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

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Speaker 1: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Chapter thirty three,
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Speaker 1: The Fate of Injun Joe. Within a few minutes, the
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Speaker 1: news had spread, and a dozen skiff loads of men
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Speaker 1: were on their way to McDougall's cave, and the ferry
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Speaker 1: boat well filled with passengers soon followed. Tom Sawyer was
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Speaker 1: in a skiff that bore Judge Thatcher. When the cave
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Speaker 1: door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in the
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Speaker 1: dim twilight of the place. Injin Joe lay stretched upon
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Speaker 1: the ground, dead, with his face close to the crack
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Speaker 1: of the door, as if his longing eyes had been
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Speaker 1: fixed to the latest moment upon the light and the
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Speaker 1: cheer of the free world outside. Tom was touched, for
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Speaker 1: he knew by his own experience how this wretch had suffered.
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Speaker 1: His pity was moved, but nevertheless he felt an a
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Speaker 1: bounding sense of relief and security now which revealed to him,
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Speaker 1: in a degree which he had not fully appreciated before,
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Speaker 1: how vast a weight of dread had been locked upon
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Speaker 1: him since the day he lifted his voice against this bloody,
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Speaker 1: minded outcast. Injun Joe's bowie knife lay close by, its
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Speaker 1: blade broken in two, the great foundation beam of the
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Speaker 1: door had been chipped and hacked through with tedious labor.
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Speaker 1: Useless labor too, it was, for the native rock formed
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Speaker 1: a sill outside it, and upon that stubborn material the
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Speaker 1: knife had wrought no effect. The only damage done was
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Speaker 1: to the knife itself. But if there had been no
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Speaker 1: stony obstruction there, the labor would have been useless still,
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Speaker 1: For if the beam had been wholly cut away injun
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Speaker 1: Joe could not have squeezed his body under the door,
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Speaker 1: and he knew it. So he had only hacked that
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Speaker 1: place in order to be doing something, in order to
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Speaker 1: pass the weary time, in order to employ his tortured faculties. Ordinarily,
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Speaker 1: one could find half a dozen bits of candles stuck
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Speaker 1: around in the crevices of this vestibule, left there by tourists,
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Speaker 1: but there were none now. The prisoner had served them
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Speaker 1: out and eaten them. He had also contrived to catch
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Speaker 1: a few bats, and these also he had eaten, leaving
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Speaker 1: only their claws. The poor unfortunate had starved to death.
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Speaker 1: In one place near at hand, a stalac might had
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Speaker 1: been slowly growing up from the ground for ages builded
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Speaker 1: by the water drip from a stalactite overhead. The captive
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Speaker 1: had broken off the stalac mighte, and upon the stump
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Speaker 1: had placed a stone, wherein he had scooped a shallow
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Speaker 1: hollow to catch the precious drop that fell once in
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Speaker 1: every three minutes, with the dreary regularity of a cloctik
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Speaker 1: a dessert spoonful, once in four and twenty hours. That
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Speaker 1: drop was falling when the pyramids were new, when Troy fell,
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Speaker 1: when the foundations of Rome were laid, when Christ was crucified,
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Speaker 1: when the conqueror created the British Empire, when Columbus sailed,
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Speaker 1: when the massacre at Lexington was news. It is falling now,
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Speaker 1: it will still be falling when all these things shall
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Speaker 1: have sunk down, the afternoon of history and the twilight
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Speaker 1: of tradition had been swallowed up in the thick night
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Speaker 1: of oblivion. Has everything a purpose and a mission? Did
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Speaker 1: this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be
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Speaker 1: ready for this flitting human insect's need? And has it
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Speaker 1: another important object to accomplish ten thousand years to come?
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Speaker 1: No matter? It is many and many a year since
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Speaker 1: the hapless half breed scooped out the stone to catch
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Speaker 1: the priceless drops. But to this day the tourist stairs
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Speaker 1: longest at that pathetic stone and that slow dropping water
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Speaker 1: when he comes to see the wonders of McDougall's cave.
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Speaker 1: Injun Joe's cup stands first in the list of the
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Speaker 1: cavern's marvels. Even Aladdin's Palace cannot rival it. Injun Joe
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Speaker 1: was buried near the mouth of the cave, and people
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Speaker 1: flocked there in boats and wagons from the towns and
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Speaker 1: from all the farms and hamlets for seven miles around.
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Speaker 1: They brought their children and all sorts of provisions, and
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Speaker 1: confess that they had had almost as satisfactory a time
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Speaker 1: at the funeral as they could have had at the hanging.
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Speaker 1: This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing, the
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Speaker 1: petition to the governor for injun Joe's pardon. The petition
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Speaker 1: had been largely signed, many tearful and eloquent meetings had
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Speaker 1: been held, and a committee of sappy women been appointed
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Speaker 1: to go in deep mourning and wail around the governor
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Speaker 1: and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample
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Speaker 1: his duty underfoot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed
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Speaker 1: five citizens of the village but what of that? If
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Speaker 1: he had been Satan himself, there would have been plenty
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Speaker 1: of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon
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Speaker 1: petition and drip a tear on it from their permanently
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Speaker 1: impaired and leaky water works. The morning after the funeral,
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Speaker 1: Tom took Huck to a private place to have an
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Speaker 1: important talk. Huck had learned all about Tom's adventure from
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Speaker 1: the Welshman and the widow Douglas by this time, but
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Speaker 1: Tom said he reckoned there was one thing they had
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Speaker 1: not told him. That thing was what he wanted to
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Speaker 1: talk about now. Huck's face saddened, he said, I know
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Speaker 1: what it is. You got into number two and never
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Speaker 1: found anything but whiskey. Nobody told me it was you,
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Speaker 1: but I just knowed it must have been you soon
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Speaker 1: as I heard bout that whiskey business, and I knowed
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Speaker 1: you hadn't got the money, because you'd have got it
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Speaker 1: me someway or other. And told me, even if you
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Speaker 1: was mum to everybody else, Tom, something's always told me
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Speaker 1: we'd never get hold of that swag. Why, Huck, I
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Speaker 1: never told on that tavern keeper. You know his tavern
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Speaker 1: was all right. The Saturday I went to the picnic.
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Speaker 1: Don't you remember you was to watch there that night? Oh? Yes,
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Speaker 1: why it seems about a year ago. It was that
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Speaker 1: very night that I followed Injun Joe to the Winders.
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Speaker 1: You followed him, yes, but you keep mum. I reckon,
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Speaker 1: Injun Joe's left friends behind him, and I don't want
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Speaker 1: them soaring on me and doin' me mean tricks. If
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Speaker 1: it hadn't been for me, he'd be down in Texas now,
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Speaker 1: all right? Then Huck told his entire adventure and confidence
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Speaker 1: to Tom, who had only heard of the Welshman's part
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Speaker 1: of it before. Well, said Huck, presently, coming back to
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Speaker 1: the main question. Whoever nipped the whiskey? And number two
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Speaker 1: nip the money too? I reckon anyway, it's a gone
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Speaker 1: er for us, Tom Hack. That money wasn't ever in
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Speaker 1: Number two? What? Huck searched his comrade's face. Keenly, Tom,
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Speaker 1: have you got on the track of that money again? Hak,
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Speaker 1: it's in the cave. Huck's eyes blazed. Say it again, Tom,
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Speaker 1: the money's in the cave, Tom, honest engine? Now is
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Speaker 1: it fun or earnest? Earnest Hack? Just as earnest as
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Speaker 1: ever I was in my life. Will you go in
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Speaker 1: there with me and help me get it out? I
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Speaker 1: bet I will. I will. If it's where, we can
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Speaker 1: blaze our way to it and not get lost. Hack.
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Speaker 1: We can do that without the least little bit of
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Speaker 1: trouble in the world. Good as wheat. What makes you
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Speaker 1: think the money's huck? You just wait till we get
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Speaker 1: in there. If we don't find it, I'll agree to
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Speaker 1: give you my drum and everything I've got in the world.
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Speaker 1: I will by jings. All right, it's a whiz. When
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Speaker 1: do you say right now? If you say it, are
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Speaker 1: you strong enough? Is it far in the cave? I
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Speaker 1: on my pins a little three four days now? But
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Speaker 1: I can't walk more than a mile, Tom, least, I
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Speaker 1: don't think I could. It's about five mile into there
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Speaker 1: the way. Anybody but me would go huck, But there's
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Speaker 1: a mighty short cut that they don't anybody but me
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Speaker 1: know about. Huck. I'll take you right to it in
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Speaker 1: a skiff. I'll float the skiff down there, and i'll
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Speaker 1: pull it back again, all by myself. You needn't ever
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Speaker 1: turn your hand over. Let's start right off, Tom, all right,
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Speaker 1: we want some bread and meat in our pipes, and
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Speaker 1: little bag or two and two or three kite strings,
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Speaker 1: and some of these newfangled things they call lucifer matches.
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Speaker 1: I tell you many's the time I wished I had some.
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Speaker 1: When I was in there before a trifle afternoon, the
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Speaker 1: boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen who was absent,
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Speaker 1: and got under way at once. When they were several
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Speaker 1: miles below Cave Hollow, Tom said, now you see this
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Speaker 1: bluff here, looks all alike all the way down from
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Speaker 1: the Cave Hollow. No houses, no woodyards, bushes all alike.
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Speaker 1: But do you see that white place up there where
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Speaker 1: there's been a landslide. Well, that's one of my marks.
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Speaker 1: We'll get shore now they landed. Now, Huck, where we're
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Speaker 1: a stand, and you could touch that hole I got
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Speaker 1: out of with a fishing pole. See if you can
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Speaker 1: find it. Huck searched all the place about and found nothing.
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Speaker 1: Tom proudly marched into a thick clump of sumac bushes
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Speaker 1: and said, here you are. Look at it, Huck. It's
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Speaker 1: the snuggist hole in this country. You just keep mum
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Speaker 1: about it. All along. I've been wanted to be a robber,
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Speaker 1: but I knew I'd got to have a thing like this,
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Speaker 1: and where to run across it was the bother. We've
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Speaker 1: got it now, and we'll keep it quiet. Only we'll
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Speaker 1: let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in because of course
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Speaker 1: there's got to be a gang, or else there wouldn't
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Speaker 1: be any style about it. Tom Sawyer's gang. It sounds splendid,
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Speaker 1: dull'n huck. Well, it just does, Tom. And who we rob? Oh,
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Speaker 1: most anybody wade lay people. That's mostly the way. And
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Speaker 1: kill them, no, not always hive them in the cave
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Speaker 1: till they raise a ransom. What's a ransom money? You
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Speaker 1: make them raise all they can, often their friends, and
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Speaker 1: after you kept them a year, if it ain't raised,
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Speaker 1: then you kill them. That's the general way. Only you
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Speaker 1: don't kill the women. You shut up the women, but
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Speaker 1: you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich and
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Speaker 1: all fully scared. You take their watches and things, but
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Speaker 1: you always take your hat off and talk polite. They
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Speaker 1: ain't anybody as plight as robbers. You'll see that in
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Speaker 1: any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and
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Speaker 1: after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks,
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Speaker 1: they stop crying, and after that you couldn't get them
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Speaker 1: to leave. If you drove them out, they'd turn right
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Speaker 1: around come back. It's so in all the books. Why
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Speaker 1: it's really bully, Tom, I believe it's better and to
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Speaker 1: be a pirate. Yes, it's better in some ways because
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Speaker 1: it's close to home and circuses and all that. By
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Speaker 1: this time everything is ready, and the boys entered the hole.
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Speaker 1: Tom and the lead. They toiled their way to the
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Speaker 1: farther end of the tunnel, then made their spliced kite
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Speaker 1: strings fast and moved on. A few steps brought them
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Speaker 1: to the ring, and Tom felt a shudder quiver all
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Speaker 1: through him. He showed Huck the fragment of Candlewick perched
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Speaker 1: on a lump of clay against the wall, and described
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Speaker 1: how he and Becky had watched the flames struggle and expire.
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Speaker 1: The boys began to quiet down to whispers now, for
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Speaker 1: the stillness and gloom of the place oppressed their spirits.
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Speaker 1: They went on and presently entered and followed Tom's other
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Speaker 1: corridors until they reached the jumping off place. The candles
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Speaker 1: revealed the fact that it was not really a precipice,
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Speaker 1: but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet high.
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Speaker 1: Tom whispered, Now I'll show you something, Huck. He held
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Speaker 1: his candle aloft and said, look as far round the
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Speaker 1: corner as you can. Do you see that there on
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Speaker 1: the big rock over yonder down with the candle smoke. Tom,
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Speaker 1: it's a cross. Now, where's your number two? Under the cross? Hey,
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Speaker 1: right yonders where I saw Indian Joe poke up his candle, Huck.
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Speaker 1: Huck stared at the mystic sign a while, and then said,
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Speaker 1: with a shaky voice, Tom, let's get out o here
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Speaker 1: what and leave the treasure? Yes, leave it? Injun Joe's
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Speaker 1: ghost is round about there. Certain No it ain't, Huck,
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Speaker 1: No it ain't. It would haunt the place where he died,
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Speaker 1: way out at the mouth of the cave, five miles
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Speaker 1: from here. No, Tom, it wouldn't. It would hang around
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Speaker 1: the money. I know the ways of ghosts, and so
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Speaker 1: do you. Tom began to fear that Huck was right.
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Speaker 1: Misgivings gathered in his mind, but presently an idea occurred
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Speaker 1: to him. Look here, Tuck, what fools were making of ourselves?
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Speaker 1: Injun Joe's ghost ain't a goin to come round where
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Speaker 1: there's a cross. The point was well taken. It had
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Speaker 1: its effect. Tom, I didn't think of that, but that's
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Speaker 1: so it's luck for us. That cross is I reckon.
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Speaker 1: We'll climb down there and have a hunt for that box.
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Speaker 1: Tom went first, cutting rude steps in the clay hill.
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Speaker 1: As he descended, Huck followed. Four avenues opened out of
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Speaker 1: the small cavern which the great rock stood in. The
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Speaker 1: boys examined three of them, with no result. They found
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Speaker 1: a small recess in the one nearest the base of
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Speaker 1: the rock, with a palllet of blankets spread down in it,
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Speaker 1: also an old suspender, some bacon rind, and the well
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Speaker 1: gnawed bones of two or three fowls, but there was
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Speaker 1: no money box. The lad searched and researched this place,
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Speaker 1: but in vain Tom said, he said, under the cross. Well,
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Speaker 1: this comes nearest being under the cross. It can't be
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Speaker 1: under the rock itself, because that's set solid on the ground.
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Speaker 1: They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down, discouraged.
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Speaker 1: Huck could suggest nothing. By and by Tom said, look,
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Speaker 1: ye here, Huck, there's footprints and some candle grease on
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Speaker 1: the clay about one side of this rock, but not
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Speaker 1: on the other sides. Now what's that for? I bet
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Speaker 1: you the money is under the rock. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: dig in the clay. That ain't no bad notion, Tom
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Speaker 1: said Huck with animation. Tom's real barlow was out at once,
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Speaker 1: and he had not dug four inches before he struck wood. Hey, Huck,
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Speaker 1: you hear that? Huck began to dig and scratch. Now
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Speaker 1: some boards were soon uncovered and removed. They had concealed
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Speaker 1: a natural chasm which led under the rock. Tom got
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Speaker 1: into this and held his candle as far under the
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Speaker 1: rock as he could, but said he could not see
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Speaker 1: to the end of the rift he proposed to explore.
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Speaker 1: He stooped and passed under. The narrow way descended gradually.
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Speaker 1: He followed its winding course, first to the right and
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Speaker 1: then to the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned
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Speaker 1: a short curve by and by and exclaimed, my goodness, Huck,
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Speaker 1: lookye here it was the treasure box, sure enough, occupying
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Speaker 1: a snug little cavern, along with an empty powder keg,
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Speaker 1: a couple of guns and leather cases, two or three
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Speaker 1: pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish,
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Speaker 1: well soaked with the water. Drip. Got it at last,
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Speaker 1: said Huck, plowing among the tarnished coins with his hands.
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Speaker 1: My but we're rich, Tom, Huck, I always reckon we'd
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Speaker 1: get it. It's just too good to believe. But we
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Speaker 1: have got it. Sure, say, let's not fool around here.
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Speaker 1: Let's snake it out. Let me see if we can
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Speaker 1: lift the box. It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could
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Speaker 1: lift it after an awkward fashion, but could not carry
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Speaker 1: it conveniently, I thought so, he said. They carried it
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Speaker 1: like it was heavy. That day at the Haunted House.
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Speaker 1: I noticed that I reckon, I was right to think
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Speaker 1: of fetching the little bags along. The money was soon
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Speaker 1: in the bags, and the boys took it up to
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Speaker 1: the cross rock. Now let's fetch the guns and things,
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Speaker 1: said Huck. No, Huck, leave them there. They're just the
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Speaker 1: tricks to have when you go to robbing. We'll keep
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Speaker 1: them there all the time, and we'll hold our orgies
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Speaker 1: there too. It's an awful snug place for orgies. What's orgies,
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Speaker 1: I don't know, but robbers always have orgies, and of
14:45
Speaker 1: course we've got to have them too. Come along, Huck,
14:48
Speaker 1: we've been here a long time. It's getting late, I reckon.
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Speaker 1: I'm hungry too. We'll eat an smoke when we get
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Speaker 1: to the skiff. They presently emerged into the clump of
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Speaker 1: sumac bushes, looked warily about, found coast clear, and were
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Speaker 1: soon lunching and smoking in the skiff. As the sun
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Speaker 1: dipped toward the horizon, they pushed out and got under way.
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Speaker 1: Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting
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Speaker 1: cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark. Now, Huck
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Speaker 1: said Tom, we'll hide the money in the loft of
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Speaker 1: the Widder's wood shed, and I'll come up in the
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Speaker 1: morning and we'll count it and divide it, and then
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Speaker 1: we'll hunt up a place out in the woods for
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Speaker 1: it where it will be safe. Just you lay quiet
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Speaker 1: here and watch the stuff till I run up and
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Speaker 1: hook Benny Taylor's little wagon. I won't be gone a minute.
15:31
Speaker 1: He disappeared and presently returned with the wagon, put the
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Speaker 1: two small sacks into it, threw some old rags on
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Speaker 1: top of them, and started off, dragging his cargo behind him.
15:41
Speaker 1: When the boys reached the Welshman's house, they stopped to rest.
15:45
Speaker 1: Just as they were about to move on the Welshman
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Speaker 1: stepped out and said, hello, who's that? Huck? And Tom Sawyer? Good?
15:52
Speaker 1: Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting here.
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Speaker 1: Hurry up, trot ahead, I'll haul the wagon for you.
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Speaker 1: Why it's not as light as it might be? He
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Speaker 1: got bricks in it or old metal? Old metal, said Tom.
16:04
Speaker 1: I judge, so the boys in this town will take
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Speaker 1: more trouble and fool away more time hunting up six
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Speaker 1: bits worth of old iron to sell to the foundry
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Speaker 1: than they would to make twice the money at regular work.
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Speaker 1: But that's human nature. Hurry long, hurry long. The boys
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Speaker 1: wanted to know what the hurry was about. Never mind,
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Speaker 1: you'll see when we get to the widow. Douglas's Huck said,
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Speaker 1: with some apprehension, for he was long used to being
16:28
Speaker 1: falsely accused. Mister Jones, we haven't been doing nothing, The
16:33
Speaker 1: Welshman laughed. Well, I don't know, Huck, my boy, I
16:36
Speaker 1: don't know about that. Ain't you and the widow good friends? Yes?
16:40
Speaker 1: Well she's been good friends to me anyways. All right, then,
16:45
Speaker 1: what do you want to be frayed for? This question
16:47
Speaker 1: was not entirely answered in Huck's slow mind, before he
16:50
Speaker 1: found himself pushed along with Tom into Missus Douglas's drawing room.
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Speaker 1: Mister Jones left the wagon near the door and followed.
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Speaker 1: The place was grandly lighted, and everybody that was of
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Speaker 1: any consequence in the village was there. The Thatchers were there,
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Speaker 1: the Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt Polly, sid Mary, the minister,
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Speaker 1: the editor, and a great many more, and all dressed
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Speaker 1: in their best. The widow received the boys as hardly
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Speaker 1: as any one could well receive two such looking beings.
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Speaker 1: They were covered with clay and candle grease. Aunt Polly
17:21
Speaker 1: blushed Crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head
17:24
Speaker 1: at Tom. Nobody suffered half as much as the two
17:27
Speaker 1: boys did. However, mister Jones said, Tom wasn't at home yet,
17:31
Speaker 1: so I gave him up. But I stumbled on him
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Speaker 1: and Huck right at my door, and so I just
17:36
Speaker 1: brought them along in a hurry. And you did just right,
17:39
Speaker 1: said the widow. Come with me, boys. She took them
17:42
Speaker 1: to a bed chamber and said, now wash and dress yourselves.
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Speaker 1: Here are two new suits of clothes, shirts, socks, everything complete. There, Hucks, no,
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Speaker 1: no thanks, Huck, Mister Jones bought one and I the other.
17:55
Speaker 1: But they'll fit both of you. Get into them. We'll wait,
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Speaker 1: come down when you are slicked up enough. Then she left.
18:02
Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty three, Chapter thirty four, Floods of Gold.
18:10
Speaker 1: Hucks said, Tom, we can slope if we can find
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Speaker 1: a rope. The window ain't high from the ground. Shucks,
18:18
Speaker 1: what do you want to slope for? Well, I ain't
18:21
Speaker 1: used to that kind of crowd. I can't stand it.
18:23
Speaker 1: I ain't going down there, Tom, Oh bother, ain't anything.
18:27
Speaker 1: I don't mind it a bit. I'll take care of you.
18:29
Speaker 1: S it appeared, Tom said he Auntie has been waiting
18:33
Speaker 1: for you all the afternoon. Mary got your Sunday clothes ready,
18:37
Speaker 1: and everybody's been fretting about you. Say, ain't this grease
18:41
Speaker 1: and clay on your clothes? Now? Mister City, you just
18:44
Speaker 1: tend to your own business. What's all this blowout about? Anyway?
18:48
Speaker 1: It's one of the widow's parties that she's always having.
18:51
Speaker 1: This time it's for the welsh Man and his sons
18:54
Speaker 1: on account of that scrape they helped her out of
18:56
Speaker 1: the other night. And say, I can tell you something
18:59
Speaker 1: if you want to know, Well, what why Old mister
19:03
Speaker 1: Jones is going to try to spring something on the
19:05
Speaker 1: people here tonight. But I overheard him tell Aunty today
19:08
Speaker 1: about it as a secret. But I reckon it's not
19:10
Speaker 1: much of a secret now everybody knows the winner too.
19:14
Speaker 1: For all she tries to let on she don't. Mister
19:17
Speaker 1: Jones was bound Huck should be here. Couldn't get along
19:20
Speaker 1: with his grand secret without Huck. You know, secret about what? Sid?
19:24
Speaker 1: About Huck tracking the robbers to the widows? I reckon
19:27
Speaker 1: mister Jones was going to make a grand time over
19:30
Speaker 1: his surprise, But I bet you it will drop pretty flat, Sid,
19:34
Speaker 1: chuckled in a very contented and satisfied way. Sid. Was
19:38
Speaker 1: it you that told, Oh, never mind who it was.
19:42
Speaker 1: Somebody told that's enough. Sid. There's only one person in
19:45
Speaker 1: this town mean enough to do that, and that's you.
19:48
Speaker 1: If you'd been in Huck's place, you'd to sneak down
19:50
Speaker 1: the hill and never told anybody on the robbers. You
19:53
Speaker 1: can't do any but mean things, and you can't bear
19:57
Speaker 1: to see anybody praise for doing good. Ones. There no thanks,
20:00
Speaker 1: as the widow says, and Tom cuffed Sid's ears and
20:03
Speaker 1: helped him to the door with several kicks. Now go
20:06
Speaker 1: and tell Annie if you dare, and tomorrow you'll catch it.
20:09
Speaker 1: Some minutes later, the widow's guests were at the supper table,
20:12
Speaker 1: and a dozen children were propped up at little side
20:14
Speaker 1: tables in the same room, after the fashion of that
20:17
Speaker 1: country and that day, at the proper time, mister Jones
20:20
Speaker 1: made his little speech, in which he thanked the widow
20:23
Speaker 1: for the honor she was doing himself and his sons,
20:26
Speaker 1: but said that there was another person whose modesty, and
20:29
Speaker 1: so forth and so on. He sprung his secret about
20:32
Speaker 1: Huck's share and the adventure in the finest dramatic manner
20:34
Speaker 1: he was master of. But the surprise at occasion was
20:37
Speaker 1: largely counterfeit, and not as clamorous and effusive as it
20:41
Speaker 1: might have been under happier circumstances. However, the widow made
20:45
Speaker 1: a pretty fair show of astonishment, and heaped so many
20:48
Speaker 1: compliments and so much gratitude upon Huck that he almost
20:51
Speaker 1: forgot the nearly intolerable discomfort of his new clothes, in
20:55
Speaker 1: the entirely intolerable discomfort of being set up as a
20:58
Speaker 1: target for everybody's gaye isn't everybody's laudations? The widow said
21:03
Speaker 1: she meant to give Huck a home under her roof
21:05
Speaker 1: and have him educated, and that when she could spare
21:08
Speaker 1: the money, she would start him in business in a
21:10
Speaker 1: modest way. Tom's chance was come. He said, Huck don't
21:15
Speaker 1: need it. Huck's rich. Nothing but a heavy strain upon
21:18
Speaker 1: the good manners of the company kept back the dew
21:21
Speaker 1: and proper complimentary laugh at this pleasant joke, but the
21:24
Speaker 1: silence was a little awkward. Tom broke it, Huck's got money.
21:28
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't believe it, but he's got lots of it. Oh,
21:32
Speaker 1: you needn't smile, I reckon, I can show you you
21:35
Speaker 1: just wait a minute. Tom ran out of doors. The
21:38
Speaker 1: company looked at each other with a perplexed interest, and
21:40
Speaker 1: inquiringly at Huck, who was tongue tied. See it what ails?
21:44
Speaker 1: Tom said, Aunt Polly. He, well, there ain't ever any
21:49
Speaker 1: making of that boy out I never. Tom entered, struggling
21:53
Speaker 1: with the weight of his sacks, and Aunt Polly did
21:55
Speaker 1: not finish her sentence. Tom poured the mass of yellow
21:58
Speaker 1: coins upon the table and said, there, what did I
22:02
Speaker 1: tell you? Half of its hucks and half of its mine.
22:05
Speaker 1: The spectacle took the general breath away, all gazed. Nobody
22:10
Speaker 1: spoke for a moment. Then there was a unanimous call
22:12
Speaker 1: for an explanation. Tom said he could furnish it, and
22:16
Speaker 1: he did. The tale was long, but brim full of interest.
22:19
Speaker 1: There was scarcely an interruption from any one to break
22:22
Speaker 1: the charm of its flow. When he had finished, mister
22:25
Speaker 1: Jones said, I thought I had fixed up a little
22:29
Speaker 1: surprise for this occasion, but it don't amount to anything now.
22:33
Speaker 1: This one makes it sing mighty small. I'm willing to allow.
22:37
Speaker 1: The money was counted. The sum amounted to a little
22:40
Speaker 1: over twelve thousand dollars. It was more than any one
22:43
Speaker 1: present had ever seen at one time before, though several
22:46
Speaker 1: persons were there who were worth considerably more than that.
22:49
Speaker 1: In property end of chapter thirty four, Chapter thirty five,
22:56
Speaker 1: Respectable Huck joins the gang. The reader may rest satisfied
23:02
Speaker 1: that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a mighty stir in
23:05
Speaker 1: the poor little village of Saint Petersburg. So vast a sum,
23:08
Speaker 1: all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was
23:12
Speaker 1: talked about, gloated over glorified, until the reason of many
23:16
Speaker 1: of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement.
23:20
Speaker 1: Every haunted house in Saint Petersburg and the neighboring villages
23:24
Speaker 1: was dissected plank by plank, and its foundations dug up
23:27
Speaker 1: and ransacked for hidden treasure. And not by boys, but men,
23:31
Speaker 1: pretty grave, unromantic men too, some of them. Wherever Tom
23:36
Speaker 1: and Huck appeared, they were courted, admired, stared at. The
23:39
Speaker 1: boys were not able to remember that their remarks had
23:42
Speaker 1: possessed weight before, but now their sayings were treasured and repeated.
23:47
Speaker 1: Everything they did seemed somehow to be regarded as remarkable.
23:50
Speaker 1: They had evidently lost the power of doing and saying
23:53
Speaker 1: commonplace things. Moreover, their past history was raked up and
23:58
Speaker 1: discovered to bear marks of conspicut u us originality. The village
24:01
Speaker 1: paper published biographical sketches of the boys. The widow Douglas
24:06
Speaker 1: put Huck's money out at six percent, and Judge Thatcher
24:09
Speaker 1: did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each
24:12
Speaker 1: lad had an income now that was simply prodigious, a
24:16
Speaker 1: dollar for every week day in the year, and half
24:19
Speaker 1: of the sundays. It was just what the minister got, No,
24:22
Speaker 1: it was what he was promised. He generally couldn't collect
24:26
Speaker 1: it a dollar and a quarter a week would board
24:28
Speaker 1: lodge and school a boy in those old simple days,
24:31
Speaker 1: and clothe him and wash him too. For that matter,
24:35
Speaker 1: Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He
24:38
Speaker 1: said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his
24:41
Speaker 1: daughter out of the cave. When Becky told her father
24:44
Speaker 1: in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her whipping at school,
24:47
Speaker 1: the Judge was visibly moved. And when she pleaded grace
24:51
Speaker 1: for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order
24:53
Speaker 1: to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own,
24:56
Speaker 1: the Judge said, with a fine outburst that it was
24:58
Speaker 1: a noble, a enterest, a magnanimous lie, a lie that
25:03
Speaker 1: was worthy to hold up its head and march down
25:06
Speaker 1: through history breast to breast with George Washington's lauded truth
25:10
Speaker 1: about the hatchet. Becky thought her father had never looked
25:14
Speaker 1: so tall and so superb as when he walked the
25:17
Speaker 1: floor and stamped his foot, and said that she went
25:20
Speaker 1: straight off and told Tom about it. Judge Thatcher hoped
25:23
Speaker 1: to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier
25:25
Speaker 1: some day. He said he meant to look to it
25:28
Speaker 1: that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy
25:31
Speaker 1: and afterward trained in the best law school in the country,
25:34
Speaker 1: in order that he might be ready for either career
25:36
Speaker 1: or both. Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he
25:40
Speaker 1: was now under the Widow Douglas's protection introduced him into society.
25:44
Speaker 1: No dragged him into it, hurled him into it, and
25:48
Speaker 1: his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The
25:51
Speaker 1: widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed,
25:55
Speaker 1: and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had
25:58
Speaker 1: not one little spot stain which he could press to
26:02
Speaker 1: his heart and know for a friend. He had to
26:04
Speaker 1: eat with knife and fork, and had to use napkin,
26:07
Speaker 1: cup and plate. He had to learn his book. He
26:10
Speaker 1: had to go to church. He had to talk so
26:12
Speaker 1: properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth. Whithersoever
26:16
Speaker 1: he turned. The bars and shackles of civilization shut him
26:20
Speaker 1: in and bound him hand and foot. He bravely bore
26:23
Speaker 1: his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up
26:26
Speaker 1: missing for at forty eight hours. The widow hunted for
26:30
Speaker 1: him everywhere in great distress. The public were profoundly concerned,
26:34
Speaker 1: They searched high and low. They dragged the river for
26:36
Speaker 1: his body. Early the third morning, Tom Sawyer wisely went
26:40
Speaker 1: poking among some old empty hogsheads down behind the abandoned
26:43
Speaker 1: slaughter house, and in one of them he found the
26:46
Speaker 1: refugee Huck had slept there. He had just breakfast upon
26:49
Speaker 1: some stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying
26:52
Speaker 1: off now in comfort with his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed,
26:56
Speaker 1: and clad in the same old ruin of rags that
26:59
Speaker 1: had made him picturesque in the days when he was
27:01
Speaker 1: free and happy. Tom routed him out, told him the
27:05
Speaker 1: trouble he had been causing, and urged him to go home.
27:08
Speaker 1: Huck's face lost its tranquil content and took a melancholy cast,
27:12
Speaker 1: and he said, don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried
27:16
Speaker 1: it and it don't work. It don't work, Tom, It
27:19
Speaker 1: ain't for me. I ain't used to it. The winter's
27:22
Speaker 1: good to me and friendly, but I can't stand them ways.
27:26
Speaker 1: She makes me get up just at the same time
27:28
Speaker 1: every morning, she makes me wash, They comb me all
27:32
Speaker 1: to thunder. She won't let me sleep in the woodshed.
27:35
Speaker 1: I got to wear them blame clothes that just smothers me. Tom.
27:39
Speaker 1: They don't seem to let any air get through him somehow,
27:42
Speaker 1: and they're so rotten nice that I can't set down,
27:45
Speaker 1: nor lay down, nor roll around anywheres. I ain't slid
27:48
Speaker 1: on a cellar door for well, it's appears to be years.
27:52
Speaker 1: I got to go to church and sweat and sweat.
27:54
Speaker 1: I hate them ornery sermons. I can't catch a fly
27:57
Speaker 1: in there. I can't chaw. I got to wear sh
28:00
Speaker 1: choose all sunday. The winder eats by a bell, she
28:03
Speaker 1: goes to bed by a bell, she gets up by
28:05
Speaker 1: a bell. Everything's so awful regular a body can't stand it. Well,
28:10
Speaker 1: everybody does that, huck, Tom. It don't make no difference.
28:14
Speaker 1: I ain't everybody, and I can't stand it. It's awful
28:18
Speaker 1: to be tied up so and grub comes too easy.
28:21
Speaker 1: I don't take no interest in vitals that way. I
28:23
Speaker 1: got to ask to go a fishing. I got to
28:26
Speaker 1: ask to go in a swimming durned. If I hain't
28:28
Speaker 1: got to ask to do everything, well, I'd got to
28:32
Speaker 1: talk so nice. It wasn't no comfort. I'd got to
28:35
Speaker 1: go up in the attic and rip out a while
28:37
Speaker 1: every day to get a taste in my mouth or
28:39
Speaker 1: it died. Tom the winner wouldn't let me smoke, She
28:43
Speaker 1: wouldn't let me yell. She wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch,
28:46
Speaker 1: nor scratch before folks. Then with a spasm of special
28:51
Speaker 1: irritation and injury and dead fetch it, she prayed all
28:55
Speaker 1: the time. I never see such a woman. I had
28:58
Speaker 1: to shove Tom. I just had to. And besides, that
29:01
Speaker 1: school is going to open, and i'd have got to
29:03
Speaker 1: go to it. Well, I wouldn't stand that, Tom. Look here, Tom,
29:07
Speaker 1: being rich hain't what it's cracked up to be. It's
29:09
Speaker 1: just worry and worry and sweat and sweat and a
29:12
Speaker 1: wishing you was dead all the time. Now, these clothes
29:15
Speaker 1: suits me, and this barrel suits me, and I ain't
29:19
Speaker 1: ever going to shake him anymore. Tom, I wouldn't ever
29:22
Speaker 1: got into all this trouble if it hadn't been for
29:25
Speaker 1: that money. Now, you just take my share of it
29:27
Speaker 1: along with urine, and give me a ten center sometimes
29:30
Speaker 1: not many times, because I don't give a dern for
29:33
Speaker 1: a thing thout it's tolerable, hard to get, and you
29:36
Speaker 1: go and beg off for me with a wider. Oh, Hock,
29:40
Speaker 1: you know I can't do that. Tain't fair. And besides,
29:43
Speaker 1: if you'll try this thing just a while longer, you'll
29:45
Speaker 1: come to like it. Like it, yes, the way I'd
29:49
Speaker 1: like a hot stove if I was to set on
29:52
Speaker 1: it long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and
29:55
Speaker 1: I won't live in them cussed smothery houses. I like
29:58
Speaker 1: the woods and the river in Hogsheads, and I'll stick
30:02
Speaker 1: to him too. Blame it all, just as we've got
30:05
Speaker 1: guns in a cave and all. Just fix the rob
30:07
Speaker 1: hear this darned foolishness has got to come up and
30:10
Speaker 1: spile it all. Tom saw his opportunity. Look at here, Huck,
30:14
Speaker 1: being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning robber. No,
30:18
Speaker 1: oh good, looks are you in real dead with Earnest? Tom?
30:23
Speaker 1: Just as dead Earnest as I'm a sitting here. But Huck,
30:27
Speaker 1: we can't let you into the gang if you ain't respectable.
30:30
Speaker 1: You know, Huck's joy was quenched. Can't let me in, Tom.
30:35
Speaker 1: Didn't you let me go for a pirate? Yes, but
30:38
Speaker 1: that's different. A robber is more high toned than what
30:41
Speaker 1: a pirate is. As a general thing, in most countries.
30:44
Speaker 1: They're awful high up in the nobility, dukes and such. Now, Tom,
30:49
Speaker 1: hain't you always been friendly to me? You wouldn't have
30:52
Speaker 1: shut me out, would you? Tom? You wouldn't do that, now,
30:55
Speaker 1: would you? Tom? Huck? I wouldn't want to, and I
30:59
Speaker 1: don't want to. But what would people say? Why? They'd
31:02
Speaker 1: say Tom Sawyer's gang pretty low characters in it. They'd mean, you, Huck,
31:08
Speaker 1: you wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't. Huck was silent
31:11
Speaker 1: for some time, engaged in a mental struggle, and finally
31:14
Speaker 1: he said, well, I'll go back to the Widder for
31:18
Speaker 1: a month and tackle it and see if I can
31:20
Speaker 1: come to stand it, if you'll let me belong to
31:22
Speaker 1: the gang. Tom, all right, Huck, it's a whiz. Come along,
31:25
Speaker 1: old Chap, and I'll ask the Widder to let up
31:28
Speaker 1: on you a little, Huck, will you, Tom? Now? Will you?
31:31
Speaker 1: That's good? If she'll let up on some of the
31:34
Speaker 1: roughest things. I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd
31:37
Speaker 1: through or bust when you're going to start the gang
31:40
Speaker 1: and turn robbers. Oh, right off. We'll get the boys
31:43
Speaker 1: together and have the initiation tonight. Maybe have the witch
31:48
Speaker 1: have the initiation. What's that? It's to swear to stand
31:52
Speaker 1: by one another and never tell the gang's secrets, even
31:55
Speaker 1: if you're chopped all to flinders and kill anybody and
31:58
Speaker 1: all his family that hurts one of the gang. That's gay.
32:02
Speaker 1: That's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you, well, I bet
32:05
Speaker 1: it is. And all that swearing's got to be done
32:08
Speaker 1: at midnight in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find.
32:11
Speaker 1: A hunted house is the best, and they're all ripped up. Now, Well,
32:15
Speaker 1: midnight's good anyway, Tom, Yes, so it is. And you've
32:19
Speaker 1: got to swear on a coffin and sign it with blood.
32:23
Speaker 1: Now that's something like why, it's a million times bullier
32:27
Speaker 1: than pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom.
32:31
Speaker 1: And if I get to be regular ripper of a
32:33
Speaker 1: robber and everybody talking about it, I reckon she'll be
32:36
Speaker 1: proud she snaked me in out of the wet conclusion.
32:42
Speaker 1: So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of
32:46
Speaker 1: a boy, it must stop here. The story could not
32:50
Speaker 1: go much further without becoming the history of a man.
32:54
Speaker 1: When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows
32:57
Speaker 1: exactly where to stop, that is, with a marriage, But
33:02
Speaker 1: when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he
33:05
Speaker 1: best can. Most of the characters that perform in this
33:09
Speaker 1: book still live and are prosperous and happy. Some day
33:13
Speaker 1: it may seem worth while to take up the story
33:16
Speaker 1: of the younger ones again and see what sort of
33:18
Speaker 1: men and women they turned out to be. Therefore, it
33:22
Speaker 1: will be wisest not to reveal any of that part
33:25
Speaker 1: of their lives at present. The end. This is the
33:29
Speaker 1: end of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.