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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, Tragedy in the Graveyard. At half past nine
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed as usual.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep. Tom
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: lay awake and waited in restless impatience. When it seemed
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to him that it must be nearly daylight, he heard
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the clock strike ten. This was despair. He would have
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: tossed and fidgeted, as his nerves demanded, but he was
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: afraid he might wake Sid, so he lay still and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: stared up into the dark. Everything was dismally still. By
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and by, out of the stillness, little scarcely perceptible noises
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  Speaker 1: began to emphasize themselves. The ticking of the clock began
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to bring itself into notice. Old beams began to crack mysteriously.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: The stairs creaked faintly. Evidently spirits were abroad. A measured,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber, and now the
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  Speaker 1: tiresome chirping of a crew that no human ingenuity could
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: locate began. Next, the ghastly ticking of a death's watch
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  Speaker 1: in the wall at the bed's head made Tom shudder.
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  Speaker 1: It meant that somebody's days were numbered. Then the howl
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of a far off dog rose on the night air,
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  Speaker 1: and was answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance.
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  Speaker 1: Tom was in an agony. At last, he was satisfied
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the time had ceased, an eternity begun. He began to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: doze in spite of himself. The clock chimed eleven, but
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: he did not hear it. And then there came, mingling
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: with his half formed dreams, a most melancholy catterwauling. The
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: raising of a neighboring window disturbed him. A cry of scat,
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  Speaker 1: you devil, and the crash of an empty bottle against
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the back of his aunt's wood shed brought him wide awake,
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  Speaker 1: and a single minute later he was dressed and out
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  Speaker 1: of the window, and creeping along the roof of the
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  Speaker 1: ell on all fours. He meowed with caution once or
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: twice as he then jumped to the roof of the woodshed,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and thence to the ground. Huckleberry Finn was there with
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: his dead cat. The boys moved off and disappeared in
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the gloom. At the end of half an hour, they
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  Speaker 1: were wading through the tall grass of the graveyard. It
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  Speaker 1: was a graveyard of the old fashioned western kind. It
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  Speaker 1: was on a hill about a mile and a half
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  Speaker 1: from the village. It had a crazy bored fence around it,
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  Speaker 1: which leaned inward in places and outward the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew
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  Speaker 1: rank over the whole cemetery. All the old graves were
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: sunken in. There was not a tombstone on the place.
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  Speaker 1: Round topped, worm eaten boards staggered over the graves, leaning
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  Speaker 1: for support, and finding none. Sacred to the memory of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: so and so had been painted on them once, but
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  Speaker 1: it could no longer have been read on the most
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: of them now, even if there had been light. A
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: might be the spirits of the dead. Complaining of being disturbed,
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  Speaker 1: the boys talked little and only under their breath, for
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  Speaker 1: the time and the place, and the pervading solemnity in
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: silence oppressed their spirits. They found the sharp new heap
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the protection of
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  Speaker 1: three great elms that grew in a bunch within a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: few feet of the grave. Then they waited in silence
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: for what seemed a long time. The hooting of a
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk, so
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  Speaker 1: he said in a whisper, Hucky, do you believe the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: dead people like it for us to be here? Huckleberry whispered,
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  Speaker 1: I wished I knowed? It's awful solemn like, ain't it?
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  Speaker 1: I bet it is. There was a considerable pause while
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the boys canvassed this matter inwardly. Then Tom whispered, say, Huckey,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: do you reckon? Hass Williams hears us talkin? Oh, of
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: course he does, least his spirit does Tom. After a pause,
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  Speaker 1: I wish i'd say, mister Williams, But I never meant
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  Speaker 1: any harm. Everybody called him hass. Well, body can't be
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  Speaker 1: too particular how they talk about these yere dead people. Tom.
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  Speaker 1: This was a damper, and conversation died again. Presently, Tom
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  Speaker 1: seized his comrade's arm and said, sh what is it? Tom?
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And the two clung together with beating hearts. There it
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  Speaker 1: is again, didn't you hear it? Aye? There? Now you
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  Speaker 1: hear it, Lord Tom. They're comin. They're comin. Sure what
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  Speaker 1: do we do? I don't know. I think they'll see us. Oh, Tom,
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  Speaker 1: they can see in the dark, the same as cats.
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  Speaker 1: I wished I hadn't come. Oh, don't don't be feared.
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe they'll bother us. We ain't doing any harm.
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  Speaker 1: If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us
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  Speaker 1: at all. I'll try to Tom, but lord, I'm all
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  Speaker 1: a shiver. Listen. The boys bent their heads together and
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  Speaker 1: scarcely breathed. A muffled sound of voices floated up from
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  Speaker 1: the far end of the graveyard. Look see there, whispered Tom.
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  Speaker 1: What is it? It's devil fire? Oh Tom, this is awful.
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  Speaker 1: Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an old
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little
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  Speaker 1: spangles of light. Presently, Huckleberry whispered with a shudder, it's
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the devil, sure enough, three of em. Lordy, Tom, we're goners.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Can you pray? I'll try, But don't you be feared.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Think n hurt us now? I lay me down to sleep.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I sh what is it, Huck? They're humans? One em
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: is anyway? One? UM's old muff Potter's voice. No, tain't
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  Speaker 1: so is it? I bet I know it? Don't you
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  Speaker 1: stirn nor budge. He ain't sharp enough to notice us.
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  Speaker 1: Drunk the same as usual, likely blamed old rip. All right,
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  Speaker 1: I'll keep still. Now they're stuck. Can't find it here
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: they come again. Now they're hot, cold again, hot again,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: red hot. They're pointed right this time, say huck, I
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: know another um the voices. It's injun Joe. That's so
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: that murdered half breed. I'd ruther they was devils a
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  Speaker 1: durned sight. What can they be up to? The whisper
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  Speaker 1: died wholly out now, for the three men had reached
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  Speaker 1: the grave and stood within a few feet of the
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  Speaker 1: boy's hiding place. Here tis said the third voice, and
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  Speaker 1: the owner of it held up the lantern and revealed
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  Speaker 1: the face of young doctor Robinson. Potter and Injian Joe
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  Speaker 1: were carrying a hand barrow with a rope and a
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  Speaker 1: couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load
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  Speaker 1: and began to open the grave. The doctor put the
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  Speaker 1: lantern at the head of the grave and came and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: sat with his back against one of the elm trees.
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  Speaker 1: He was so close the boys could have touched him. Hurry, men,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: he said in a low voice, the moon might come
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  Speaker 1: out at any moment. They growled a response and went
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  Speaker 1: on digging. For some time. There was no noise but
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  Speaker 1: the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight of
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  Speaker 1: mold and gravel. It was very monotonous. Finally, a spade
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  Speaker 1: struck upon the coffin with a dull, woody accent, and
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  Speaker 1: within another minute or two the men had hoisted it
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  Speaker 1: out to the ground. They pried off the lid with
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  Speaker 1: their shovels, got out the body and dumped it rudely
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  Speaker 1: on the ground. The moon drifted from behind the clouds
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  Speaker 1: and exposed the pallid face. The barrow was got ready
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  Speaker 1: and the corpse placed on it, covered with a blanket,
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  Speaker 1: and bound to its place with a rope. Potter took
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  Speaker 1: out a large spring knife and cut off the dangling
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  Speaker 1: end of the rope and then said, now the cusst
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  Speaker 1: thing's ready, Sawbones, and you'll just out with another five
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  Speaker 1: or here she stays, that's the talk, said injun Joe.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, what does this mean? Said the doctor. You
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  Speaker 1: required your pay in advance, and I've paid you. Yes,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and you've done more than that, said injun Joe, approaching
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  Speaker 1: the doctor, who was now standing five years ago. You
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  Speaker 1: drove me away from your father's kitchen one night when
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  Speaker 1: I come to ask for something to eat, and you
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  Speaker 1: said I warn't there for any good. And when I
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  Speaker 1: swore I'd get even with you if it took a
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  Speaker 1: hundred years. Your father had me jailed for a vagrant.
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  Speaker 1: Did you think I'd forget the Injun blood ain't in
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  Speaker 1: me for nothing? And now I've got you, and you
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  Speaker 1: got to settle, you know. He was threatening the doctor
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  Speaker 1: with his fist in his face. By this time, the
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  Speaker 1: doctor struck out suddenly and stretched the ruffian on the ground.
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  Speaker 1: Potter dropped his knife and exclaimed, here, now, don't you
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  Speaker 1: hit my pard. And the next moment he was grappled
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  Speaker 1: with the doctor, and the two were struggling with might
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  Speaker 1: and main, trampling the grass and tearing the ground with
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  Speaker 1: their heels. Injun Joe sprang to his feet, his eyes
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  Speaker 1: flaming with passion, snatched up Potter's knife, and went creeping
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  Speaker 1: catlike and snooping round and round about the combatants, seeking
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity. All at once, the doctor flung himself free,
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  Speaker 1: seized the heavy headboard of William's grave and felled Potter
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  Speaker 1: to the earth with it. And in the same instance,
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  Speaker 1: the half breed saw his chance and drove the knife
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  Speaker 1: to the hilt in the young man's breast. He reeled
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  Speaker 1: and fell partly upon Potter, flooding him with his blood.
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  Speaker 1: And in the same moment the clouds blotted out the
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  Speaker 1: dreadful spectacle, and the two frightened boys went speeding away
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  Speaker 1: in the dark. Presently, when the moon emerged again injun
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  Speaker 1: Joe was standing over the two forms, contemplating them. The
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  Speaker 1: doctor murmured inarticulately, gave a long gasp or two, and
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  Speaker 1: was still. The half breed muttered that score is settled,
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  Speaker 1: damn you. Then he robbed the body, after which he
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  Speaker 1: put the fatal knife in Potter's open right hand and
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  Speaker 1: sat down on the dismantled coffin. Three four, five minutes passed,
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  Speaker 1: and then Potter began to stir and moan. His hand
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  Speaker 1: closed upon the knife, he raised it, glanced at it,
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  Speaker 1: and let it fall with a shudder. Then he sat up,
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  Speaker 1: pushing the body from him, and gazed at it and
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  Speaker 1: then around him. Confusedly. His eyes met Joe's Lord, how
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is this? Joe? He said, It's a dirty business, said
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  Speaker 1: Joe without moving, What did you do it for? I?
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  Speaker 1: I never done it. Look here, that kind of talk
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  Speaker 1: won't wash. Potter trembled and grew white. I thought I'd
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  Speaker 1: got sober, I'd no business to drink to night. But
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  Speaker 1: it's in my head yet worse'n when we started here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm all in a muddle, can't recollect anything of it.
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  Speaker 1: Hardly tell me, Joe, honest, now, old feller, did I
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  Speaker 1: do it? Joe? I never meant to upun my soul
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  Speaker 1: and honor. I never meant to Joe. Tell me how
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  Speaker 1: it was, Joe, Oh, it's awful, and him so young
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  Speaker 1: and promising. Why you two was scuffling and he fetched
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  Speaker 1: you one with the head board, and you fell flat,
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  Speaker 1: And then up you come, all reeling and staggering like,
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  Speaker 1: and snatched the knife and jammed it into him just
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: as he fetched you another awful clip. And here you've
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  Speaker 1: laid as dead as a wedge till now. Oh, I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know what I was doing. I wish I may
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  Speaker 1: die this minute. If I did, it was all on
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: account of the whiskey and the excitement. I reckon. I
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: never used a weepin in my life before Joe I've fought,
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  Speaker 1: but never with weepins. They'll all say that Joe, don't tell.
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  Speaker 1: Say you won't tell, Joe. That's a good feller. I
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  Speaker 1: always liked you, Joe, and stood up for you too.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you remember you won't tell, will you? Joe? And
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid
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  Speaker 1: murderer and clasped his appear healing hands. No, you've always
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: been fair and square with me, muff Potter, and I
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  Speaker 1: won't go back on you there. Now, that's as fair
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: as a man can say. Oh, Joe, you're an angel.
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  Speaker 1: I'll bless you for this the longest day I live.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: And Potter began to cry, Come now, that's enough of that.
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  Speaker 1: This ain't any time for blubbering. You be off yonder
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  Speaker 1: way and I'll go this move now, and don't leave
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  Speaker 1: any tracks behind you. Potter started on a trot that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: quickly increased to a run. The half breed stood looking
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: after him. He muttered, if he's as much stunned with
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the lick and fuddled with the rum as he had
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the look of being, he won't think of the knife
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: till he's gone so far he'll be afraid to come
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: back after it to such a place by himself checkin
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  Speaker 1: a heart. Two or three minutes later, the murdered man,
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  Speaker 1: the blanketed corpse, the lidless coffin, and the open grave
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: rendered no inspection, but the moon's the stillness was complete
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: again too. End of chapter nine, Chapter Dire Prophecy of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the Howling Dog. The two boys flew on and on
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: toward the village, speechless with horror. They glanced backwards over
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: their shoulders from time to time apprehensively, as if they
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: feared they might be followed. Every stump that started up
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: in their path seemed a man and an enemy, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: made them catch their breath. And as they sped by
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: some outlying cottages that lay near the village, the barking
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: of the aroused watch dogs seemed to give wings to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: their feet. If we can only get to the old
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: tannery before we break down, whispered Tom, in short catches
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: between breaths. I can't stand it much longer. Huckleberry's hard
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: pantings were his only reply, and the boys fixed their
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: their work to win it. They gained steadily on it,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and at last, breast to breast, they burst through the
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: open door and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: shadows beyond. By and by, their pulses slowed down, and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Tom whispered, Huckleberry, what do you reckon he'll come of this?
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: If doctor Robinson dies? I reckon hanging'll come of it?
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Do you though, why I know it? Tom? Tom thought, awhile,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and he said, who'll tell we? What are you talking about?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Suppose something happened an injun Joe didn't hang? Why he'd
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: kill us some time or other, just as dead, sure
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: as we're laying here. That's just what I was thinking
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: to myself, Huck. If anybody tells, let muff Potter do it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: If he's fool enough, he's generally drunk enough. Tom said nothing,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: went on thinking presently, he whispered, Huck, muff Potter don't
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: know it? How can he tell? What's the reason he
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: don't know it? Because he'd just got that whack when
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: injun Joke done it? Do you reckon he could see anything?
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon he knowed anything? By hokey? That's so Tom.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And besides, look here, maybe that whack done for him. No,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: tain't likely, Tom, he had liquor in him. I could
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: see that. And besides he always has well when perhaps full,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: he might take an belt him over the head with
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a church and you couldn't FaZe him. He says so
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: his own self. So it's the same with muff Potter,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of course. But if a man was dead sober, I reckon,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: maybe that whack might fetch him. I don't know. After
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: another reflective silence, Tom said, Hockey, you sure you can
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: keep mum? Tom, we got to keep Mum. You know
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: that that engine devil wouldn't make any more of drowning
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: us than a couple of cats if we was to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: squeak about this and they didn't hang him. Now look here, Tom,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: let's take and swear to one another. That's what we
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: got to do. Swear to keep Mum. I'm agreed, it's
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the best thing. Would you just hold hands and swear
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: that we Oh no, that wouldn't do for this. That's
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: good enough for little rubbishy common things, especially with gals,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: because they go back on you anyway and blab if
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: they get in a huff. But there ought to be
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: writing about a big thing like this and blood. Tom's
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: hole being applauded this idea. It was deep and dark
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and awful. The hour, the circumstances, the surroundings were in
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: keeping with it. He picked up a clean pine shingle
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that lay in the moonlight, took a little fragment of
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: red keel out of his pocket, got the moon on
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: his work, and painfully scrawled these lines, emphasizing each slow
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: downstroke by clamping his tongue between his teeth and letting
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: up the pressure on the upstrokes see next page. Huckleberry
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: was filled with admiration of Tom's facility in writing and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the sublimity of his language. He at once took a
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: pin from his lapel and was going to prick his flesh,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: but Tom said, hold on, don't do that. A pin's brass.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: It might have verdigrease on it. What's verdigrease, It's pisin,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: That's what it is. You just swallow some of it once,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: you'll see. So Tom unwand a thread from one of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: his needles, and each boy pricked the ball of his
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood. Huck Finn
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and Tom Sawyer swears they will keep mum about this,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: and they wish they may drop down dead in their
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: tracks if they ever tell, and rot in time. After
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: many squeezes, Tom managed to sign his initials, using the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: ball of his little finger for a pen. Then he
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: showed Huckleberry how to make an H and an F,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: and the oaths was complete. They buried the shingle close
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to the wall with some dismal ceremonies and incantations, and
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the fetters that bound their tongues were considered to be locked,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and the key thrown away. A figure crept stealthily through
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a break in the other end of the ruined building. Now,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: but they did not notice it. Tom whispered, Huckleberry, does
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: this keep us from ever telling? Always? Of course it does.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: It don't make any difference what happens. We gotta keep mum.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: We dropped down dead, don't you know that? Yes, I reckon,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: That's so. They continued to whisper for some little time.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Presently a dog set up a long, lugubrious howl just outside,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: within ten feet of them. The boys clasped each other
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: suddenly in an agony of fright. Which of us does
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: he mean? Gasped Huckleberry, I don't know. Peep through the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: crack quick, No you, Tom, I can't. I can't do it. Huck,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Please Tom, there tis again. Oh lordy, I'm thankful, whispered Tom.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I know his voice. It's Bull Harbison. Note if mister
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Harbison had owned a slave named Bull, Tom would have
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: spoken of him as Harbison's bull. But a son or
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a dog of that name was Bull Harbison. Oh that's good,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: I tell you Tom. I was scared to death, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I'd have bet anything it was its stray dog. The
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: dog howled again. The boy's heart sank once more. Oh my,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: that ain't no Bull Harbison, whispered Huckleberry. Do Tom, Tom,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: quaking with fear, yielded and put his eye to the crack.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: His whisper was hardly audible when he said, Oh, Huck,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: it's a stray dog. Quick, Tom, Quick, Who does he mean?
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Hakeye must mean us both. We're right together. Oh Tom,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: I reckon, we're goners. I reckon. There ain't no mistake
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: bout where I'll go to. I've been so wicked. Dag
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: fetch it. This comes of playing hookey and doing everything
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: a feller's told not to do. I might have been
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: good like sit if I'd have tried, but no I wouldn't,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of course. But if ever I get off of this time,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I lay, I'll just waller in Sunday schools. And Tom
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: began to snuffle a little, you bad, and Huckleberry began
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to snuffle too. Con sound at Tom, Sawyer, you're just
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: old pie alongside O what I am? Oh, lordy, lordy, lordy.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I wished I'd only had half your chance. Tom choked
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: off and whispered, Look, Hockey, look he's got his back
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to us. Huckey looked with joy in his heart. Well
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: he has by jingoes did he before? Yes? He did?
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: But I, like a fool, I never thought, oh this
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: is bully, you know now? Who can he mean? The
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: howling stopped, and Tom pricked up his ears. Shit, what's that?
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: He whispered? Sounds like like hogs grunting. No, it's somebody snoring, Tom,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: that is it? Whereabounts? Is it? Huck? I believe it's
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: down at t'other end? Sound so anyway, Pap used to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: sleep there sometimes along with the hogs. But laws, bless you,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: he just lifts things when he snores. Besides, I reckon,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: he ain't ever coming back to this town any more.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: The spirited adventure rose in the boy's souls once more. Huckeyed,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you dares to go if I lead? I don't like
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: too much? Tom, suppose its injun Joe. Tom quailed, but
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: presently the temptation rose up strong again, and the boys
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: to their heels if the snoring stopped. So they went
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: tiptoeing stealthily down, the one behind the other. When they
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: had got to within five steps of the snore, Tom
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: stepped on a stick and it broke with a sharp snap.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: The man moaned, writhed a little, and his face came
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: into the moonlight. It was Muff Potter. The boy's hearts
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: had stood still, and their hopes too when the man moved,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: but their fears passed away now. They tiptoed out through
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: the broken weather boarding and stopped at a little distance
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: on the night air again. They turned and saw the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: strange dog stand within a few feet of where Potter
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: was lying, and facing Potter with his nose pointing heavenwarth oh, jimminy,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: it's him. Exclaimed, Both boys in a breath, say Tom,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: They say, a stray dog come howling round Johnny Miller's
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: house about midnight, as much as two weeks ago, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: a whipper will come in and lit on a banistairs
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and sung the very same evening. And there ain't anybody
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: dead there yet. Well I know that, And s'pose there ain't.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Didn't Gracie Miller fall in the kitchen fire and burn
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: herself terrible the very next Saturday? Yes, but she ain't dead.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And what's more, she's getting better too. All right, will
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: you wait and see? She's a goner, just as dead,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: sure as Muff Potter's a goner. That's what the niggers say.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And they know all about these kind of things, huck.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Then they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: bedroom window the night was almost spent, he undressed with
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: excessive caution and fell asleep, congratulating himself that nobody knew
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of his escapade. He was not aware that the gently
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: snorre Syd was awake, and had been so for an hour.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: When Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a late look in the light, a late sense in
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not been
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: called persecuted till he was up as usual? The thought
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: filled him with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and downstairs, feeling sore and drowsy. The family were still
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: at table, but they had finished breakfast. There was no
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: voice of rebuke, but there were averted eyes. There was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: chill to the culprit's heart. He sat down and tried
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: to seem gay, but it was up hill work. It
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into silence
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and let his heart sink down to the depths. After breakfast,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: his aunt took him aside, and Tom was almost brightened
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: in the hope that he was going to be flogged,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: But it was not so. His aunt wept over him
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: and asked him how he could go and break her
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: old heart so and finally told him to go on
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs with so
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: orrow to the grave, for it was no use for
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: her to try any more. This was worse than a
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: thousand whippings, and Tom's heart was soreer now than his body.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: He cried, He pleaded for forgiveness, promised to reform over
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and over again, and then received his dismissal. Feeling that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a feeble confidence. He left the presence, too miserable to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: even feel revengeful towards Sid, and so the latter's prompt
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: retreat through the back gateway was unnecessary. He moped to school,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: gloomy and sad, and took his flogging along with Joe
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Harper for playing hooky the day before, with the air
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: wholly dead to trifles. Then he betook himself to his seat,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: rested his elbows on his desk and his jaws in
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: his hands, and stared at the wall with a stony
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: no further go. His elbow was pressing against some hard substance.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: After a long time, he slowly and sadly changed his
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: position and took up this object with a sigh. It
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: colossal sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: brass and iron Knob, his final feather, broke the camel's
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: back end of chapter ten,