:10:57
Speaker 1: mighty smart. Well here's she come, ums, And we said
3:11:00
Speaker 1: she was going to try and shave us, But she
3:11:03
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be shearing off a bit. She was
3:11:06
Speaker 1: a big one, and she was coming in a hurry too,
3:11:09
Speaker 1: looking like a black cloud with rows of glowworms round it.
3:11:12
Speaker 1: But all of a sudden she bulged out, big and scary,
3:11:16
Speaker 1: with a long row of wide open furnace doors shining
3:11:19
Speaker 1: like red hot teeth, and her monstrous boughs and guards
3:11:23
Speaker 1: hanging right over us. There was a yell at us,
3:11:27
Speaker 1: and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a
3:11:30
Speaker 1: pow wow of cussing and whistling esteam and as Jim
3:11:33
Speaker 1: went overboard on one side and I on the other,
3:11:36
Speaker 1: she come smashing straight through the raft. I dived and
3:11:42
Speaker 1: aimed to find the bottom too, for a thirty foot
3:11:44
Speaker 1: wheel had gotten to go over me, and I wanted
3:11:47
Speaker 1: it to have plenty of room. I could always stay
3:11:50
Speaker 1: underwater a minute. This time I recognized stayed under a
3:11:53
Speaker 1: minute and a half. Then I bounced for the type
3:11:56
Speaker 1: in a hurry, for I was nearly busting. I piped
3:11:59
Speaker 1: out to my armpits and blowed the water out of
3:12:01
Speaker 1: my nose and puffed a bit. Of course, there was
3:12:04
Speaker 1: a booming current, and of course that boat started her
3:12:07
Speaker 1: engines again ten seconds after she stopped them, for they
3:12:10
Speaker 1: never cared much for raftsman, So now she was churning
3:12:14
Speaker 1: along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather,
3:12:17
Speaker 1: though I could hear her. I sung out for Jim
3:12:20
Speaker 1: about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer.
3:12:23
Speaker 1: So I grabbed a plank that touched me while I
3:12:26
Speaker 1: was treading water and struck out for shore, shoving it
3:12:29
Speaker 1: ahead of me. But I made out to see that
3:12:32
Speaker 1: the drift of the current was towards the left hand shore,
3:12:35
Speaker 1: which meant that I was in a crossin', so I
3:12:37
Speaker 1: changed off and went that way. It was one of
3:12:41
Speaker 1: these long slantin' two mile crossings, so I was a
3:12:45
Speaker 1: good long time in getting over. I made a safe
3:12:48
Speaker 1: landin' an clumb up the bank. I couldn't see but
3:12:51
Speaker 1: a little ways, but I went poking along over rough
3:12:54
Speaker 1: ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and
3:12:57
Speaker 1: then I run across a big old fashioned double log house.
3:13:00
Speaker 1: Before I noticed it. I was goin to rush by
3:13:03
Speaker 1: and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out
3:13:06
Speaker 1: and went to Howlin and barkin at me, and I
3:13:09
Speaker 1: knowed better than to move another peg. End of chapter sixteen,
3:13:18
Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen. In about a minute, somebody spoke out of
3:13:23
Speaker 1: a window without putting his head out and says, be done, boys,
3:13:28
Speaker 1: who's there? I says, it's me? Who's me? George Jackson? Sir?
3:13:37
Speaker 1: What do you want? I don't want nothing, sir. I
3:13:41
Speaker 1: only want to go along by, But the dogs won't
3:13:44
Speaker 1: let me. What are you prowling around here this time
3:13:48
Speaker 1: of night? For hey, I warn't prowling around, sir. I
3:13:52
Speaker 1: fell overboard off of the steamboat. Oh you did? Did
3:13:56
Speaker 1: you strike a light there? Somebody? What did you say?
3:14:01
Speaker 1: Your name was George Jackson, Sir, I'm only a boy.
3:14:06
Speaker 1: Look here. If you're telling the truth, you needn't be afraid.
3:14:10
Speaker 1: Nobody'll hurt you. But don't try to budge. Stand right
3:14:14
Speaker 1: where you are. Rouse out, Bob and Tom, some of you,
3:14:17
Speaker 1: and fetch the guns. George Jackson. Is there anybody with you? No, sir, nobody.
3:14:25
Speaker 1: I heard the people stiring around in the house. Now
3:14:27
Speaker 1: and see a light, the man sung out, Snatch that
3:14:31
Speaker 1: light away, Betsy, you old fool. Ain't you got any sense?
3:14:35
Speaker 1: Put it on the floor behind the front door. Bob.
3:14:39
Speaker 1: If you and Tom are ready, take your places, all
3:14:42
Speaker 1: ready now, George Jackson, do you know the shepherd sins? No, sir,
3:14:48
Speaker 1: I never heard of them. Well that may be so,
3:14:52
Speaker 1: and it mayn't. Now all ready, step forward, George Jackson,
3:14:58
Speaker 1: and mind, don't you you hurry? Come mighty slow. If
3:15:02
Speaker 1: there's anybody with you, let him keep back. If he
3:15:06
Speaker 1: shows himself, he'll be shot. Come along, now, come slow.
3:15:12
Speaker 1: Push the door open yourself just enough to squeeze in.
3:15:16
Speaker 1: Do you hear I didn't hurry. I couldn't if i'd
3:15:20
Speaker 1: a wanted to. I took one slow step at a time,
3:15:24
Speaker 1: and there warn't a sound. Only I thought I could
3:15:27
Speaker 1: hear my heart. The dogs were as still as the humans,
3:15:31
Speaker 1: but they followed a little behind me. When I got
3:15:34
Speaker 1: to the three log doorsteps, I heard them unlocking and
3:15:37
Speaker 1: unbarring and unboltin'. I put my hand on the door
3:15:41
Speaker 1: and pushed it a little and a little more till
3:15:44
Speaker 1: somebody said, there, that's enough, put your head in. I
3:15:49
Speaker 1: done it, but I judged they would take it off.
3:15:53
Speaker 1: The candle was on the floor, and there they all
3:15:56
Speaker 1: was lookin at me, an me at them. For about
3:15:59
Speaker 1: a quarter of a minute. Three big men with guns
3:16:02
Speaker 1: pointed at me, which made me WinCE. I tell you,
3:16:06
Speaker 1: the oldest gray and about sixty, the other two thirty
3:16:10
Speaker 1: or more, all of them fine and handsome, and the
3:16:13
Speaker 1: sweetest old gray headed lady an back of her two
3:16:17
Speaker 1: young women, which I couldn't see right well, the old
3:16:20
Speaker 1: gentleman says, there, I reckon, it's all right. Come in.
3:16:27
Speaker 1: As soon as I was in, the old gentleman he
3:16:29
Speaker 1: locked the door and barred it and bolted it, and
3:16:31
Speaker 1: told the young men to come in with their guns.
3:16:34
Speaker 1: And they all went in a big parlor that had
3:16:36
Speaker 1: a new rag carpet on the floor and got together
3:16:39
Speaker 1: in a corner that was out of the range of
3:16:41
Speaker 1: the front windows. There warn't none on the side. They
3:16:45
Speaker 1: held the candle and took a good look at me,
3:16:47
Speaker 1: and all said, why he ain't a shepherdson. No, there
3:16:52
Speaker 1: ain't any shepherdson about him. Then the old man said
3:16:56
Speaker 1: he hoped I wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because
3:16:59
Speaker 1: he didn't mean no harm by it. It was only
3:17:01
Speaker 1: to make sure. So he didn't pry it into my pockets,
3:17:05
Speaker 1: but only felt outside with his hands and said it
3:17:08
Speaker 1: was all right. He told me to make myself easy
3:17:11
Speaker 1: and at home and tell all about myself. But the
3:17:14
Speaker 1: old lady says, why bliss, you saw the poor thing's
3:17:17
Speaker 1: as wet as he can be, and don't you reckon it?
3:17:20
Speaker 1: May be he's hungry, true for you, Rachel, I forgot
3:17:26
Speaker 1: so the old lady says, Betsy, this was a nigger woman.
3:17:31
Speaker 1: You fly around and get him something to eat as
3:17:33
Speaker 1: quick as you can, poor thing. And one of you
3:17:36
Speaker 1: girls goin to wake up buck An tell him, oh,
3:17:38
Speaker 1: here he is himself. Buck take this little stranger and
3:17:42
Speaker 1: get the wet clothes off from him and dress him
3:17:44
Speaker 1: up in some of yours. That's dry. Buck looked about
3:17:48
Speaker 1: as old as me, thirteen or fourteen or along there,
3:17:52
Speaker 1: though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn't
3:17:55
Speaker 1: done anything but a shirt, and he was very frowzy headed.
3:17:59
Speaker 1: He came in apin' an diggin' one fist into his eye,
3:18:02
Speaker 1: and he was dragging a gun along with the other one.
3:18:06
Speaker 1: He says, ain't they no shepherdsons around? They said no,
3:18:11
Speaker 1: twas a false alarm. Well, he says, if they'd a
3:18:15
Speaker 1: been some, I reckon i'd a got one. They all laughed,
3:18:20
Speaker 1: and Bob says, why Buck, they might have scalped us all.
3:18:24
Speaker 1: You've been so slow in comin'. Well, nobody come after me. An,
3:18:28
Speaker 1: it ain't right. I'm always kept down. I don't get
3:18:31
Speaker 1: no show. Never mind, Buck, my boy, says the old man.
3:18:37
Speaker 1: You'll have showy enough all in good time. Don't you
3:18:40
Speaker 1: fret about that. Go along with you now, An, do
3:18:43
Speaker 1: as your mother told you. When we got upstairs to
3:18:47
Speaker 1: his room, he got me a coarse shirt, an a
3:18:50
Speaker 1: round a bite, and pants of his. An I put
3:18:53
Speaker 1: them on. Well I was at it. He asked me
3:18:55
Speaker 1: what my name was, but before I could tell him,
3:18:58
Speaker 1: he started to tell me about a blue jack and
3:19:00
Speaker 1: a young rabbit he had catched in the woods day
3:19:02
Speaker 1: before yesterday, and asked me where Moses was when the
3:19:06
Speaker 1: candle went out? I said I didn't know. I hadn't
3:19:09
Speaker 1: heard about it before. No way, Well guess, he says.
3:19:14
Speaker 1: How am I going to guess? Says I when I
3:19:17
Speaker 1: never heard tell of it before? But you can guess,
3:19:21
Speaker 1: can't you. It's just as easy which candle? I says,
3:19:26
Speaker 1: Why any candle? He says, I don't know where he was?
3:19:31
Speaker 1: Says I? Where was he? Why he was in the dark,
3:19:36
Speaker 1: that's where he was. Well, if you knowed where he was,
3:19:40
Speaker 1: what did you ask me for? Why blame it? It's
3:19:44
Speaker 1: a riddle, don't you see? Say? How long are you
3:19:47
Speaker 1: going to stay here? You got to stay always? We
3:19:51
Speaker 1: can just have booming times. They don't have no school.
3:19:54
Speaker 1: Now do you own a dog? I've got a dog
3:19:58
Speaker 1: and hunko in the river and bring out lips that
3:20:00
Speaker 1: you throw in. Do you like to comb up Sundays
3:20:03
Speaker 1: and all that kind of foolishness? You bet I don't.
3:20:07
Speaker 1: But Ma, she makes me confound these old breeches, I reckon,
3:20:12
Speaker 1: I'd better put em on, But I'd ruther not it's
3:20:14
Speaker 1: so warm? Are you all ready all right? Come along,
3:20:19
Speaker 1: old hoss, Cold corn pone, cold corn, beef, butter and buttermilk.
3:20:25
Speaker 1: That is what they had for me down there. An
3:20:27
Speaker 1: there ain't nothing better that ever I've come across yet,
3:20:31
Speaker 1: Buck and his ma An all of them smoked cob pipes,
3:20:34
Speaker 1: except the nigger woman, which was gone an. The two
3:20:38
Speaker 1: young women, they all smoked an talked, and I eat
3:20:41
Speaker 1: an talked. The young women had quilts around them, an
3:20:45
Speaker 1: their hair down their backs. They all asked me questions,
3:20:48
Speaker 1: an I told them how papin me and all the
3:20:50
Speaker 1: family was livin on a little farm down at the
3:20:53
Speaker 1: bottom of Arkansas. An my sister Mary Anne run off
3:20:56
Speaker 1: An got married, an never was heard of no more.
3:20:59
Speaker 1: And Bill went to hunt them, and he warn't hurt
3:21:02
Speaker 1: of no more, and time and mort died, and then
3:21:05
Speaker 1: there warn't nobody but just me and Pap left, and
3:21:08
Speaker 1: he was just trimmed down to nothing on account of
3:21:10
Speaker 1: his troubles. So when he died, I took what there
3:21:13
Speaker 1: was left because the farm didn't belong to us, and
3:21:17
Speaker 1: started up the river deck passage and fell overboard. And
3:21:20
Speaker 1: that was how I come to be here, so they
3:21:23
Speaker 1: said I could have a home there as long as
3:21:25
Speaker 1: I wanted it. Then it was most staylight, and everybody
3:21:29
Speaker 1: went to bed, and I went to bed with Buck.
3:21:32
Speaker 1: And when I waked up in the morning, drat it all.
3:21:35
Speaker 1: I had forgot what my name was, so I laid
3:21:38
Speaker 1: there about an hour trying to think. When Buck waked up,
3:21:41
Speaker 1: I says, can you spell Buck? Yes, he says, I
3:21:46
Speaker 1: bet you can't spell my name? Says I, I bet
3:21:50
Speaker 1: you what you dare I can, says he. All right,
3:21:54
Speaker 1: says I'd go ahead. G E O R G E
3:22:00
Speaker 1: j A x O N there now he says, Well,
3:22:06
Speaker 1: says I you done it, But I didn't think you could.
3:22:10
Speaker 1: It ain't no slouch of a name to spell right
3:22:13
Speaker 1: off without studyin I set it down private because somebody
3:22:18
Speaker 1: might want me to spell it next an, so I
3:22:20
Speaker 1: wanted to be handy with it, an rattle it off
3:22:23
Speaker 1: like I was used to it. It was a mighty
3:22:26
Speaker 1: nice family, an a mighty nice house too. I hadn't
3:22:30
Speaker 1: seen no house out in the country before that was
3:22:32
Speaker 1: so nice. An had so much style. It didn't have
3:22:35
Speaker 1: an iron latch on the front door, nor a wood
3:22:38
Speaker 1: an one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob
3:22:41
Speaker 1: to turn, the same as houses in town. There warn't
3:22:45
Speaker 1: no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed,
3:22:48
Speaker 1: but heaps of parlors in towns has beds in them.
3:22:52
Speaker 1: There was a big fireplace that was bricked on the
3:22:55
Speaker 1: bottom an the bricks was kept clean an red by
3:22:58
Speaker 1: pourin water on them, an scrub them with another brick.
3:23:02
Speaker 1: Sometimes they washed them over with red water paint they
3:23:05
Speaker 1: call Spanish brown seem as they do in town. They
3:23:09
Speaker 1: had big brass dog irons that could hold up a
3:23:12
Speaker 1: saw log. There was a clock on the middle of
3:23:14
Speaker 1: the mantelpiece with a picture of a town painted on
3:23:17
Speaker 1: the bottom half of the glass front, and a round
3:23:20
Speaker 1: place in the middle of it for the sun, and
3:23:22
Speaker 1: you could see the pendulum swinging behind it. It was
3:23:26
Speaker 1: beautiful to hear that clock tick. And sometimes when one
3:23:30
Speaker 1: of these peddlers had bent along and scoured her up
3:23:32
Speaker 1: and got her in good shape, she would start in
3:23:35
Speaker 1: and strike a hundred and fifty before she got tuckered out.
3:23:39
Speaker 1: They wouldn't take any money for her. Well. There was
3:23:43
Speaker 1: a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock,
3:23:46
Speaker 1: made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy
3:23:51
Speaker 1: by one of the parrots was a cat made of crockery,
3:23:53
Speaker 1: and a crockery dog by the other. When you pressed
3:23:57
Speaker 1: down on them, they squeaked, but didn't open their nor
3:24:00
Speaker 1: looked different nor interested. They squeaked through. Underneath there was
3:24:05
Speaker 1: a couple of big wild turkey wing fans spread out
3:24:08
Speaker 1: behind those things. On the table in the middle of
3:24:12
Speaker 1: the room was kind of a lovely crockery basket that
3:24:16
Speaker 1: had apples and oranges and peaches and grapes piled up
3:24:19
Speaker 1: in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier
3:24:22
Speaker 1: than real ones is. But they weren't real because you
3:24:25
Speaker 1: could see where pieces had got chipped off and showed
3:24:28
Speaker 1: the white chalk or whatever it was. Underneath this table
3:24:33
Speaker 1: had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth with a
3:24:36
Speaker 1: red and blue spread eagle painted on it and a
3:24:39
Speaker 1: painted border all round it. Come all the way from Philadelphia,
3:24:44
Speaker 1: they said. There were some books too, piled up perfectly
3:24:48
Speaker 1: exact on each corner of the table. One was a
3:24:51
Speaker 1: big family bible full of pictures. One was Pilgrim's Progress,
3:24:56
Speaker 1: about a man that left his family. It didn't say why.
3:25:00
Speaker 1: I read considerable in it now and then. The statements
3:25:04
Speaker 1: was interesting but tough. Another was Friendship's Offering, full of
3:25:10
Speaker 1: beautiful stuff and poetry, but I didn't read the poetry.
3:25:14
Speaker 1: Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Doctor Gunn's
3:25:18
Speaker 1: Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do
3:25:21
Speaker 1: if a body was sick or dead. There was a
3:25:24
Speaker 1: hymn book and a lot of other books, and there
3:25:27
Speaker 1: was nice split bottom chairs and perfectly sound too, not
3:25:31
Speaker 1: bag down in the middle and busted like an old basket.
3:25:34
Speaker 1: They had pictures hung on the walls, mainly Washington's and
3:25:38
Speaker 1: Lafayettes and battles and Highland Mary's, and one called Singing
3:25:43
Speaker 1: the Declaration. There was some that they called crayons, which
3:25:47
Speaker 1: one of the daughters, which was dead, made her own
3:25:50
Speaker 1: self when she was only fifteen years old. They was
3:25:53
Speaker 1: different from any pictures I ever see before, black or
3:25:57
Speaker 1: mostly than is common. One was a woman in a
3:26:00
Speaker 1: slim black dress belted small under the armpits, with bulges
3:26:05
Speaker 1: like a cabbage in the middle of the sleeves, and
3:26:08
Speaker 1: a large black scoop shovel bonnet with a black veil
3:26:12
Speaker 1: and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape and
3:26:16
Speaker 1: very wee black slippers like a chisel, and she was
3:26:19
Speaker 1: leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow under
3:26:23
Speaker 1: a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down her side,
3:26:26
Speaker 1: holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, And underneath the
3:26:30
Speaker 1: picture it said, shall I never see thee More? Alas
3:26:36
Speaker 1: another was a young woman with her hair all combed
3:26:38
Speaker 1: up straight to the top of her head and knotted
3:26:41
Speaker 1: there in front of a comb like a chair back,
3:26:44
Speaker 1: and she was crying into a handkerchief, and had a
3:26:47
Speaker 1: dead bird laying on its back in her other hand,
3:26:50
Speaker 1: with its heels up, and underneath the picture it said
3:26:53
Speaker 1: I shall never hear thy sweet chirrup. More Alas, there
3:26:59
Speaker 1: was one more where a young lady was at a
3:27:01
Speaker 1: window looking up at the moon, and tears running down
3:27:04
Speaker 1: her cheeks, and she had an open litter in one
3:27:06
Speaker 1: hand with black sealin' wax showing on one edge of it,
3:27:10
Speaker 1: and she was mashing a locket with a chain to
3:27:12
Speaker 1: it against her mouth, and underneath the picture it said,
3:27:16
Speaker 1: an art thou gone, Yes, thou art gone? Alas, these
3:27:21
Speaker 1: was all nice pictures I reckon, but I didn't somehow
3:27:24
Speaker 1: seem to take to them, because if ever I was
3:27:27
Speaker 1: down a little, they always give me the fan tides.
3:27:31
Speaker 1: Everybody was sorry she died because she had laid out
3:27:34
Speaker 1: a lot more of these pictures to do, and a
3:27:36
Speaker 1: body could see by what she had done what they
3:27:38
Speaker 1: had lost. But I reckon with her disposition. She was
3:27:42
Speaker 1: having a better time in the graveyard. She was at
3:27:45
Speaker 1: work on what they said was her greatest picture when
3:27:47
Speaker 1: she took sick, and every day and every night it
3:27:50
Speaker 1: was her prayer to be allowed to live till she
3:27:52
Speaker 1: got it done. But she never got the chance. It
3:27:56
Speaker 1: was a picture of a young woman in a long
3:27:58
Speaker 1: white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge, all
3:28:02
Speaker 1: ready to jump off, with her hair all down her back,
3:28:06
Speaker 1: and looking up to the moon, with the tears running
3:28:08
Speaker 1: down her face. And she had two arms folded across
3:28:12
Speaker 1: her breast and two arms stretched out in front, and
3:28:15
Speaker 1: two more reaching up towards the moon. And the idea
3:28:19
Speaker 1: was to see which pair would look best, and then
3:28:21
Speaker 1: scratch out all the other arms. But as I was saying,
3:28:24
Speaker 1: she died before she got her mind made up. And
3:28:27
Speaker 1: now they kept this picture over the head of the
3:28:29
Speaker 1: bed in her room, and every time her birthday come,
3:28:33
Speaker 1: they hung flowers on it. Other times it was hid
3:28:36
Speaker 1: with a little curtain. The young woman in the picture
3:28:39
Speaker 1: had a kind of nice sweet face, but there were
3:28:42
Speaker 1: so many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed
3:28:45
Speaker 1: to me. This young girl kept a scrap book when
3:28:48
Speaker 1: she was alive, and used to pace obituaries and accidents
3:28:52
Speaker 1: in cases of patient suffering in it out of the
3:28:54
Speaker 1: Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them, out of her
3:28:58
Speaker 1: own head. It was very good poetry. This is what
3:29:02
Speaker 1: she wrote about a boy by the name of Stephen
3:29:04
Speaker 1: Dowland Bots that fell down a whale and was drowned.
3:29:09
Speaker 1: Oh to Stephen Dowlan Bots deceased, And did young Stephen sicken?
3:29:15
Speaker 1: And did young Stephen die? And did the sad hearts thicken?
3:29:20
Speaker 1: And did the mourners cry? No, such was not the
3:29:24
Speaker 1: fate of young Stephen Dowling Bots. Though sad hearts round
3:29:28
Speaker 1: him thickened, twas not from sickness's shots. No whooping cough
3:29:33
Speaker 1: did rack his frame, nor measles drear with spots. Not
3:29:38
Speaker 1: these impaired the sacred name of Stephen Dowling Bots despised
3:29:44
Speaker 1: love struck not with woe that head of curly knots
3:29:48
Speaker 1: nor stomach troubles laid him low, young Stephen Dowling bots
3:29:53
Speaker 1: Oh no, then list with tearful eye, whilst I his
3:29:57
Speaker 1: fate do tell his soul did from this cold world
3:30:01
Speaker 1: fly by falling down a well. They got him out
3:30:05
Speaker 1: an emptied him alas it was too late. His spirit
3:30:10
Speaker 1: was gone for too sport aloft in the realms of
3:30:13
Speaker 1: the good and great. If Emmeline Grangerfield could make poetry
3:30:18
Speaker 1: like that before she was fourteen, there ain't no tellin
3:30:21
Speaker 1: what she could a done by an by Buck said
3:30:24
Speaker 1: she could rattle off poetry like nothin. She didn't never
3:30:28
Speaker 1: have to stop to think, he said. She would slap
3:30:31
Speaker 1: down a line an if she couldn't find anything to
3:30:33
Speaker 1: rhyme with it would just scratch it down and slap
3:30:35
Speaker 1: down another one. An go ahead. She warn't particular. She
3:30:39
Speaker 1: could write about anything you choose to give her to
3:30:41
Speaker 1: write about, just so it was sad full. Every time
3:30:45
Speaker 1: a man died, or a woman died, or a child died,
3:30:48
Speaker 1: she would be on hand with her tribute. Before he
3:30:51
Speaker 1: was cold, she called them tributes. The neighbor said it
3:30:55
Speaker 1: was the doctor first. Then Emmeline, then the undertaker. The
3:31:00
Speaker 1: undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline, but once an
3:31:03
Speaker 1: then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead
3:31:06
Speaker 1: person's name, which was a whistler. She warn't ever the
3:31:10
Speaker 1: same After that. She never complained, but she kindd her
3:31:13
Speaker 1: pined away. An did not live long, poor thing. Many's
3:31:17
Speaker 1: the time I made myself go up to the little
3:31:19
Speaker 1: room that used to be hers an get out her
3:31:22
Speaker 1: poor old scrap book an read in it. When her
3:31:24
Speaker 1: pictures had been aggravating me and I had soured on
3:31:27
Speaker 1: her a little. I liked all that family dead ones
3:31:31
Speaker 1: an all An warn't goin to let anything come between us.
3:31:35
Speaker 1: Poor Emiline made poetry about all the dead people when
3:31:38
Speaker 1: she was alive, and it didn't seem right that there
3:31:41
Speaker 1: warn't nobody to make some about her now she was gone.
3:31:44
Speaker 1: So I tried to sweat out a verse or two myself,
3:31:47
Speaker 1: but I couldn't seem to make it go. Somehow, they
3:31:50
Speaker 1: kept Emmeline's room trimin' nice, an all the things fixed
3:31:54
Speaker 1: in it, just the way she liked to have them
3:31:55
Speaker 1: when she was alive. An nobody ever slept there. The
3:32:00
Speaker 1: old lady took care of the room herself, though there
3:32:03
Speaker 1: was plenty of niggers. An she sewed there a good
3:32:05
Speaker 1: deal and read her Bible there mostly well. As I
3:32:09
Speaker 1: was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on
3:32:13
Speaker 1: the windows, white with pictures painted on them of castles,
3:32:17
Speaker 1: with vines all down the walls. An cattle comin down
3:32:20
Speaker 1: to drink. There was a little old piano too, that
3:32:23
Speaker 1: had tin pans in it, I reckon, an nothin was
3:32:26
Speaker 1: ever so lovely as to hear the young lady sing
3:32:30
Speaker 1: the last link is broken, an play the Battle of
3:32:33
Speaker 1: Prague on it. The walls of all the rooms was
3:32:36
Speaker 1: plastered and moss, had carpets on the floors, and the
3:32:40
Speaker 1: whole house was whitewashed on the outside. It was a
3:32:44
Speaker 1: double house, and the big open place betwixt them was
3:32:47
Speaker 1: roofed and floored. An sometimes the table was set there
3:32:50
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day. An it was a cool,
3:32:52
Speaker 1: comfortable place. Nothin couldn't be better, An warn't the cookin good?
3:32:58
Speaker 1: An jest bushels of it too. End of Chapter seventeen.
3:33:04
Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen. Colonel Grangerford was a gentleman, you see, he
3:33:11
Speaker 1: was a gentleman all over, and so was his family.
3:33:16
Speaker 1: He was well born, as the saying is, and that's
3:33:19
Speaker 1: worth as much in a man as it is a
3:33:20
Speaker 1: a horse. So the widow Douglas said, and nobody ever
3:33:24
Speaker 1: denied that she was of the first aristocracy in our town.
3:33:29
Speaker 1: An pahap He always said it too, though it warn't
3:33:32
Speaker 1: no more quality than a mudcat himself. Colonel Grangerfford was
3:33:36
Speaker 1: very tall, and very slim, and had a darkish paley complexion,
3:33:41
Speaker 1: not a sign of red in it anywheres. He was
3:33:44
Speaker 1: clean shaved every morning, all over his thin face, and
3:33:48
Speaker 1: he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest
3:33:51
Speaker 1: kind of nostrils, and a high nose, and heavy eyebrows,
3:33:54
Speaker 1: and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep back
3:33:58
Speaker 1: that they seemed like they would looking out of caverns
3:34:01
Speaker 1: at you, as you may say. His forehead was high,
3:34:05
Speaker 1: and his hair was black and straight and hung to
3:34:08
Speaker 1: his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and every
3:34:12
Speaker 1: day of his life he put on a clean shirt
3:34:15
Speaker 1: and a full suit from head to foot, made out
3:34:18
Speaker 1: a linen so white it hurt your eyes to look
3:34:21
Speaker 1: at it. And on Sundays he wore a blue tail
3:34:24
Speaker 1: coat with brass buttons on it. He carried a mahogany
3:34:28
Speaker 1: cane with a silver head to it. There warn't no
3:34:31
Speaker 1: frivolishnists about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.
3:34:36
Speaker 1: He was as kind as he could be. You could
3:34:39
Speaker 1: feel that, you know, and so you had confidence. Sometimes
3:34:44
Speaker 1: he smiled and it was good to see. But when
3:34:47
Speaker 1: he straightened himself up like a liberty pole and the
3:34:50
Speaker 1: lightning begun to flicker out from under his eyebrows, you
3:34:54
Speaker 1: wanted to climb a tree first and find out what
3:34:56
Speaker 1: the matter was. Afterwards. He didn't ever have still anybody
3:35:00
Speaker 1: to mind their manners. Everybody was always good mannered where
3:35:04
Speaker 1: he was. Everybody loved to have him around too. He
3:35:08
Speaker 1: was sunshine most always. I mean, he made it seem
3:35:12
Speaker 1: like good weather. When he turned into a cloud bank,
3:35:16
Speaker 1: it was awful dark for half a minute, and that
3:35:19
Speaker 1: was enough. There wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week.
3:35:24
Speaker 1: When him and the old lady come down in the morning,
3:35:26
Speaker 1: all the family got up out of their chairs and
3:35:29
Speaker 1: give them good day, and didn't set down again till
3:35:32
Speaker 1: they had set down. Then Tom and Bob went to
3:35:35
Speaker 1: the sideboard where the decanter was and mixed a glass
3:35:38
Speaker 1: of bitters and handed it to him, and he held
3:35:41
Speaker 1: it in his hand to waited till Tom's and Bob's
3:35:44
Speaker 1: was mixed. And then they bowed and said our duty
3:35:47
Speaker 1: to you, sir and madam, And they bowed the least
3:35:51
Speaker 1: spit in the world, and said thank you. And so
3:35:54
Speaker 1: they drank all three. And Bob and Tom poured a
3:35:57
Speaker 1: spoonful of water and the sugar and the might of
3:35:59
Speaker 1: waer apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and
3:36:03
Speaker 1: give it to me and Buck, and we drank to
3:36:05
Speaker 1: the old people too. Bob was the oldest and Tom next,
3:36:10
Speaker 1: tall beautiful men with very broad shoulders and brown faces
3:36:15
Speaker 1: and long black hair and black eyes. They dressed in
3:36:19
Speaker 1: white linen from head to foot like the old gentleman,
3:36:23
Speaker 1: and wore broad panama hats. Then there was Miss Charlotte.
3:36:28
Speaker 1: She was twenty five and tall and proud and grand,
3:36:31
Speaker 1: but as good as she could be when she warn't
3:36:33
Speaker 1: stirred up. But when she was she had a look
3:36:37
Speaker 1: that would make you wilt in your tracks. Like her father,
3:36:40
Speaker 1: she was beautiful, so was her sister, Miss Sophia, but
3:36:46
Speaker 1: it was a different kind. She was gentle and sweet
3:36:49
Speaker 1: like a dove, and she was only twenty. Each person
3:36:53
Speaker 1: had their own nigger to wait on them. Buck too,
3:36:57
Speaker 1: my nigger, had a monstrous easy time because, as I
3:37:00
Speaker 1: warn't used to having anybody to do anything for me.
3:37:03
Speaker 1: But Bucks was on the jump most of the time.
3:37:06
Speaker 1: This was all there was of the family now, but
3:37:09
Speaker 1: there used to be more. Three sons they got killed,
3:37:12
Speaker 1: and Emmeline that died. The old gentleman owned a lot
3:37:17
Speaker 1: of farms and over a hundred niggers. Sometimes a stack
3:37:21
Speaker 1: of people would come there horseback from ten or fifteen
3:37:24
Speaker 1: mile round and stay five or six days and have
3:37:28
Speaker 1: such junketings round about and on the river, and dances
3:37:32
Speaker 1: and picnics in the woods daytimes, and balls at the
3:37:35
Speaker 1: house nights. These people was mostly kinfolks of the family.
3:37:40
Speaker 1: The men brought their guns with them. It was a
3:37:43
Speaker 1: handsome lot of quality, I tell you. There was another
3:37:47
Speaker 1: plan of aristocracy around there, five or six families, mostly
3:37:52
Speaker 1: of the same name of Shepherdson. They was as high
3:37:55
Speaker 1: toned and well born and rich and grand as the
3:37:58
Speaker 1: tribe of Bringrefford's. The Shepherdsons and Grangerford's used the same
3:38:03
Speaker 1: steamboat landin' which was about two miles above our house.
3:38:07
Speaker 1: So sometimes when I went up there with a lot
3:38:09
Speaker 1: of our folks, I used to see a lot o
3:38:12
Speaker 1: the Shepherdsons there on their fine horses. One day, buckin
3:38:16
Speaker 1: me was away out in the woods huntin' an heard
3:38:19
Speaker 1: a horse comin'. We was crossing the road. Buck says, quick,
3:38:24
Speaker 1: jump for the woods. We done it, and then peeped
3:38:27
Speaker 1: down the woods through the leaves. Pretty soon a splendid
3:38:31
Speaker 1: young man come gallopin down the road, settin his horse
3:38:35
Speaker 1: easy and lookin like a soldier. He had a gun
3:38:38
Speaker 1: across his pommel. I had seen him before. It was
3:38:42
Speaker 1: young Harney Shepherdson. I heard Buck's gun go off of
3:38:46
Speaker 1: my ear, and Harny's hat tumbled off from his head.
3:38:50
Speaker 1: He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place
3:38:52
Speaker 1: where we was hid. But we didn't wait. We started
3:38:56
Speaker 1: through the woods on a run. The woods warn't thick,
3:38:58
Speaker 1: so I looked over my shoulders to dodge a bullet.
3:39:01
Speaker 1: An twice I see Harney covered Buck with his gun,
3:39:04
Speaker 1: and then he rode away the way he'd come to
3:39:06
Speaker 1: get his hat. I reckon, but I couldn't see. We
3:39:10
Speaker 1: never stopped running till we got home. The old gentleman's
3:39:14
Speaker 1: eyes blazed a minute twas pleasure, mainly, I judged. Then
3:39:18
Speaker 1: his face sort of smoothed down, and he says, kind o, gentle,
3:39:23
Speaker 1: I don't like shooting from behind a bush. Why didn't
3:39:26
Speaker 1: you step into the road, my boy? The shepherds and
3:39:30
Speaker 1: stoned father, they always take advantage. Miss Charlotte, she held
3:39:36
Speaker 1: her head up like a queen while Buck was telling
3:39:38
Speaker 1: his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.
3:39:43
Speaker 1: The two young men looked dark, but never said nothin'.
3:39:47
Speaker 1: Miss Sophia, she turned pale, but the color come back
3:39:50
Speaker 1: when she found the man. Warn't hurt soon as I
3:39:54
Speaker 1: could get bucked down by the corn cribs under the tree,
3:39:56
Speaker 1: by ourselves, I says, Did you want to kill him? Buck? Well,
3:40:01
Speaker 1: I bet I did. What did he do to you him?
3:40:06
Speaker 1: He never done nothing to me. Well, then, what did
3:40:09
Speaker 1: you want to kill him for? Why? Nothin'. Only it's
3:40:14
Speaker 1: on account of the feud. What's a feud? Why where
3:40:18
Speaker 1: was you raised? Don't you know what a feud is?
3:40:22
Speaker 1: Never heard of it before? Tell me about it, well,
3:40:26
Speaker 1: says Buck. A feud is this way a man has
3:40:30
Speaker 1: a quarrel with another man and kills him. Then that
3:40:34
Speaker 1: other man's brother kills him. Then the other brothers on
3:40:37
Speaker 1: both sides goes for one another. Then the cousin's chip in,
3:40:42
Speaker 1: and by and by everybody's killed off. An there ain't
3:40:45
Speaker 1: no more feud. But it's kind of slow and takes
3:40:48
Speaker 1: a long time. Has this one been going on long?
3:40:52
Speaker 1: Buck Well? I should reckon it'd started thirty years ago.
3:40:57
Speaker 1: Her summer's along there there is true about somethin', An
3:41:01
Speaker 1: then a law suit to settle it, and the suit
3:41:03
Speaker 1: went again one of the men, so he up an
3:41:06
Speaker 1: shot the man that won the suit, which he wouldn't
3:41:09
Speaker 1: naturally do, of course anybody would. What was the trouble about?
3:41:13
Speaker 1: Buck Land? I reckon? Maybe I don't know well who
3:41:19
Speaker 1: done the shootin'? Was it a Grangerford or a shepherd'sn laws?
3:41:24
Speaker 1: How do I know? It was so long ago? Don't
3:41:28
Speaker 1: anybody know? Oh? Yes, Pa knows, I reckon an some
3:41:32
Speaker 1: of the other old people, but they don't know now
3:41:35
Speaker 1: what the row was about in the first place. Has
3:41:38
Speaker 1: there been many killed buck Yes, rat's smart chance of funerals,
3:41:43
Speaker 1: but they don't always kill. PA's got a few buckshot
3:41:47
Speaker 1: in him, but he don't mind it because he don't
3:41:49
Speaker 1: weigh much anyway. Bob's been carved up some with a bowie,
3:41:53
Speaker 1: an Tom's been hurt once or twice. Has anybody been
3:41:57
Speaker 1: killed this year? Buck? Yes, we got one, an they
3:42:01
Speaker 1: got one. About three months ago. My cousin Bud, fourteen
3:42:06
Speaker 1: year old, was riding through the woods on the other
3:42:09
Speaker 1: side of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him,
3:42:11
Speaker 1: which was blame foolishness. And in a lonesome place, he
3:42:14
Speaker 1: hears a horse a comin behind him and sees old
3:42:17
Speaker 1: baldy shepherdson a linkin after him with his gun in
3:42:20
Speaker 1: his hand and his white hair of flyin' in the wind.
3:42:23
Speaker 1: Instead of jumping off and taking to the bush, Bud
3:42:26
Speaker 1: loud he could outrun him, so they had a nippin'
3:42:30
Speaker 1: tuck for five mile or more. The old man againin
3:42:33
Speaker 1: all the time, so at last Bud seen it warn't
3:42:36
Speaker 1: any use, so he stopped and faced around so as
3:42:39
Speaker 1: to have the bullet holes in front, you know. An
3:42:41
Speaker 1: the old man he rode up and shot him down,
3:42:45
Speaker 1: but he didn't get much chance to enjoy his luck.
3:42:47
Speaker 1: For inside of a week, our folks laid him out.
3:42:51
Speaker 1: I reckon that old man was a coward. Buck, I
3:42:55
Speaker 1: reckon he warn't a coward, not by a blame sight.
3:42:59
Speaker 1: There ain't a cow amongst them shepherdsons, not a one.
3:43:02
Speaker 1: And there ain't no cowards amongst the Grangerfords either. Why
3:43:07
Speaker 1: that old man kept up his end in a fight
3:43:09
Speaker 1: one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and
3:43:12
Speaker 1: come out winter that was all a horseback. He lit
3:43:16
Speaker 1: off his horse and got behind a little woodpile and
3:43:19
Speaker 1: kept his horse before him to stop the bullets. But
3:43:22
Speaker 1: the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around the
3:43:25
Speaker 1: old man and peppered away at him, and he peppered
3:43:28
Speaker 1: away at them. Him and his horse both went home
3:43:32
Speaker 1: pretty leaky and crippled. But the Grangerfords had to be
3:43:35
Speaker 1: fetched home, and one of em was dead, and another
3:43:38
Speaker 1: died the next day. No, sir, if a body's out
3:43:42
Speaker 1: hunting for cowards, he didn't want to fool away any
3:43:45
Speaker 1: time amongst them shepherdsons, because they don't breed any of
3:43:48
Speaker 1: that kind. Next Sunday we all went to church about
3:43:54
Speaker 1: three mile, everybody a horseback. The men took their guns
3:43:58
Speaker 1: along and so did buck An kept them between their
3:44:01
Speaker 1: knees or stood them hand against the wall. The Shepherdson's
3:44:05
Speaker 1: done the same. It was pretty ornery preachin all about
3:44:10
Speaker 1: brotherly love and such like tiresomeness. But everybody said it
3:44:14
Speaker 1: was a good sermon. An they all talked it over
3:44:17
Speaker 1: goin home. An had such a powerful lot to say
3:44:20
Speaker 1: about faith and good works and free grace and pre
3:44:23
Speaker 1: foreordin destination. An, I dunno what all that. It did
3:44:28
Speaker 1: seem to me to be one of the roughest sundays
3:44:30
Speaker 1: I had run across. Yet about an hour after dinner,
3:44:34
Speaker 1: everybody was dozing around, summin' their chairs, an some in
3:44:37
Speaker 1: their rooms. An it got to be pretty dull, buck
3:44:41
Speaker 1: and a dog was stretched out on the grass in
3:44:44
Speaker 1: the sun, signed asleep. I went up to our room
3:44:47
Speaker 1: and judged I would take a nap myself. I found
3:44:51
Speaker 1: that sweet miss Sophia standin in her door, which was
3:44:54
Speaker 1: next ours, and she took me in her room and
3:44:57
Speaker 1: shut the door very soft, and asked me if if
3:45:00
Speaker 1: I liked her, and I said I did. And she
3:45:03
Speaker 1: asked me if I would do something for her and
3:45:05
Speaker 1: not tell anybody, and I said I would. Then she
3:45:09
Speaker 1: said she'd forgot her Testament and left it in the
3:45:12
Speaker 1: sea at church between two other books. And would I
3:45:15
Speaker 1: slip out quiet an go there and fetch it to her?
3:45:17
Speaker 1: An not say nothin to nobody, I said I would,
3:45:21
Speaker 1: So I slid out an slipped off up the road.
3:45:24
Speaker 1: And there warn't anybody at the church except maybe a
3:45:27
Speaker 1: hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door,
3:45:29
Speaker 1: and hogs likes a punching floor in summer time because
3:45:32
Speaker 1: it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to
3:45:36
Speaker 1: church only when they've got to. But a hog is different,
3:45:41
Speaker 1: says I to myself, Somethin's up. That ain't natural for
3:45:45
Speaker 1: a girl to be in such a sweat about a testament,
3:45:48
Speaker 1: So I give it a shake, an out drops a
3:45:50
Speaker 1: little piece of paper with half past two rode on
3:45:54
Speaker 1: it with a pencil. I ransacked it, but couldn't find
3:45:58
Speaker 1: anything else. I couldn't make anything out of that, so
3:46:01
Speaker 1: I put the paper in the book again. And when
3:46:03
Speaker 1: I got home and upstairs, there was Miss Sophia in
3:46:06
Speaker 1: her door waitin for me. She pulled me in and
3:46:09
Speaker 1: shut the door. Then she looked in the testament till
3:46:12
Speaker 1: she found the paper and as soon as she read it,
3:46:15
Speaker 1: she looked glad, and before a body could think, she'd
3:46:19
Speaker 1: grabbed me and give me a squeeze and said I
3:46:21
Speaker 1: was the best boy in the world, and not to
3:46:24
Speaker 1: tell anybody. She was mighty read in the face for
3:46:28
Speaker 1: a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it made
3:46:31
Speaker 1: her powerful pretty. I was a good deal astonished. But
3:46:35
Speaker 1: when I got my breath, I asked her what the
3:46:37
Speaker 1: paper was about, and she asked me if I had
3:46:39
Speaker 1: read it, and I said no. And she asked me
3:46:42
Speaker 1: if I could read writin' and I told her no,
3:46:45
Speaker 1: only coarse hand. And then she said the paper warn't
3:46:48
Speaker 1: anything but a bookmark to keep her a place, and
3:46:51
Speaker 1: I might go and play now. I went off down
3:46:54
Speaker 1: to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon
3:46:58
Speaker 1: I noticed that my nigger was following along behind. When
3:47:01
Speaker 1: we was out of side of the house, he looked
3:47:03
Speaker 1: back and around a second an then comes a runnin
3:47:06
Speaker 1: and says, Mars George, if you'll come down into to swamp,
3:47:11
Speaker 1: I'll show you a whole stack of water moccasins. Thinks
3:47:15
Speaker 1: I that's mighty curious, he said they yesterday, he ought
3:47:19
Speaker 1: ter nobody don't love water moccasins enough to go round
3:47:22
Speaker 1: huntin for them. What is he up to you anyway?
3:47:25
Speaker 1: So I says, all right, try ahead. I followed a
3:47:30
Speaker 1: half mile. Then he struck out over the swamp an
3:47:33
Speaker 1: waited ankle deep as much as another half mile. We
3:47:37
Speaker 1: come to a little flat piece of land which was dry,
3:47:40
Speaker 1: an very thick with trees, an bushes, an vines. An.
3:47:43
Speaker 1: He says, you shove right in dere jest a few
3:47:46
Speaker 1: steps mars George, Dad's where day is? I seed him before,
3:47:51
Speaker 1: I don't care to see him no more. Then he
3:47:54
Speaker 1: slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the
3:47:57
Speaker 1: trees hid him. I poked in to the place of
3:48:00
Speaker 1: ways an come to a little open patch as big
3:48:02
Speaker 1: as a bedroom, all hung around with vines. An found
3:48:06
Speaker 1: a man layin' there asleep, an by James. It was
3:48:10
Speaker 1: my old Jim. I waked him up, and I reckoned
3:48:13
Speaker 1: it was goin to be a grand surprise to him
3:48:15
Speaker 1: to see me again, but it warn't. He nearly cried,
3:48:19
Speaker 1: he was so glad, but he warn't surprised. Said he
3:48:23
Speaker 1: swum along behind me that night and heard me yell
3:48:26
Speaker 1: every time, but doesn't answer because he didn't want nobody
3:48:29
Speaker 1: to pick him up an take him into slavery again,
3:48:33
Speaker 1: says he. I got hurt a little, an couldn't swim fast,
3:48:37
Speaker 1: so I was considerable ways behind you towards lass. When
3:48:41
Speaker 1: you landed, I reckoned. I could git chup with you
3:48:44
Speaker 1: on to land, doubt having a shot at you. But
3:48:46
Speaker 1: when I see that house, I begin to go slow.
3:48:49
Speaker 1: I was off too fur to hear what they say
3:48:52
Speaker 1: to you. I was afraid of the dog's But when
3:48:55
Speaker 1: it was all quiet again, I knowed you was in
3:48:58
Speaker 1: the house. So I struck out for the woods to
3:49:00
Speaker 1: wait for day. Early in the morning, some of the
3:49:03
Speaker 1: niggers come along, goin to the fields. An they took me.
3:49:07
Speaker 1: An showed me this place where the dogs can't track
3:49:09
Speaker 1: me on accounts o de water. An day brings me
3:49:12
Speaker 1: truck to eat every night. An tells me how us
3:49:15
Speaker 1: a gettin' along? Why didn't she tell my jack to
3:49:18
Speaker 1: fetch me here sooner? Jim, Well, twarn't no use to
3:49:22
Speaker 1: disturb you, huck till we could do something. But we's
3:49:26
Speaker 1: all right now. I've been a buyin pots an pans
3:49:29
Speaker 1: an victuals an I got a chance an a patchin'
3:49:32
Speaker 1: up t raft nights went. What raft, Jim, I'll roll raff.
3:49:38
Speaker 1: You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all
3:49:40
Speaker 1: to flinders? No, she warn't. She was tore up a
3:49:45
Speaker 1: good deal one ann o her was, but they warn't
3:49:48
Speaker 1: no great harm done, Only our traps was most all
3:49:51
Speaker 1: lost if we hadn't dived so deep and swum so
3:49:54
Speaker 1: far under water an to night hadn't been so dark,
3:49:57
Speaker 1: and we warn't so skeered an been such punk heads
3:50:00
Speaker 1: as to saying is we deceed the raft? But it's
3:50:04
Speaker 1: just as well we didn't, cause now she's all fixed
3:50:06
Speaker 1: up again, most as good as new, and we's got
3:50:09
Speaker 1: a new lot of stuff in the place of what
3:50:11
Speaker 1: is lost. Why how did you get hold of the
3:50:14
Speaker 1: raft again? Jim? Did you catch her? How? I goin
3:50:19
Speaker 1: to catcher and I out in the woods. No, some
3:50:22
Speaker 1: of the niggers find her kitched on a snag along
3:50:24
Speaker 1: here in the bend, and they hit her in a
3:50:26
Speaker 1: crick amongst to willis an they was so much john
3:50:29
Speaker 1: about which of 'em she belonged to the most? Did
3:50:32
Speaker 1: I come to hear about it? Pitty soon? So I
3:50:35
Speaker 1: ups and settles to trouble by telling them she don't
3:50:37
Speaker 1: belong to none of 'em, but to you and me.
3:50:40
Speaker 1: And I asked them if they's goin to grab a
3:50:42
Speaker 1: young white gentleman's property and get a heightin for it,
3:50:45
Speaker 1: then I get 'em ten cents apiece. An they is
3:50:48
Speaker 1: mighty well satisfied, and wished some more rafts to come
3:50:51
Speaker 1: along and make 'em rich again. They's mighty good to me,
3:50:55
Speaker 1: these niggers, is an. Whatever I wants them to do
3:50:58
Speaker 1: for me, I don't have to ask twice, honey, Dad,
3:51:01
Speaker 1: Jack's a good nigger. An pretty smart, yes he is.
3:51:06
Speaker 1: He ain't ever told me you was here, told me
3:51:09
Speaker 1: to come, an he'd show me a lot o water moccasins.
3:51:12
Speaker 1: If anything happens, he ain't mixed up in it. He
3:51:16
Speaker 1: can say he ain't never seen us together, An it'll
3:51:18
Speaker 1: be the truth. I'd a wanna talk much about the
3:51:22
Speaker 1: next day, I reckon I'll cut it pretty short. I
3:51:26
Speaker 1: waked up about dawn, an was a goin to turn over,
3:51:28
Speaker 1: an go to sleep again. When I noticed how still
3:51:31
Speaker 1: it was, didn't seem to be anybody stirring. That warn't usual.
3:51:37
Speaker 1: Next I noticed that Buck was up an gone, well,
3:51:41
Speaker 1: I gets up a wonderin. An goes downstairs, nobody round
3:51:45
Speaker 1: everything it still as a mouse. Jes the same outside,
3:51:49
Speaker 1: thinks I what does it mean down by the woodpile.
3:51:54
Speaker 1: I comes across my jack and says, what's it all about?
3:51:58
Speaker 1: Says he? Don't you know, Mars George, No, says I
3:52:03
Speaker 1: I don't. Well, then Miss Sophia's run off, deed, she
3:52:08
Speaker 1: has she run off in tonight sometime nobody don't know
3:52:13
Speaker 1: just when, run off to get married to that young
3:52:16
Speaker 1: harny shepherdson, you know, least away so they speck. The
3:52:20
Speaker 1: family found it ied about half hour ago, maybe a
3:52:23
Speaker 1: little more. An I tell you they want no time lost.
3:52:26
Speaker 1: Such another hurryin' up guns an horses, you never see
3:52:30
Speaker 1: the women folks has gone for to strip their relations
3:52:33
Speaker 1: an on Mars Saul and the boys tucked. They guns
3:52:36
Speaker 1: an rode up the river road for to try to
3:52:37
Speaker 1: catch that young man an kill him, for he can
3:52:39
Speaker 1: get across the river with Miss Sophia. I reckon, they's
3:52:43
Speaker 1: gwin' to be mighty rough times. Buck went off that
3:52:47
Speaker 1: waken me up, Well, I reckon he did. They warn't
3:52:51
Speaker 1: gwine to mix you up in it, Mars Buck, he
3:52:54
Speaker 1: loaded up his gun an loud. He's gwine to fetch
3:52:57
Speaker 1: home a shepherdson or bust. Well, there'll be plenty of
3:53:01
Speaker 1: em there, I reckon, and you bet you he'll fetch
3:53:04
Speaker 1: one if he gets a chance. I took up the
3:53:08
Speaker 1: river road as hard as I could put by and
3:53:11
Speaker 1: by I begin to hear guns a good ways off.
3:53:14
Speaker 1: When I came inside of the log store in the
3:53:16
Speaker 1: woodpile where the steamboats land, I worked along under the
3:53:20
Speaker 1: trees and brushed till I got to a good place.
3:53:23
Speaker 1: And then I clumb up into the forks of a
3:53:25
Speaker 1: capt'n wood that was out of reach, and watched. There
3:53:28
Speaker 1: was a wood rank four foot high a little ways
3:53:31
Speaker 1: in front of the tree, and first I was going
3:53:33
Speaker 1: to hide behind that, but maybe it was luckier I didn't.
3:53:37
Speaker 1: There was four or five men cavorting around on their
3:53:40
Speaker 1: horses in the open place before the log store, cussing
3:53:44
Speaker 1: and yelling and trying to get out a couple of
3:53:46
Speaker 1: young chaps that was behind the wood rank alongside of
3:53:49
Speaker 1: the steamboat landing, but they couldn't come it. Every time
3:53:53
Speaker 1: one of them showed himself on the river side of
3:53:55
Speaker 1: the woodpile, he got shot at. The two boys was
3:53:58
Speaker 1: squatting back to back behind the pile so they could
3:54:01
Speaker 1: watch both ways. By and by, the men stopped cavorting
3:54:05
Speaker 1: around and yelling. They started riding towards the store. Then
3:54:09
Speaker 1: up gets one of the boys, draws a steady beat
3:54:12
Speaker 1: over the wood rank and drops one of them out
3:54:15
Speaker 1: of his saddle. All the men jumped off of their
3:54:18
Speaker 1: horses and grabbed the hurt one and started to carry
3:54:21
Speaker 1: him to the store. And that minute the two boys
3:54:24
Speaker 1: started on the run. They got half way to the
3:54:27
Speaker 1: tree I was in before the men noticed. Then the
3:54:30
Speaker 1: men see them and jumped on their horses and took
3:54:33
Speaker 1: out after them. They gained on the boys, but it
3:54:36
Speaker 1: didn't do no good. The boys had too good a start.
3:54:40
Speaker 1: They got to the woodpile that was in front of
3:54:42
Speaker 1: my tree and slipped him behind it, and so they
3:54:45
Speaker 1: had the bulge on the men again. One of the
3:54:47
Speaker 1: boys was Buck and the other was a slim young
3:54:50
Speaker 1: chap about nineteen years old. The men ripped around awhile
3:54:55
Speaker 1: and then rode away. As soon as they was out
3:54:57
Speaker 1: of sight. I sung out to Buck an told him
3:55:01
Speaker 1: he didn't know what to make of my voice comin
3:55:03
Speaker 1: out o the tree. First he was awful surprised. He
3:55:07
Speaker 1: told me to watch out sharp an let him know
3:55:09
Speaker 1: when the men come in sight again, and said they
3:55:11
Speaker 1: was up to some devilment. Rother wouldn't be gone long.
3:55:16
Speaker 1: I wished I was out o that tree, but I
3:55:17
Speaker 1: dasn't come down. Buck begun to cry and rip An
3:55:21
Speaker 1: lied to him and his cousin Joe, that was the
3:55:24
Speaker 1: other young chap would make up for this day. Yet,
3:55:27
Speaker 1: he said his father an his two brothers was killed
3:55:31
Speaker 1: an two or three of the enemy, said the Shepherdsons
3:55:34
Speaker 1: laid for them in ambush. Buck said his father an
3:55:37
Speaker 1: brothers ought to wait for their relations. Shepherdson's was too
3:55:41
Speaker 1: strong for them. I asked him what was become a
3:55:45
Speaker 1: young Harney a miss Sophia. He said they got across
3:55:48
Speaker 1: the river and was safe. I was glad of that.
3:55:52
Speaker 1: But the way Buck did take on because he didn't
3:55:54
Speaker 1: manage to kill Harny that day, he shot at him.
3:55:57
Speaker 1: I hain't ever heard anything like it. All of a sudden,
3:56:01
Speaker 1: bang bang, bang, goes three or four guns. The men
3:56:05
Speaker 1: had slipped around through the woods an come in from
3:56:08
Speaker 1: behind without their horses. The boys jumped for the river,
3:56:11
Speaker 1: both of them hurt an as they swum down the current,
3:56:14
Speaker 1: the men run along the bank, shootin at them, a
3:56:17
Speaker 1: singing out, kill them, kill them. It made me so
3:56:22
Speaker 1: sick I must fell out o the tree. I ain't
3:56:25
Speaker 1: a goin to tell all that happened. It would make
3:56:28
Speaker 1: me sick again if I was to do that. I
3:56:31
Speaker 1: wished I hadn't ever come ashore that night to see
3:56:33
Speaker 1: such things. I ain't ever goin to get shut o them.
3:56:37
Speaker 1: Lots of times I dream about them. I stayed in
3:56:41
Speaker 1: the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to
3:56:43
Speaker 1: come down. Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods.
3:56:48
Speaker 1: An twice I seen little gangs of men gallop past
3:56:51
Speaker 1: the log store with guns. So I reckon the trouble
3:56:54
Speaker 1: was still a goin on. I was mighty downhearted. So
3:56:59
Speaker 1: I made up my mind I wouldn't ever go a
3:57:01
Speaker 1: near that house again. Because I reckoned I was to
3:57:04
Speaker 1: blame somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant
3:57:07
Speaker 1: that Miss Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half
3:57:11
Speaker 1: past two and run off. And I judged I ought
3:57:14
Speaker 1: to told her father about that paper and the curious
3:57:17
Speaker 1: way she acted, and then maybe he would have locked
3:57:20
Speaker 1: her up and this awful mess wouldn't never happened. When
3:57:23
Speaker 1: I got down out of the tree, I crept along
3:57:26
Speaker 1: down the river bank a piece and found the two
3:57:29
Speaker 1: bodies laying in the edge of the water, and tugged
3:57:32
Speaker 1: at them till I get them ashore. Then I covered
3:57:35
Speaker 1: up their faces and got away as quick as I could.
3:57:40
Speaker 1: I cried a little when I was covering up Buck's face,
3:57:43
Speaker 1: for he was mighty good to me. It was just
3:57:48
Speaker 1: dark now. I never went near the house, but struck
3:57:51
Speaker 1: through the woods and made for the swamp. Jim warn't
3:57:55
Speaker 1: on his island, so I tramped off in a hurry
3:57:57
Speaker 1: for the crook and crowded through the willows, read to
3:58:00
Speaker 1: jump aboard an get out o that awful country. The
3:58:03
Speaker 1: raft was gone my soul's, but I was scared. I
3:58:08
Speaker 1: couldn't get my breath for most a minute. Then I
3:58:11
Speaker 1: raised a yell. A voice not twenty five foot from
3:58:15
Speaker 1: me says, good land is that you, honey? Don't make
3:58:19
Speaker 1: no noise. It was Jim's voice. Nothin ever sounded so good.
3:58:24
Speaker 1: Before I run along the bank apiece an got aboard
3:58:29
Speaker 1: an Jim. He grabbed me, an hugged me. He was
3:58:31
Speaker 1: so glad to see me, He says, Law's bless you, child,
3:58:36
Speaker 1: I was right down shore. You's dead again. Jack's been here,
3:58:40
Speaker 1: he said. He reckons you's been shot cause you didn't
3:58:43
Speaker 1: come home no more. So why it's jest this minute
3:58:45
Speaker 1: O startin to raft down towards Moutfort de Crook. So's
3:58:49
Speaker 1: to be all ready for to shove out an leave
3:58:51
Speaker 1: soon as Jack comes again. An tells me for certain
3:58:53
Speaker 1: you is dead, Lawsy, I's mighty glad to get you
3:58:57
Speaker 1: back again, honey, I says, all right, that's mighty good.
3:59:03
Speaker 1: They won't find me an, they'll think I've been killed
3:59:06
Speaker 1: and floated down the river. There's somethin up there that'll
3:59:09
Speaker 1: help them think so. So don't you lose no time, Jim.
3:59:12
Speaker 1: But jest, shove off for the big water as fast
3:59:14
Speaker 1: as ever you can. I never felt easy till the
3:59:18
Speaker 1: raft was two mile below there an out in the
3:59:21
Speaker 1: middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung up our signal
3:59:24
Speaker 1: lantern an judged that we was free a safe once more.
3:59:29
Speaker 1: I hadn't had a bite to eat since yesterday, so
3:59:32
Speaker 1: Jim he got out some corn dodgers and buttermilk, an pork,
3:59:35
Speaker 1: an cabbage and greens. There ain't nothin in the world
3:59:39
Speaker 1: so good when it's cooked right. An, Whilst I eat
3:59:42
Speaker 1: my supper, we talked, an had a good time. I
3:59:45
Speaker 1: was powerful glad to get away from the feuds. An
3:59:48
Speaker 1: so is Jim, to get away from the swamp. We said,
3:59:51
Speaker 1: there warn't no home like a raft. After all, other
3:59:55
Speaker 1: places do seem so cramped up an smothery. But a raft.
3:59:58
Speaker 1: Don't you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on
4:00:04
Speaker 1: a raft? End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, two or
4:00:13
Speaker 1: three days and nights went by, I reckon, I might
4:00:16
Speaker 1: say they swum by. They slid along so quiet and
4:00:20
Speaker 1: smooth and lovely. Here's the way we put in the time.
4:00:24
Speaker 1: It was a monstrous big river down there, sometimes a
4:00:28
Speaker 1: mile and a half wide. We run nights and laid
4:00:31
Speaker 1: up and hid daytimes. Soon as night was most gone,
4:00:35
Speaker 1: we stopped navigating and tied up nearly always in the
4:00:38
Speaker 1: dead water under a towhead, and then cut young cottonwoods
4:00:42
Speaker 1: and willows and hid the raft with them. Then we
4:00:46
Speaker 1: set out the lines. Next we slid into the river
4:00:49
Speaker 1: and had a swim so as to freshen up and
4:00:52
Speaker 1: cool off. Then we sit down on the sandy bottom
4:00:56
Speaker 1: where the water was about knee deep, and watched the daylight.
4:01:01
Speaker 1: Not a sound anywher's perfectly still, just like the whole
4:01:06
Speaker 1: world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a clutter. And
4:01:10
Speaker 1: maybe the first thing to see looking away over the
4:01:14
Speaker 1: water was a kind of dull line. That was the
4:01:18
Speaker 1: woods on the other side. You couldn't make nothing else out.
4:01:22
Speaker 1: Then a pale place in the sky. Then more paleness
4:01:27
Speaker 1: spreading around. Then the river softened up, away off and
4:01:31
Speaker 1: warn't black anymore but gray. You could see little dark
4:01:36
Speaker 1: spots drifting along ever so far away, trading sky was
4:01:40
Speaker 1: and such things, and long black streaks, rafts. Sometimes you
4:01:46
Speaker 1: could hear a sweep screaking or jumbled up voices. It
4:01:50
Speaker 1: was so still, and sounds come so far, and by
4:01:54
Speaker 1: and by you could see a streak on the water,
4:01:57
Speaker 1: which you know by the look of the streak that
4:01:59
Speaker 1: there's a snag. They're in the swift current which breaks
4:02:02
Speaker 1: on it and makes that streak look that way. And
4:02:05
Speaker 1: you see the mist curl up off of the water,
4:02:09
Speaker 1: and the east reddens up, and the river and you
4:02:12
Speaker 1: make out a log cabin in the edge of the
4:02:14
Speaker 1: woods away on the bank on the other side of
4:02:17
Speaker 1: the river, be in a woodyard likely and piled by
4:02:21
Speaker 1: them cheats, so you can throw a dog through it anywheres.
4:02:25
Speaker 1: Then the nice breeze springs up and comes fanning you
4:02:28
Speaker 1: from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet smell
4:02:33
Speaker 1: on account of the woods and the flowers. But sometimes
4:02:37
Speaker 1: not that way, because they've left dead fish laying around
4:02:40
Speaker 1: guards and such, and they do get pretty rank. And
4:02:44
Speaker 1: next thing you got the full day and everything smiling
4:02:48
Speaker 1: in the sun, and the songbirds just going it. A
4:02:53
Speaker 1: little smoke couldn't be noticed. Now Sweet would take some
4:02:56
Speaker 1: fish off of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast,
4:02:59
Speaker 1: and after afterwards we would watch the lonesomeness of the river,
4:03:03
Speaker 1: a kind of lazy along and buy and buy lazy
4:03:07
Speaker 1: off to sleep, wake up by and by and look
4:03:10
Speaker 1: to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat
4:03:13
Speaker 1: coughin along upstream so far off towards the other side.
4:03:17
Speaker 1: You couldn't tell nothing about her, only whether she was
4:03:20
Speaker 1: a stern wheeler side wheel. Then for about an hour
4:03:24
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor nothing to see,
4:03:27
Speaker 1: just a solid lonesomeness. Next you'd see a raft sliding
4:03:32
Speaker 1: by away off yonder and maybe a glot on it choppin',
4:03:37
Speaker 1: because they're most always doing it. On a raft. You'd
4:03:40
Speaker 1: see the axe flash an come down. You don't hear nothing.
4:03:44
Speaker 1: You see that axe go up again, and by the
4:03:47
Speaker 1: time it's above the man's head, then you hear the
4:03:50
Speaker 1: k chunk. It had took all that time to come
4:03:53
Speaker 1: over the water, so we would put in the day
4:03:57
Speaker 1: lazy and around listening to the still. Once there was
4:04:02
Speaker 1: a thick fog and the rafts an things that went
4:04:04
Speaker 1: by was beaten tin pans, so the steamboats wouldn't run
4:04:08
Speaker 1: over them. A sky or a raft went by so
4:04:11
Speaker 1: close we could hear them talking and cussin and laughin,
4:04:15
Speaker 1: heard them plain, but we couldn't see no sign of them.
4:04:19
Speaker 1: It made you feel Crawley. It was like spirits carryin
4:04:23
Speaker 1: on that way in the air. Jim said he believed
4:04:27
Speaker 1: it was spirits, but I says no. Spirits wouldn't say
4:04:32
Speaker 1: durn the durned fog. Soon as it was night out,
4:04:37
Speaker 1: we shoved. When we got her out to about the middle,
4:04:40
Speaker 1: we'd let her alone and let her float wherever the
4:04:42
Speaker 1: current wanted her to. Then we lit the pipes an
4:04:46
Speaker 1: dangled our legs in the water and talked about all
4:04:49
Speaker 1: kinds of things. We was always naked a day and
4:04:52
Speaker 1: night whenever the mosquitoes would let us. The new clothes
4:04:56
Speaker 1: bucks folks made for me was too good to be comfortable.
4:05:00
Speaker 1: An besides, I didn't go much on clothes, nohow. Sometimes
4:05:04
Speaker 1: we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the
4:05:07
Speaker 1: longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands across
4:05:12
Speaker 1: the water. An maybe a spark, which was a candle
4:05:15
Speaker 1: in a cabin window, And sometimes on the water you
4:05:19
Speaker 1: could see a spark or two on a raft or
4:05:21
Speaker 1: a scow, you know, and maybe you could hear a
4:05:24
Speaker 1: fiddle or a song comin over from one of them crafts.
4:05:28
Speaker 1: It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the
4:05:32
Speaker 1: sky up there, all speckle with stars, and we used
4:05:35
Speaker 1: to lay on our backs and look up at them
4:05:38
Speaker 1: and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim,
4:05:43
Speaker 1: he loud they was made, but I lowed they happened.
4:05:47
Speaker 1: I judged it would have took so long to make
4:05:50
Speaker 1: so many. Jim said the moon could allaid them. Well,
4:05:55
Speaker 1: that looked kind of reasonable. Spidin's say nothin against it
4:06:00
Speaker 1: because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so
4:06:02
Speaker 1: of course it could be done. We used to watch
4:06:06
Speaker 1: the stars that fell too, and see them streak down.
4:06:11
Speaker 1: Jim alowed they'd got spoiled, and was hove out of
4:06:14
Speaker 1: the nest. Once or twice of a night we could
4:06:18
Speaker 1: see a steamboat slipping along in the dark, and now
4:06:21
Speaker 1: and then she would belch a whole world of sparks
4:06:24
Speaker 1: up out of her chimbleys, and they would rain down
4:06:27
Speaker 1: in the river and look awful pretty. Then she would
4:06:31
Speaker 1: turn a corner and her lights would wink out, and
4:06:34
Speaker 1: her pilewow shut off, and leave the river still again,
4:06:38
Speaker 1: and by and by her waves would get to us
4:06:41
Speaker 1: a long time after she was gone, and joggle the
4:06:44
Speaker 1: raft a bit. And after that you wouldn't hear nothing,
4:06:47
Speaker 1: for you couldn't tell how long, except maybe frogs or something.
4:06:52
Speaker 1: After midnight, the people on shore went to bed, and
4:06:56
Speaker 1: then for two or three hours the shores was black.
4:06:59
Speaker 1: More sparks in the cabin windows. These sparks was our clock.
4:07:05
Speaker 1: The first one that showed again meant morning was coming.
4:07:08
Speaker 1: So we hunted a place to hide and tie up
4:07:11
Speaker 1: right away. One morning, about daybreak, I found a canoe
4:07:16
Speaker 1: and crossed over a chute to the main shore. It
4:07:20
Speaker 1: was only two hundred yards, and paddled about a mile
4:07:23
Speaker 1: up a crook amongst the cypress woods to see if
4:07:26
Speaker 1: I couldn't get some berries. Just as I was passing
4:07:29
Speaker 1: a place where a kind of a cow path crossed
4:07:31
Speaker 1: the creek, here comes a couple of men tearing up
4:07:34
Speaker 1: the path as tight as they could foot it. I
4:07:38
Speaker 1: thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was after anybody,
4:07:42
Speaker 1: I judged it as me or maybe Jim. I was
4:07:46
Speaker 1: about to dig out from there in a hurry, but
4:07:49
Speaker 1: they was pretty close to me then and sung out
4:07:52
Speaker 1: and begged me to save their lives. Said they hadn't
4:07:55
Speaker 1: been doing nothing and was being chased for it, and
4:07:58
Speaker 1: there was men and dogs a come n They wanted
4:08:01
Speaker 1: to jump right in, but I says, don't you do it.
4:08:05
Speaker 1: I don't hear the dogs an horses yet. You've got
4:08:08
Speaker 1: time to crowd through the brush an get up the
4:08:10
Speaker 1: crick a little ways. Then you take to the water
4:08:13
Speaker 1: and wait down to me, an get in. Bat'll throw
4:08:16
Speaker 1: the dogs off the scent. They done it. An soon
4:08:20
Speaker 1: as they was aboard, ILL lit out for our toe
4:08:23
Speaker 1: head an. In about five or ten minutes, we heard
4:08:26
Speaker 1: the dogs. An the men away off shoutin. We heard
4:08:29
Speaker 1: them come along towards Crick couldn't see them. They seemed
4:08:33
Speaker 1: to stop an fool around awhile. Then as we got
4:08:36
Speaker 1: further and further away, all the time we couldn't hardly
4:08:39
Speaker 1: hear them at all. And by the time we had
4:08:42
Speaker 1: left a mile of woods behind us, An struck the river.
4:08:46
Speaker 1: Everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead.
4:08:49
Speaker 1: An hid in the cottonwoods and was safe. One of
4:08:53
Speaker 1: these fellows was about seventy or upwards. An had a
4:08:56
Speaker 1: bald head and very gray whiskers. He had an old,
4:09:01
Speaker 1: battered up slouch hat on and a greasy blue woolen
4:09:05
Speaker 1: shirt and ragged old blue jeans, breeches stuffed into his
4:09:09
Speaker 1: boot tops. An home nick glasses, No, he only had one.
4:09:14
Speaker 1: He had an old, long tailed blue jean's coat with
4:09:18
Speaker 1: slick brass buttons flung over his arm. An. Both of
4:09:22
Speaker 1: them had big, fat, ratty looking carpet bags. The other
4:09:27
Speaker 1: fellow was about thirty, An dressed about his ornery. After breakfast,
4:09:32
Speaker 1: we all laid off and talked, and the first thing
4:09:34
Speaker 1: to come out was that these chaps didn't know one another.
4:09:38
Speaker 1: What got you into trouble, says the bald head to
4:09:42
Speaker 1: the other chap. Well, i'd been sellin an article to
4:09:46
Speaker 1: take the tartar off the teeth, and it does take
4:09:49
Speaker 1: it off too, an generally the enamel along with it.
4:09:54
Speaker 1: But I stayed about one night longer than I ought to,
4:09:58
Speaker 1: and was just in the act slidin out when I
4:10:01
Speaker 1: ran across you on the trail this side of town,
4:10:05
Speaker 1: and you told me they were comin. An begged me
4:10:08
Speaker 1: to help you to get off. So I told you
4:10:11
Speaker 1: I was expectin' trouble myself, An was scattered out with you.
4:10:17
Speaker 1: That's the whole yarn. What's yorn? Well, i'd been a
4:10:23
Speaker 1: runnin a little temperance revival there about a week. An
4:10:26
Speaker 1: was the pet of the women folks, big an little,
4:10:29
Speaker 1: for I was makin it mighty warm for the rummies,
4:10:31
Speaker 1: I tell you, an takin' as much as five or
4:10:34
Speaker 1: six dollars a night, ten cents a head, children, and
4:10:37
Speaker 1: nigger's free, an business of growing all the time. When
4:10:41
Speaker 1: somehow or another, a little report got around last night
4:10:43
Speaker 1: that I had a way of putting in my time
4:10:45
Speaker 1: with a private jug on the slide, and Niggar rassed
4:10:48
Speaker 1: me out this mornin and told me the people was
4:10:50
Speaker 1: gathering on the quiet with their dogs an horses. An
4:10:53
Speaker 1: then be long pretty soon and give me about half
4:10:55
Speaker 1: an hour's start, An then run me down if they could.
4:10:58
Speaker 1: An if they got me, they'd tarn feathered me and
4:11:01
Speaker 1: ride me on a rail shore. I didn't wait for
4:11:03
Speaker 1: no breakfast. I warn't hungry, old man, said the young one.
4:11:09
Speaker 1: I reckon we might double team it together. What do
4:11:13
Speaker 1: you think? I ain't undisposed. What's you lying? Mainly? Jeweler
4:11:19
Speaker 1: printer by trade, do a little an patent, medicines, theater, actor, tragedy,
4:11:27
Speaker 1: you know, take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology when
4:11:31
Speaker 1: there's a chance. Teach singin geography school for a change,
4:11:36
Speaker 1: sling a lecture sometimes. Oh, I do lots of things,
4:11:42
Speaker 1: most anything that comes handy, so it ain't work. What's
4:11:47
Speaker 1: your lay? I've done considerable in the doctrine, laying my time,
4:11:52
Speaker 1: laying on hands is my best hope for cancer and
4:11:55
Speaker 1: prolysis and such things. And I can tell a fortune
4:11:58
Speaker 1: pretty good when I've got somebody long. If I out
4:12:00
Speaker 1: facts for me preachings my line too, and working camp
4:12:04
Speaker 1: meetings and missionarying around. Nobody never said anything for a while.
4:12:10
Speaker 1: When the young man hove aside and says, oh, laugh,
4:12:16
Speaker 1: what are you laughing about? Says the bald head, to
4:12:20
Speaker 1: think I should have lived to be leading such a
4:12:23
Speaker 1: life and be degraded down into such company? And he
4:12:28
Speaker 1: had begun to wipe the corner of his eye with
4:12:30
Speaker 1: a rag durn your skin. Ain't the company good enough
4:12:34
Speaker 1: for you? Says the bald head, pretty perch and uppish. Yes,
4:12:41
Speaker 1: it is good enough for me. It's as good as
4:12:44
Speaker 1: I deserve. For who fetched me so low when I
4:12:47
Speaker 1: was so high? I did myself. I don't blame you, gentlemen,
4:12:54
Speaker 1: far from it. I don't blame anybody. I deserve it all.
4:13:01
Speaker 1: Let the cold world do its worst. One thing. I
4:13:05
Speaker 1: know there's a grave somewhere for me. The world may
4:13:10
Speaker 1: go on just as it's always done. An take everything
4:13:15
Speaker 1: from me, loved ones, property, everything, But it can't take that.
4:13:23
Speaker 1: Someday I'll lie down in it an forget it all,
4:13:27
Speaker 1: and my poor broken heart will be at rest. He
4:13:32
Speaker 1: went on a wipin' Try your poor broken heart, says
4:13:36
Speaker 1: the bald head, what do you given your poor broken
4:13:39
Speaker 1: hearted us, For we ain't done nothing. No, I know
4:13:44
Speaker 1: you haven't. I ain't blamin you, gentlemen. I brought myself down. Yes,
4:13:50
Speaker 1: I did it myself. It's right I should suffer perfectly, right.
4:13:56
Speaker 1: I don't make any moan. She's down from war? Where
4:14:01
Speaker 1: was she brought down from? Uh? You would not believe me.
4:14:06
Speaker 1: The world never believes. Let it pass tis no matter.
4:14:12
Speaker 1: The secret of my birth, the secret her birth? Do
4:14:16
Speaker 1: you mean to say, gentlemen? Says the young man, very solemn.
4:14:22
Speaker 1: I will reveal it to you, for I feel I
4:14:26
Speaker 1: may have confidence in you. By rights, I am a duke.
4:14:33
Speaker 1: Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that, and I
4:14:36
Speaker 1: reckon mind it too. Then the bald head says, no,
4:14:41
Speaker 1: you can't mean it. Yes, my great grandfather, eldest son
4:14:47
Speaker 1: of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled to this country by
4:14:51
Speaker 1: the end of the last century to breathe the pure
4:14:54
Speaker 1: air of freedom, married here and died, leaving a son
4:14:59
Speaker 1: his own father dying about the same time. The second
4:15:03
Speaker 1: son of the late duke seized the titles and the states.
4:15:08
Speaker 1: The infant's real duke was ignored. I am the lineal
4:15:13
Speaker 1: descendant of that infant. I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater,
4:15:19
Speaker 1: and here am I forlorn, torn from my high estate,
4:15:25
Speaker 1: hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged worn, heartbroken,
4:15:32
Speaker 1: and degraded to the companionship of felons on a raft.
4:15:38
Speaker 1: Jim pitied him ever so much, and so to die.
4:15:42
Speaker 1: We tried to comfort him, but he said it warn't
4:15:44
Speaker 1: much use. He couldn't be much comforted, and if we
4:15:48
Speaker 1: was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him
4:15:50
Speaker 1: more good than most anything else. So we said we
4:15:53
Speaker 1: would if he would tell us how he said. We
4:15:57
Speaker 1: ought to buy when we spoke to him, and say
4:16:00
Speaker 1: your grace, or my lord or your lordship, and he
4:16:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind if we called him Plain Bridgewater, which he
4:16:10
Speaker 1: said was a title anyway, and not a name. And
4:16:13
Speaker 1: one of us ought to wait on him at dinner
4:16:15
Speaker 1: and do any little thing for him he wanted done. Well,
4:16:19
Speaker 1: that was all easy, so we done it all through dinner.
4:16:23
Speaker 1: Jim stood around and waited on him and says, will
4:16:27
Speaker 1: your grace have some meduse or some ma dad, and
4:16:31
Speaker 1: so on? An a body could see it was mighty
4:16:33
Speaker 1: pleasing to him. But the old man got pretty silent
4:16:38
Speaker 1: by and by, didn't have much to say and didn't
4:16:41
Speaker 1: look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going
4:16:44
Speaker 1: on around that duke. He seemed to have something on
4:16:47
Speaker 1: his mind. So along in the afternoon he says, look
4:16:53
Speaker 1: at yer Bill Twater. He says, I'm nation sorry for you,
4:16:57
Speaker 1: But you ain't the only person that's had troubles like that. No, no,
4:17:02
Speaker 1: you ain't. You ain't the only person that's been snaked
4:17:05
Speaker 1: down wrongfully out in a high place. Alas, No, you
4:17:10
Speaker 1: ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth.
4:17:13
Speaker 1: And by jings he begins to cry, Hold what do
4:17:19
Speaker 1: you mean, bilge Water, Can I trust you? Says the
4:17:23
Speaker 1: old man, still sort of sobbing to the bitter death.
4:17:29
Speaker 1: He took the old man by the hand and squeezed
4:17:31
Speaker 1: it and says that secret of your being speak, Bilchwater,
4:17:39
Speaker 1: I am the late Dauphin. You bet you, Jim and
4:17:43
Speaker 1: me stare this time. Then the duke says, you are
4:17:48
Speaker 1: what Yes, my friend, it is too true. Your eyes
4:17:53
Speaker 1: is looking at this very moment on the poor disappeared
4:17:56
Speaker 1: Dauphin Louis the seventeen son of the sixteen and mare Antinette.
4:18:03
Speaker 1: You at your age? No, you mean you're the late Charlemagne.
4:18:10
Speaker 1: You must be six or seven hundred years old at
4:18:13
Speaker 1: the very least. Trouble has done it, Bills, what a
4:18:17
Speaker 1: trouble has done it? Trouble has brung these gray hairs
4:18:20
Speaker 1: and this premature bultitude. Yes, gentlemen, you see before you,
4:18:25
Speaker 1: in blue jeans and misery, the wandering exiled, tramped on
4:18:29
Speaker 1: and suffering, rightful King of France. Well, he cried and
4:18:35
Speaker 1: took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly
4:18:38
Speaker 1: what to do. We was so sorry and so glad
4:18:41
Speaker 1: and proud we'd got him with us too. So we
4:18:44
Speaker 1: set in like we've done before with the Duke, and
4:18:47
Speaker 1: tried to comfort him. But he said it warn't no use,
4:18:51
Speaker 1: nothing but to be dead and done with it. All
4:18:53
Speaker 1: could do him any good, though, he said, it off
4:18:56
Speaker 1: and made him feel easier and better for a while
4:18:58
Speaker 1: if people treated him according to his rights and got
4:19:02
Speaker 1: down on one knee to speak to him, and always
4:19:04
Speaker 1: called him your majesty, and waited on him first at meals,
4:19:09
Speaker 1: and didn't set down in his presence till he asked them.
4:19:13
Speaker 1: So Jim and me set to majesty in him, and
4:19:16
Speaker 1: doing this and that and the other for him, and
4:19:18
Speaker 1: standing up till he told us we might sit down.
4:19:21
Speaker 1: This done him heaps good, and so he got cheerful
4:19:24
Speaker 1: and comfortable. But the Duke kind of soured on him
4:19:28
Speaker 1: and didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things
4:19:31
Speaker 1: was going. Still, the King acted real friendly towards him,
4:19:35
Speaker 1: and said the duke's great grandfather and all the other
4:19:39
Speaker 1: dukes of Billgewater was a good deal thought of by
4:19:41
Speaker 1: his father, and was allowed to come to the palace considerable.
4:19:46
Speaker 1: But the Duke stayed huffy a good while till by
4:19:49
Speaker 1: and by the King says, like as night we got
4:19:52
Speaker 1: to be together a blamed long time on this here
4:19:55
Speaker 1: raft Billgewater. And so what's these? So you'll being sour?
4:19:58
Speaker 1: It'll only make things uncomfortable. It ain't my fault. I
4:20:02
Speaker 1: warn't born a duke. It ain't your fault. You warn't
4:20:05
Speaker 1: born a king. So what's see used to worry? Make
4:20:07
Speaker 1: the best of things the way you find em, says I.
4:20:10
Speaker 1: That's my motto. This ain't no bad thing that was
4:20:13
Speaker 1: struck here plenty grubbin an easy life. Come give a
4:20:17
Speaker 1: shra hand of Duke and let's all be friends. The
4:20:20
Speaker 1: Duke done it an Jimmy me was pretty glad to
4:20:22
Speaker 1: see it. It took away all the uncomfortableness, and we
4:20:26
Speaker 1: felt mighty good over it, because it would have been
4:20:29
Speaker 1: a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the raft.
4:20:33
Speaker 1: For what you want, above all things on a raft
4:20:37
Speaker 1: is for everybody to be satisfied and feel right and
4:20:41
Speaker 1: kind towards the others. It didn't take me long to
4:20:44
Speaker 1: make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings
4:20:47
Speaker 1: nor duke's at all, but just low down humbugs and frauds.
4:20:51
Speaker 1: But I never said nothing, never let on, kept it
4:20:55
Speaker 1: to myself. It's the best way. Then you don't have
4:20:58
Speaker 1: no quarrels and don't care into no trouble. If they
4:21:02
Speaker 1: wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't
4:21:04
Speaker 1: no objections as long as they would keep peace in
4:21:07
Speaker 1: the family. And it weren't no use to tell Jim,
4:21:10
Speaker 1: so I didn't tell him. If I never learned nothing
4:21:13
Speaker 1: else out of Pap, I learned that the best way
4:21:16
Speaker 1: to get along with his kind of people is to
4:21:19
Speaker 1: let them have their own way. End of chapter nineteen,
4:21:27
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty, they asked us considerable many questions. Wanted to
4:21:33
Speaker 1: know what we covered up the raft that way for
4:21:36
Speaker 1: and laid by in the daytime instead of running? Was
4:21:39
Speaker 1: Jim a runaway nigger? Says I, goodness sakes, would a
4:21:45
Speaker 1: runaway nigger run south? No, they allowed he wouldn't. I
4:21:51
Speaker 1: had to account for things someway, so I says. My
4:21:55
Speaker 1: folks was living in Pike County in Missouri when I
4:21:58
Speaker 1: was born, and they all died off, but me and
4:22:02
Speaker 1: Pau and my brother Ike Paw he loud he'd break
4:22:06
Speaker 1: up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's
4:22:08
Speaker 1: got a little one horse place on the river forty
4:22:11
Speaker 1: four mile below Orleans. Pa was pretty poor and had
4:22:15
Speaker 1: some debts, so when he'd square it up, there warn't
4:22:18
Speaker 1: nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger Jim. That
4:22:22
Speaker 1: warn't enough to take us fourteen hundred mile duck passed,
4:22:26
Speaker 1: nor no other way. Well, when the river rose, Paw
4:22:30
Speaker 1: had a streak of luck. One day he catched this
4:22:33
Speaker 1: piece of a raft, so we reckon, we go down
4:22:35
Speaker 1: to Orleans on it. Pau's luck didn't hold out. The
4:22:39
Speaker 1: steamboat run over the four corner of the raft one night,
4:22:43
Speaker 1: and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel.
4:22:47
Speaker 1: Jim and me come up all right, but Paul was
4:22:49
Speaker 1: drunk and Ike was only four years old, so they
4:22:53
Speaker 1: never come up no more. Well. For the next day
4:22:57
Speaker 1: or two we had considerable trouble because people was always
4:23:00
Speaker 1: coming out in skiffs and trying to take Jim away
4:23:03
Speaker 1: from me, saying they believed he was a runaway nigger.
4:23:07
Speaker 1: We don't run daytimes no more. Now nights they don't
4:23:11
Speaker 1: bother us. The Duke says, leave me alone to cipher
4:23:16
Speaker 1: out away, so we can run in the daytime if
4:23:19
Speaker 1: we want to. I'll think the thing over, I'll invent
4:23:24
Speaker 1: a plan that'll fix it. We'll let it alone for today,
4:23:29
Speaker 1: because of course, we don't want to go by that
4:23:32
Speaker 1: town Yonder in daylight. It mightn't be healthy. Towards night,
4:23:39
Speaker 1: it begun to darken up and look like rain. The
4:23:42
Speaker 1: heat lightning was squirting around low down in the sky,
4:23:45
Speaker 1: and the leaves was beginning to shiver. It was going
4:23:49
Speaker 1: to be pretty ugly. It was easy to see that.
4:23:52
Speaker 1: So the Duke and the King went to overhauling our
4:23:55
Speaker 1: wigwam to see what the beds was like. My bed
4:23:59
Speaker 1: was a straw tip better than Jem's, which was a
4:24:02
Speaker 1: cornshuck tick. There's always cobs around in a shuck tick,
4:24:06
Speaker 1: and they poke into you and hurt, and when you
4:24:09
Speaker 1: roll over the dry shuck sounded like you was rolling
4:24:12
Speaker 1: over in a pile of dead leaves, and make such
4:24:15
Speaker 1: a rustling that you wake up well. The Duke allowed
4:24:19
Speaker 1: he would take my bed, but the King allowed he wouldn't.
4:24:23
Speaker 1: He says, I should have reckoned the difference in rank,
4:24:26
Speaker 1: would have suggested to Hugh that a cornshuck bed weren't
4:24:29
Speaker 1: just fitting for me to sleep on. Your grace, will
4:24:31
Speaker 1: take the shuck bed yourself. Jim and me was in
4:24:35
Speaker 1: a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was
4:24:38
Speaker 1: going to be some more trouble amongst them. So we
4:24:41
Speaker 1: was pretty glad when the Duke says, tis my fate
4:24:45
Speaker 1: to be always ground into the mire under the iron
4:24:49
Speaker 1: heel of oppression. Misfortune has broken my once hottest spirit.
4:24:56
Speaker 1: I yield, I submit tis my fate. Eight I am
4:25:01
Speaker 1: alone in the world. Let me suffer, can bear it.
4:25:07
Speaker 1: We got away as soon as it was good and dark.
4:25:10
Speaker 1: The King told us to stand well out towards the
4:25:12
Speaker 1: middle of the river and not show a light till
4:25:15
Speaker 1: we had got a long ways below the town. We
4:25:18
Speaker 1: come inside of the little bunch of lights by, and
4:25:21
Speaker 1: by that was the town, you know, an slid by
4:25:24
Speaker 1: about a half mile out all right. When we was
4:25:28
Speaker 1: three quarters of a mile below, we hoisted up our
4:25:31
Speaker 1: signal lantern. An about ten o'clock it come on to rain,
4:25:35
Speaker 1: an blow, an thunder and lightin like everything. So the
4:25:39
Speaker 1: king told us both to stay on watch till the
4:25:42
Speaker 1: weather got better. Then him and the Duke crawled into
4:25:45
Speaker 1: the wigwam and turned in for the night. It was
4:25:48
Speaker 1: my watch below till twelve. But I wouldn't a turned
4:25:52
Speaker 1: in anyway if i'd had a bed, cause a body
4:25:54
Speaker 1: don't see such a storm as that every day in
4:25:57
Speaker 1: the week, not by a long sight, my soul's how
4:26:02
Speaker 1: the wind did scream along an ever second or two,
4:26:05
Speaker 1: there'd come a glare that lit up the white caps
4:26:08
Speaker 1: for a mile around, and you'd see the islands lookin
4:26:11
Speaker 1: dusty through the rain, an the trees thrashing around in
4:26:15
Speaker 1: the wind. Then comes a whack bum bum bumblumblum bum
4:26:20
Speaker 1: bum bum bum, and the thunder would go rumblin an
4:26:24
Speaker 1: grumblin away an quit an then rip comes another flash
4:26:29
Speaker 1: and another shock. Dollager. The waves must wash me off
4:26:33
Speaker 1: the raft sometimes, but I hadn't any clothes on and
4:26:36
Speaker 1: didn't mind. We didn't have no trouble about snags. The
4:26:40
Speaker 1: lightning was glarin an flutterin around, so constant that we
4:26:45
Speaker 1: could see them plenty, soon enough to throw her head
4:26:47
Speaker 1: this way or that, an miss them. I had the
4:26:50
Speaker 1: middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by
4:26:53
Speaker 1: that time. So Jim, he said he would stand the
4:26:57
Speaker 1: first half of it for me. He was always mighty
4:27:00
Speaker 1: good that way, Jim was. I crawled into the wigwam,
4:27:05
Speaker 1: but the King and the Duke had their legs sprawled around,
4:27:08
Speaker 1: so there warn't no show for me. So I laid outside.
4:27:12
Speaker 1: I didn't mind the rain because it was warm and
4:27:15
Speaker 1: the waves warn't runnin so high. Now about two they
4:27:18
Speaker 1: come up again, though an Jim was goin to call me,
4:27:21
Speaker 1: but he changed his mind because he reckoned they warn't
4:27:24
Speaker 1: high enough yet to do any harm. But he was
4:27:27
Speaker 1: mistaken about that, for pretty soon, all of a sudden
4:27:30
Speaker 1: along comes a regular ripper an washed me overboard. They
4:27:34
Speaker 1: most killed Jim a laughin'. He was the easiest nigger
4:27:38
Speaker 1: to laugh that ever. Was anyway. I took the watch
4:27:43
Speaker 1: an jim, he lay down and snored away, and by
4:27:46
Speaker 1: and by the storm lit up for good and all
4:27:48
Speaker 1: an the first cap'n light that showed, I rafted him out,
4:27:52
Speaker 1: an we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the day.
4:27:57
Speaker 1: The King got out an old ratty duck of cards,
4:27:59
Speaker 1: left breakfast, and him and the Duke played seven up
4:28:02
Speaker 1: a while five cents a game. Then they got tired
4:28:06
Speaker 1: of it and allowed they would lay out a campaign,
4:28:09
Speaker 1: as they called it. The Duke went down into his
4:28:12
Speaker 1: carpet bag and fetched up a lot of little printed
4:28:15
Speaker 1: bills and read them out loud. One bill said the
4:28:19
Speaker 1: celebrated doctor Rmondge de Maltaban of Paris would lecture on
4:28:25
Speaker 1: the science of phrenology at such and such a place
4:28:29
Speaker 1: on the blank day of blank, at ten cents a mission,
4:28:32
Speaker 1: and furnished charts of character at twenty five cents apiece.
4:28:38
Speaker 1: The Duke said that was him. In another bill he
4:28:42
Speaker 1: was the world renowned Shakespearean tragedian to Carrick the Younger
4:28:48
Speaker 1: of Drury Lane, London. In other bills he had a
4:28:53
Speaker 1: lot of other names and done other wonderful things like
4:28:57
Speaker 1: finding water and gold, with a divine in ride, dissipating
4:29:01
Speaker 1: which spells, and so on, By and bye, he says.
4:29:07
Speaker 1: But the histrionic muse is the darling. Have you ever
4:29:12
Speaker 1: tried the board's royalty? No, says the King. You shall,
4:29:18
Speaker 1: then before you're three days older, fallin grandeur, says the Duke.
4:29:25
Speaker 1: The first good town we come to, we'll hire a
4:29:29
Speaker 1: haul and do the sword fightin Richard third and the
4:29:33
Speaker 1: balcony scene and brome Yo and Juliet. How does that
4:29:37
Speaker 1: strike you? I'm in up to the hub for anything
4:29:42
Speaker 1: that will pay Bilgewater. But you see, I don't know
4:29:45
Speaker 1: nothing about play actin and hain't ever seen much of it.
4:29:49
Speaker 1: I was too small when Pap used to have him
4:29:51
Speaker 1: at the palace. Do you reckon? You can learn me easy?
4:29:56
Speaker 1: All right, I'm just freezing for something fresh anyway, commands
4:30:00
Speaker 1: right away. So the Duke he told him all about
4:30:04
Speaker 1: who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and said he
4:30:08
Speaker 1: was used to be in Romeo, so the King could
4:30:10
Speaker 1: be Juliet. But if Juliet's such a young gale, Duke,
4:30:15
Speaker 1: my pealed head and my white whiskers is going to
4:30:17
Speaker 1: look uncommon eyed on her. Maybe, No, don't you worry.
4:30:22
Speaker 1: These country jigs won't ever think of that. Besides, you
4:30:26
Speaker 1: know you'll be in costume, and that makes all the
4:30:30
Speaker 1: difference in the world. Juliet's in a balcony, enjoy the
4:30:36
Speaker 1: moonlight before she goes to bed, and she's got on
4:30:39
Speaker 1: her nightgown and her ruffled nightcap. Here are the costumes
4:30:45
Speaker 1: for the parts. He got out two or three curtain
4:30:49
Speaker 1: calico suits, which he says was many evil armor for
4:30:53
Speaker 1: Richard third and the other chap and a long white
4:30:57
Speaker 1: cotton night shirt and a ruffled nightcap to match. The
4:31:00
Speaker 1: King was satisfied, said the Duke got out his book
4:31:03
Speaker 1: and read the parts over an the most splendid spread
4:31:07
Speaker 1: eagle way, prancin around and acting at the same time
4:31:11
Speaker 1: to show how it had to be done. Then he
4:31:13
Speaker 1: give the book to the King and told him to
4:31:16
Speaker 1: get his part by heart. There was a little one
4:31:19
Speaker 1: horse town about three mile down the bend. An After dinner,
4:31:23
Speaker 1: the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about
4:31:26
Speaker 1: how to run in daylight without it beIN dangersome for Jim,
4:31:29
Speaker 1: so he allowed he would go down to the town
4:31:31
Speaker 1: and fix that thing. The King allowed he would go too,
4:31:35
Speaker 1: and see if he couldn't strike somethin'. We was out
4:31:38
Speaker 1: o coffee, so Jim said I'd better go along with
4:31:41
Speaker 1: them in the canoe and get some. When we got there,
4:31:44
Speaker 1: there warn't nobody stirring. Streets empty and perfectly dead and
4:31:48
Speaker 1: still like sunday. We found a sick nigger sunning himself
4:31:52
Speaker 1: in a back yard an he said, everybody that warn't
4:31:55
Speaker 1: too young or too sick or too old was gone
4:31:59
Speaker 1: to camp meetin' about two mile back in the woods.
4:32:02
Speaker 1: The King got the directions and allowed he'd go an
4:32:05
Speaker 1: work that camp meetin for all it was worth an
4:32:08
Speaker 1: I might go too. The Duke said what he was
4:32:11
Speaker 1: after was a printing office. We found it a little
4:32:15
Speaker 1: bit of a concern up over a carpenter shop. Carpenters
4:32:19
Speaker 1: and printers all gone to the meeting, and no old
4:32:21
Speaker 1: doors locked. It was a dirty, littered up place, and
4:32:25
Speaker 1: had ink marks and handbills with pictures of horses and
4:32:28
Speaker 1: runaway niggers on 'em all over the walls. The Duke
4:32:33
Speaker 1: shed his coat and said he was all right now,
4:32:35
Speaker 1: So me an, the King lit out for the camp meetin'.
4:32:39
Speaker 1: We got there in about a half an hour, fairly drippin',
4:32:42
Speaker 1: for it was a most awful hot day. There was
4:32:46
Speaker 1: as much as a thousand people there from twenty mile round.
4:32:50
Speaker 1: The woods was full of teams and wagons hitched everywheres,
4:32:54
Speaker 1: feedin' out of the wagon troughs, and stompin' to keep
4:32:56
Speaker 1: off the flies. There was sheds and ate out of
4:33:00
Speaker 1: poles and roofed over with branches, for they had lemonade
4:33:04
Speaker 1: and gingerbread to sell, and piles of watermelons and green
4:33:08
Speaker 1: corn and such like. Truck The preaching was going on
4:33:12
Speaker 1: under the same kinds of sheds, only they was bigger
4:33:15
Speaker 1: and held crowds of people. The benches was made out
4:33:19
Speaker 1: of outside slabs of logs with holes bored in the
4:33:22
Speaker 1: round side to drive sticks into for legs. They didn't
4:33:27
Speaker 1: have no backs. The preachers had high platforms to stand
4:33:30
Speaker 1: on at one end of the sheds. The women had
4:33:33
Speaker 1: on sunbonnets, and some had linsey woolsey frocks, some gingham ones,
4:33:39
Speaker 1: and a few of the young ones had on calico.
4:33:42
Speaker 1: Some of the young men was barefooted, and some of
4:33:45
Speaker 1: the children didn't have on any clothes but just a
4:33:47
Speaker 1: toe linen shirt. Some of the old women was knitting
4:33:51
Speaker 1: and some of the young folks was courting on the sly.
4:33:55
Speaker 1: The first shed we come to. The preacher was lying
4:33:58
Speaker 1: out of him. He lined out two lines. Everybody sung it,
4:34:03
Speaker 1: and it was kind of grand to hear it. There
4:34:06
Speaker 1: were so many of them, and they'd done it in
4:34:08
Speaker 1: such a rousing way. Then he lined out too more
4:34:12
Speaker 1: for them to sing, and so on. The people woke
4:34:15
Speaker 1: up more and more and sung louder and louder, and
4:34:18
Speaker 1: towards the end some begun to groan, and some begun
4:34:21
Speaker 1: to shout. Then the preacher begun to preach, and begun
4:34:25
Speaker 1: in earnest too, And when weaving first to one side
4:34:29
Speaker 1: of the platform and then the other, and then a
4:34:32
Speaker 1: leaning down over the front of it, with his arms
4:34:34
Speaker 1: and his body going all the time and shouting his
4:34:37
Speaker 1: words out with all his mind, and every now and
4:34:40
Speaker 1: then he would hold up his bible and spread it
4:34:42
Speaker 1: open and kind of pass it around this way and that,
4:34:45
Speaker 1: shouting it's the brazen serpent in the wilderness, look upon
4:34:50
Speaker 1: it and live, And people would shout out glory, He ainmen.
4:34:56
Speaker 1: And so he went on, and the people groaning and
4:34:59
Speaker 1: crying and saying, amen, Oh, come to the mourner's bench.
4:35:05
Speaker 1: Come black with sin. Amen, Come sick and sore, Amen,
4:35:12
Speaker 1: Come lame and halt and blind. Amen, Come poor and needy,
4:35:19
Speaker 1: sunk in shame a amen. Come all that's worn and
4:35:24
Speaker 1: soiled and suffering. Come with a broken spirit, Come with
4:35:28
Speaker 1: a contrite heart. Come in your rags and sin and dirt.
4:35:33
Speaker 1: The waters that cleanse us free. The door of heaven
4:35:35
Speaker 1: stands open. Oh, enter in it, be at rest, Amen, Glory, glory, hallelujah,
4:35:43
Speaker 1: and so on. You can make out what the preacher
4:35:46
Speaker 1: said anymore. On account of the shouting and crying. Folks
4:35:50
Speaker 1: got up everywhere in the crowd and work their way
4:35:53
Speaker 1: just by main strength to the mourner's bench, with the
4:35:57
Speaker 1: tears running down their faces. When all the mourner she
4:36:00
Speaker 1: got up there to the front benches in a crowd,
4:36:03
Speaker 1: they sung and shouted and flung themselves down on the straw,
4:36:07
Speaker 1: just crazy and wild. Well, the first thing I knowed,
4:36:11
Speaker 1: the king got a goin and you could hear him
4:36:14
Speaker 1: over everybody. And next he went to charging up onto
4:36:17
Speaker 1: the platform, and the preacher he begged him to speak
4:36:21
Speaker 1: to the people, and he done it. He told them
4:36:24
Speaker 1: he was a pirate, been a pirate for thirty years
4:36:27
Speaker 1: out in the Indian Ocean, and his crew was thinned
4:36:30
Speaker 1: out considerable left spring in a fight, and he was
4:36:34
Speaker 1: home now to take out some fresh men. And thanks
4:36:37
Speaker 1: to goodness, he'd been ribbed last night and put ashore
4:36:39
Speaker 1: off of a steamboat without a cent, and he was
4:36:42
Speaker 1: glad of it. It was the blessedest thing that ever
4:36:45
Speaker 1: happened to him, because he was a changed man now
4:36:49
Speaker 1: and happy for the first time in his life, and
4:36:52
Speaker 1: poor as he was, he was going to start right
4:36:54
Speaker 1: off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean
4:36:57
Speaker 1: and put in the rest of his life trying to
4:37:00
Speaker 1: turn the pirates into the true path, for he could
4:37:03
Speaker 1: do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all
4:37:06
Speaker 1: pirate crews in that ocean. And though it would take
4:37:09
Speaker 1: him a long time to get there without money, he
4:37:12
Speaker 1: would get there anyway. And every time he convinced a pirate,
4:37:16
Speaker 1: he would say to him, don't you think me, Don't
4:37:19
Speaker 1: you give me no credit? It all belongs to them
4:37:22
Speaker 1: dear people in Polkville camp, meetin' natural brothers and benefactors
4:37:26
Speaker 1: of the race. And that dear preacher there the truest
4:37:30
Speaker 1: friend a pirate ever had, and then he busted into tears,
4:37:34
Speaker 1: and so did everybody, and somebody sings out, take up
4:37:39
Speaker 1: a collection for him, take up a collection. Well a
4:37:43
Speaker 1: half a dozen made a jump to do it, but
4:37:46
Speaker 1: somebody sings out, let him pass the hat around. Then
4:37:50
Speaker 1: everybody said it the preacher too. So the king went
4:37:54
Speaker 1: all through the crowd with his hat, swapping his eyes
4:37:58
Speaker 1: and blessing the people and praising them em an thanking
4:38:01
Speaker 1: them for being so good to the poor pirates away
4:38:03
Speaker 1: off there and never little while the prettiest kind of
4:38:07
Speaker 1: girls with the tears running down their cheeks would up
4:38:10
Speaker 1: and ask him would he let them kiss him for
4:38:13
Speaker 1: to remember him by an He always done it. An
4:38:16
Speaker 1: some of them he hugged and kissed as many as
4:38:18
Speaker 1: five or six times. And he was invited to stay
4:38:21
Speaker 1: a week, And everybody wanted him to live in their houses,
4:38:24
Speaker 1: and said they'd think it wasn't honor, But he said,
4:38:28
Speaker 1: as this was the last day of the camp meetin',
4:38:30
Speaker 1: he couldn't do no good. An besides, he was in
4:38:33
Speaker 1: a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off
4:38:36
Speaker 1: an go to work on the pirates. When we got
4:38:39
Speaker 1: back to the raft, he come to count up he
4:38:41
Speaker 1: found he had neglected eighty seven dollars an seventy five
4:38:44
Speaker 1: cents an. Then he had fetched away a three gallon
4:38:47
Speaker 1: jrug of whiskey too, that he found under a wagon
4:38:50
Speaker 1: when he was startin home through the woods. The King said,
4:38:54
Speaker 1: take it all around. It laid over any day he'd
4:38:56
Speaker 1: ever put in in The missionary in line, he said,
4:39:00
Speaker 1: it warn't no use talking heathen stone amount to shucks
4:39:03
Speaker 1: alongside of pirates to work a camp meetin with. The
4:39:07
Speaker 1: Duke was thinking he'd been doing pretty well till the
4:39:10
Speaker 1: king come to show up, but after that he didn't
4:39:13
Speaker 1: think so so much. He had set up and printed
4:39:16
Speaker 1: off two little jobs for farmers in that printing office
4:39:19
Speaker 1: horse bills, and took the money four dollars, and he
4:39:23
Speaker 1: had gotten ten dollars worth of advertisements for the paper,
4:39:27
Speaker 1: which he said would put in for four dollars if
4:39:29
Speaker 1: they would pay in advance. So they'd done it. The
4:39:32
Speaker 1: price of the paper was two dollars a year, but
4:39:35
Speaker 1: he took in three subscriptions for a dollar piece on
4:39:38
Speaker 1: condition of them paying in advance. They were going to
4:39:41
Speaker 1: pay in cord wood and onions as usual, But he
4:39:44
Speaker 1: said he had just bought the concern and knocked down
4:39:47
Speaker 1: the price as low as he could afford it, and
4:39:49
Speaker 1: was going to run it for cash. He set up
4:39:52
Speaker 1: a little piece of poetry which he made himself out
4:39:54
Speaker 1: of his own head. Three verses, kind of sweet and saddish.
4:40:00
Speaker 1: Aim of it was Yes, crush cold world, this breakin
4:40:04
Speaker 1: heart an. He left that all set up and ready
4:40:07
Speaker 1: to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothin for it. Well,
4:40:11
Speaker 1: he took in nine dollars and a half and said
4:40:13
Speaker 1: he'd done a pretty square day's work for it. Then
4:40:16
Speaker 1: he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't
4:40:19
Speaker 1: charged for because it was for us, and had a
4:40:22
Speaker 1: picture of a runaway nigger with a bundle on a
4:40:25
Speaker 1: stick over his shoulder and two hundred dollar reward under it.
4:40:30
Speaker 1: The reading was all about Jim and just described him
4:40:33
Speaker 1: to a dot. It said he'd run away from Saint
4:40:36
Speaker 1: Jock's plantation forty mile below New Orleans last winter and
4:40:41
Speaker 1: likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send
4:40:44
Speaker 1: him back he could have the reward and expenses. Now,
4:40:50
Speaker 1: says the Duke, after to night, we can run in
4:40:53
Speaker 1: the daytime if we want to, Whenever we see anybody
4:40:57
Speaker 1: comin' we can tie Jim hand and foot with a
4:41:01
Speaker 1: rope and lay him in the wigwam and show this
4:41:05
Speaker 1: handbill and say we captured him up the river and
4:41:09
Speaker 1: were too poor to travel on a steamboat, so we
4:41:12
Speaker 1: got this little raft on credit from our friends and
4:41:16
Speaker 1: are going down to get the reward. Handcuffs and chains
4:41:20
Speaker 1: would look better on Jim, but it wouldn't go well
4:41:24
Speaker 1: with the story of us being so poor. Too much
4:41:27
Speaker 1: like jewelry, ropes are the correct thing. We must preserve
4:41:33
Speaker 1: the unities, as we say on the boards. We all
4:41:37
Speaker 1: said the duke was pretty smart and there couldn't be
4:41:40
Speaker 1: no trouble about running day times. We judged we could
4:41:44
Speaker 1: make miles enough that night to get out of the
4:41:46
Speaker 1: reach of the pow wow. We reckoned the Duke's work
4:41:48
Speaker 1: and the printing office was going to make in that
4:41:50
Speaker 1: little town. Then we could boom right along if we
4:41:53
Speaker 1: wanted to. We laid low and kept still and never
4:41:58
Speaker 1: shoved out till nearly ten o'clock. Then we slid by
4:42:02
Speaker 1: pretty wide away from the town and didn't hoist our
4:42:05
Speaker 1: lantern till we was clear out of sight of it.
4:42:08
Speaker 1: When Jim called me to take the watch at four
4:42:10
Speaker 1: in the morning, he says, Huk, do you reckon? We
4:42:14
Speaker 1: want to run across Deny mule kings on this trip. No,
4:42:19
Speaker 1: I says I reckon, Not Will says he. That's all right,
4:42:24
Speaker 1: then I don't mind one or two kings. But that's enough.
4:42:29
Speaker 1: This one's powerful. Drunk and the de came much better.
4:42:34
Speaker 1: I found. Jim had been trying to get him to
4:42:36
Speaker 1: talk French so he could hear what it was like,
4:42:39
Speaker 1: but he said he had been in this country so
4:42:41
Speaker 1: long and had so much trouble he'd forgot it. End
4:42:48
Speaker 1: of chapter twenty Chapter twenty one. It was after sun up.
4:42:55
Speaker 1: Now we went right on and didn't tie up. The
4:42:59
Speaker 1: King and the Duke turned out by and by looking
4:43:01
Speaker 1: pretty rusty, But after they jumped overboard and took a swim,
4:43:04
Speaker 1: it chipping them up a good deal. After breakfast, the
4:43:08
Speaker 1: king he took a seat on the corner of the
4:43:10
Speaker 1: raft and pulled off his boots and rolled up his breeches,
4:43:14
Speaker 1: and let his legs dangle in the water so as
4:43:17
Speaker 1: to be comfortable, and lit his pipe and went to
4:43:20
Speaker 1: gettin his Romeo and Juliet by heart. When he had
4:43:24
Speaker 1: got it pretty good, him and the duke begun to
4:43:26
Speaker 1: practice it together. The Duke had to learn him over
4:43:29
Speaker 1: and over again how to say every speech, and he
4:43:33
Speaker 1: made him sigh and put his hand on his heart,
4:43:36
Speaker 1: and after a while he said he'd done it pretty well.
4:43:40
Speaker 1: Only he says, you mustn't bellow out Romeo that way
4:43:46
Speaker 1: like a bull. You must say it soft and sick
4:43:50
Speaker 1: and languishy. So rollmeo. That is the idea for Juliet's dear,
4:44:00
Speaker 1: sweet mere child of a girl, you know, and she
4:44:04
Speaker 1: doesn't bray like a jack ass. Well. Next they got
4:44:09
Speaker 1: out a couple of long swords that the Duke made
4:44:11
Speaker 1: out of oak laths, and begun to practice a sword fight.
4:44:15
Speaker 1: The Duke called himself Richard Third, and the way they
4:44:18
Speaker 1: laid on and pranced around the raft was grand to see.
4:44:22
Speaker 1: But by and by the king tripped and fell overboard.
4:44:25
Speaker 1: And after that they took a rest and had to
4:44:28
Speaker 1: talk about all kinds of adventures they'd had in other
4:44:30
Speaker 1: times along the river. After dinner, the Duke says, well,
4:44:36
Speaker 1: cap it, we'll want to make this a first class show,
4:44:40
Speaker 1: you know, so I guess we'll add a little more
4:44:43
Speaker 1: to it. We want a little somethin to answer encores
4:44:47
Speaker 1: with anyway, what's Encore's bill trotter, the Duke told him,
4:44:53
Speaker 1: and then says, all, answer by doing the Highland fling
4:44:58
Speaker 1: or the sailor's horn pipe. And you well, let me see.
4:45:05
Speaker 1: Oh I've got it. You can do hamlets soliloquy, hamlets
4:45:10
Speaker 1: witch Hamlet's soliloquy. You know the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. Ah,
4:45:17
Speaker 1: it's sublime. Sublime always fetches the house. I haven't got
4:45:24
Speaker 1: it in the book. I've only got one volume. But
4:45:28
Speaker 1: I reckon I can piece it out for memory. I'll
4:45:31
Speaker 1: just walk up and down a minute and see if
4:45:34
Speaker 1: I can call it back from recollection's vaults. So he
4:45:39
Speaker 1: went to marching up and down, thinking and frowning horrible.
4:45:42
Speaker 1: Every now and then then he would hoist up his eyebrows.
4:45:46
Speaker 1: Next he would squeeze his hand on his forehead and
4:45:49
Speaker 1: stagger back and kind of moan. Next he would sigh,
4:45:53
Speaker 1: and next he'd let on to drop a tear. It
4:45:56
Speaker 1: was beautiful to see him by, and bye he go.
4:46:00
Speaker 1: He told us to give attention. Then he strikes a
4:46:04
Speaker 1: most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards and his
4:46:08
Speaker 1: arm stretched away up and his head tilt back, lookin
4:46:12
Speaker 1: up at the sky, and then he begins to rip
4:46:15
Speaker 1: and rave and grit his teeth. And after that, all
4:46:19
Speaker 1: through his speech he howled and spread around, and swelled
4:46:23
Speaker 1: up his chest, and just knocked the spots out of
4:46:26
Speaker 1: any act an ever I see before this is a speech.
4:46:31
Speaker 1: I learned it easy enough while he was learning it
4:46:34
Speaker 1: to the king to be or not to be? That
4:46:39
Speaker 1: is the bear bodkin, that mixed calamity of so long life.
4:46:46
Speaker 1: For who would fardles bear till burnham wood do come
4:46:50
Speaker 1: to dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death
4:46:55
Speaker 1: murders the innocent sleep great nature's second course, and makes
4:47:00
Speaker 1: us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune than fly
4:47:05
Speaker 1: to others that we know not of theirs. The respect
4:47:09
Speaker 1: must give us pause. Wake Duncan, with thy knockin, I
4:47:14
Speaker 1: would thou couldst For who would bear the whips and
4:47:17
Speaker 1: scorns of time? The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
4:47:24
Speaker 1: the laws, delay, and the quietness which its pangs might
4:47:28
Speaker 1: take in the dead, waste and middle of the night,
4:47:31
Speaker 1: when churchyards yawn in customary suits of solemn black. But
4:47:37
Speaker 1: that the undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns,
4:47:42
Speaker 1: breathes forth contagion on the world, and thus the native
4:47:46
Speaker 1: hue of resolution, like the poor cat in the adage,
4:47:51
Speaker 1: is sickly o'er with care, and all the clouds that
4:47:55
Speaker 1: lowered o'er our housetops with this regard their currents turn
4:48:00
Speaker 1: or rye and lose. The name of action tis a consummation,
4:48:06
Speaker 1: devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia,
4:48:12
Speaker 1: hope not thy ponderous and marble jaws, but get thee
4:48:17
Speaker 1: to a nunnery. Go well. The old man he liked
4:48:22
Speaker 1: that speech, and he might as soon got it so
4:48:25
Speaker 1: he could do it first rate. It seemed like he
4:48:28
Speaker 1: was just born for it. When he had his hand
4:48:30
Speaker 1: then and was excited. It was perfectly lovely, the way
4:48:34
Speaker 1: he would rip and tear and rear up behind when
4:48:36
Speaker 1: he was getting it off. The first chance we got
4:48:40
Speaker 1: the Duke he had some showbills printed, and after that,
4:48:43
Speaker 1: for two or three days as we floated along the
4:48:46
Speaker 1: raft was a most uncommon lively place, for there warn't
4:48:50
Speaker 1: nothing but sword fighting and rehearsing, as the Duke called it,
4:48:54
Speaker 1: going on all the time. One morning, when we was
4:48:58
Speaker 1: pretty well down the state of Arkansas. Saw we come
4:49:01
Speaker 1: inside of a little one horse town in a big bend,
4:49:05
Speaker 1: So we tied up about three quarters of a mile
4:49:07
Speaker 1: above it and the mouth of a creek which was
4:49:09
Speaker 1: shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees and
4:49:12
Speaker 1: all of us. But Jim took the canoe and went
4:49:15
Speaker 1: down there to see if there was any chance in
4:49:17
Speaker 1: that place for our show. We struck it mighty lucky.
4:49:21
Speaker 1: There was going to be a circus there that afternoon,
4:49:24
Speaker 1: and the country people was already beginning to come in
4:49:27
Speaker 1: in all kinds of old shackly wagons and on horses.
4:49:31
Speaker 1: The circus would leave before night, so our show would
4:49:34
Speaker 1: have a pretty good chance. The Duke he hired the courthouse,
4:49:38
Speaker 1: and we went around and stuck up our bills. They
4:49:42
Speaker 1: read like this Shakespearean Revival exclamation. Exclamation, Exclamation, wonderful attraction,
4:49:51
Speaker 1: exclamation for one night only exclamation. The world renowned tragedians
4:49:59
Speaker 1: David Garrett, the younger of Drury Lane Theater, London, and
4:50:05
Speaker 1: Edmund Keane, the elder of the Royal Haymarket Theater, Whitechapel,
4:50:10
Speaker 1: Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London and the Royal Continental theaters and
4:50:16
Speaker 1: their sublime Shakespearean spectacle entitled the Balcony Scene. And Romeo
4:50:22
Speaker 1: and Juliet Exclamation, Exclamation Exclamation Romeo, mister Garrick, Juliet, Mister Keene,
4:50:35
Speaker 1: assisted by the whole strength of the company. Exclamation, new costumes,
4:50:41
Speaker 1: new scenery, new appointments Exclamation. Also the Thrilling Masterly and
4:50:50
Speaker 1: blood curtainlind Broadsword Conflict and Richard Third Exclamation Exclamation Exclamation
4:51:00
Speaker 1: Richard Third, Mister Garrick, Richmond, mister Keene. Also by special
4:51:09
Speaker 1: request Hamlets in mortal soliloquy Exclamation Exclamation by the illustrious Keene.
4:51:17
Speaker 1: Exclamation done by him three hundred consecutive Knights in Paris.
4:51:23
Speaker 1: Exclamation for one night only on account of imperative European engagements.
4:51:31
Speaker 1: Exclamation Admission twenty five cents, Children and servants ten cents.
4:51:41
Speaker 1: Then we went loofing around the town. The stores and
4:51:44
Speaker 1: houses was most all old, shackly, dried up frame concerns
4:51:48
Speaker 1: that had never been painted. They were set up three
4:51:51
Speaker 1: or four foot above ground on stilts so as to
4:51:54
Speaker 1: be out of reach of the water when the river
4:51:56
Speaker 1: was overflowed. The houses had little gardens or around them,
4:52:00
Speaker 1: but They didn't seem to raise hardly anything in them
4:52:03
Speaker 1: but gems and weeds and some flowers, and ash piles
4:52:07
Speaker 1: and old curled up boots and shoes, and pieces of
4:52:10
Speaker 1: bottles and rags and played out tinware. The fences was
4:52:14
Speaker 1: made of different kinds of boards, nailed on at different times,
4:52:17
Speaker 1: and they leaned every which way, and had gates that
4:52:20
Speaker 1: didn't generally have but one hinge a leather one. Some
4:52:25
Speaker 1: of the fences had been whitewashed sometime or another, but
4:52:28
Speaker 1: the Duke said it was in Columbus's time. Like enough,
4:52:32
Speaker 1: there was generally hogs in the garden and people driving
4:52:35
Speaker 1: them out. All the stores was along one street. They
4:52:40
Speaker 1: had white domestic awnings in front, and the country people
4:52:44
Speaker 1: hitched their horses to the awning posts. There was empty
4:52:48
Speaker 1: dry goods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting on
4:52:52
Speaker 1: them all day long, woodlin' them with their barlow knives
4:52:56
Speaker 1: and chawing tobacca and gaping and yawning and s diretchin'
4:53:01
Speaker 1: a mighty ornery lot. They generally had on yellow straw hats,
4:53:06
Speaker 1: most as white as ant umbrella, but didn't wear no
4:53:09
Speaker 1: coats nor waistcoats. They called one another Bill and Buck
4:53:13
Speaker 1: and Hank, and Joe and Andy, and talked to lazy
4:53:18
Speaker 1: and drawly, and used considerable many cusswords. There was as
4:53:23
Speaker 1: many as one loafer leanin up against every autumn post,
4:53:26
Speaker 1: and he most always had his hands in his breeches pockets,
4:53:29
Speaker 1: except when he fetched them out to flend a chaw
4:53:31
Speaker 1: of tobacco or scratch. What a body was hearin amongst
4:53:36
Speaker 1: them all the time was gimme a chaw for tobacco.
4:53:39
Speaker 1: Hank tain't I hain't got but one chaw left, asked Bill.
4:53:45
Speaker 1: Maybe Bill, he gives him a jaw. Maybe he lies
4:53:49
Speaker 1: and says he ain't got none. Some of them kinds
4:53:52
Speaker 1: of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor
4:53:55
Speaker 1: a chaw of tobacco of their own. But they get
4:53:58
Speaker 1: all their chawn by borrowin'. They say to a fellow,
4:54:02
Speaker 1: I wisht you'd lend me a chaw. Jack, I jest
4:54:04
Speaker 1: this minute gave Ben Thompson last taw I had, which
4:54:08
Speaker 1: is a lie pretty much every time. It don't fool
4:54:11
Speaker 1: nobody but a stranger. But Jack ain't no stranger, so
4:54:15
Speaker 1: he says, you give him a chaw. Did you so
4:54:19
Speaker 1: did your sister's kat's grandmother. You pay me back the
4:54:22
Speaker 1: taws you've already borrowed off o me leaf Buckner, Then
4:54:26
Speaker 1: I'll loan you one a two ton of it, an
4:54:28
Speaker 1: won't charge you no back interest. N' well I did
4:54:32
Speaker 1: pay you back some of it, wanst, Yes, you did
4:54:35
Speaker 1: bout six chaws you borrowed. Store tobaccer an paid back, niggerhead.
4:54:41
Speaker 1: Store tobacco is flat black plug. But these fellows mostly chaws,
4:54:45
Speaker 1: then natural leaf twisted. When they borrow a chaw, they
4:54:49
Speaker 1: don't generally cut it off with a knife, but set
4:54:52
Speaker 1: the plug in between their teeth and gnaw with their teeth,
4:54:55
Speaker 1: an tug at the plug with their hands till they
4:54:58
Speaker 1: get it in two an. Sometimes the one that owns
4:55:01
Speaker 1: a tobacco looks mournfully at it when it's handed back,
4:55:05
Speaker 1: and says, sarcastic, Here gimme the jaw, and you take
4:55:09
Speaker 1: the plug. All the streets and lanes was jes mud.
4:55:14
Speaker 1: There warn't nothin else but mud, mud as black as tar,
4:55:18
Speaker 1: an nigh by a foot deep in some places, an
4:55:22
Speaker 1: two or three inches deep in all the places. The
4:55:25
Speaker 1: hogs loafed and grunted around everywheres you'd see a muddy
4:55:29
Speaker 1: sow an a litter of pigs come lazy in along
4:55:32
Speaker 1: the street an wallop herself right down in the way
4:55:35
Speaker 1: where folks had to walk around her. An she'd stretch
4:55:39
Speaker 1: out an shut her eyes, an wave her ears whilst
4:55:41
Speaker 1: the pigs was milkin her an look as happy as
4:55:44
Speaker 1: if she was on salary. An. Pretty soon you'd hear
4:55:47
Speaker 1: a loafer sing out, Hi, so boy, sickin tig an
4:55:53
Speaker 1: away the sow will go squealin most horrible with a
4:55:57
Speaker 1: dog or two swingin' to each ear an three or
4:55:59
Speaker 1: four or dozen more coming. Then you would see all
4:56:02
Speaker 1: the loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight,
4:56:05
Speaker 1: and laugh at the fun and look grateful for the noise.
4:56:08
Speaker 1: Then they'd settle back again till there was a dog fight.
4:56:12
Speaker 1: There couldn't anything wake them up all over and make
4:56:15
Speaker 1: them happy all over like a dog fight, unless it
4:56:19
Speaker 1: might be putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting
4:56:22
Speaker 1: fire to him, or tying a tin pan to his
4:56:25
Speaker 1: tail and see him run himself to death. On the
4:56:29
Speaker 1: river front, some of the houses was sticking out over
4:56:31
Speaker 1: the bank, and they was bowed and bent and about
4:56:35
Speaker 1: ready to tumble in, and people had moved out of them.
4:56:38
Speaker 1: The bank was caved away under one corner of some others,
4:56:42
Speaker 1: and that corner was hanging over. People lived in them yet,
4:56:46
Speaker 1: but it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land
4:56:49
Speaker 1: as wide as a house caves in at a time.
4:56:52
Speaker 1: Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile
4:56:54
Speaker 1: deep will start in and cave along and cave along
4:56:57
Speaker 1: till it all caves into the river. And one summer,
4:57:00
Speaker 1: such a town as that has to be always movin
4:57:03
Speaker 1: back an back, an back, because the river's always gnawing
4:57:07
Speaker 1: at it. The nearer it got to noon that day,
4:57:10
Speaker 1: the thicker and thicker was the wagons, an horses in
4:57:13
Speaker 1: the streets, an more comin all the time. Families fetch
4:57:18
Speaker 1: their dinners with them from the country an eat them
4:57:21
Speaker 1: in the wagons. There was considerable whiskey drinkin goin on
4:57:25
Speaker 1: an I seen three fights by and by. Somebody sings out,
4:57:30
Speaker 1: here comes old Bogs in from the country for his
4:57:33
Speaker 1: little old month of drunk. Here comes boys. All the
4:57:38
Speaker 1: loafers looked glad. I reckon they was used to having
4:57:41
Speaker 1: fun out of bogs. One of them says, wonder who
4:57:45
Speaker 1: he's a gwine to chaw up this time. If he'd
4:57:48
Speaker 1: to chart up all the men he's been a gwin
4:57:50
Speaker 1: to chaw up in the last twenty year, he'd have
4:57:53
Speaker 1: considerable reputation. Now. Another one says, I wished old Bogs
4:57:58
Speaker 1: had threaten me, because an i'd know I warn't gwine
4:58:01
Speaker 1: to die for a thousand year. Boggs come a tearin
4:58:05
Speaker 1: along on his horse, whoopin and yellin' like an injun,
4:58:08
Speaker 1: a singin out clear of the truck. There, I'm on
4:58:11
Speaker 1: the water path. An, the price of coffins is a
4:58:13
Speaker 1: gander rise. He was drunk, an weaving about in his saddle.
4:58:19
Speaker 1: He was over fifty year old, an had a very
4:58:21
Speaker 1: red face. Everybody yelled at him, an laughed at him,
4:58:25
Speaker 1: an sashed him, and he sashed back and said he'd
4:58:28
Speaker 1: attend to them, an lay them out in their regular turns.
4:58:32
Speaker 1: But he couldn't wait now, because he'd come to town
4:58:34
Speaker 1: to kill old Colonel sherburn. An. His moda was meet
4:58:38
Speaker 1: first an spoon victuals to top off on. He see
4:58:43
Speaker 1: me and rode up and says, wor'd you come from? Boy?
4:58:47
Speaker 1: You prepared to die? Then? He rode on. I was scared,
4:58:52
Speaker 1: but a man says, he don't mean nothin'. He's always
4:58:56
Speaker 1: a carryin on like that when he's drunk. He's the
4:58:59
Speaker 1: best naturedest old fool in Arkansas, never hurt nobody drunk
4:59:04
Speaker 1: nor sober. Boggs rode up before the biggest store in
4:59:08
Speaker 1: town and bent his head down so he could see
4:59:11
Speaker 1: under the curtain of the awning and yells, come out here, Sherburn,
4:59:15
Speaker 1: come out, meet the man you've swindled. You're the how,
4:59:18
Speaker 1: and I'm after and I'm a goin to have you too.
4:59:22
Speaker 1: And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could
4:59:25
Speaker 1: lay his tongue to, and the whole street packed with
4:59:29
Speaker 1: people listening and laughing and going on by and bye.
4:59:33
Speaker 1: A proud looking man about fifty five, and he was
4:59:36
Speaker 1: a heap, the best dressed man in that town too.
4:59:39
Speaker 1: Steps out of the store, and the crowd drops back
4:59:42
Speaker 1: on each side to let him come. He says to Boggs,
4:59:47
Speaker 1: mighty calm and slow. He says, I'm tired of this,
4:59:51
Speaker 1: but I'll endure it till one o'clock. Till one o'clock
4:59:55
Speaker 1: mined no longer. If you open your mouth against me
4:59:59
Speaker 1: only one after that time. You can't trouble so far,
5:00:03
Speaker 1: but I will find you. Then he turns and goes
5:00:07
Speaker 1: in the crowd looked mighty sober. Nobody stirred, and there
5:00:12
Speaker 1: warn't no more laughin. Boggs rode off, blackguard and Sherburn
5:00:17
Speaker 1: as loud as he could, yell all down the street,
5:00:20
Speaker 1: and pretty soon back he comes and stops for the store,
5:00:24
Speaker 1: still keeping it up. Some men cried it around him
5:00:27
Speaker 1: and tried to get him to shut up, but he wouldn't.
5:00:31
Speaker 1: They told him it would be one o'clock in about
5:00:33
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, so he must go home, he must go
5:00:36
Speaker 1: right away, but it didn't do no good. He cussed
5:00:40
Speaker 1: away with all his might and throwed his hat down
5:00:43
Speaker 1: in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon
5:00:46
Speaker 1: away he went to ragin down the street again, with
5:00:50
Speaker 1: his gray hair a flyin'. Everybody that could get a
5:00:54
Speaker 1: chance at him tried their best to coax him off
5:00:56
Speaker 1: of his horse so they could lock him up and
5:00:58
Speaker 1: get him sober. Warn't no use up the street he
5:01:02
Speaker 1: would tear again an give sherburn another cussin. By and
5:01:07
Speaker 1: by somebody says, go for his daughter, quick, go for
5:01:11
Speaker 1: his daughter. Sometimes we'll listen to her. If anybody can
5:01:15
Speaker 1: persuade him, she can. So somebody started on a run.
5:01:20
Speaker 1: I walked down street aways an stopped. In about five
5:01:23
Speaker 1: or ten minutes. Here comes Boggs again, but not on
5:01:27
Speaker 1: his horse. He was a reelin across the street towards me,
5:01:31
Speaker 1: bare headed, with a friend on both sides of him,
5:01:34
Speaker 1: a hold of his arms, an hurrying him along. He
5:01:38
Speaker 1: was quiet and looked uneasy, and he warn't hanging back
5:01:42
Speaker 1: any but was doing some of the hurryin himself. Somebody
5:01:46
Speaker 1: sings out Bogs. I looked over there to see who
5:01:50
Speaker 1: said it, An it was that Colonel Sherburn. He was
5:01:54
Speaker 1: standing perfectly still in the street and had a pistol
5:01:57
Speaker 1: raised in his right hand, aimin' it but holding it
5:02:02
Speaker 1: out with the barrel tilted up towards the sky. The
5:02:05
Speaker 1: same second I see a young girl coming on the
5:02:07
Speaker 1: run and two men with her. Boggs and the men
5:02:11
Speaker 1: turned round to see who called him. But when they
5:02:14
Speaker 1: see the pistol, the men jumped to one side, and
5:02:17
Speaker 1: the pistol bearl come down, slow and steady to a level,
5:02:21
Speaker 1: both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands
5:02:25
Speaker 1: and says, oh, Lord, donor shoot. Bang goes the first shot,
5:02:31
Speaker 1: and he staggers back, clawing at the air. Bang goes
5:02:36
Speaker 1: the second one, and he tumbles backward on to the ground,
5:02:39
Speaker 1: heavy and solid, with his arms spread out. That young
5:02:43
Speaker 1: girl screamed out and comes rushing and down. She throws
5:02:47
Speaker 1: herself on her father, crying and saying, oh, he's killed him,
5:02:53
Speaker 1: He's killed him. The crowd closed up around them and
5:02:57
Speaker 1: shouldered and jammed one another with their stretched tryin to see,
5:03:02
Speaker 1: and people on the inside trying to shove them back
5:03:06
Speaker 1: and shouting back back, give 'em mare, give 'em mare,
5:03:11
Speaker 1: Colonel Sherburn. He tossed his pistol on to the ground
5:03:15
Speaker 1: and turned around on his heels and walked off. They
5:03:18
Speaker 1: took bogs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing
5:03:21
Speaker 1: around just the same, an the whole town following, and
5:03:25
Speaker 1: I rushed an got a good place at the window
5:03:28
Speaker 1: where I was close to him and could see in.
5:03:31
Speaker 1: They laid him on the floor and put one large
5:03:34
Speaker 1: bible under his head, and opened another one and spread
5:03:37
Speaker 1: it on his breast. But they tore open his shirt first,
5:03:41
Speaker 1: and I seen where one of the bullets went in.
5:03:44
Speaker 1: He made about a dozen long gasps his breast, lifting
5:03:47
Speaker 1: the bible up when he drawed in his breath, and
5:03:50
Speaker 1: letting it down again when he breathed it out, And
5:03:53
Speaker 1: after that he laid still. He was dead. Then they
5:03:59
Speaker 1: pulled his daughter away from him, screaming and crying, and
5:04:02
Speaker 1: took her off. She was about sixteen and very sweet
5:04:07
Speaker 1: and gentle looking, but awful, pale and scared. Well. Pretty
5:04:12
Speaker 1: soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouching and
5:04:15
Speaker 1: pushing and shoving to get at the window and have
5:04:17
Speaker 1: a look. But people that had the places wouldn't give
5:04:20
Speaker 1: them up, and folks behind them was saying all the time,
5:04:24
Speaker 1: see now you've looked enough, you fellers. Tain't brighten, Tain't
5:04:27
Speaker 1: fair for you to stay there all the time. Never
5:04:29
Speaker 1: give nobody chance. Other folks has their rights as well
5:04:32
Speaker 1: as you. There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out,
5:04:38
Speaker 1: thinkin maybe there was goin to be trouble. The streets
5:04:41
Speaker 1: was full and everybody was excited. Everybody that's seen the
5:04:44
Speaker 1: shootin was telling how it happened, and there was a
5:04:47
Speaker 1: big crowd packed around each one of these fellas, stretching
5:04:50
Speaker 1: their necks and listening. One long, lanky man with long
5:04:55
Speaker 1: hair and a big white fur stove pipe hat on
5:04:58
Speaker 1: the back of his head, and a crooked handled cane
5:05:01
Speaker 1: marked out the places on the ground where Bogs stood
5:05:04
Speaker 1: and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around
5:05:08
Speaker 1: from one place to the other, and watching everything he'd done,
5:05:11
Speaker 1: and bobbing their heads to show they understood, and stooping
5:05:15
Speaker 1: a little and resting their hands on their thighs to
5:05:18
Speaker 1: watch him mark the places on the ground with his cane.
5:05:21
Speaker 1: And then he stood up straight and stiff where Shrburn
5:05:23
Speaker 1: had stood, frowning and halving, his hat brim down over
5:05:27
Speaker 1: his eyes, and sung out bogs, and then fetched his
5:05:31
Speaker 1: cane down, slowed to a level and says bang, staggered backwards,
5:05:37
Speaker 1: says bang again, and fell down flat on his back.
5:05:42
Speaker 1: The people that had seen the thing said he done
5:05:44
Speaker 1: it perfect, said it was just exactly the way it
5:05:47
Speaker 1: all happened. Then as much as a dozen people got
5:05:50
Speaker 1: out their bottles and treated him well by and by,
5:05:55
Speaker 1: somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched. In about a minute,
5:05:58
Speaker 1: everybody was saying it so away they went mad and
5:06:02
Speaker 1: yelling and snatching down every clothesline they come to to
5:06:06
Speaker 1: do the hanging with end of chapter twenty one. Chapter
5:06:12
Speaker 1: twenty two, they swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, but whooping
5:06:18
Speaker 1: and raging like engines, and everything had to clear the
5:06:21
Speaker 1: way or get run over and tromp to mush, and
5:06:25
Speaker 1: it was awful to see. Children was healing it ahead
5:06:28
Speaker 1: of the mob, screaming and trying to get out of
5:06:31
Speaker 1: the way. And every window along the road was full
5:06:34
Speaker 1: of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every tree,
5:06:38
Speaker 1: and bucks and wenches looking over every fence, And as
5:06:42
Speaker 1: soon as the mob would get nearly to them, they
5:06:44
Speaker 1: would break and scattle back out of reach. Lots of
5:06:48
Speaker 1: the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared,
5:06:52
Speaker 1: most to death. They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's
5:06:56
Speaker 1: palings as thick as they could, jam together, and you
5:07:00
Speaker 1: can hear yourself think for the noise. It was a
5:07:03
Speaker 1: little twenty foot yard. Some sung out, tear down the fence,
5:07:07
Speaker 1: tear down the fence. Then there was a racket of
5:07:11
Speaker 1: ripping and tearing and smashing, and down she goes, and
5:07:15
Speaker 1: the front wall of the crowd begins to roll in
5:07:18
Speaker 1: like a wave. Just then Sherburn steps out on to
5:07:22
Speaker 1: the roof of his little front porch with a double
5:07:25
Speaker 1: barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand perfectly,
5:07:30
Speaker 1: calm and deliberate, not saying a word. The racket stopped
5:07:35
Speaker 1: and the waves sucked back. Sherburn never said a word,
5:07:40
Speaker 1: just stood there looking down. The stillness was awful, creepy,
5:07:45
Speaker 1: and uncomfortable. Sherburn run his eyes slow along the crowd
5:07:50
Speaker 1: and wherever it struck. The people tried a little to
5:07:53
Speaker 1: outgaze him, but they couldn't. They dropped their eyes and
5:07:58
Speaker 1: looked sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn's sort of laughed, not
5:08:04
Speaker 1: the pleasant kind, but the kind that makes you feel
5:08:07
Speaker 1: like when you are eating bread that's got sand in it.
5:08:11
Speaker 1: Then he says, slow and scornful. The idea of you
5:08:17
Speaker 1: lynching anybody, it's amusing. The idea of you thinking you
5:08:24
Speaker 1: had pluck enough to lynch a man because you're brave
5:08:28
Speaker 1: enough to tar and feather poor, friendless, cast out women
5:08:32
Speaker 1: that come along here. Did that make you think you
5:08:36
Speaker 1: had grit enough to lay your hands on a man.
5:08:40
Speaker 1: Why a man's safe in the hands of ten thousand
5:08:44
Speaker 1: of your kind, as long as it's daytime, and you're
5:08:48
Speaker 1: not behind him. Do I know you? I know you
5:08:53
Speaker 1: clear through. Was born and raised in the South, and
5:08:58
Speaker 1: I've lived in the North, so I know the average
5:09:02
Speaker 1: all around. The average man's a coward. In the North,
5:09:08
Speaker 1: he lets anybody walk over him that wants to, and
5:09:12
Speaker 1: goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it.
5:09:16
Speaker 1: In the South, one man all by himself has stopped
5:09:20
Speaker 1: a stage full of men in the daytime and robbed
5:09:23
Speaker 1: the lot. Your newspapers call you a brave people, so
5:09:29
Speaker 1: much that you think you are braver than any other people,
5:09:33
Speaker 1: whereas you're just as brave and no braver. Why don't
5:09:39
Speaker 1: your juries hang murderers because they're afraid the man's friends
5:09:44
Speaker 1: will shoot them in the back in the dark, and
5:09:48
Speaker 1: it's just what they would do, so they always acquit.
5:09:53
Speaker 1: And then a man goes in the night with a
5:09:55
Speaker 1: hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.
5:10:00
Speaker 1: Your mistake is that you didn't bring a man with you.
5:10:04
Speaker 1: That's one mistake, and the other is that you didn't
5:10:08
Speaker 1: come in the dark and fetch your masks. You brought
5:10:11
Speaker 1: part of a man buck harkness there. And if you
5:10:15
Speaker 1: hadn't had him to start you, you'd a taken it
5:10:18
Speaker 1: out in blowing. You didn't want to come. The average
5:10:24
Speaker 1: man don't like trouble and danger. You don't like trouble
5:10:29
Speaker 1: and danger. But if only half a man like buck
5:10:33
Speaker 1: Harkness there shouts lynch him, lynch him. You're afraid to
5:10:38
Speaker 1: back down, afraid you'll be found out to be what
5:10:42
Speaker 1: you are, cowards. And so you raise a yell and
5:10:47
Speaker 1: hang yourselves on to that half a man's coat tail
5:10:51
Speaker 1: and come raging up here, swearing what big things you're
5:10:54
Speaker 1: going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob.
5:10:59
Speaker 1: That's what an army is. A mob. They don't fight
5:11:02
Speaker 1: with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's
5:11:06
Speaker 1: borrowed from their masts and from their officers. But a
5:11:11
Speaker 1: mob without any man at the head of it is
5:11:14
Speaker 1: beneath pitifulness. Now the thing for you to do is
5:11:19
Speaker 1: droop your tails and go home and crawl in a hole.
5:11:22
Speaker 1: If any real lynching's going to be done, it'll be
5:11:25
Speaker 1: done in the dark southern fashion. And when they come,
5:11:30
Speaker 1: they'll bring their masks and fetch a man along. Now
5:11:34
Speaker 1: leave and take your half a man with you. Tossing
5:11:39
Speaker 1: his gun up across his left arm and cocking it.
5:11:41
Speaker 1: When he says this, the crowd washed back sudden, and
5:11:45
Speaker 1: then broke all apart and went tearing off every which way,
5:11:50
Speaker 1: and buck Harkness. He heeled it after them, looking tolerable cheap.
5:11:55
Speaker 1: I could have stayed if I wanted to, but I
5:11:57
Speaker 1: didn't want to. I went to the circus and loafed
5:12:01
Speaker 1: around the backside till the watchman went by, and then
5:12:04
Speaker 1: dived in under the tent. I have my twenty dollar
5:12:08
Speaker 1: gold piece and some other money, but I reckoned. I'd
5:12:11
Speaker 1: better save it, cause there ain't no telling how soon
5:12:13
Speaker 1: you're gonna need it. Away from home and amongst strangers
5:12:17
Speaker 1: that way, ye can't be too ca