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10 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, Eloquence and the Master's gilded dome vacation
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Speaker 1: was approaching. The schoolmaster all was severe, grew severer and
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Speaker 1: more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to
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Speaker 1: make a good showing on examination day. His rod and
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Speaker 1: his ferule were seldom idle now, at least among the
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Speaker 1: smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys and young ladies of
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Speaker 1: eighteen and twenty escaped lashing. Mister Dobbin's lashings were very
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Speaker 1: vigorous ones, too, for although he carried under his wig
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Speaker 1: a perfectly bald and shiny head, he had only reached
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Speaker 1: middle age, and there was no sign of feebleness in
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Speaker 1: his muscle. As the great day approached, all the tyranny
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Speaker 1: that was in him came to the surface. He seemed
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Speaker 1: to take a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least shortcomings.
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Speaker 1: The consequence was that the smaller boys spent their days
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Speaker 1: in terror and suffering, and their nights in plotting revenge.
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Speaker 1: They threw away no opportunity to do the Master a mischief,
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Speaker 1: but he kept ahead all the time. The retribution that
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Speaker 1: followed every vengeful success was so sweeping and majestic that
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Speaker 1: the boys always retired from the field and badly worsted.
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Speaker 1: At last, they conspired together and hit upon a plan
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Speaker 1: that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in the sign
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Speaker 1: painter's boy told him the scheme and asked his help.
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Speaker 1: He had his own reason for being delighted, for the
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Speaker 1: master boarded in his father's family and had given the
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Speaker 1: boy ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would
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Speaker 1: go on a visit to the country in a few days,
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Speaker 1: and there would be nothing to interfere with the plan.
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Speaker 1: The master always prepared himself for great occasions by getting
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Speaker 1: pretty well fuddled, and the sign painter's boy said that
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Speaker 1: when the dominie had reached the proper condition on examination evening,
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Speaker 1: he would manage the thing while he napped in his chair.
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Speaker 1: Then he would have him awakened at the right time
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Speaker 1: and hurried away to school in the fullness of time.
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Speaker 1: The interesting occasion arrived at eight in the evening. The
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Speaker 1: schoolhouse was brilliantly lighted and adorned with wreaths and festoons
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Speaker 1: of foliage and flowers. The master sat throned in his
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Speaker 1: great chair upon a raised platform with his blackboard behind him.
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Speaker 1: He was looking tolerably mellow, three rows of benches on
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Speaker 1: each side, and six rows in front of him were
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Speaker 1: occupied by the dignitaries of the town and by the
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Speaker 1: parents of the pupils. To his left, back of the
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Speaker 1: rows of citizens was a spacious temporary platform upon which
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Speaker 1: were seated the scholars who were to take part in
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Speaker 1: the exercises of the evening. Rows of small boys, washed
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Speaker 1: and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort, rows of
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Speaker 1: gawky big boys, snow banks of girls and young ladies
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Speaker 1: clad in lawn and muslem and conspicuously conscious of their
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Speaker 1: bare arms, their grandmother's ancient trinkets, their bits of pink
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Speaker 1: and blue ribbon, and the flowers in their hair. All
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Speaker 1: the rest of the house was filled with non participating scholars.
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Speaker 1: The exercise as began, a very little boy stood up
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Speaker 1: and sheepishly recited, you'd scarce expect one of my age
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Speaker 1: to speak in public on the stage, et cetera, accompanying
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Speaker 1: himself with the painfully exact and spasmodic gestures which a
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Speaker 1: machine might have used, supposing the machine to be a
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Speaker 1: trifle out of order. But he got through safely, though
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Speaker 1: cruelly scared, and got a fine round of applause. When
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Speaker 1: he made his manufactured bow and retired, A little shamefaced
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Speaker 1: girl lisped, Mary had a little lamb et cetera, performed
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Speaker 1: a compassion inspired Curtsey got her meed of applause, and
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Speaker 1: sat down, flushed and happy. Tom Sawyer stepped forward with
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Speaker 1: conceited confidence, and soared into the unquenchable and indestructible give
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Speaker 1: me liberty or give me death speech with fine fury
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Speaker 1: and frantic gesticulation, and broke down in the middle of it.
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Speaker 1: A ghastly stage fright seized him. His legs quaked under him,
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Speaker 1: and he was like to choke. True, he had the
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Speaker 1: manifest sympathy of the house, but he had the house's silence, too,
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Speaker 1: which was even worse than its sympathy. The master frowned,
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Speaker 1: and this completed the disaster. Tom struggled awhile and then
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Speaker 1: retired utterly defeated. There was a weak attempt at applause,
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Speaker 1: but it died early. The boys stood on the burning deck.
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Speaker 1: Followed also the Assyrian came down, and other declamatory gems.
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Speaker 1: Then there were reading exercises and a spelling fight. The
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Speaker 1: meager Latin class recited with honor the prime feature of
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Speaker 1: the evening was in order now original compositions by the
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Speaker 1: young ladies. Each in her turn stepped forward to the
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Speaker 1: edge of the platform, cleared her throat, held up her
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Speaker 1: manuscript tied with dainty ribbon, and proceeded to read with
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Speaker 1: labored attention to expression and punctuation. The themes were the same
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Speaker 1: that had been illuminated upon similar occasions by their mothers
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Speaker 1: before them, their grandmothers, and doubtless all their ants in
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Speaker 1: the female line clear back to the Crusades. Friendship was
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Speaker 1: one memories of other days. Religion in history dream Land,
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Speaker 1: the advantages of culture forms of political government compared and
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Speaker 1: contrasted melancholy, filial love, heart longings, et cetera, et cetera.
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Speaker 1: A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and
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Speaker 1: petted melancholy. Another was a wasteful and opulent gush of
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Speaker 1: fine language. Another was a tendency to lug in by
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Speaker 1: the ears, particularly prized words and phrases, until they were
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Speaker 1: worn entirely out. And a peculiarity that conspicuously marked and
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Speaker 1: marred them was the inveterate and intolerable sermon that wagged
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Speaker 1: its crippled tale at the end of each and every
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Speaker 1: one of them. No matter what the subject might be,
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Speaker 1: a brain racking effort was made to squirm it into
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Speaker 1: some aspect or other that the moral and religious mind
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Speaker 1: could contemplate with edification. The glaring insincerity of these sermons
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Speaker 1: was not sufficient to compass the banishment of the fashion
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Speaker 1: from the schools, and it is not sufficient today it
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Speaker 1: never will be sufficient while the world stands. Perhaps there
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Speaker 1: is no school in all our land where the young
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Speaker 1: ladies do not feel obliged to close their compositions with
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Speaker 1: a sermon. And you will find that the sermon of
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Speaker 1: the most frivolous and the least religious girl in the
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Speaker 1: school is always the longest and the most relentlessly pious.
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Speaker 1: But enough of this homely truth is unpalatable. Let us
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Speaker 1: return to the examination. The first composition that was read
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Speaker 1: was one entitled is this then Life? Perhaps the reader
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Speaker 1: can endure and extract from it in the common walks
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Speaker 1: of life with what delightful emotions? Does the youthful mind
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Speaker 1: look forward to some anticipated scene of festivity? Imagination is
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Speaker 1: busy sketching rose tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the
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Speaker 1: voluptuous rotary of fashion, sees herself amid the festive throng,
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Speaker 1: the observed of all observers. Her graceful form, arrayed in
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Speaker 1: snowy robes, is whirling through the mazes of the joyous dance.
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Speaker 1: Her eye is brightest, her step is lightest in the
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Speaker 1: gay assembly. In such delicious fancies, time quickly glides by,
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Speaker 1: and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into the
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Speaker 1: elysian world of which she has had such bright dreams.
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Speaker 1: How fairylike does everything appear to her enchanted vision. Each
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Speaker 1: new scene is more charming than the last. But after
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Speaker 1: a while she finds that beneath this goodly exterior all
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Speaker 1: is vanity. The flattery which once charmed her soul now
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Speaker 1: grates harshly upon her ear. The ball room has lost
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Speaker 1: its charms, and with wasted health and embittered heart, she
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Speaker 1: turns away with a conviction that earthly pleasures cannot satisfy
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Speaker 1: the longings of the soul. And so forth and so on.
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Speaker 1: There was a buzz of gratification from time to time
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Speaker 1: during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of how sweet,
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Speaker 1: how eloquent, so true, et cetera. And after the thing
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Speaker 1: had closed with a peculiarly afflicting sermon. The applause was enthusiastic.
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Speaker 1: Then arose a slight, melancholy girl whose face had the
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Speaker 1: interesting paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read
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Speaker 1: a poem two stanzas of it will do a Missouri
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Speaker 1: maiden's farewell to Alabama, Alabama, goodbye. I love THEE well,
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Speaker 1: But yet for a while do I leave thee now? Sad, yes,
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Speaker 1: sad thoughts of thee. My heart to swell, and burning
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Speaker 1: recollections throng my brow. For I have wandered through thy
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Speaker 1: flowery woods, have roamed and read near Tallapoosa's stream, have
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Speaker 1: listened to Talis's warring floods, and wooed on Cusa's side
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Speaker 1: Aurora's beam. Yet shame I not to bear an awful heart,
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Speaker 1: nor blush to turn behind find my tearful eyes. Tis
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Speaker 1: from no stranger land. I now must part, Tis to
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Speaker 1: no stranger's left. I yield these sighs welcome and home
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Speaker 1: were mine within this state, whose veils I leave, whose
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Speaker 1: spires fade fast from me, and cold must be mine
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Speaker 1: eyes and heart and tete When dear Alabama they turned
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Speaker 1: cold on thee. There were very few there who knew
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Speaker 1: what Tete meant, but the poem was very satisfactory. Nevertheless,
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Speaker 1: next appeared a dark complexioned, black eyed, black haired young lady,
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Speaker 1: who paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic expression, and
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Speaker 1: began to read in a measured, solemn tone. A vision
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Speaker 1: dark and tempestuous was night around the throne on high.
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Speaker 1: Not a single star quivered, but the deep intonations of
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Speaker 1: the heavy thunder constantly vibrated upon the ear, whilst the
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Speaker 1: terrific lightning reveled in angry mood through the cloud chambers
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Speaker 1: of heaven, seeming to scorn the power exerted over its
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Speaker 1: terror by the illustrious Franklin. Even the boisterous winds unanimously
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Speaker 1: came forth from their mystic homes and blustered about, as
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Speaker 1: if to enhance by their aid the wildness of the
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Speaker 1: scene at such a time, so dark, so dreary for
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Speaker 1: human sympathy my very spirit side. But instead, thereof my
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Speaker 1: dearest friend, my counselor my comforter and guide, my joy
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Speaker 1: in grief, my second bliss in joy, came to my side.
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Speaker 1: She moved like one of those bright beings pictured in
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Speaker 1: the sunny walks of fancies Eden by the romantic and young,
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Speaker 1: a queen of beauty, unadorned save by her own transcendent loveliness.
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Speaker 1: So soft was her step it failed to make even
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Speaker 1: a sound, and but for the magical thrill imparted by
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Speaker 1: her genial touch, as other unobtrusive beauties, she would have
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Speaker 1: glided away, unperceived, unsought. A strange sadness rested upon her features,
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Speaker 1: like icy tears upon the robe of December, as she
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Speaker 1: pointed to the contending elements without and bade me contemplate
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Speaker 1: the two beings presented. This nightmare occupied some ten pages
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Speaker 1: of manuscript, and wound up with a sermon so destructive
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Speaker 1: of all hope to non Presbyterians that it took the
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Speaker 1: first prize. This composition was considered to be the very
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Speaker 1: finest effort of the evening. The mayor of the village,
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Speaker 1: in delivering the prize to the author of it, made
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Speaker 1: a warm speech in which he said that it was
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Speaker 1: by far the most eloquent thing he had ever listened to,
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Speaker 1: and that Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it.
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Speaker 1: It may be remarked in passing that the number of
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Speaker 1: compositions in which the word beauteous was over fondled, and
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Speaker 1: human experience referred to as life's pages was up to
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Speaker 1: the usual average. Now the Master, mellow, almost to the
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Speaker 1: verge of geniality, put his chair aside, turned his back
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Speaker 1: to the audience, and began to draw a map of
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Speaker 1: America on the blackboard to exercise the geography class upon.
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Speaker 1: But he made a sad business of it with his
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Speaker 1: unsteady hand, and a smothered titter rippled over the house.
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Speaker 1: He knew what the matter was and set himself to
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Speaker 1: write it. He sponged out lines and remade them, but
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Speaker 1: he only distorted them more than ever, and the tittering
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Speaker 1: was more pronounced. He threw his entire attention upon his
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Speaker 1: work now, as if determined not to be put down
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Speaker 1: by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened
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Speaker 1: upon him. He imagined he was succeeding, And yet the
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Speaker 1: tittering continued, it even manifestly increased. And well it might.
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Speaker 1: There was a garret above, pierced with a scuttle over
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Speaker 1: his head, and down through this scuttle came a cat,
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Speaker 1: suspended around the haunches by a string. She had a
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Speaker 1: rag tied about her head and jaws to keep her
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Speaker 1: from mewing. As she slowly descended, she curved upward and
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Speaker 1: clawed at the string. She swung downward and clawed at
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Speaker 1: the intangible air. The tittering rose higher and higher. The
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Speaker 1: cat was within six inches of the absorbed teacher's head.
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Speaker 1: Down down a little lower, and she grabbed his wig
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Speaker 1: with her desperate claws, clung to it, and was snatched
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Speaker 1: up into the garret in an instant, with her trophy
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Speaker 1: still in her possession. And how the light did blaze
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Speaker 1: abroad from the master's bald pate for the sign painter's
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Speaker 1: boy had gilded it that broke up the meeting. The
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Speaker 1: boys were avenged, vacation had come. Note the pretended compositions
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Speaker 1: quoted in this chapter are taken without alteration from a
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Speaker 1: volume entitled Prose and Poetry by a Western Lady. But
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Speaker 1: they are exactly and precisely after the schoolgirl pattern, and
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Speaker 1: hence are much happier than any mere imitations could be.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty one. Chapter twenty two, Huck Finn
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Speaker 1: quote scriptures. Tom joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance,
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Speaker 1: being attracted by the showy character of their regalia. He
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Speaker 1: promised to abstain from smoking, chewing, and profanity as long
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Speaker 1: as he remained a member. Now he found out a
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Speaker 1: new thing, namely, that to promise not to do a
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Speaker 1: thing is the surest way in the world to make
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Speaker 1: a body want to go and do that very thing.
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Speaker 1: Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink
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Speaker 1: and swear. The desire grew to be so intense that
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Speaker 1: nothing but the hope of a chance to display himself
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Speaker 1: in his red sash kept him from withdrawing from the order.
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Speaker 1: Fourth July was coming, but he soon gave that up,
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Speaker 1: gave it up before he had worn his shackles over
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Speaker 1: forty eight hours, and fixed his hopes upon old Judge Fraser,
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Speaker 1: Justice of the Piece, who was apparently on his death
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Speaker 1: bed and would have a big public funeral since he
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Speaker 1: was so high an official. During three days, Tom was
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Speaker 1: deeply concerned about the judge's condition and hungry for news
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Speaker 1: of it. Sometimes his hopes ran high, so high that
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Speaker 1: he would venture to get out his regalia and practice
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Speaker 1: before the looking glass, But the judge had a most
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Speaker 1: discouraging way of fluctuating. At last, he was pronounced upon
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Speaker 1: the mend and then convalescent. Tom was disgusted and felt
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Speaker 1: a sense of injury too. He handed in his resignation
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Speaker 1: at once, and that night the judge suffered a relapse
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Speaker 1: and died. Tom resolved that he would never trust a
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Speaker 1: man like that again. The funeral was a fine thing.
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Speaker 1: The cadets paraded in a style calculated to kill the
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Speaker 1: late member with envy. Tom was a free boy again. However,
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Speaker 1: there was something in that he could drink and swear now,
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Speaker 1: but found to his surprise that he did not want to.
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Speaker 1: The simple fact that he could took the desire away
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Speaker 1: and the charm of it. Tom presently wondered to find
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Speaker 1: that his coveted vacation was beginning to hang a little
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Speaker 1: heavily on his hands. He attempted a diary, but nothing
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Speaker 1: happened during three days, and so he abandoned it. The
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Speaker 1: first of all the Negro minstrel shows came to town
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Speaker 1: and made a sensation. Tom and Joe Harper got up
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Speaker 1: a band of performers and were happy for two days.
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Speaker 1: Even the glorious fourth was in some sense a failure,
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Speaker 1: for it rained hard. There was no procession in consequence,
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Speaker 1: and the greatest man in the world, as Tom supposed,
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Speaker 1: mister Benton, an actual United States Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment,
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Speaker 1: for he was not twenty five feet high, nor even
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Speaker 1: anywhere in the neighborhood of it. A circus came. The
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Speaker 1: boys played circus for three days afterward in tents made
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Speaker 1: of rag carpeting. Admission three pins for boys, two for girls,
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Speaker 1: and then circusing was abandoned. A phrenologist and a mesmerizer
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Speaker 1: came and went again, and left the village duller and
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Speaker 1: drearier than ever. There were some boys and girls parties,
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Speaker 1: but they were so few and so delightful that they
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Speaker 1: only made the aching voids between ache the harder. Becky
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Speaker 1: Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with
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Speaker 1: her parents during vacation. So there was no bright side
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Speaker 1: to life anywhere. The dreadful secret of the murder was
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Speaker 1: a chronic misery. It was a very cancer for permanency
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Speaker 1: and pain. Then came the measles. During two long weeks,
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Speaker 1: Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its happenings.
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Speaker 1: He was very ill. He was interested in nothing. When
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Speaker 1: he got upon his feet at last, and moved feebly downtown.
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Speaker 1: A melancholy change had come over everything and every creature.
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Speaker 1: There had been a revival, and everybody had got religion,
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Speaker 1: not only the adults, but even the boys and girls.
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Speaker 1: Tom went about, hoping against hope for the sight of
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Speaker 1: one blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him everywhere. He
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Speaker 1: found Joe Harper studying a testament and turned sadly away
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Speaker 1: from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben Rogers and found
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Speaker 1: him visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He
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Speaker 1: hunted up Jim Hollis, who called his attention to the
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Speaker 1: precious bloodlessing of his late measles as a warning. Every
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Speaker 1: boy he encountered added another ton to his depression, and
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Speaker 1: when in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to
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Speaker 1: the bosom of Huckleberry Finn, and was received with a
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Speaker 1: scriptural quotation. His heart broke, and he crept home and
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Speaker 1: to bed, realizing that he alone of all the town,
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Speaker 1: was lost forever and forever. In that night there came
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Speaker 1: on a terrific storm, with driving rain, awful claps of thunder,
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Speaker 1: and blinding sheets of lightning. He covered his head with
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Speaker 1: his bedclothes, and waited, in a horror of suspense for
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Speaker 1: his doom. For he had not the shadow of a
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Speaker 1: doubt that all this hubbub was about him. He believed
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Speaker 1: he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above to
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Speaker 1: the extremity of endurance, and that this was the result.
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Speaker 1: It might have seemed to him a waste of pomp
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Speaker 1: and ammunition to kill a bug with a battery of artillery,
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Speaker 1: but there seemed nothing incongruous about the getting up such
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Speaker 1: an expensive thunder storm as this to knock the turf
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Speaker 1: from under an insect like himself. By and by, the
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Speaker 1: tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its object. The
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Speaker 1: boy's first impulse was to be grateful and reform. His
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Speaker 1: second was to wait, for there might not be any
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Speaker 1: more storms. The next day the doctors were back, Tom
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Speaker 1: had relapsed. The three weeks he spent on his back
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Speaker 1: this time seemed an entire age. When he got abroad
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Speaker 1: at last, he was hardly grateful that he had been spared,
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Speaker 1: remembering how lonely was his estate, how companionless and forlorn
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Speaker 1: he was. He drifted listlessly down the street and found
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Speaker 1: Jim Hollis, acting as judge in a juvenile court that
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Speaker 1: was trying a cat for murder. In the presence of
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Speaker 1: her victim, a bird, he found Joe Harper and Huck
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Speaker 1: Finn up an alley eating a stolen melon. Poor lads, they,
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Speaker 1: like Tom, had suffered a relapse. End of chapter twenty two,
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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, the Salvation of Muff Potter. At last,
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Speaker 1: the sleepy atmosphere was stirred and vigorously. The murder trial
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Speaker 1: came on in the court. It became the absorbing topic
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Speaker 1: of village talk. Immediately Tom could not get away from it.
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Speaker 1: Every reference to the murder sent a shudder to his heart.
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Speaker 1: For his troubled conscience and fears almost persuaded him that
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Speaker 1: these remarks were put forth in his hearing as feelers.
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Speaker 1: He did not see how he could be suspected of
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Speaker 1: knowing anything about the murder, but still he could not
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Speaker 1: be comfortable in the midst of this gossip. It kept
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Speaker 1: him in a cold shiver all the time. He took
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Speaker 1: Huck to a lonely place to have a talk with him.
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Speaker 1: It would be some relief to unseal his tongue for
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Speaker 1: a little while, to divide his burden of distress with
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Speaker 1: another sufferer. Moreover, he wanted to assure himself that Huck
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Speaker 1: had remained discreet. Huck, have you ever told anybody about that?
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Speaker 1: But what you know? What? Oh, cour course, I haven't
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Speaker 1: never a word, never a solitary word. So help me.
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Speaker 1: What makes you ask? Well? I was a feared Why
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Speaker 1: Tom sawyer? We wouldn't be alive two days if that
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Speaker 1: got found out? You know that Tom felt more comfortable
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Speaker 1: after a pause, Huck. They couldn't anybody get you to tell?
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Speaker 1: Could they get me to tell? Why? If I wanted
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Speaker 1: that half breed devil to drown me, they could get
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Speaker 1: me to tell? They ain't no different way. Well that's
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Speaker 1: all right then, I reckon, we're safe as long as
21:26
Speaker 1: we keep mum. But let's swear again anyway, it's more sure.
21:30
Speaker 1: I'm agreed. So they swore again with dread solemnities. What
21:34
Speaker 1: is the talk around, Huck? I've heard a power of
21:37
Speaker 1: it talk. Well, it's just muff Potter, muff Potter, muff
21:41
Speaker 1: potter all the time. It keeps me in a sweat.
21:43
Speaker 1: Constant says I want to hide somewheres. That's just the
21:47
Speaker 1: same way they go on round me I reckon, he's
21:49
Speaker 1: a goner. Don't you feel sorry for him? Sometimes? Most always,
21:53
Speaker 1: most always he ain't no account, But then he ain't
21:57
Speaker 1: ever done anything to hurt anybody. Just fishes a little to
22:00
Speaker 1: get money to get drunk on and loa surround considerable.
22:04
Speaker 1: But Lord, we all do that leastways, most of us
22:07
Speaker 1: preachers and such like. But he's kind of good. He'd
22:11
Speaker 1: give me half a fish once when there weren't enough
22:14
Speaker 1: for two, and lots of times he's kind of stood
22:17
Speaker 1: by me when I was out of luck. Well, he's
22:20
Speaker 1: mended kites for me, huck, and knitted hooks onto my line.
22:24
Speaker 1: I wish we could get him out of there, My
22:27
Speaker 1: We couldn't get him out, tom And besides, to win't
22:30
Speaker 1: do any good. They'd catch him again, Yes, so they would.
22:33
Speaker 1: But I hate to hear him abuse him so like
22:35
Speaker 1: the Dickens, when he never done that. I do too, Tom, Lord.
22:41
Speaker 1: I hear him say he's the bloodiest looking villain in
22:43
Speaker 1: this country, and they wonder he wasn't ever hung before. Yes,
22:47
Speaker 1: they talk like that all the time. I've heard him
22:50
Speaker 1: say that if he was to get free, they'd lynch him,
22:53
Speaker 1: and they'd do it too, The boys had a long talk,
22:56
Speaker 1: but it brought them little comfort. As the twilight drew on,
22:59
Speaker 1: they found themselves hanging about the neighborhood of a little
23:02
Speaker 1: isolated jail, perhaps with an undefined hope that something would
23:06
Speaker 1: happen that might clear away their difficulties. But nothing happened.
23:09
Speaker 1: There seemed to be no angels or fairies interested in
23:12
Speaker 1: this luckless captive. The boys did as they had often
23:16
Speaker 1: done before, went to the cell grating and gave Potter
23:19
Speaker 1: some tobacco and matches. He was on the ground floor
23:22
Speaker 1: and there were no guards. His gratitude for their gifts
23:25
Speaker 1: had always smote their conscience before, it cut deeper than ever.
23:29
Speaker 1: This time. They felt cowardly and treacherous to the last degree.
23:32
Speaker 1: When Potter said, you've been mighty good to me, boys,
23:36
Speaker 1: better'n anybody else in this town. And I don't forget it.
23:39
Speaker 1: I don't often, I says to myself, says I. I
23:43
Speaker 1: used to mend all the boys kites and things, and
23:45
Speaker 1: show em where the good fishing places was, and befriend
23:48
Speaker 1: em what I could. And now they've all forgot. Old
23:51
Speaker 1: Muff when he's in trouble. But Tom don't and Huck don't.
23:55
Speaker 1: They don't forget him, says I, and I don't forget them. Well, boys,
23:59
Speaker 1: I had done an awful thing drunk and crazy at
24:02
Speaker 1: the time. That's the only way I count for it.
24:04
Speaker 1: And now I got to swing for it. And it's right,
24:07
Speaker 1: right and best too, I reckon, I hope. So anyway,
24:12
Speaker 1: well we won't talk about that. I don't want to
24:14
Speaker 1: make you feel bad. You've befriended me. But what I
24:18
Speaker 1: want to say is, don't you ever get drunk, then
24:21
Speaker 1: you won't ever get here. Stand a little further west.
24:24
Speaker 1: So that's it. It's a prime comfort to see faces
24:28
Speaker 1: that's friendly when a body's in such a muck of
24:30
Speaker 1: trouble and there don't none come here, but yorn good
24:34
Speaker 1: friendly faces. Good friendly faces get up on one other's
24:39
Speaker 1: backs and let me touch them. That's it. Shake hands,
24:43
Speaker 1: urinal comes through the bars, but mine's too big, little
24:47
Speaker 1: hands and weak. And they've helped muff powder of power,
24:51
Speaker 1: and they'd help him more if they could. Tom went
24:54
Speaker 1: home miserable, and his dreams that night were full of horrors.
24:58
Speaker 1: The next day and the day after, he hung about
25:00
Speaker 1: the courtroom, drawn by an impossibly resistible impulse to go in,
25:04
Speaker 1: but forcing himself to stay out. Huck was having the
25:07
Speaker 1: same experience. They studiously avoided each other, each wandered away
25:11
Speaker 1: from time to time, but the same dismal fascination always
25:15
Speaker 1: brought them back. Presently. Tom kept his ears open when
25:18
Speaker 1: idlers sauntered out of the courtroom, but invariably heard distressing news.
25:23
Speaker 1: The toils were closing more and more relentlessly around poor Potter.
25:28
Speaker 1: At the end of the second day, the village talk
25:30
Speaker 1: was to the effect that injun Joe's evidence stood firm
25:33
Speaker 1: and unshaken, and that there was not the slightest question
25:36
Speaker 1: as to what the jury's verdict would be. Tom was
25:39
Speaker 1: out late that night and came to bed through the window.
25:42
Speaker 1: He was in a tremendous state of excitement. It was
25:45
Speaker 1: hours before he got to sleep. All the village flocked
25:48
Speaker 1: to the court house the next morning, for this was
25:50
Speaker 1: to be the great day. Both sexes were about equally
25:54
Speaker 1: represented in the packed audience. After a long wait, the
25:57
Speaker 1: jury filed in and took their places. Shortly afterward, Potter,
26:01
Speaker 1: pale and haggard, timid and hopeless, was brought in with
26:05
Speaker 1: chains upon him, and seated where all the curious eyes
26:08
Speaker 1: could stare at him. No less conspicuous was injun Joe
26:12
Speaker 1: stolid as ever, There was another pause, and then the
26:15
Speaker 1: judge arrived and the sheriff proclaimed the opening of the court.
26:19
Speaker 1: The usual whisperings among the lawyers and gathering together the
26:22
Speaker 1: papers followed. These details, and accompanying delays, worked up an
26:26
Speaker 1: atmosphere of preparation that was as impressive as it was fascinating.
26:31
Speaker 1: Now a witness was called, who testified that he found
26:34
Speaker 1: Muff Potter washing in the brook at an early hour
26:37
Speaker 1: of the morning, that the murder was discovered, and that
26:39
Speaker 1: he immediately sneaked away. After some further questioning, counsel for
26:43
Speaker 1: the prosecution said, take the witness. The prisoner raised his
26:48
Speaker 1: eyes for a moment, but dropped them again when his
26:50
Speaker 1: own counsel said, I have no questions to ask him.
26:54
Speaker 1: The next witness proved the finding of the knife near
26:57
Speaker 1: the corpse. Counsel for the prosecution said, take the witness,
27:01
Speaker 1: I have no questions to ask him. Potter's lawyer replied.
27:04
Speaker 1: A third witness swore he had often seen the knife
27:07
Speaker 1: in Potter's possession. Take the witness. Council for Potter declined
27:12
Speaker 1: to question him. The faces of the audience began to
27:15
Speaker 1: betray annoyance. Did this attorney mean to throw away his
27:18
Speaker 1: client's life without an effort. Several witnesses deposed concerning Potter's
27:23
Speaker 1: guilty behavior when brought to the scene of the murder.
27:26
Speaker 1: They were allowed to leave the stand without being cross questioned.
27:30
Speaker 1: Every detail of the damaging circumstances that occurred in the
27:33
Speaker 1: graveyard upon that morning, which all present remembered so well,
27:36
Speaker 1: was brought out by credible witnesses, but none of them
27:40
Speaker 1: were cross examined by Potter's lawyer. The perplexity and dissatisfaction
27:44
Speaker 1: of the house expressed itself in murmurs and provoked a
27:47
Speaker 1: reproof from the bench. Counsel for the prosecution. Now said,
27:51
Speaker 1: by the oaths of citizens, whose simple word is above suspicion,
27:55
Speaker 1: we have fastened this awful crime beyond all possibility of
27:59
Speaker 1: question upon the unhappy prisoner at the bar, we rest
28:04
Speaker 1: our case. Here a groan escaped from poor Potter, and
28:08
Speaker 1: he put his face in his hands and rocked his
28:10
Speaker 1: body softly to and fro, while a painful silence reigned
28:14
Speaker 1: in the courtroom. Many men were moved, and many women's
28:18
Speaker 1: compassion testified itself in tears. Counsel for the defense rose
28:23
Speaker 1: and said, your honor, in our remarks at the opening
28:26
Speaker 1: of this trial, we foreshadowed our purpose to prove that
28:30
Speaker 1: our client did this fearful deed while under the influence
28:33
Speaker 1: of a blind and irresponsible delirium produced by drink. We
28:37
Speaker 1: have changed our mind. We shall not offer that plea.
28:41
Speaker 1: Then to the clerk, call Thomas Sawyer. A puzzled amazement
28:47
Speaker 1: awoke in every face in the house, not even accepting Potter's.
28:51
Speaker 1: Every eye fastened itself with wondering interest upon Tom. As
28:55
Speaker 1: he rose and took his place upon the stand. The
28:58
Speaker 1: boy looked wild at enough, for he was badly scared.
29:01
Speaker 1: The oath was administered, Thomas Sawyer, where were you? On
29:06
Speaker 1: the seventeenth of June? About the hour of midnight? Tom
29:10
Speaker 1: glanced at injun Joe's iron face, and his tongue failed him.
29:15
Speaker 1: The audience listened breathless, but the words refused to come.
29:19
Speaker 1: After a few moments, however, the boy got a little
29:21
Speaker 1: of his strength back and managed to put enough of
29:23
Speaker 1: it into his voice to make part of the house
29:26
Speaker 1: here in the graveyard a little bit louder. Please don't
29:31
Speaker 1: be afraid you were in the graveyard. A contemptuous smile
29:35
Speaker 1: flitted across Injun Joe's face. Were you anywhere near Horse
29:40
Speaker 1: William's grave? Yes, sir, speak up, just a trifle louder.
29:44
Speaker 1: How near were you near? As I am to you?
29:48
Speaker 1: Were you hidden or not? I was hid? Where behind
29:53
Speaker 1: the elms? That's on the edge of the grave. Injun
29:56
Speaker 1: Joe gave a barely perceptible start an he went with you? Who, Yes, sir,
30:01
Speaker 1: I went there with Wait, wait a moment, never mind
30:05
Speaker 1: mentioning your companion's name. We will produce him at the
30:08
Speaker 1: proper time. Did you carry anything there with you? Tom
30:12
Speaker 1: hesitated and looked confused. Speak out, my boy, don't be diffident.
30:16
Speaker 1: The truth is always respectable. What did you take there? Only? Uh? Eh,
30:23
Speaker 1: dead cat. There was a ripple of mirth, which the
30:26
Speaker 1: court checked. We will produce the skeleton of that cat. Now,
30:31
Speaker 1: my boy, tell us everything that occurred. Tell it in
30:33
Speaker 1: your own way. Don't skip anything, and don't be afraid.
30:37
Speaker 1: Tom began hesitatingly at first, but as he warmed to
30:41
Speaker 1: his subject, his words flowed more and more easily. In
30:44
Speaker 1: a little while, every sound ceased but his own voice.
30:48
Speaker 1: Every eye fixed itself upon him with parted lips and
30:51
Speaker 1: bated breath. The audience hung upon his words, taking no
30:55
Speaker 1: note of time, Wrapped in the ghastly fascination of the tale.
30:58
Speaker 1: The strain upon hint motion reached its climax when the
31:02
Speaker 1: boy said, And as the doctor fetched the board around
31:07
Speaker 1: and muff Potter fell injun Joe jumped with a knife
31:10
Speaker 1: and crash, quick as lightning. The half breed sprang for
31:14
Speaker 1: a window, tore his way through all opposers, and was gone.
31:19
Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty three.