Latest / Mark Twain Audiobooks / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Part 2 - Mark Sawyer

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Part 2 - Mark Sawyer · Mark Twain Audiobooks

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Speaker 1: Careful. I ain't opposed to spendin money on circuses when
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Speaker 1: there ain't no other way, but there ain't no use
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Speaker 1: in wastin it on them. It was a real bully circus.
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Speaker 1: It was a splendidous sight, that ever was when they
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Speaker 1: all come ridin in two and two, a gentleman an
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Speaker 1: lady side by side, the men just in their drawers
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Speaker 1: and under shirts, an no shoes nor stirrups, an restin
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Speaker 1: their hands on their thighs, easy an comfortable. There must
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Speaker 1: have been twenty of 'em, an every lady with a
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Speaker 1: lovely complexion, an perfectly beautiful, an lookin jest like a
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Speaker 1: gang of real sure enough queen's, and dressed in clothes
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Speaker 1: across millions of dollars, an jest littered with diamonds. It
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Speaker 1: was a powerful, fine sight. I never see anything so
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Speaker 1: lovely an that one by one they got up an
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Speaker 1: stood an went a weaving around the ring, so gentle, an, wavy,
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Speaker 1: an graceful, the men looking ever so tall and airy
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Speaker 1: and straight, with their heads bobbing and skimming along away
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Speaker 1: up there under the tent roof, and every lady's rose
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Speaker 1: leafy dress flapping, soft and silky round her hips, and
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Speaker 1: she looking like the most loveliest parasol. And then faster
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Speaker 1: and faster they went, all of them, dancing, first one
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Speaker 1: foot out in the air, and then the other, the
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Speaker 1: horses leaning more and more, and the ringmaster going round
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Speaker 1: and round the centrepole, cracking his whip and shouting Hi, Hi,
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Speaker 1: and the clown cracking jokes behind him, and by and
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Speaker 1: by all hands dropped the reins, and every lady put
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Speaker 1: her knuckles on her hips, and every gentleman folded his arms.
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Speaker 1: And then how the horses did lean over and hump themselves,
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Speaker 1: And so one after the other they all skipped off
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Speaker 1: into the ring and made the sweetest bow I ever see,
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Speaker 1: and then skimpered out for buddy, clapped their hands and
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Speaker 1: went just about wild. Well, all through the circuits they
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Speaker 1: done the most astonishin things, And all the time that
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Speaker 1: clown carried on, so it most killed the people. The
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Speaker 1: ringmaster couldn't ever say a word to him, but he
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Speaker 1: was back at him, quick as a wink, with the
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Speaker 1: funniest things about it ever said an how he ever
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Speaker 1: could think of so many of em, an so sudden
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Speaker 1: and so pat was what I couldn't no way understand
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Speaker 1: why I couldn't have thought of them in a year
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Speaker 1: and by and by, a drunk man tried to get
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Speaker 1: into the ring, said he wanted to ride, said he
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Speaker 1: could ride as well as anybody that ever was. They
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Speaker 1: argued and try to keep him out, but he won't listen.
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Speaker 1: An the whole show come to a standstill. Then the
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Speaker 1: people begun to holler at him, an make fun of him.
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Speaker 1: An that made him mad. An he begun to rip
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Speaker 1: and tear, so that stirred up the people, and a
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Speaker 1: lot of men begun to pile down off of the
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Speaker 1: benches and swarm towards the rings, saying, knock him down,
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Speaker 1: throw em out. A one or two women began to scream.
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Speaker 1: So then the ringmaster he made a little speech and
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Speaker 1: said he hoped there wouln't be no disturbance. An if
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Speaker 1: the man would promise he wouldn't make no more trouble,
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Speaker 1: he would let him ride if he thought he could
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Speaker 1: stay on the horse. So everybody laughed and said all right,
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Speaker 1: and the man got on. The minute he was on
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Speaker 1: the horse, begun to rip and tear and jump and
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Speaker 1: covort around the two circus men hanging on to his
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Speaker 1: bridle trying to hold him, and the drunk man hanging
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Speaker 1: on to his neck, and his heels flying in the
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Speaker 1: air every jump, and the whole crowd of people standing up,
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Speaker 1: shouting and laughing till tears were rolled down, And alas
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Speaker 1: sure enough all the circus men could do, the horse
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Speaker 1: broke loose, and away he went like the very nation,
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Speaker 1: rounding round the ring with that sock laying down on
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Speaker 1: him and hanging to his neck, with first one leg
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Speaker 1: hanging' most to the ground on one side, an then
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Speaker 1: the other one on the other side. An the people
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Speaker 1: est crazy. It warn't funny to me, though, I was
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Speaker 1: all of a tremble to see his danger. But pretty
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Speaker 1: soon he struggled up a straddle, an grabbed the bridle,
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Speaker 1: a reelin this way an that, an the next minute
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Speaker 1: he sprung up, an dropped the bridle, an stood an
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Speaker 1: the horse a goin' like a house a fire too.
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Speaker 1: He just stood up there as sailin' around as easy
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Speaker 1: an comfortable, as if he warn't ever drunk in his life.
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Speaker 1: And then he begun to pull off his clothes an
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Speaker 1: sling them. He shed them so thick they kind of
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Speaker 1: clogged up the air, an altogether he shed seventeen suits.
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Speaker 1: An then there he was slim, an handsome, An dressed
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Speaker 1: so gaudiest, an prettiest you ever saw. An he lit
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Speaker 1: into that horse with his whip, An made him fairly
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Speaker 1: hum An finally skipped off, An made his bow and
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Speaker 1: danced off to the dressing room. An everybody just a
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Speaker 1: howlin with pleasure and astonishment. Then the ring master he
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Speaker 1: see how he'd been fooled. An he was the sickest
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Speaker 1: ring master you ever see. I reckon why it was
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Speaker 1: one of his own men. He had got up that
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Speaker 1: joke all out of his own head. An never let
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Speaker 1: on to nobody. Well, I felt sheepish enough to be
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Speaker 1: took in. So but I wouldn't have been in that
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Speaker 1: ringmaster's place, not for a thousand dollars. I dunno. There
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Speaker 1: may be bullier circuses than what that one was, but
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Speaker 1: I never struck them yet. Anyways, it was plenty good
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Speaker 1: enough for me. An wherever I run across it, it
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Speaker 1: can have all o my custom every time. Well, that
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Speaker 1: night we had our show, but there warn't only about
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Speaker 1: twelve people there, jest enough to pay expenses. An they
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Speaker 1: laughed all the time. An that may the Duke mad,
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Speaker 1: and everybody left anyway before the show was over, but
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Speaker 1: one boy, which was asleep. So the Duke said, these
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Speaker 1: Arkansas lunkheads couldn't come up to Shakespeare. What they wanted
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Speaker 1: was low comedy, and maybe something rather worse than low comedy.
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Speaker 1: He reckoned. He said he could size their style. So
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Speaker 1: next morning he got some big sheets of wrapping paper
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Speaker 1: and some black paint and drawed off some handbills and
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Speaker 1: stuck them up all over the village. The bills said
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Speaker 1: at the courthouse exclamation for three nights only exclamation the
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Speaker 1: world renowned tragedians David Garrick the Younger Exclamation and Edmund
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Speaker 1: Keene the Elder Exclamation of the London and Continental Theaters
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Speaker 1: in their thrilling Tragedy of the King's Chamelopard or the
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Speaker 1: Royal Nune such exclamation exclamation, Exclamation admissioned fifty cents. Then
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Speaker 1: at the bottom was the biggest line of all, which
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Speaker 1: said ladies and children not admitted there, says he. If
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Speaker 1: that line don't fetch em, I don't know, Arkansas, end
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Speaker 1: of chapter twenty two, Chapter twenty three, Well, all day
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Speaker 1: him and the King was hard at it rakin up
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Speaker 1: a stage and a curtain and a row of candles
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Speaker 1: for footlights. An that night the house was jammed full
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Speaker 1: of men in no time. When the place couldn't hold
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Speaker 1: no more, the Duke he quit tendon door and went
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Speaker 1: around the back way, An come on to the stage
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Speaker 1: and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech.
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Speaker 1: An praised up this tragedy and said it was the
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Speaker 1: most thrillinest one that ever was. And so he went
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Speaker 1: on a bragging about the tragedy and about Edmund Keen
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Speaker 1: the Elder, which was to play the main principal part
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Speaker 1: in it. And at last, when he'd got everybody's expectations
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Speaker 1: up high enough, he rolled up the curtain, and the
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Speaker 1: next minute the King come up, prancing out on all fours, naked,
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Speaker 1: and he was painted all over, rings, streaked and striped,
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Speaker 1: all sorts of colors, as splendid as a rainbow. And
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Speaker 1: but never mind the rest of his outfit. It was
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Speaker 1: just wild, but it was awful funny. The people most
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Speaker 1: killed themselves laughing. And when the King got done capering
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Speaker 1: and capered off behind the scenes, they roared and clapped
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Speaker 1: and stormed and haw hawed till he come back and
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Speaker 1: done it over again, and after that they made him
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Speaker 1: do it another time. Well it would make a cow
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Speaker 1: laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut. Then
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Speaker 1: the Duke he lets the curtain down and bows to
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Speaker 1: the people and says, the great tragedy will be performed
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Speaker 1: only two nights more on accounts of press in London
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Speaker 1: engagements where the seats is all sold already for it
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Speaker 1: in Drury Lane. And then he makes them another deep
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Speaker 1: bow and says, if he has succeeded in pleasing them
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Speaker 1: and instructing them, he will be deeply obleeged if they
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Speaker 1: will mention it to their friends and get them to
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Speaker 1: come and see it. Twenty people sings out, wood, is
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Speaker 1: it over? Is that all? The Duke says, yes. Then
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Speaker 1: there was a fine time. Everybody sings out sold and
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Speaker 1: rows up mad, and was a going for that stage
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Speaker 1: and them tragedians. But a big, fine looking man jumps
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Speaker 1: up on a bench and shouts, hold on, just a word, gentlemen.
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Speaker 1: They stop to listen. We are sold, mighty badly sold.
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Speaker 1: But we don't want to be the laughing stock of
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Speaker 1: this whole toun I reckon and never hear the last
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Speaker 1: of this thing as long as we live. Know what
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Speaker 1: we want is to go out of here quiet and
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Speaker 1: talk this show up and sell the rest of the town.
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Speaker 1: Then we'll all be in the same boat. Ain't that sensible?
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Speaker 1: You bet? It is the judge's right. Everybody sings out,
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Speaker 1: all right, then not a word about any cell. Go
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Speaker 1: along home and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy.
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Speaker 1: Next day, you couldn't hear nothing around that town but
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Speaker 1: about how splendid that show was. House was jammed again
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Speaker 1: that night, and we sold this crowd the same way.
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Speaker 1: When me and the King and the Duke got home
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Speaker 1: to the raft, we all had a supper, and by
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Speaker 1: and by about midnight, they made Jim and me back
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Speaker 1: her out and float her down the middle of the
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Speaker 1: river and fetch her in and hide her about two
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Speaker 1: mile below town. The third night, the house was crammed again,
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Speaker 1: and they warn't newcomers this time, but people that at
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Speaker 1: the show the other two nights. I stood by the
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Speaker 1: Duke at the door, and I see that every man
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Speaker 1: that went in had his pocket's bulgin' or something muffled
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Speaker 1: up under his coat. And I see it warn't no
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Speaker 1: perfumery neither, not by a long sight. I smelt sickly
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Speaker 1: eggs by the barrel, and writing cabbages and such things,
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Speaker 1: and if I know the signs of a dead cat
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Speaker 1: being around, and I bet I do. There was sixty
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Speaker 1: four of them went in. I shoved in there for
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Speaker 1: a minute, but it was too various for me. I
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Speaker 1: couldn't stand it well. When the police couldn't hold no
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Speaker 1: more people, the duke he'd give a fellow a quarter
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Speaker 1: and told him to tend door for a minute, and
11:45
Speaker 1: then he started around for the stage door. Aye after him.
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Speaker 1: But the minute we turned the corner and was in
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Speaker 1: the dark, he says, walk fast now till you get
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Speaker 1: away from the houses, and then shin for the raft,
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Speaker 1: like the Dickens was after you. I done it, an
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Speaker 1: he done the same. We struck the raft at the
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Speaker 1: same time, and in less than two seconds we was
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Speaker 1: gliding downstream, all dark and still, and edgin' towards the
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Speaker 1: middle of the river, nobody saying a word. I reckon.
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Speaker 1: The poor king was in for a gaudy time of
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Speaker 1: it with the audience, but nothing of the sort. Pretty
12:24
Speaker 1: soon he crawls out from under the wigwoman says, well,
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Speaker 1: how'd the old thing panned out this time, Duke, he
12:31
Speaker 1: hadn't been uptown at all. We never showed a light
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Speaker 1: till we was about ten mile below the village. Then
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Speaker 1: we lit up and had a supper, and the King
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Speaker 1: and the Duke fairly laughed their bones loose over the
12:43
Speaker 1: way they'd served them people. The Duke says, green horns,
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Speaker 1: flat heads. I knew the first house would keep mum
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Speaker 1: and let the rest of the town get roped in,
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Speaker 1: And I knew they'd live for us the third night,
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Speaker 1: and consider it was turned. Now, well it is their turn,
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Speaker 1: and I'd give something to know how much they'd take
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Speaker 1: for it. I would just like to know how they're
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Speaker 1: putting in their opportunity. They can turn it into a
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Speaker 1: picnic if they want to. They brought plenty of provisions,
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Speaker 1: them raps gallions. Took in four hundred and sixty five dollars,
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Speaker 1: and that three nights. I never seen money hauled in
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Speaker 1: by the wagon load like that before. By and bye.
13:32
Speaker 1: When they was sleeping and snoring, Jim says, don't it
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Speaker 1: surprise you deuade em King's carries on hook? No, I
13:41
Speaker 1: says it don't. Why don't it hook? Well, it don't
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Speaker 1: because it's in the breed. I reckon they're all alike.
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Speaker 1: But hook these kings iron is regular rapscallions. That's just
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Speaker 1: what they is. They'd regular rapscallions. Well that's what I'm
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Speaker 1: I'm a sayin' All kings is mostly rapscallions as fur
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Speaker 1: as I can make out? Is that? So you read
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Speaker 1: about them once, you'll see. Look at Henry the eighth,
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Speaker 1: this'n is a Sunday school superintendent. To him, an look
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Speaker 1: at Charles second an Louis fourteen, and Louis fifteen an
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Speaker 1: James second, an Edward second, and Richard third, an forty
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Speaker 1: more besides all them, Saxton hep turkeys that used to
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Speaker 1: rip around so in old times, an raise caine, My,
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Speaker 1: you ought to see old Henry the eighth when he
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Speaker 1: was in bloom. He was a blossom. He used to
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Speaker 1: marry a new wife every day, an chop off her
14:40
Speaker 1: head next mornin', an he would do it just as
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Speaker 1: indifferent as if he was ordinin up eggs. Fetch up
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Speaker 1: Nell Gwynn, he says, they fetch her up next mornin',
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Speaker 1: chop off her head, an they chop it off. Fetch
14:55
Speaker 1: up Jane Shore he says, an up, she comes next mornin',
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Speaker 1: off her head, and they chop it off. Bring up,
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Speaker 1: fair Rosamond, Fair Rosamond answers the bell next mornin', chop
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Speaker 1: off her head. And he made every one of them
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Speaker 1: tell him a tale every night. And he kept that
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Speaker 1: up till he had hogged a thousand and one tales
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Speaker 1: that way. And then he put them all in a
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Speaker 1: book and called it Doomsday Book, which was a good name,
15:23
Speaker 1: and stated the case, you don't know kings, Jim, but
15:27
Speaker 1: I know them, And this old rip o hourn is
15:29
Speaker 1: one of the cleanest I've struck in history. Well, Henry,
15:33
Speaker 1: he takes a notion he wants to get up some
15:35
Speaker 1: trouble with this country. How does he go at it?
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Speaker 1: Give notice, give a country a show? No, All of
15:42
Speaker 1: a sudden he heaves all the tea in Boston Harbor
15:46
Speaker 1: overboard and wax out a declaration of independence and dares
15:51
Speaker 1: them to come on. That was his style. He never
15:54
Speaker 1: give anybody a chance. He had suspicions of his father,
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Speaker 1: the Duke a Well, and and well what did he do?
16:03
Speaker 1: Asked him to show up? No, drownded him in a
16:07
Speaker 1: butt of Mamsie like a cat. Suppose people left money
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Speaker 1: laying around where he was, What did he do? He
16:15
Speaker 1: collared it? S'ppose he contracted to do a thing and
16:19
Speaker 1: you paid him and didn't sit down there and see
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Speaker 1: that he done it? What did he do? He always
16:24
Speaker 1: done the other thing? Suppose he opened his mouth? What
16:28
Speaker 1: then if he didn't shut it up powerful quick, he'd
16:32
Speaker 1: lose a lie every time. That's a kind of a bug.
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Speaker 1: Henry was. And if we'd had him alongstead of our kings,
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Speaker 1: he'd have fooled that town a heap worse than iurn done.
16:43
Speaker 1: I don't say that iron is lambs, because they ain't
16:46
Speaker 1: when he come right down to the cold facts. But
16:49
Speaker 1: they ain't nothing to that old ram anyway. All I
16:53
Speaker 1: say is kings's kings, and you got to make allowances
16:57
Speaker 1: take them all round. They're a mighty ornery lot. It's
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Speaker 1: the way they're raised. But this one do smell so
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Speaker 1: like a nation hook, Well, they all do, Jim. We
17:11
Speaker 1: can't help the way a king smells. History. Don't tell
17:15
Speaker 1: no way now to Duke. He's a tolerable likely man
17:19
Speaker 1: In some ways. Yes, the Duke's different, but not very different.
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Speaker 1: This one's a middlin hard lot for duke when he's drunk.
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Speaker 1: There ain't no near sighted man could tell him from
17:31
Speaker 1: a king. Well, anyways, I don't hanker for no mor'n
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Speaker 1: um hook. These is all I can stand. It's the
17:40
Speaker 1: way I feel, too, Jim. But we've got them on
17:43
Speaker 1: our hands, and we got to remember what they are
17:46
Speaker 1: an make allowances. Sometimes I wish we could hear of
17:50
Speaker 1: a country that's out of kings. What was the use
17:54
Speaker 1: to tell Jim these warn't real kings an dukes? It
17:57
Speaker 1: wouldn't have done no good. An Besides, it was just
18:01
Speaker 1: as I said, you couldn't tell them from the real kind.
18:06
Speaker 1: I went to sleep, an Jim didn't call me when
18:08
Speaker 1: it was my turn. He often done that. When I
18:12
Speaker 1: waked up, just to daybreak, he was sittin there with
18:15
Speaker 1: his head down betwixt his knees, moanin an mournin to himself.
18:20
Speaker 1: I didn't take notice, nor let on I knowed what
18:24
Speaker 1: it was about. He was thinking about his wife and
18:27
Speaker 1: his children away up yonder an. He was low an
18:31
Speaker 1: homesick because he hadn't ever been away from home before
18:34
Speaker 1: in his life. And I do believe he cared just
18:37
Speaker 1: as much for his people as white folks does for
18:39
Speaker 1: there An it don't seem natural, but I reckon it's so.
18:44
Speaker 1: He was often moanin an mournin' that way nights when
18:48
Speaker 1: he judged I was asleep and saying, poor little Elizabeth,
18:53
Speaker 1: poor little Johnny. It's mighty hard. I speck, I ain't
18:57
Speaker 1: ever goin to see you, no mo no moule. He
19:01
Speaker 1: was a mighty good nigger, Jim was. But this time
19:05
Speaker 1: I somehow got to talkin to him about his wife,
19:07
Speaker 1: an young ones an by an by. He says, w
19:12
Speaker 1: makes me feel so bad this time as b case,
19:14
Speaker 1: I hear somethin over yonder on the bank, like a
19:17
Speaker 1: whack or a slam while goo an it mind me
19:21
Speaker 1: a the time I treat my little Elizabeth so ornery.
19:25
Speaker 1: She warn't only about four year oll an, she took
19:28
Speaker 1: the scarlet fever an had a powerful rough spell, but
19:32
Speaker 1: she got well. An one day she was a standin round, an,
19:35
Speaker 1: I says to her, I says, shut the door. She
19:39
Speaker 1: never done it, jest stood there kinder smilin up at me.
19:44
Speaker 1: It made me mad, an, I says, again, mighty loud,
19:47
Speaker 1: I says, don't you hear me shut the door. She
19:51
Speaker 1: jes stood the same way, kiner smilin' up. I was
19:55
Speaker 1: a violin, I says, I lay, I make you mine
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Speaker 1: an wid that I fetch her a slapside the head
20:02
Speaker 1: ts sent her a sprawlin'. Then I went into the
20:06
Speaker 1: other room. An it's gone about ten minutes. An when
20:09
Speaker 1: I come back, there was that door standin open yit
20:13
Speaker 1: an that child standin' most right in it. A lookin
20:16
Speaker 1: down an mournin an the tears runnin down. My but
20:21
Speaker 1: I was mad. I was a gwine for the child.
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Speaker 1: But jest. Then it was a door that opened enterds.
20:29
Speaker 1: Just then long come the wind. An slam it too
20:31
Speaker 1: behind a child, curblam an my lynb the child never
20:37
Speaker 1: move my breath most hop outter me an I feel
20:41
Speaker 1: so so, I dun't know how I feel. I crope
20:47
Speaker 1: out all a tremblin' an crope around an opened the
20:50
Speaker 1: door easy and slow, an poke my head in behind
20:54
Speaker 1: a child, soft and still, and all of a sudden,
20:57
Speaker 1: I says, pow jest as loud as I can yell.
21:01
Speaker 1: She never budge, oh hook, I bust out a crying
21:06
Speaker 1: and grab her up in my arms. And say, oh,
21:09
Speaker 1: the poor little thing, to Lord God Almighty, forgive po
21:13
Speaker 1: old Jim, because he never going to forgive himself as
21:16
Speaker 1: long as he lived. Oh, she was plumb, deaf and dumb,
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Speaker 1: Hook plumb deaf and dumb, and I'd been a treating
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Speaker 1: her so end of chapter twenty three, Chapter twenty four.
21:35
Speaker 1: Next day, towards night, we laid up under a little
21:38
Speaker 1: will of tooe head out in the middle where there
21:40
Speaker 1: was a village on each side of the river, and
21:43
Speaker 1: the Duke and the King began to lay out a
21:45
Speaker 1: plan for work in them towns. Jim, he spoke to
21:49
Speaker 1: the Duke and said he hoped it wouldn't take but
21:51
Speaker 1: a few hours, because it got my heavy and tiresome
21:55
Speaker 1: to him when he had to lay all day in
21:57
Speaker 1: the wigwam tied with the rope. See, when we left
22:00
Speaker 1: him all alone, we had to tie him because if
22:03
Speaker 1: anybody happened on to him all by himself and not tied,
22:07
Speaker 1: it wouldn't look much like he was a runaway nigger,
22:09
Speaker 1: you know. So the Duke said it was kind of
22:12
Speaker 1: hard to have to lay roped all day, and he'd
22:15
Speaker 1: cipher out some way to get around it. He was
22:18
Speaker 1: uncommon bright, the Duke was, and he soon struck it.
22:23
Speaker 1: He dressed Jim up in the king lear's outfit. It
22:26
Speaker 1: was a long curtained calico gown and a white horsehair
22:30
Speaker 1: wig and whiskers. And then he took his theater paint
22:33
Speaker 1: and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck
22:37
Speaker 1: all over a dead, dull, solid blue, like a man
22:41
Speaker 1: that's been drownded nine days blamed. If he warn't the
22:46
Speaker 1: horriblest looking outrage I ever see. Then the Duke took
22:50
Speaker 1: and rode out a sign on a shingle, so sick
22:54
Speaker 1: arab but harmless when not out of his head, and
22:59
Speaker 1: he nailed that sh jingle to a lath and stood
23:02
Speaker 1: the lad up four or five foot in front of
23:04
Speaker 1: the wigwam. Jim was satisfied. He said it was a
23:08
Speaker 1: sight better than Lyin tied a couple of years every
23:11
Speaker 1: day and tremblin all over every time there was a sound.
23:15
Speaker 1: The Duke told him to make himself free and easy,
23:18
Speaker 1: an if anybody ever come meddlin round, he must hop
23:21
Speaker 1: out of the wigwam, an carry on a little and
23:24
Speaker 1: fetch a howl or two like a wild beast. And
23:27
Speaker 1: he reckoned they would light out an leave him alone,
23:30
Speaker 1: which would sound enough judgment. But you take the average
23:33
Speaker 1: man an he wouldn't wait for him to howl. Why
23:37
Speaker 1: he didn't only look like he was dead, he looked considerable.
23:40
Speaker 1: More than that. These raps gallions wanted to try the
23:44
Speaker 1: nuns such again because there was so much money in it,
23:48
Speaker 1: but they judged it wouldn't be safe because maybe the
23:51
Speaker 1: news might have worked along down by this time. They
23:55
Speaker 1: couldn't hit no project that suited exactly. So at last
23:59
Speaker 1: the Duke said he reckoned. He'd lay off and work
24:01
Speaker 1: his brains an hour or two an see if he
24:03
Speaker 1: couldn't put up something on the Arkansas village. An the
24:07
Speaker 1: king he allowed he would drop over to the other
24:09
Speaker 1: village without any plan, but jest trust in providence to
24:13
Speaker 1: lead him the profitable way. Meanin' the devil, I reckon.
24:18
Speaker 1: We had all bought store clothes where we stopped last,
24:21
Speaker 1: and now the king put his han on, an he
24:23
Speaker 1: told me to put mine on. I done it. Of course,
24:27
Speaker 1: the King's duds was all black, An he did look
24:30
Speaker 1: real swell, a starchy. I never knowed how clothes could
24:34
Speaker 1: change a body before. Why before he looked like the
24:38
Speaker 1: ornariest old rip that ever was. But now when he'd
24:42
Speaker 1: take off his new white beaver an make a bow
24:45
Speaker 1: an do a smile. He looked that grand and good,
24:49
Speaker 1: an pious that you'd say he had walked right out
24:52
Speaker 1: of the yark, and maybe was Old Leviticus himself. Jim
24:56
Speaker 1: cleaned up the canoe, and I got my paddle ready.
25:00
Speaker 1: There's a big steamboat layin at the shore way up
25:02
Speaker 1: under the point, about three mile above the town. Been
25:06
Speaker 1: there a couple o hours takin on freight, says the king.
25:11
Speaker 1: See how I'm dressed, I reckon. Maybe i'd better arrive
25:14
Speaker 1: down from Saint Louis or Cincinnati, some other big place.
25:18
Speaker 1: Go for the steamboat, Huckleberry, we'll come down to the
25:20
Speaker 1: village on her. I didn't have to be ordered twice
25:24
Speaker 1: to go an take a steamboat ride. I fetched the
25:27
Speaker 1: shore a half a mile above the village, an then
25:30
Speaker 1: went scootin along the bluff bank in the easy water.
25:33
Speaker 1: Pretty soon we come to a nice innocent lookin young country.
25:37
Speaker 1: Jake settin on a log, swappin' the sweat off of
25:40
Speaker 1: his face, for it was powerful warm weather. An he
25:43
Speaker 1: had a couple of big carpet bags by him runner
25:47
Speaker 1: knows in shore, says the King. I dunn it where
25:52
Speaker 1: ye bound? For young man, for the steamboat goin' to Orleans,
25:57
Speaker 1: get aboard, says the King. Hold on a minute, my
26:01
Speaker 1: servant to help you with them bags. Jump out an
26:03
Speaker 1: help the gentleman at office meanin me, I guess I
26:08
Speaker 1: done so? An then we all three started on again.
26:12
Speaker 1: The young chap was mighty thankful, said it was tough
26:15
Speaker 1: work towed in his baggage such weather. He asked the
26:18
Speaker 1: King where he was goin an The King told him
26:21
Speaker 1: he'd come down the river an landed at the other
26:23
Speaker 1: village this mornin'. An now he is goin up a
26:26
Speaker 1: few mile to see an old friend on a farm
26:28
Speaker 1: up there. The young fellow says. When I first see you,
26:33
Speaker 1: I says to myself, it's mister Wilks. Sure an he
26:37
Speaker 1: come mighty near gettin here in time. But then I says, no,
26:42
Speaker 1: I reckon, it ain't him, or else he wouldn't be
26:44
Speaker 1: paddlin up the river. You ain't him, are you? No?
26:50
Speaker 1: My name's Blotchett, Alexander Bligett, Reverend Alexander Bligett. I suppose
26:56
Speaker 1: I must say, as I'm one o the lord's poor servants.
26:59
Speaker 1: But still I'm just as able to be sorry for
27:01
Speaker 1: mister Wilkes for a night arriving in time. All the same.
27:04
Speaker 1: If he's missed anything by it, which I hope he hasn't, Well,
27:09
Speaker 1: he didn't miss any property by it, because he'll get
27:11
Speaker 1: that all right. But he's missed seeing his brother Peter die,
27:15
Speaker 1: which he mayn't mind. Nobody can tell as to that.
27:18
Speaker 1: But his brother would give anything in this world to
27:21
Speaker 1: see him before he died, never talked about nothing else
27:25
Speaker 1: all these three weeks. Hadn't seen him since they was
27:28
Speaker 1: boys together. I hadn't seen his brother William at all.
27:32
Speaker 1: That's a diff and dumb one. William ate more than
27:35
Speaker 1: thirty or thirty five. Peter and George were the only
27:38
Speaker 1: ones that come out here. George was the merry brother.
27:42
Speaker 1: Him and his wife both died last year. Harvey and
27:46
Speaker 1: William's the only ones that's left now. And as I
27:49
Speaker 1: was saying, they haven't got here in time, did anybody
27:53
Speaker 1: send him word? Oh? Yes, a month or two ago
27:57
Speaker 1: when Peter was first took because Peter said then that
28:00
Speaker 1: he sort of felt like he warn't goin to get
28:02
Speaker 1: well this time. You see, he was pretty old an
28:05
Speaker 1: George's girls was too young to be much company for him,
28:09
Speaker 1: except Mary Jane, the red headed one, and so he
28:12
Speaker 1: was kind er lonesome. After George and his wife died
28:15
Speaker 1: and didn't seem to care much to live, he most
28:18
Speaker 1: desperately wanted to see Harvey. An William too for that matter,
28:22
Speaker 1: cause he was one of them kind that can't bear
28:25
Speaker 1: to make a will. He left a letter behind for
28:28
Speaker 1: Harvey and said he'd told a minute where his money
28:30
Speaker 1: was hid, and how he wanted the rest of the
28:32
Speaker 1: property divided up, so George's girls would be all right.
28:36
Speaker 1: For George didn't leave nothin', an that letter was all
28:39
Speaker 1: they could get him to put a pen to mighty. Reckon, Harvey,
28:44
Speaker 1: don't come. Where does he live? Oh? He lives in England,
28:49
Speaker 1: Sheffield preaches. There hasn't ever been in this country. He
28:53
Speaker 1: hasn't had any too much time. An besides, he mightn't
28:57
Speaker 1: a got the letter at all, you know, Too bad,
29:00
Speaker 1: Too bad he couldn't have lived to see his brother's
29:03
Speaker 1: poor soul. You going to Orleans, you say, yes, But
29:07
Speaker 1: that ain't only a part of it. I'm goin' in
29:10
Speaker 1: a ship next Wednesday for Rio Jannaro, where my uncle lives.
29:16
Speaker 1: It's a pretty long journey, but it'll be lovely. Wished
29:18
Speaker 1: I was a goin. It's Mary Jane, the oldest. How
29:21
Speaker 1: old is the others? Mary Jane's nineteen, Susan's fifteen, and
29:26
Speaker 1: Joanna's about fourteen. That's the one that gives herself to
29:29
Speaker 1: good works and has a hair lip. Poor things to
29:33
Speaker 1: be left alone in the cold world, so well, they
29:38
Speaker 1: could be worse off. Old Peter had friends, and they
29:41
Speaker 1: ain't gonna let them come to no harm. There's Hobson,
29:45
Speaker 1: the Baptist preacher, and Deacon light Hoovey, and Ben Rucker
29:49
Speaker 1: and Abner Shackleford, and Levi Bell the lawyer, and doctor
29:53
Speaker 1: Robinson and their wives, and the widow Bartley, and well
29:59
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them. But these are the ones
30:01
Speaker 1: that Peter was thickest with and used to ride about
30:04
Speaker 1: sometimes when he rode home. So Harvey'll know where to
30:07
Speaker 1: look for friends when he gets here. Well, the old
30:11
Speaker 1: man went on asking questions till he just fairly emptied
30:15
Speaker 1: that young fellow blamed if he didn't inquire about everybody
30:18
Speaker 1: an everything in that blessed town, an all about the Wilkeses,
30:22
Speaker 1: an about Peter's business, which was a tanner, an about George's,
30:26
Speaker 1: which was a carpenter, and about Harvey's which was a
30:30
Speaker 1: dissenter and minister, and so on and so on. Then
30:34
Speaker 1: he says, what did you want to walk all the
30:36
Speaker 1: way up to the steamboat for? Because she's a big
30:40
Speaker 1: o' Orleans boat. An, I was afeared she mightn't stop
30:42
Speaker 1: there when they're deep. They won't stop for a hail.
30:46
Speaker 1: A Cincinnati boat will. But this is a Saint Lewis. One.
30:51
Speaker 1: Was Peter Wilkes well off? Oh, yes, pretty well off?
30:55
Speaker 1: He had houses and land, an it's reckin. He left
30:58
Speaker 1: three or four thousand in cash head up somewheres. When
31:03
Speaker 1: did you say he died? I didn't say, but it
31:06
Speaker 1: was last night, funeral tomorrow likely, yes, about the middle
31:11
Speaker 1: of the day. Well, it's all terrible, sad, but we've
31:16
Speaker 1: all got to go one time or another. So what
31:19
Speaker 1: we want to do is to be prepared. Then we're
31:21
Speaker 1: all right, Yes, sir, it's the best way. Ma used
31:26
Speaker 1: to always say that. When we struck the boat, she
31:30
Speaker 1: was about done loading, and pretty soon she got off.
31:34
Speaker 1: The King never said nothing about goin aboard, so I
31:37
Speaker 1: lost my ride after all. When the boat was gone,
31:40
Speaker 1: the King made me paddle up another mile to a
31:42
Speaker 1: lonesome place, and then he got ashore and says, now,
31:47
Speaker 1: hustle back right off and fetch the duke up here
31:49
Speaker 1: an the new carpet bags. An if he's gone over
31:52
Speaker 1: to the other side, go over there and get him
31:54
Speaker 1: and tell him to get himself up regardless. Shove along.
31:57
Speaker 1: Now I see what he was up to, but I
32:02
Speaker 1: never said nothing. Of course, when I got back with
32:05
Speaker 1: the duke, we hid the canoe, and then they sit
32:08
Speaker 1: down on a log and the King told him everything
32:11
Speaker 1: just like the young fellow had said it, every last
32:14
Speaker 1: word of it, and all the time he was doin it.
32:17
Speaker 1: He tried to talk like an Englishman. An he'd done
32:20
Speaker 1: it pretty well too, for a slouch. I can't imitate him,
32:24
Speaker 1: so I ain't a goin to try to, but he
32:27
Speaker 1: really done it pretty good. Then he says, how were
32:31
Speaker 1: you on the diiff and dumb Billgewater. The Duke said,
32:34
Speaker 1: leave him alone for that, that he had played a
32:37
Speaker 1: diff and dumb person before on the histronic boards. So
32:41
Speaker 1: then they waited for a steamboat about the middle of
32:45
Speaker 1: the afternoon, a couple of little boats come along, but
32:48
Speaker 1: they didn't come from high enough up the river. But
32:51
Speaker 1: at last there was a big one an they hailed her.
32:54
Speaker 1: She sent out for her y'awl, and we went to board,
32:58
Speaker 1: and she was from Cincinnati. And when they found we
33:01
Speaker 1: only wanted to go four or five miles, they was
33:03
Speaker 1: boomin mad an gave us a cussin an said they
33:06
Speaker 1: wouldn't land us. But the King was calm. He says,
33:11
Speaker 1: if gentlemen can afford to pay a dollar a mile
33:14
Speaker 1: apiece to be took on an put off in a yawl,
33:16
Speaker 1: a steamboat can afford to carry him, can it? So
33:20
Speaker 1: they softened down and said it was all right. And
33:23
Speaker 1: when we got to the village they yawled us ashore.
33:26
Speaker 1: About two dozen men flocked down where they see the
33:29
Speaker 1: yawl a comin' an. When the King says, can any
33:33
Speaker 1: of you gentlemen tell me where mister Peter Wilkes lives?
33:36
Speaker 1: They give a glance at one another and nodded their
33:39
Speaker 1: heads as much as to say, what did I tell you?
33:43
Speaker 1: Then one of them says, kind o soft and gentle,
33:48
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, sir, but the best we can do is
33:51
Speaker 1: tell you where he did live yesterday evenin' sudden is
33:55
Speaker 1: winkin' the ornery old creature went and to smash and
33:59
Speaker 1: fell up again the man and put his chin on
34:02
Speaker 1: his shoulder and cried down his back and says, alas alas,
34:07
Speaker 1: our poor brother gone, and we'd never got to see him. Oh,
34:11
Speaker 1: it's too too hard. Then he turns around, blubbering and
34:17
Speaker 1: makes a lot of idiotic signs to the Duke on
34:19
Speaker 1: his hands, and blamed if he didn't drop a carpet
34:22
Speaker 1: bag and bust out a cryin' if they warn't the
34:26
Speaker 1: beatin a slot, them two frauds, that ever I struck, Well,
34:31
Speaker 1: the men gathered around and sympathized with them, and said
34:34
Speaker 1: all sorts of kind things to them, and carried their
34:37
Speaker 1: carpet bags up the hill for them and let them
34:40
Speaker 1: lean on them and cry, and told the king all
34:42
Speaker 1: about his brother's last moments. And the king he told
34:46
Speaker 1: it all over again on his hands to the Duke,
34:49
Speaker 1: and both of them took on about that dead tanner
34:52
Speaker 1: like they'd lost the twelve disciples. Well, if ever I
34:56
Speaker 1: struck anything like it, I'm a nigger. It was a
34:59
Speaker 1: no to make a body ashamed of the human race.
35:05
Speaker 1: End of chapter twenty four, Chapter twenty five. The news
35:13
Speaker 1: was all over town in two minutes, and you could
35:15
Speaker 1: see the people tearing down on the run from every
35:18
Speaker 1: which way, some of them putting on their coats as
35:21
Speaker 1: they come. Pretty soon we was in the middle of
35:24
Speaker 1: a crowd, and the noise of the tramp and was
35:27
Speaker 1: like a soldier march. The windows and dooryards was full,
35:31
Speaker 1: and every minute somebody would say over a fence is
35:35
Speaker 1: it them? And somebody trotting along with the gang would
35:38
Speaker 1: answer back and say, you bet it is. When we
35:42
Speaker 1: got to the house, the street in front of it
35:44
Speaker 1: was packed, and the three girls were standing in the door.
35:48
Speaker 1: Mary Jane was redheaded, but that dough'll make no difference.
35:53
Speaker 1: She was most awful beautiful, and her face in her
35:56
Speaker 1: eyes was all lit up like glory. She was so glad.
35:59
Speaker 1: Her uncle said, come the king. He spread his arms,
36:02
Speaker 1: and Mary Jane she jumped for them, and the hare
36:05
Speaker 1: lip jumped for the duke, and there they had it. Everybody,
36:09
Speaker 1: most least away as women cried for joy to see
36:12
Speaker 1: them meet again at last and have such good times.
36:16
Speaker 1: Then the king he hunched the duke private. I see
36:20
Speaker 1: him do it. And then he looked around and see
36:22
Speaker 1: the coffin over in the corner on two chairs. So
36:25
Speaker 1: then him and the Duke, with a hand across each
36:28
Speaker 1: other's shoulder and the other hand to their eyes, walked
36:31
Speaker 1: slow and solemn over there, everybody dropping back to give
36:35
Speaker 1: them room, and all the talk and noise stopping people
36:39
Speaker 1: saying sh and all the men taking their hats off
36:43
Speaker 1: and drooping their heads so you could have heard a pinfall.
36:47
Speaker 1: And when they got there, they bent over and looked
36:50
Speaker 1: in the coffin and took one sight, and then they
36:52
Speaker 1: bust out a crying, so you could have heard them
36:55
Speaker 1: to Orleans most. And then they put their arms round
36:58
Speaker 1: each other's necks and hung their over each other's shoulders.
37:02
Speaker 1: And then for three minutes or maybe four, I never
37:05
Speaker 1: see two men leak the way they done, And mind you,
37:08
Speaker 1: everybody was doing the same, and the place was that damp.
37:12
Speaker 1: I never see anything like it. Then one of them
37:15
Speaker 1: got on one side of the coffin and the other
37:17
Speaker 1: on the other side, and they kneeled down and rested
37:20
Speaker 1: their foreheads on the coffin and led on to pray
37:23
Speaker 1: all to themselves. Well, when it come to that, it
37:28
Speaker 1: worked the crowd like you never see anything like it,
37:30
Speaker 1: And everybody broke down and went to sobbing right out loud,
37:34
Speaker 1: the poor girls too, and every woman nearly went up
37:38
Speaker 1: to the girls without saying a word, and kissed them
37:41
Speaker 1: solemn on the forehead, and then put their hand on
37:44
Speaker 1: their head and looked up towards the sky with the
37:46
Speaker 1: tears running down, and then busted out and went off
37:50
Speaker 1: sobbing and swabbin and give the next woman a show.
37:54
Speaker 1: I never see anything so disgusting. Well, by and by
37:59
Speaker 1: the king, he gets up and comes forward a little
38:02
Speaker 1: and works himself up and slobbers out of speech, all
38:05
Speaker 1: full of tears and flapdoodle about. It's beIN a sore
38:08
Speaker 1: trial for him and his poor brother to lose the
38:11
Speaker 1: diseased and to mis seein diseased alive after the long
38:15
Speaker 1: journey of four thousand mile, But it's a trial that's
38:18
Speaker 1: sweetened and sanctified to us by this dear sympathy and
38:22
Speaker 1: these holy tears. And so he thanks them out of
38:24
Speaker 1: his heart and out of his brother's heart, because out
38:27
Speaker 1: of their mouths they can't words, being too weak and
38:30
Speaker 1: cold and all that kind of rotten slush till it
38:33
Speaker 1: was just sickening. And then he blubbers out a pious
38:36
Speaker 1: goody good at Amen, and turns himself loose and goes
38:39
Speaker 1: to cry and fit to bust an. The minute the
38:42
Speaker 1: words were out of his mouth, somebody over in the
38:45
Speaker 1: crowd struck up the dock solager, and everybody joined in
38:49
Speaker 1: with all their might, and it just warmed you up
38:51
Speaker 1: and made you feel as good as church. Letting out
38:54
Speaker 1: music is a good thing. And after all that soul
38:57
Speaker 1: butterin hoguash, I never see freshen up things so and
39:01
Speaker 1: sounds so honest and bully. Then the king begins to
39:06
Speaker 1: work his jaw again and says how him and his
39:08
Speaker 1: nieces would be glad if a few of the main
39:10
Speaker 1: principal friends of the family would take supper here with
39:13
Speaker 1: them this evenin' and help set up with the ashes
39:16
Speaker 1: of the diseased, And says, if his poor brother lay
39:19
Speaker 1: in the yonder could speak, he knows who he would name,
39:22
Speaker 1: for they was names that was very dear to him
39:25
Speaker 1: and mentioned often in his letters, and so he will
39:28
Speaker 1: name the same to wit as follows fiz Reverend mister
39:33
Speaker 1: Hobson and Deacon light Hoovey and mister ben Rucker and
39:37
Speaker 1: Abner Shackleford and Levey Bell and doctor Robinson and their
39:41
Speaker 1: wives and the widow Bartley. Reverend Hobson and doctor Robinson
39:46
Speaker 1: was down to the end of the town a hunting together,
39:49
Speaker 1: that is, I mean, the doctor was shipping a sick
39:51
Speaker 1: man to the other world, and the preacher was pintin
39:54
Speaker 1: him right. Lawyer Bell was away up to Louisville on business,
39:58
Speaker 1: but the rest was on hand, and so they all
40:01
Speaker 1: come and shook hands with the king and thanked him
40:03
Speaker 1: and talked to him. And then they shook hands with
40:05
Speaker 1: the Duke and didn't say nothing, but just kept a
40:08
Speaker 1: smiling and bobbing their heads like a passel of sapheads,
40:12
Speaker 1: whilst he made all sorts of signs with his hands
40:14
Speaker 1: and said goo goo goo goo goo all the time
40:19
Speaker 1: like a baby. They can talk. So the king he
40:22
Speaker 1: blattered on and managed to inquire by pretty much everybody
40:26
Speaker 1: and dog in town by his name, and mentioned all
40:29
Speaker 1: sorts of little things that happened one time or another
40:32
Speaker 1: in the town, or to George's family, or to Peter,
40:36
Speaker 1: and he always led on that Peter wrote him the things,
40:39
Speaker 1: but that was a lie. He got every blessed one
40:42
Speaker 1: of them out of that young flathead that we canoed
40:44
Speaker 1: up to the steamboat. Then Mary Jane, she fetched the
40:48
Speaker 1: letter her father left behind, and the King he read
40:52
Speaker 1: it out loud and cried over it. It gave the
40:55
Speaker 1: dwelling house and three thousand dollars gold to the girls,
40:59
Speaker 1: and it gave the tan yard, which was doin a
41:01
Speaker 1: good business, along with some other houses and land worth
41:05
Speaker 1: about seven thousand and three thousand dollars in gold to
41:09
Speaker 1: Harvey an William, and told where the six thousand cash
41:12
Speaker 1: was hid down cellar. So these two frauds said they'd
41:16
Speaker 1: go and fetch it up an have everything square and
41:18
Speaker 1: above board, and told me to come with a candle.
41:22
Speaker 1: We shut the cellar door behind us, and when they
41:24
Speaker 1: found the bag, they spilt it out on the floor,
41:27
Speaker 1: and it was a lovely sight, all them yowler boys. My,
41:32
Speaker 1: the way the King's eyes did shine. He slapped the
41:35
Speaker 1: Duke on the shoulder and says, oh, this ain't bully
41:39
Speaker 1: nor nothin'. Oh no, I reckon not, why billy, it
41:42
Speaker 1: beats the nun such, don't it? The Duke allowed it?
41:46
Speaker 1: Did they pawed the yowler boys, an sifted them through
41:50
Speaker 1: their fingers, an let them jingle down on the floor.
41:53
Speaker 1: And the King says, it ain't no use talkin' bein'
41:56
Speaker 1: brothers to a rich dead man and representatives of firm
42:00
Speaker 1: and heirs. That's got left is the line for you,
42:02
Speaker 1: an me bilch, this year comes a trustin to providence.
42:06
Speaker 1: It's the best way in the long run. I've tried
42:09
Speaker 1: him on. There ain't no better way. Most everybody would
42:13
Speaker 1: have been satisfied with the pile and took it on trust.
42:16
Speaker 1: But no, they must count it. So they counts it.
42:20
Speaker 1: An it comes out four hundred and fifteen dollars, short,
42:24
Speaker 1: says the king turn him. I wonder what he done
42:27
Speaker 1: with that four hundred and fifteen dollars. They worried over
42:30
Speaker 1: that a while, an ransacked all around for it. Then
42:34
Speaker 1: the Duke says, well, he was a pretty sick man.
42:38
Speaker 1: An likely he made a mistake. I reckon, that's the
42:42
Speaker 1: way of it. The best way is to let it go,
42:46
Speaker 1: an keep still about it. We can spare it. Oh shucks,
42:51
Speaker 1: yes we can spare it. I don't care nothin bout that.
42:54
Speaker 1: It's a count. I'm thinkin bout we wun'n't be awful
42:57
Speaker 1: squarin open and above board here you know we want
43:00
Speaker 1: to lug this here money upstairs and count it before everybody.
43:03
Speaker 1: Then there ain't nothin suspicious for when the dead men
43:06
Speaker 1: says they're six thousand dollars, you know we don't want
43:09
Speaker 1: to hold on, says the Duke. Let's make up the
43:13
Speaker 1: deaf sit. An he begun to haul out yeller boys
43:16
Speaker 1: out of his pocket. It's a most amazin' idea, Duke,
43:20
Speaker 1: you have got a rattlin' clever head on you, says
43:23
Speaker 1: the King. Blest if the old nun such ain't a
43:26
Speaker 1: helpin us out again. An he begun to haul out
43:30
Speaker 1: yellow jackets and stack them up. It most busted them,
43:34
Speaker 1: But they made up the six thousand, clean and clear,
43:38
Speaker 1: say says the Duke. I got another idea. Let's go
43:43
Speaker 1: upstairs an count this money, an then take an give
43:47
Speaker 1: it to the girls. Good leinn, duke, let me hug you.
43:53
Speaker 1: It's a most death an idea it ever a man struck.
43:56
Speaker 1: You've certainly got the most astonishin' head I ever see. Oh,
44:00
Speaker 1: this is the boss Dodge. There ain't no mistake about it.
44:04
Speaker 1: Let him fetch along their suspicions. Now if they want to,
44:07
Speaker 1: this'll lay em out. When we got up stairs, everybody
44:11
Speaker 1: gathered around the table, and the king he counted it
44:13
Speaker 1: and stacked it up three hundred dollars in a pile,
44:17
Speaker 1: twenty elegant little piles. Everybody looked hungry at it and
44:21
Speaker 1: licked their chops. Then they raked it into the bag again,
44:25
Speaker 1: and I see the King begin to swell himself up
44:27
Speaker 1: for another speech. He says, friends, all, my poor brother
44:32
Speaker 1: that lays yonder has done generous by them that's left
44:35
Speaker 1: behind an the veil of sorers. He is done generous
44:39
Speaker 1: by these, your poor little lambs that he loved and sheltered,
44:43
Speaker 1: an that's left fatherless and motherless. Yes, an we that
44:47
Speaker 1: knowed him knows that he would a done more generous
44:49
Speaker 1: by him if he hadn't been a fear of wounding
44:51
Speaker 1: his dear willyum a me, Now, wouldn't he? There ain't
44:55
Speaker 1: no question bout it in my mind. Well, then, what
44:58
Speaker 1: kind o brothers would it be that it's standin his
45:01
Speaker 1: way at such a time? And what kind of uncles
45:03
Speaker 1: would it be that it'd ribe, yes, bribe such poor
45:06
Speaker 1: sweet lambs, as is it he loved at such a time?
45:10
Speaker 1: If I know William An, I think I do he well,
45:14
Speaker 1: I'll just ask him. He turns around and begins to
45:18
Speaker 1: make a lot of signs to the Duke with his hands.
45:21
Speaker 1: An the Duke, he looks at him stupid an leather
45:23
Speaker 1: headed awhile then all of a sudden he seems to
45:26
Speaker 1: catch his meanin' An jumps for the King goo, gooing
45:30
Speaker 1: with all his might for joy, An hugs him about
45:33
Speaker 1: fifteen times before he lets up. Then the King says,
45:37
Speaker 1: I knowed it. I reckon that'll convince anybody the way
45:41
Speaker 1: he feels about it. Here Mary Jane, Susan joanner take
45:45
Speaker 1: the money, take it all. It's a gift to him
45:48
Speaker 1: that lays yonder cold but joyful Mary Jane, She went
45:53
Speaker 1: for him, Susan, and the hairlip went for the Duke. An.
45:57
Speaker 1: Then such another huggin an kissing eye never see yet,
46:01
Speaker 1: And everybody crowded up with the tears in their eyes,
46:04
Speaker 1: and most shook the hands off of them frauds, saying
46:07
Speaker 1: all the time, you, dear good souls, how lovely, how
46:12
Speaker 1: could you? Well? Then pretty soon all hands got to
46:16
Speaker 1: talkin about the diseased again, and how good he was,
46:20
Speaker 1: and what a loss he was and all that. And
46:22
Speaker 1: before long a big iron jawed man worked himself in
46:26
Speaker 1: there from outside and stood a listening and looking and
46:29
Speaker 1: not saying anything, and nobody saying anything to him either,
46:33
Speaker 1: because the king was talking, and they was all busy listening.
46:38
Speaker 1: The King was saying, in the middle of something he'd
46:40
Speaker 1: started in on, they a being particular friends of the diseased.
46:45
Speaker 1: That's why they're invited here this evenin'. But tomorrow we
46:48
Speaker 1: want all to come, everybody, for he respected everybody, he
46:52
Speaker 1: liked everybody, and so it's fitting that his funeral orgies
46:55
Speaker 1: should be public. And so he went on a moonin
46:59
Speaker 1: on and on, liking to hear himself talk, and every
47:03
Speaker 1: little while he fetching his funeral orgies again, till the
47:07
Speaker 1: Duke he couldn't stand it no more. So he writes
47:09
Speaker 1: on a little scrap of paper, ibsequeeze, you old fool an,
47:14
Speaker 1: folds it up and goes to googoing and reaching it
47:16
Speaker 1: over people's heads to him. The King reads it and
47:20
Speaker 1: puts it in his pocket and says, poor William, afflicted
47:23
Speaker 1: as he is, his heart's all is right, asks me
47:27
Speaker 1: to invite everybody to come to the funeral, wants me
47:30
Speaker 1: to make him all welcome. But he needn't no word.
47:33
Speaker 1: It was just what I was at. Then he weaves
47:36
Speaker 1: along again, perfectly calm, and goes to droppin in his
47:39
Speaker 1: funeral orgies again every now and then, just like he
47:43
Speaker 1: done before. When he done it the third time, he says,
47:47
Speaker 1: I say orgies not because it's the common term, because
47:50
Speaker 1: it ain't obsque's bein' the common term, but because orgies
47:54
Speaker 1: is the right term. Obsquiz ain't used in England no more.
47:58
Speaker 1: Now it's gone out. We say orgies now in England.
48:02
Speaker 1: Orches is better because it means the thing you're after.
48:05
Speaker 1: More exact, it's a word that's made up out in
48:07
Speaker 1: the Greek or joe outside open abroad an the Hebrew
48:14
Speaker 1: geesum the plant cover up. Hence in ter so ye
48:20
Speaker 1: see funeral, orgies is an open or public funeral. He
48:25
Speaker 1: was the worst I ever struck, well, the iron jawed man.
48:30
Speaker 1: He laughed right in his face. Everybody was shocked. Everybody
48:35
Speaker 1: says why doctor at Abner Shackleford says, why Robinson ain't
48:41
Speaker 1: ye heard the news? This is Harvey Wilkes. The king.
48:46
Speaker 1: He smiled eager and shoved out his flapper and says,
48:50
Speaker 1: is it my poor brother's, dear good friend, a physician.
48:53
Speaker 1: I keep your hands off o me, says the doctor.
48:58
Speaker 1: You talk like an Englishman, don't you. It's the worst
49:01
Speaker 1: imitation I ever heard you, Peter Wilks's brother. You're a fraud,
49:06
Speaker 1: that's what you are. Well, how they all took on.
49:12
Speaker 1: They crowded around the doctor and tried to quiet him down,
49:15
Speaker 1: and tried to explain to him and tell him how
49:17
Speaker 1: Harvey showed in forty ways that he was Harvey, and
49:21
Speaker 1: note everybody by name and the names of the very dogs,
49:25
Speaker 1: and begged and begged him not to hurt Harvey's feelings
49:29
Speaker 1: and the poor girl's feelings and all that. But I
49:32
Speaker 1: warn't no use. He stormed right along and said any
49:35
Speaker 1: man that pretended to be an Englishman and couldn't imitate
49:38
Speaker 1: the lingo no better than what he did was a
49:40
Speaker 1: fraud and a liar. The poor girls was hanging to
49:44
Speaker 1: the king and crying, and all of a sudden the
49:47
Speaker 1: doctor ups and turns on them. He says, I was
49:51
Speaker 1: your father's friend, and I'm your friend, and I warn you,
49:55
Speaker 1: as a friend and an honest one that wants to
49:58
Speaker 1: protect you and keep you eye to harm in trouble,
50:00
Speaker 1: to turn your backs on that scoundrel and have nothing
50:03
Speaker 1: to do with him, the ignorant tramp with his idiotic
50:06
Speaker 1: drink and Hebrew, as he calls it. He is the
50:09
Speaker 1: thinnest kind of an impostor. He has come here with
50:12
Speaker 1: a lot of empty names and facts which you picked
50:14
Speaker 1: up somewheres, and you take them for proofs and her
50:18
Speaker 1: help to fool yourselves by these foolish friends here who
50:21
Speaker 1: ought to know better. Mary Jane Wilkes, you know me
50:25
Speaker 1: for your friend and for your unselfish friend too. Now
50:29
Speaker 1: listen to me. Turn this pitiful rascal out. I beg
50:33
Speaker 1: you to do it, will you? Mary Jane straightened herself up,
50:39
Speaker 1: and my but she was handsome. She says, here is
50:44
Speaker 1: my answer. She hove up the bag of money and
50:48
Speaker 1: put it in the King's hands and says, take the
50:51
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars and invest for me and my sisters
50:55
Speaker 1: any way you want to, and don't give us no
50:57
Speaker 1: receipt for it. Then she put her arm around the
51:00
Speaker 1: King on one side, and Susan and the hair lip
51:03
Speaker 1: done the same on the other. Everybody clapped their hands
51:07
Speaker 1: and stomped on the floor like a perfect storm, whilst
51:10
Speaker 1: the King held up his head and smiled proud. The
51:14
Speaker 1: doctor says, all right, I wash my hands of the matter,
51:19
Speaker 1: but I wore you all that a time's coming when
51:21
Speaker 1: you're goin to feel sick whenever you think of this day.
51:25
Speaker 1: And away he went. All right, doctor, says the king
51:31
Speaker 1: kinder mockin' him. We'll try and get him to send
51:34
Speaker 1: for you, which made them all laugh, and they said
51:38
Speaker 1: it was a prime good hit. End of chapter twenty five,
51:44
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six. Well, when they was all gone, the
51:51
Speaker 1: king he asked Mary Jane how they was off for
51:53
Speaker 1: spare rooms, and she said she had one spare room
51:56
Speaker 1: which would do for Uncle William, and she'd give her
51:59
Speaker 1: own room to uncle, which was a little bigger, and
52:02
Speaker 1: she would turn into the room with her sisters and
52:04
Speaker 1: sleep on a cot an up Garrett was a little
52:07
Speaker 1: cubby with a pallet in it. The King said the
52:10
Speaker 1: cubby would do for his valley. Meanin me, sir. Mary
52:14
Speaker 1: Jane took us up and she showed them their rooms,
52:16
Speaker 1: which was plain but nice. She said she'd have her
52:19
Speaker 1: frocks an a lot o other traps took out of
52:21
Speaker 1: her room if they was in Uncle Harvey's way, but
52:24
Speaker 1: he said they warn't. The frocks was hung along the wall,
52:28
Speaker 1: and before them was a curtain made out a calico
52:30
Speaker 1: that hung down to the floor. There was an old
52:33
Speaker 1: hare drunk in one corner, and a guitar box in another,
52:37
Speaker 1: and all sorts of little knick knacks and jim cracks
52:40
Speaker 1: around like girls briskin' up a room with The King
52:44
Speaker 1: said it was all the more homely and more pleasanter
52:46
Speaker 1: for these fixin's, and so don't disturb them. The Duke's
52:51
Speaker 1: room was pretty small, but plenty good enough, and so
52:54
Speaker 1: was my cubby. That night they had a big supper,
52:57
Speaker 1: and all them men and women was there, and I
53:00
Speaker 1: stood behind the King in the Duke's chairs and waited
53:02
Speaker 1: on them, and the niggers waited on the rest. Mary Jane,
53:07
Speaker 1: she said, at the head of the table was Susan
53:09
Speaker 1: alongside her, and said how bad the biscuits was, and
53:12
Speaker 1: how mean the preserves was, and how ornery and tough
53:16
Speaker 1: the fried chickens was, and all that kind of rot
53:19
Speaker 1: the way women always do for to force out compliments,
53:22
Speaker 1: and the people all knowed everything was tipped type and said,
53:25
Speaker 1: so said, how do you get the biscuits to brown
53:29
Speaker 1: so nice? And where, for the land's sake did you
53:32
Speaker 1: get these amazing pickles, and all that kind of humbug
53:36
Speaker 1: talkie talk, just the way people always does at a supper,
53:39
Speaker 1: you know. And when it was all done, me and
53:42
Speaker 1: the hair lip had supper in the kitchen off of
53:45
Speaker 1: the Leavin's, whilst the others was helping the niggers clean
53:48
Speaker 1: up the things. The hair lip she got to pumpin'
53:51
Speaker 1: me by England an blessed if I didn't think the
53:54
Speaker 1: ice was gettin mighty thin. Sometimes she says, did you
53:59
Speaker 1: ever see the king? Who William Ford? Well, I bet
54:04
Speaker 1: I have. He goes to our church. I knowed he
54:07
Speaker 1: was dead years ago, but I never let on. So
54:10
Speaker 1: when I says he goes to our church, she says,
54:13
Speaker 1: what regular? Yes? Regular? His pew's right over opposite iron,
54:18
Speaker 1: on the other side of the pulpit. I thought he
54:22
Speaker 1: lived in London, Well he does, where would he live?
54:27
Speaker 1: But I thought you lived in Sheffield. I see, I
54:31
Speaker 1: was up a stump. I had to let on to
54:33
Speaker 1: get choked with a chicken bones so as to get
54:35
Speaker 1: time to think how to get down again? Then I says,
54:40
Speaker 1: I mean he goes to our church regular when he's
54:42
Speaker 1: in Sheffield. That's only in the summer time, when he
54:45
Speaker 1: comes there to take the sea baths. Why how you
54:49
Speaker 1: talk Sheffield ain't on the sea? Well who said it was?
54:54
Speaker 1: Why you did? I didn't? Other you did? I didn't
54:58
Speaker 1: you did? I never se said nothing of the kind.
55:02
Speaker 1: Well what did you say, then, said he come to
55:05
Speaker 1: take the sea baths? That's what I said. Well, then
55:09
Speaker 1: how's he going to take the sea baths if it
55:11
Speaker 1: ain't on the sea? Looking here, I says, did you
55:15
Speaker 1: ever see any Congress water? Yes? Well did you have
55:19
Speaker 1: to go to Congress to get it? Why? No, Well
55:23
Speaker 1: neither does William forth have to go to the sea
55:26
Speaker 1: to get a sea bath? How does he get it? Then?
55:29
Speaker 1: Gets it the way people down here gets Congress water
55:32
Speaker 1: in barrels. They're in the palace at Sheffield. They've got furnaces,
55:36
Speaker 1: and he wants his water hot. They can't buy all
55:39
Speaker 1: that amount of water away off there at the sea.
55:42
Speaker 1: They haven't got no conveniences for it. Oh, I see
55:46
Speaker 1: now he might have said that in the first place
55:48
Speaker 1: and save time. When she said that, I see us
55:52
Speaker 1: out of the woods again, and so I was comfortable
55:54
Speaker 1: and glad. Next she says, do you go to church too? Yes? Regular?
56:01
Speaker 1: Where do you sit? Why in our pew? Who's pew?
56:07
Speaker 1: Why iurn your uncle Harvey's his'n'? What does he want
56:12
Speaker 1: with a pew? Wants it to sit in? What do
56:15
Speaker 1: you reckon he wanted with it? Why? I thought he'd
56:19
Speaker 1: be in the pulpit right him. I forgot he was
56:23
Speaker 1: a preacher. I see he was up a stump again.
56:26
Speaker 1: So I played another chicken bone and got another think,
56:29
Speaker 1: And I says, blame it. Do you suppose there ain't
56:32
Speaker 1: but one preacher to a church? Why what do they
56:35
Speaker 1: want with more? What to preach before a king? I
56:40
Speaker 1: never did see such a girl as you. They don't
56:43
Speaker 1: have no less than seventeen seventeen my land. Why I
56:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't set out such a string as that? Not if
56:51
Speaker 1: I never got to glory, it must take him a week? Shucks.
56:56
Speaker 1: They don't all of em preach the same day? Only
56:59
Speaker 1: one of them. Well, then what does the rest of
57:02
Speaker 1: 'em do? Oh? Nothin much loll around pass the plate?
57:07
Speaker 1: An one thing or another, But mainly they don't do nothin'. Well,
57:12
Speaker 1: then what are they for? Why they're for style? Don't
57:16
Speaker 1: you know nothin'? Well, I don't wanna know no such
57:20
Speaker 1: foolishness as that. How servants treat d in England? Do
57:24
Speaker 1: they treat 'em better an we treat our niggers? No,
57:28
Speaker 1: a servant ain't nobody there. They treat 'em worse'n dogs.
57:32
Speaker 1: Don't they give 'em holidays the way we do Christmas
57:35
Speaker 1: in New Year's week and fourth of July? Oh, just listen,
57:40
Speaker 1: the body could tell you hain't ever been to England
57:42
Speaker 1: by that? Why her? Why Joanna? They never see a
57:47
Speaker 1: holiday from years and to year's end, never go to
57:50
Speaker 1: the circus, nor theater, nor nigger's shows, nor nowheres, nor
57:55
Speaker 1: church nor church. But you always went to church. Well,
58:01
Speaker 1: I was going up again. I forgot I was the
58:04
Speaker 1: old man's servant. But next minute I whirled in on
58:07
Speaker 1: a kind of an explanation how a valley was different
58:10
Speaker 1: from a common servant and had to go to church
58:13
Speaker 1: whether he wanted to or not, and set with the
58:15
Speaker 1: family on account of its being the law. But I
58:18
Speaker 1: didn't do it pretty good and when I got done,
58:21
Speaker 1: I see she warn't satisfied. She says, honest Injun, Now,
58:26
Speaker 1: ain't you been tellin me a lot o lies? Honest Injun?
58:30
Speaker 1: Says I. None of it at all, None of it
58:34
Speaker 1: at all, not a lie in it, says I lay
58:38
Speaker 1: your hand on this book and say it. I see
58:41
Speaker 1: it warn't nothing but a dictionary. So I laid my
58:43
Speaker 1: hand on it and said it. So then she looked
58:46
Speaker 1: a little better, satisfied, and says, well, then I'll believe
58:50
Speaker 1: some of it, but I hope to be gracious if
58:53
Speaker 1: I'll believed the rest. What is it you won't believe? Joe,
58:58
Speaker 1: says Mary Jane, stepping in with Susan behind her. It
59:02
Speaker 1: ain't right nor kind for you to talk so to him.
59:04
Speaker 1: An him a stranger, an so far from his people,
59:08
Speaker 1: How would you like to be treated? So that's always
59:12
Speaker 1: your way, ma'am, always sailin in to help somebody before
59:15
Speaker 1: they are hurt. I hain't done nothin to him. He's
59:18
Speaker 1: told some stretchers. I reckon an I said, I wouldn't
59:21
Speaker 1: swallow at all. An that's every bit an grain I
59:23
Speaker 1: did say. I reckon. He can stand a little thing
59:26
Speaker 1: like that can't he I don't care whether twas little
59:30
Speaker 1: or whether twas big. He's here in our house and
59:33
Speaker 1: a stranger. An, it wasn't good o you to say it.
59:36
Speaker 1: If you was in his place, he would make you
59:38
Speaker 1: feel ashamed. An, So you oughtn't to say a thing
59:41
Speaker 1: to another person that will make them feel ashamed. Why, ma'am,
59:45
Speaker 1: he said, It don't make no difference what he said.
59:48
Speaker 1: That ain't the thing. The thing is for you to
59:50
Speaker 1: treat him kind an, not be sayin things to make him.
59:53
Speaker 1: Remember he ain't in his own country an monks his
59:56
Speaker 1: own folks. I says to myself, this is a girl
1:00:01
Speaker 1: that I'm lettin. That old reptle rob her of her money. Then, Susan,
1:00:06
Speaker 1: she waltst in an, if you'll believe me, she did
1:00:09
Speaker 1: give Harelip hark from the tomb, says I to myself, An,
1:00:14
Speaker 1: this is another one that I'm lettin him rob her
1:00:16
Speaker 1: of her money. Then Mary Jane, she took another innin
1:00:21
Speaker 1: an went in sweet an lovely again, which was her way.
1:00:24
Speaker 1: But when she got done, there warn't hardly anything left
1:00:27
Speaker 1: a poor Harelip. So she hollered. All right, then says
1:00:33
Speaker 1: the other girls, you jest ask his pardon. She done
1:00:38
Speaker 1: it too, an, she'd done it beautiful. She done it
1:00:41
Speaker 1: so beautiful it was good to hear. And I wish
1:00:44
Speaker 1: I could tell her a thousand lies so she could
1:00:46
Speaker 1: do it again. I says to myself, this is another
1:00:51
Speaker 1: one that I'm lettin him, rob her of her money.
1:00:54
Speaker 1: An when she got through, they all just laid theirselves
1:00:57
Speaker 1: to make me feel at home and know I was
1:00:59
Speaker 1: am amongst friends. I felt so ornery and low down
1:01:03
Speaker 1: an mean that, I says to myself, my mind's made up.
1:01:08
Speaker 1: I'll hive that money for them or bust. So then
1:01:11
Speaker 1: I lit out for bed, I said. Meanin some time
1:01:14
Speaker 1: or another, when I got by myself, I went to
1:01:17
Speaker 1: thinkin the thing over, I says to myself, Shall I
1:01:21
Speaker 1: go to that doctor private an blob on these frauds? No,
1:01:26
Speaker 1: that won't do. He might tell who told him. Then
1:01:29
Speaker 1: the King and the Duke would make it warm for me.
1:01:32
Speaker 1: Shall I go private and tell Mary Jane, No, I'd
1:01:36
Speaker 1: das'n't do it. Her face would give them a hint.
1:01:39
Speaker 1: Sure they've got the money, and they'd slide right out
1:01:43
Speaker 1: an get away with it. If she was to fetch
1:01:46
Speaker 1: in an help, i'd get mixed up in the business
1:01:48
Speaker 1: before it was done with. I judge, No, there ain't
1:01:51
Speaker 1: no good way but one. I got to steal that
1:01:55
Speaker 1: money somehow, An I got to steal it some way
1:01:58
Speaker 1: that they want suspicion that I'd done it. They've got
1:02:02
Speaker 1: a good thing here, an, they ain't a goin to
1:02:04
Speaker 1: leave till they've played this family in this town for
1:02:07
Speaker 1: all they're worth. So I'll find a chance. Time enough,
1:02:11
Speaker 1: I'll steal it and hide it, and by and by,
1:02:14
Speaker 1: when i'm away down the river, i'll write a letter
1:02:16
Speaker 1: and tell Mary Jane where it's hid. But i'd better
1:02:20
Speaker 1: hide it tonight if I can, because the doctor maybe
1:02:23
Speaker 1: hasn't let up as much as he lets on he has.
1:02:26
Speaker 1: He might scare them out of here yet, so thinks
1:02:31
Speaker 1: I I'll go and search them rooms upstairs. The hall
1:02:35
Speaker 1: was dark, but I found the Duke's room and started
1:02:38
Speaker 1: to pall around it with my hands. But I recollected
1:02:41
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be much like the King to let anybody
1:02:43
Speaker 1: else take care of that money but his own self.
1:02:46
Speaker 1: So then I went to his room and begun to
1:02:48
Speaker 1: pall around there. But I see I couldn't do nothing
1:02:51
Speaker 1: without a candle, and I doesn't like one, of course,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: so I judged I've got to do the other thing.
1:02:58
Speaker 1: Lay for them an eavesdrop. About that time, I hears
1:03:03
Speaker 1: their footsteps comin' and was goin to skip under the bed.
1:03:06
Speaker 1: I reached for it, but it wasn't where I thought
1:03:09
Speaker 1: it would be. But I touched the curtain that hid
1:03:12
Speaker 1: Marry James Frocks. So I jumped in behind that and
1:03:15
Speaker 1: snuggled in amongst the gowns and stood there perfectly still.
1:03:20
Speaker 1: They come in an shut the door, and the first
1:03:23
Speaker 1: thing the Duke done was to get down and look
1:03:25
Speaker 1: under the bed. Then I was glad I hadn't found
1:03:28
Speaker 1: the bed when I wanted it. And yet you know,
1:03:31
Speaker 1: it's kind of natural to hide under the bed when
1:03:33
Speaker 1: you were up to anything private. They sits down then,
1:03:37
Speaker 1: an the king says, well, what is it? An cut
1:03:40
Speaker 1: it midlin' short, because it's better for us to be
1:03:42
Speaker 1: down there or whoopin' up the mornin than up here,
1:03:45
Speaker 1: giving them a chance to talk us over. Well, this
1:03:49
Speaker 1: is it, capit. I ain't easy. I ain't comfortable that
1:03:54
Speaker 1: doctor lays on my mind. I wanted to know your plans.
1:03:59
Speaker 1: I've got it an, I think it's a sound one.
1:04:04
Speaker 1: What is it, duke, that we better glide out o
1:04:07
Speaker 1: this before three in the mornin' an clip it down
1:04:10
Speaker 1: the river with what we've got, specially seein we got
1:04:14
Speaker 1: it so easy givin back to us, flung at our heads,
1:04:18
Speaker 1: as you may say, when of course we allowed to
1:04:22
Speaker 1: have to steal it back. I'm for knocking off an
1:04:25
Speaker 1: lightin out that made me feel pretty bad. About an
1:04:30
Speaker 1: hour or two ago it would have been a little different,
1:04:32
Speaker 1: but now it made me feel bad. An disappointed, the
1:04:36
Speaker 1: king rips out and says, what an nat sell out
1:04:39
Speaker 1: the rest of the property, march off like a pass
1:04:42
Speaker 1: o the fools an leave eight or nine thousand dollars
1:04:44
Speaker 1: worth of property laying around, just sufferin to be scooped
1:04:47
Speaker 1: in an all good saleable stuff too. The duke, he grumbled,
1:04:53
Speaker 1: said the bag of gold was enough. An he didn't
1:04:55
Speaker 1: want to go no deeper. Didn't want to rop a
1:04:58
Speaker 1: lot of orphans of everything they had. Why how you talk,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: says the king. We shan't rob them a nothin' at all,
1:05:06
Speaker 1: but just this money. The people that buys the property
1:05:09
Speaker 1: is the sufferers. Because as soon as it's found out
1:05:12
Speaker 1: that we didn't known it, which won't be long after
1:05:15
Speaker 1: we've flid. The sale won't be valid and it'll all
1:05:18
Speaker 1: go back to the state. These yourar friens will get
1:05:21
Speaker 1: their house back again. An that's enough for them. They're young,
1:05:24
Speaker 1: an spry, an cain easy earn a livin'. They ain't
1:05:27
Speaker 1: not goin to suffer. Why jest think there's thousands an
1:05:31
Speaker 1: thousands that ain't nice, so well off, bless you. They
1:05:35
Speaker 1: ain't got nothin to complain of. Well the king he
1:05:39
Speaker 1: talked him blind. So at last you give in and
1:05:42
Speaker 1: said all right, but said he believed it was blamed
1:05:45
Speaker 1: foolishness to stay an that doctor hanging over them. But
1:05:49
Speaker 1: the King says, cuss the doctor, what do we care
1:05:52
Speaker 1: for him? Ain't we got all the fools in town
1:05:55
Speaker 1: on our side? An ain't that a big enough majority
1:05:57
Speaker 1: in any towns? So they got ready to go downstairs again.
1:06:02
Speaker 1: The Duke says, I don't think we put that money
1:06:06
Speaker 1: in a good place that cheered me up. I'd begin
1:06:10
Speaker 1: to think I warn't goin to get a hint of
1:06:12
Speaker 1: no kind to help me. The King says, why, because
1:06:17
Speaker 1: Mary Jane'll beIN mournin' from this out. An First, you know,
1:06:21
Speaker 1: a nigger that does up the rooms will get in
1:06:24
Speaker 1: order to box these duds up, an put em away?
1:06:27
Speaker 1: An do you reckon? A nigger can run across money,
1:06:30
Speaker 1: an not borrow some of it. Your head's level again, duke,
1:06:35
Speaker 1: says the king. An he comes a fumblin' under the
1:06:38
Speaker 1: curtain two or three foot from where I was. I
1:06:41
Speaker 1: stuck tight to the wall and kept mighty still, though quivery,
1:06:46
Speaker 1: and I wondered what them fellers would say if they
1:06:48
Speaker 1: catched me, And I tried to think what I'd better
1:06:51
Speaker 1: do if they did catch me. But the King he
1:06:54
Speaker 1: got the bag before I could think more than about
1:06:56
Speaker 1: a half a thought. An he never suspicioned I was
1:06:59
Speaker 1: a round. They took and shoved the bag through a
1:07:03
Speaker 1: rip and the straw tick that was under the feather bed,
1:07:06
Speaker 1: and crammed it in a foot or two amongst the straw,
1:07:09
Speaker 1: and said it was all right now, because the nigger
1:07:11
Speaker 1: only makes up the feather bed, and don't turn over
1:07:14
Speaker 1: the straw tick only about twice a year, and so
1:07:17
Speaker 1: it warn't no danger of getting stolen now. But I
1:07:21
Speaker 1: knowed better. I had it out of there before they
1:07:24
Speaker 1: was half way downstairs, I groped along up to my
1:07:27
Speaker 1: cubby and hit it there till I could get a
1:07:29
Speaker 1: chance to do better. I judged I better hide it
1:07:32
Speaker 1: outside of the house somewheres, because if they missed it,
1:07:35
Speaker 1: they would give the house a good ransacking. I knowed
1:07:38
Speaker 1: that very well. Then I turned in with my clothes
1:07:42
Speaker 1: all on. But I couldn't have gone to sleep if
1:07:45
Speaker 1: I'd wanted to. I was in such a sweat to
1:07:47
Speaker 1: get through with the business. By and by I heard
1:07:51
Speaker 1: the King and the Duke come up, So I rolled
1:07:53
Speaker 1: off my pallet and laid with my chin at the
1:07:56
Speaker 1: top of my letter and waited to see if anything
1:07:59
Speaker 1: was going to happen. But nothing did. So I held
1:08:03
Speaker 1: on till all the late sounds had quit, an the
1:08:05
Speaker 1: early ones hadn't begun yet. An then I slipped down
1:08:09
Speaker 1: the ladder end of chapter twenty six, Chapter twenty seven.
1:08:18
Speaker 1: I crept to their doors an listened. They was snorin,
1:08:22
Speaker 1: so I tiptoed along an got downstairs. All right, there
1:08:25
Speaker 1: warn't a sound anywheres. I peeped through a crack of
1:08:29
Speaker 1: the dining room door an see the men that was
1:08:31
Speaker 1: watchin the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs. The
1:08:35
Speaker 1: door was open into the parlor where the corpse was
1:08:38
Speaker 1: layin an there was a candle in both rooms. I
1:08:42
Speaker 1: passed along an the parlor door was open, but I
1:08:45
Speaker 1: see there warn't nobody in there but the remainders of Peter.
1:08:49
Speaker 1: So I shoved on by. But the front door was
1:08:52
Speaker 1: locked and the key wasn't there. Just then I heard
1:08:56
Speaker 1: somebody comin down the stairs back behind me. I run
1:09:00
Speaker 1: in the parlor and took a swift look around, and
1:09:02
Speaker 1: the only place I see to hide the bag was
1:09:05
Speaker 1: in the coffin. The lid was shoved along about a foot,
1:09:09
Speaker 1: showing the dead man's face down in there, with a
1:09:11
Speaker 1: wet cloth over it and his shroud on. I tucked
1:09:16
Speaker 1: the money bag in under the lid, just down beyond
1:09:19
Speaker 1: where his hands was crossed, which made me creep. They
1:09:23
Speaker 1: was so cold. And then I run back across the
1:09:26
Speaker 1: room and in behind the door. The person comin was
1:09:30
Speaker 1: Mary Jane. She went to the coffin very soft, and
1:09:34
Speaker 1: kneeled down and looked in. Then she put up her handkerchief,
1:09:37
Speaker 1: and I see she'd begun to cry, though I couldn't hear,
1:09:41
Speaker 1: and her back was to me. I slid out, and
1:09:45
Speaker 1: as I passed the dining room, I thought i'd make
1:09:47
Speaker 1: sure them watchers hadn't seen me. So I looked through
1:09:50
Speaker 1: the crack and everything was all right. They hadn't stirred.
1:09:55
Speaker 1: I slipped up to bed, feeling rather blue on accounts
1:09:59
Speaker 1: of the thing playing out that way, after I had
1:10:02
Speaker 1: took so much trouble and run so much risk about it,
1:10:06
Speaker 1: says I, if it could stay where it is all right,
1:10:09
Speaker 1: because when we get down the river a hundred mile
1:10:12
Speaker 1: or two, I could write back to Mary Jane and
1:10:14
Speaker 1: she could dig him up again and get it. But
1:10:17
Speaker 1: that ain't the thing that's going to happen. The thing
1:10:19
Speaker 1: that's going to happen is the money'll be found when
1:10:22
Speaker 1: they come to screw on the lid. Then the King
1:10:25
Speaker 1: will get it again, and it'll be a long day
1:10:28
Speaker 1: before he gives anybody another chance to smouch it from him.
1:10:32
Speaker 1: Of course I wanted to slide down and get it
1:10:34
Speaker 1: out of there, but I doesn't try it every minute.
1:10:38
Speaker 1: It was getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of
1:10:41
Speaker 1: them watchers will begin to stir and I might get catched.
1:10:45
Speaker 1: Catched with six thousand dollars in my hands that nobody
1:10:48
Speaker 1: hadn't hired me to take care of. I don't wish
1:10:51
Speaker 1: to be mixed up, and no such business as that,
1:10:54
Speaker 1: I says to myself. When I got downstairs in the morning,
1:10:58
Speaker 1: the parlor was shut up and the watchers was gone.
1:11:02
Speaker 1: There warn't nobody around but the family and the widow
1:11:04
Speaker 1: Bartley in our tribe. I watched their faces to see
1:11:08
Speaker 1: if anything had been happening, but I couldn't tell. Towards
1:11:13
Speaker 1: the middle of the day, the undertaker come with his man,
1:11:16
Speaker 1: and they set the coffin in the middle of the
1:11:18
Speaker 1: room on a couple of chairs, and then set all
1:11:20
Speaker 1: our chairs in a row, and borrowed more from the neighbors,
1:11:24
Speaker 1: till the hall and the parlor and the dining room
1:11:27
Speaker 1: was full. I see the coffin lid was the way
1:11:30
Speaker 1: it was before, but I doesn't go to look in
1:11:33
Speaker 1: under it with folks around. Then the people begun to
1:11:36
Speaker 1: flock in, and the beats and the girl took seats
1:11:40
Speaker 1: in the front row at the head of the coffin,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: and for half an hour the people filed around slow
1:11:46
Speaker 1: in single rank and looked down at the dead man's face.
1:11:49
Speaker 1: A minute and some dropped in a tear, and it
1:11:52
Speaker 1: was all very still and solemn, only the girls and
1:11:56
Speaker 1: the beats, holding handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their
1:11:59
Speaker 1: heads bent. An sobbin a little. There warn't no other
1:12:03
Speaker 1: sound but the scrapin' of the feet on the floor,
1:12:05
Speaker 1: an blowin' noses, cause people always blows them more at
1:12:09
Speaker 1: a funeral than they do at other places, except church.
1:12:13
Speaker 1: When the place was packed full. The undertaker he slid
1:12:17
Speaker 1: around in his black gloves with his softy sootherin ways,
1:12:21
Speaker 1: putting on the last touches, and getting people and things
1:12:25
Speaker 1: all ship shape and comfortable, an makin no more sound
1:12:28
Speaker 1: than a cat. He never spoke, He moved people around,
1:12:33
Speaker 1: He squeezed in late ones, He opened up passageways, an
1:12:36
Speaker 1: done it with nods, an signs with his hands. Then
1:12:40
Speaker 1: he took his place over against the wall. He was
1:12:43
Speaker 1: the softest, glidenest stealthiest man I ever see. An there
1:12:48
Speaker 1: warn't no more smile to him than there is to
1:12:50
Speaker 1: a ham. They had borrowed a melodium, a sick one.
1:12:56
Speaker 1: When everything was ready, a young woman set down and
1:12:59
Speaker 1: worked it. An it was pretty screaky, an collicky, an
1:13:03
Speaker 1: everybody joined in an sung an Peter was the only
1:13:06
Speaker 1: one that had a good thing, according to my notion.
1:13:10
Speaker 1: Then the Reverend Hobson opened up slow and solemn, an
1:13:14
Speaker 1: begun to talk an straight off. The most outrageous robe
1:13:18
Speaker 1: busted out in the cellar a body ever heard. It
1:13:21
Speaker 1: was only one dog, but he made a most powerful racket.
1:13:25
Speaker 1: An he kept it up right along the parson. He
1:13:28
Speaker 1: had to stand there over the coffin an wait, you
1:13:31
Speaker 1: couldn't hear yourself think it was right down awkward an
1:13:35
Speaker 1: nobody didn't seem to know what to do for Pretty
1:13:38
Speaker 1: soon they see that long legged undertaker make a sign
1:13:41
Speaker 1: to the preacher as much as to say, don't you
1:13:45
Speaker 1: worry jest depend on me. Then he stooped down an
1:13:49
Speaker 1: begun to glide along the wall. Just his shoulders showIn
1:13:52
Speaker 1: over the people's heads. So he glided along an the
1:13:56
Speaker 1: pow wow, a racket gettin more an more outraged all
1:13:59
Speaker 1: the time, And at last, when he had gone around
1:14:03
Speaker 1: two sides of the room, he disappears down cellar. Then
1:14:07
Speaker 1: in about two seconds we heard a whack, and the
1:14:10
Speaker 1: dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or two,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun
1:14:18
Speaker 1: his solemn talk where he left off. In a minute
1:14:22
Speaker 1: or two, here comes this undertaker's back and shoulders, gliding
1:14:25
Speaker 1: along the wall again. And so he glided and glided
1:14:29
Speaker 1: around three sides of the room, and then rose up
1:14:32
Speaker 1: and shaded his mouth with his hands and stretched his
1:14:36
Speaker 1: neck out towards the preacher over the people's heads, and
1:14:39
Speaker 1: says in a kind of a coarse whisper, he had
1:14:43
Speaker 1: a rat. Then he drooped down and glided along the
1:14:47
Speaker 1: wall again to his place. You could see it was
1:14:50
Speaker 1: a great satisfaction to the people, because naturally they wanted
1:14:54
Speaker 1: to know a little thing like that don't cost nothing,
1:14:57
Speaker 1: and it's just the little things that makes a man
1:14:59
Speaker 1: to be he looked up to and liked. There warn't
1:15:02
Speaker 1: no more popular man in town than what that undertaker was. Well,
1:15:08
Speaker 1: the funeral sermon was very good, but pizzin' long and tiresome.
1:15:13
Speaker 1: And then the king he shoved in and got off
1:15:15
Speaker 1: some of his usual rubbage, and at last the job
1:15:19
Speaker 1: was through, and the undertaker began to sneak up on
1:15:22
Speaker 1: the coffin with his screwdriver. I was in a sweat
1:15:25
Speaker 1: then and watched him pretty keen, but he never meddled
1:15:29
Speaker 1: at all just slid the little along as soft as mush,
1:15:33
Speaker 1: and screwed it down tight and fast. So there I was.
1:15:37
Speaker 1: I didn't know whether the money was in there or not.
1:15:40
Speaker 1: So says I, suppose somebody has hogged that bag on
1:15:44
Speaker 1: the sly. Now, how do I know whether to write
1:15:47
Speaker 1: to Marry Jane or not? Suppose she dug him up
1:15:50
Speaker 1: and didn't find nothing, what would she think of me?
1:15:54
Speaker 1: Blame it, I says, I might get hunted up and jailed.
1:15:57
Speaker 1: I'd better lay low and keep dark right at all?
1:16:01
Speaker 1: The thing's awful mixed now. Trying to better it, I've
1:16:04
Speaker 1: worsened it a hundred times, and I wish to goodness
1:16:07
Speaker 1: i'd just let it alone. Dad fetch the whole business.
1:16:13
Speaker 1: They buried him, and we come back home, and I
1:16:15
Speaker 1: went to watching faces again. I couldn't help it, and
1:16:18
Speaker 1: I couldn't rest easy. But nothing come of it. The
1:16:22
Speaker 1: faces didn't tell me nothing. The King he visited around
1:16:26
Speaker 1: in the evening and sweetened everybody up and made himself
1:16:30
Speaker 1: ever so friendly. And he give out the idea that
1:16:33
Speaker 1: his congregation over in England would be in a sweat
1:16:36
Speaker 1: about him, so he must hurry and settle up the
1:16:39
Speaker 1: estate right away and leave for home. He was very sorry.
1:16:43
Speaker 1: He was so pushed, and so was everybody. They wished
1:16:47
Speaker 1: he could stay longer, but they said they could see
1:16:49
Speaker 1: it couldn't be done. And he said, of course him
1:16:52
Speaker 1: and William would take the girls home with them, and
1:16:55
Speaker 1: that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be
1:16:59
Speaker 1: well fixed and amongst their own relations. And to please
1:17:03
Speaker 1: the girls too tickled them, so they clean forgot they
1:17:06
Speaker 1: ever had a trouble in the world, and told him
1:17:09
Speaker 1: to sell out as quick as he wanted to. They
1:17:11
Speaker 1: would be ready. Them poor things. Was that glad and happy.
1:17:16
Speaker 1: It made my heart ache to see them gettin fooled
1:17:18
Speaker 1: and lied to. So, but I didn't see no safe
1:17:21
Speaker 1: way for me to ship in and change the general
1:17:24
Speaker 1: tune well blamed if the King didn't build a house
1:17:28
Speaker 1: and the niggers and all the property for auctions straight
1:17:31
Speaker 1: off sail two days after the funeral. But anybody could
1:17:35
Speaker 1: buy a private beforehand if they wanted to. So the
1:17:39
Speaker 1: next day after the funeral, long about noon time, the
1:17:43
Speaker 1: girl's joy got the first jolt. A couple of nigger
1:17:47
Speaker 1: traders come along, and the King sold them the niggers
1:17:49
Speaker 1: reasonable for three days drafts, as they called it, and
1:17:53
Speaker 1: away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis,
1:17:57
Speaker 1: and their mother down the river to Orleans. I thought
1:18:01
Speaker 1: them poor girls, an them niggers would break their hearts
1:18:04
Speaker 1: for grief. They cried round each other, an took on.
1:18:07
Speaker 1: So it must made me down sick to see it.
1:18:12
Speaker 1: The girls said they hadn't never dreamed to seein the
1:18:14
Speaker 1: family separated or sold away from the town. I can't
1:18:19
Speaker 1: ever get it out of my memory, the sight of
1:18:21
Speaker 1: them poor miserable girls, an niggers hanging around each other's necks,
1:18:25
Speaker 1: an cryin an, I reckon, I couldn't have stood it
1:18:28
Speaker 1: at all, But would a had to bust out an
1:18:30
Speaker 1: tell on our gang if I hadn't knowed the sale,
1:18:33
Speaker 1: warn't no account, an the niggers would be back home
1:18:36
Speaker 1: in a week or two. The thing made a big
1:18:40
Speaker 1: stir in the town, too, An A good many come
1:18:42
Speaker 1: out flat footed. An said it was scandalous to separate
1:18:46
Speaker 1: the mother and the children that way. It injured the
1:18:49
Speaker 1: frauds some. But the old fool he bowled right along.
1:18:53
Speaker 1: Spite of all the Duke could say or do, An,
1:18:56
Speaker 1: I tell you, the Duke was powerful, uneasy, next day
1:19:01
Speaker 1: was auction day, about broad day. In the morning, the
1:19:04
Speaker 1: Duke and the King come up in the garret and
1:19:06
Speaker 1: woke me up, and I see by their look that
1:19:09
Speaker 1: there was trouble. The King says, was you in my
1:19:13
Speaker 1: room not before last? Know your majesty, which was the
1:19:18
Speaker 1: way I always called him when nobody but our gang
1:19:20
Speaker 1: warn't around. Was you in there yesterday or last night?
1:19:25
Speaker 1: Know your majesty, Honor Bright. Now no lies, Honor Bright,
1:19:31
Speaker 1: your majesty. I'm telling you the truth. I ain't been
1:19:34
Speaker 1: a near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you
1:19:36
Speaker 1: and the Duke and showed it to you. The Duke says,
1:19:41
Speaker 1: have you seen anybody else go in there? Know your grace?
1:19:45
Speaker 1: Not as I remember, I believe, stop and think I
1:19:50
Speaker 1: studied awhile an see my chance? Then I says, well,
1:19:55
Speaker 1: I see the niggers go in there several times. Both
1:19:59
Speaker 1: of them gave a little jump and looked like they
1:20:02
Speaker 1: hadn't ever expected it, and then like they had. Then
1:20:06
Speaker 1: the Duke says, what all of them? No least two ways,
1:20:13
Speaker 1: not all at once, that is, I don't think I
1:20:15
Speaker 1: ever saw them all come out at once, but just
1:20:18
Speaker 1: one time. Hello, When was that it was the day
1:20:24
Speaker 1: we had the funeral in the morning, and weren't early
1:20:27
Speaker 1: because I overslept. I was just starting down the ladder,
1:20:30
Speaker 1: and I see them, well, go on, go on. What
1:20:36
Speaker 1: did they do? How'd they act? They didn't do nothing,
1:20:41
Speaker 1: and they didn't act anyway much as far as I
1:20:44
Speaker 1: can see. They tiptoed away. So I seen easy enough
1:20:48
Speaker 1: that they'd shoved in there to do up your Majesty's
1:20:51
Speaker 1: room or something, supposing you was up and found you
1:20:54
Speaker 1: warmed up, and so they was hoping to slide out
1:20:57
Speaker 1: of the way of trouble without waking you up, if
1:20:59
Speaker 1: they had already waked you up. Great guns, this is
1:21:04
Speaker 1: a go, says the king. And both of them looked
1:21:07
Speaker 1: pretty sick and tolerable, silly. They stood there thinking and
1:21:11
Speaker 1: scratching their heads a minute, and the Duke he busting
1:21:14
Speaker 1: to a kind of a little raspy chuckle and says,
1:21:19
Speaker 1: it does beat all. How neat the niggers played their hand.
1:21:23
Speaker 1: They let on to be sorry. They was goin out
1:21:26
Speaker 1: of this region. And I believed they was sorry, and
1:21:30
Speaker 1: so did you, and so did everybody. Don't ever tell
1:21:35
Speaker 1: me anymore that a nigger ain't got no histrionic talent.
1:21:41
Speaker 1: Why the way they played that thing? It would fool
1:21:45
Speaker 1: anybody in my opinion, there's a fortune in 'em. If
1:21:50
Speaker 1: I had a capital and a theater, I wouldn't want
1:21:53
Speaker 1: a better layout than that. And here we've gone and
1:21:57
Speaker 1: sold em for a song. Yes, and ain't privileged to
1:22:01
Speaker 1: sing the song? Yet? Say where is that song? That
1:22:07
Speaker 1: draft in the bank to be collected? Where would it be? Well,
1:22:14
Speaker 1: that's all right then, thank goodness, says I kind of timin,
1:22:20
Speaker 1: like is something going wrong? The King whirls on me
1:22:25
Speaker 1: and rips out, none of your business. You keep your
1:22:28
Speaker 1: head shutting, mind your own affairs. If you got any
1:22:31
Speaker 1: long as you're in this town, don't you forget that?
1:22:33
Speaker 1: You hear? Then he says to the Duke, we got
1:22:36
Speaker 1: to just swallow it and say nothing. Mum's the word
1:22:40
Speaker 1: for us. As they was starting down the ladder. The
1:22:44
Speaker 1: duke he chuckles again and says, quick sales and small profits,
1:22:50
Speaker 1: it's a good business. Yes. The King snarls around on
1:22:55
Speaker 1: him and says, I was trying to do for the
1:22:58
Speaker 1: best and selling them out so quick. If the prophets
1:23:01
Speaker 1: had turned out to be none lackin' considerable an none
1:23:05
Speaker 1: to carry isn't my fault any more'n it's yorn. Well
1:23:10
Speaker 1: they'd be in this house yet, An we wouldn't if
1:23:14
Speaker 1: I could a got my advice. Listen to the king
1:23:18
Speaker 1: sashed back as much as was safe fer him. An
1:23:21
Speaker 1: then swapped around An lit into me again. He give
1:23:25
Speaker 1: me down the banks for not comin An tellin him.
1:23:28
Speaker 1: I see the niggers comin out of his room actin
1:23:30
Speaker 1: that way, said any fool would a knowed somethin was up.
1:23:34
Speaker 1: An then waltzed in a cussed himself, awhile An said
1:23:37
Speaker 1: it all comin him, not layin late An takin his
1:23:40
Speaker 1: natural rest that mornin' An he'd be blamed if he'd
1:23:44
Speaker 1: ever do it again. So they went off a jawin An.
1:23:48
Speaker 1: I felt dreadful, glad I'd worked it all off on
1:23:51
Speaker 1: the niggers. An yet hadn't done the niggers no harm
1:23:54
Speaker 1: by it. End of chapter twenty seven, Chapter twenty eight,
1:24:03
Speaker 1: Bye and bye. It was gettin' up time, so I
1:24:06
Speaker 1: come down the ladder and started for downstairs. But as
1:24:09
Speaker 1: I come to the girl's room, the door was open.
1:24:13
Speaker 1: An I see Mary Jane settin by her old hair,
1:24:15
Speaker 1: trunk which was open. An she'd been packin things in it,
1:24:19
Speaker 1: gettin ready to go to England. But she had stopped
1:24:22
Speaker 1: now with a folded gown in her lap, and had
1:24:25
Speaker 1: her face in her hands, crying. I felt awful bad
1:24:29
Speaker 1: to see it. Of course anybody would. I went in there,
1:24:33
Speaker 1: An says miss Mary Jane. You can't a bear to
1:24:36
Speaker 1: see people in trouble. An, I can't. Most always tell
1:24:41
Speaker 1: me about it. So she done it. An it was
1:24:45
Speaker 1: the niggers. I just expected it, she said. The beautiful
1:24:49
Speaker 1: trip to England was most about spoiled for her. She
1:24:53
Speaker 1: didn't know how she was ever goin to be happy there,
1:24:56
Speaker 1: knowing the mother and the children weren't ever goin to
1:24:58
Speaker 1: see each other no more. An then busted out bitterer
1:25:02
Speaker 1: than ever. An flung up her hands and says, oh, dear, dear,
1:25:07
Speaker 1: to think they ain't ever goin to see each other
1:25:09
Speaker 1: any more, But they will an inside of two weeks,
1:25:14
Speaker 1: and I know it, says I. Laws. It was out
1:25:19
Speaker 1: before I could think, An, before I could budge. She
1:25:22
Speaker 1: throws her arms around my neck. An told me to
1:25:25
Speaker 1: say it again, to say it again, say it again.
1:25:29
Speaker 1: I see I had spoke too sudden and said too much.
1:25:32
Speaker 1: An was in a close place. I asked her to
1:25:35
Speaker 1: let me think a minute, and she sat there very
1:25:39
Speaker 1: impatient and excited and handsome, but looking kinda happy and
1:25:44
Speaker 1: eased up, like a person that's had a tooth pulled out.
1:25:48
Speaker 1: So I went to studyin it out, I says to myself.
1:25:52
Speaker 1: I reckon a body that ups an tells the truth
1:25:54
Speaker 1: when he's in a tight place, is taking consider'ble many resks.
1:25:59
Speaker 1: Though I ain't had no experience, AN can't say for certain,
1:26:02
Speaker 1: but it looks so to me anyway. And yet here's
1:26:05
Speaker 1: a case where I'm blessed. If it didn't look to
1:26:07
Speaker 1: me like the truth is better and actually safer than
1:26:11
Speaker 1: a lie. I must lay it by in my mind,
1:26:14
Speaker 1: an think it over some time or other. It's so
1:26:17
Speaker 1: kind of strange and unregular. I never see nothin like it. Well,
1:26:22
Speaker 1: I says to myself. At last, I'm a goin to
1:26:25
Speaker 1: chance it. I'll up an tell the truth this time,
1:26:28
Speaker 1: though it does seem most like settin down on a
1:26:31
Speaker 1: cagapowder an touchin it off, just to see where you'll
1:26:34
Speaker 1: go to. Then, I says, miss Mary Jane, is there
1:26:38
Speaker 1: any place out of town a little ways where you
1:26:41
Speaker 1: could go and stay three or four days. Yes, mister Lothrups,
1:26:46
Speaker 1: Why never mind? Why yet? If I'll tell you how
1:26:51
Speaker 1: I know the niggers will see each other again inside
1:26:53
Speaker 1: of two weeks here in this house, an prove how
1:26:56
Speaker 1: I know it? Will you go to mister Lothrups and
1:26:59
Speaker 1: stay four days? For days, she says, I'll stay a year,
1:27:05
Speaker 1: all right, I says, I don't want nothing more out
1:27:09
Speaker 1: of you than just your word. I'd rather have it
1:27:12
Speaker 1: than another man's kiss the Bible. She smiled, and redden
1:27:16
Speaker 1: up very sweet, and I says, if you don't mind it,
1:27:19
Speaker 1: I'll shut the door an bolt it. Then I come
1:27:23
Speaker 1: back and sat down and says, don't you holler? Jest,
1:27:27
Speaker 1: sit still and take it like a man. I got
1:27:30
Speaker 1: to tell the truth. An you want to brace up,
1:27:32
Speaker 1: miss Mary, because it's a bad kind an goin to
1:27:35
Speaker 1: be hard to take. But there ain't no help for it.
1:27:38
Speaker 1: These uncles of yorn ain't no uncles at all. There
1:27:41
Speaker 1: are a couple of frauds, regular dead beats there. Now
1:27:46
Speaker 1: we're over the worst of it. You can stand the rest,
1:27:49
Speaker 1: middlin easy. It jolted her up, like everything of course,
1:27:54
Speaker 1: but I was over the shoal water now, So I
1:27:57
Speaker 1: went right along her eyes a blazin' high an hire
1:28:00
Speaker 1: all the time, and told her every blame thing from
1:28:04
Speaker 1: when we first struck that young fool. Goin up to
1:28:07
Speaker 1: the steamboat, clear through to where she flung herself onto
1:28:11
Speaker 1: the King's breast at the front door, and he kissed
1:28:14
Speaker 1: her sixteen or seventeen times. And then up she jumps,
1:28:18
Speaker 1: with her face a fire like sunset, and says, the
1:28:21
Speaker 1: brute come, don't waste a minute, not a second. We'll
1:28:25
Speaker 1: have them tired and feathered and flung in the river.
1:28:28
Speaker 1: Says I certainly, But do you mean before you go
1:28:32
Speaker 1: to mister Lothrop's or oh, she says, What am I
1:28:37
Speaker 1: thinking about? She says, and sat right down again. Don't
1:28:41
Speaker 1: mind what I said? Please don't. You won't now, will you?
1:28:46
Speaker 1: Laying her silky hand on mine in that kind of
1:28:48
Speaker 1: a way that I said I would die first, I
1:28:52
Speaker 1: never thought I was so stirred up, she says. Now
1:28:55
Speaker 1: go on, and I won't do so any more. You
1:28:58
Speaker 1: tell me what to do, and whatever you say, I'll
1:29:00
Speaker 1: do it. Well, I says, it's a rough gang them
1:29:05
Speaker 1: two frauds. An, I'm fixed, So I got to travel
1:29:09
Speaker 1: with them awhile longer, whether I want to or not.
1:29:12
Speaker 1: I'd rather not tell you why. An if you was
1:29:15
Speaker 1: to blow on them, this town will get me out
1:29:17
Speaker 1: of their claws. An, I'd be all right, But there'd
1:29:21
Speaker 1: be another person that you don't know about who'd beIN
1:29:23
Speaker 1: big trouble. Well, we got to save him, ain't we,
1:29:28
Speaker 1: of course? Well, then we won't blow on them. Sayin'
1:29:33
Speaker 1: them words put a good idea in my head. I
1:29:36
Speaker 1: see how maybe I could get me an Jim rid
1:29:38
Speaker 1: of the frauds, get them jailed here, and then leave.
1:29:42
Speaker 1: But I didn't want to run the raft in the
1:29:44
Speaker 1: daytime without anybody aboard to answer questions but me so,
1:29:47
Speaker 1: I didn't want the plan to begin working till pretty
1:29:50
Speaker 1: late to night, I says miss Mary Jane. I'll tell
1:29:54
Speaker 1: you what we'll do, An you won't have to stay
1:29:56
Speaker 1: at mister Lothrop so long, Nuther, how fur is it
1:30:00
Speaker 1: a little short of four miles right out in the
1:30:03
Speaker 1: country back here? Well that'll answer. Now you go long
1:30:08
Speaker 1: out there, an lay low till nine or half past
1:30:10
Speaker 1: to night, an then get them to fetch you home again.
1:30:14
Speaker 1: Tell them you've thought o somethin. If you get here
1:30:17
Speaker 1: before eleven, put a candle in this window. An. If
1:30:20
Speaker 1: I don't turn up, wait till eleven. An, then if
1:30:23
Speaker 1: I don't turn up, it means I'm gone, an out
1:30:25
Speaker 1: o the way, an safe. Then you come out an
1:30:28
Speaker 1: spread the news around and get these beats jailed. Good,
1:30:32
Speaker 1: she says, I'll do it. An if it just happens
1:30:36
Speaker 1: so that I don't get away but get took up
1:30:38
Speaker 1: along with them, you must up, an say, I told
1:30:41
Speaker 1: you the whole thing beforehand. An, you must stand by
1:30:44
Speaker 1: me all you can stand by you. Indeed I will.
1:30:49
Speaker 1: They sha'n't touch a hair of your head, she says. An,
1:30:52
Speaker 1: I see her nostrils spread and her eyes snap when
1:30:55
Speaker 1: you said it too. If I get away, I sha'n't here,
1:31:00
Speaker 1: I says, ter prove these raps gallions ain't your uncles. An.
1:31:04
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. If I was here, I could
1:31:07
Speaker 1: swear they was beats an bummers. That's all though that's
1:31:10
Speaker 1: worth something. Well, there's others can do that better than
1:31:14
Speaker 1: what I can. An, they're people that ain't goin to
1:31:17
Speaker 1: be doubted as quick as i'd be. I'll tell you
1:31:19
Speaker 1: how to find them. Give me a pencil and a
1:31:22
Speaker 1: piece of paper there royal nun such Bricksville. Put it away,
1:31:28
Speaker 1: and don't lose it. When the court wants to find
1:31:31
Speaker 1: out something about these two, let them send up to
1:31:34
Speaker 1: Bricksville and say they've got the men that played the
1:31:36
Speaker 1: royal nuns such, and ask for some witnesses. Why you'll
1:31:41
Speaker 1: have that entire time down here before you can hardly wink,
1:31:44
Speaker 1: Miss mary An, they'll come a violin too. I judged
1:31:49
Speaker 1: we got everything fixed about right now, So I says,
1:31:53
Speaker 1: just let the auction go right along, and don't worry nobody.
1:31:56
Speaker 1: Don't have to pay for the things they buy till
1:31:58
Speaker 1: a whole day after the offer on accounts of the
1:32:01
Speaker 1: short notice. And they ain't goin out of this till
1:32:04
Speaker 1: they get that money. And the way we fixed it,
1:32:07
Speaker 1: the sale ain't goin to count and they ain't goin
1:32:10
Speaker 1: to get no money. It's just like the way it
1:32:12
Speaker 1: was with the niggers. And warn't no sale, and the
1:32:15
Speaker 1: niggers will be back before long. Why they can't collect
1:32:19
Speaker 1: the money for the niggers yet they're in the worst
1:32:22
Speaker 1: kind of a fix, Miss mary Well, She says, I'll
1:32:27
Speaker 1: run down to breakfast now, and then I'll start straight
1:32:29
Speaker 1: for mister Lothrop's deed. That ain't the ticket, Miss Mary Jane,
1:32:35
Speaker 1: I says, by no manner of means go before breakfast.
1:32:40
Speaker 1: Why what did you reckon? I wanted you to go
1:32:43
Speaker 1: it off for miss Mary? Well, I never thought an
1:32:48
Speaker 1: come to think. I don't know what was it? Why?
1:32:52
Speaker 1: It's because you ain't one of these leather faced people.
1:32:55
Speaker 1: I don't want no better book than what your face is.
1:32:58
Speaker 1: A body can sit down and read it off like
1:33:00
Speaker 1: coarse print. Do you reckon? You can go an face
1:33:03
Speaker 1: your uncles when they come to kiss you good mornin an.
1:33:05
Speaker 1: Never there there don't. Yes, I'll go before breakfast. I'll
1:33:10
Speaker 1: be glad to an leave my sisters with them. Yes,
1:33:15
Speaker 1: never mind about them. They've got to stand it yet,
1:33:17
Speaker 1: awhile they might suspicion something. If all you was to go,
1:33:22
Speaker 1: I don't want you to see them, nor your sisters,
1:33:25
Speaker 1: nor nobody in this town. If a neighbor was to
1:33:28
Speaker 1: ask how was your uncle this mornin', your face will
1:33:30
Speaker 1: tell somethin. No, you go right along, miss Mary Jane. An,
1:33:34
Speaker 1: I'll fix it with all of them. I'll tell miss Susan,
1:33:37
Speaker 1: to give your love to your uncles and say you've
1:33:39
Speaker 1: went away for a few hours to get a little
1:33:42
Speaker 1: rest and change, or to see a friend, and you'll
1:33:45
Speaker 1: be back tonight or early in the Mornin' gone to
1:33:48
Speaker 1: see a friend is all right, but I won't have
1:33:51
Speaker 1: my love given to them. Well then it shan't be.
1:33:56
Speaker 1: It was well enough to tell her, so, no harm
1:33:59
Speaker 1: an't It was only a little thing to do and
1:34:01
Speaker 1: no trouble. And it's the little things that smooths people's
1:34:05
Speaker 1: roads most down here below. It would make Mary Jane
1:34:09
Speaker 1: comfortable and it wouldn't cost nothin. Then I says, there's
1:34:13
Speaker 1: one more thing, that bag of money. Well they've got that,
1:34:19
Speaker 1: and it makes me feel pretty silly to think how
1:34:21
Speaker 1: they got it. No, you're out there. They hain't got it.
1:34:26
Speaker 1: Why who's got it? I wish I know it, but
1:34:30
Speaker 1: I don't. I had it because I stole it from them,
1:34:33
Speaker 1: and I stole it to give to you, and I
1:34:35
Speaker 1: know where I hit it, but I'm afraid it ain't
1:34:38
Speaker 1: there no more. I'm awful sorry, miss Mary Jane. I'm
1:34:42
Speaker 1: just as sorry as I can be. But I done
1:34:44
Speaker 1: the best I could. I did honest, I come nigh
1:34:48
Speaker 1: getting caught, and I had to shove it into the
1:34:50
Speaker 1: first place I come to a run an. It warn't
1:34:53
Speaker 1: a good place. Oh, stop blaming yourself. It's too bad
1:34:57
Speaker 1: to do it, and I won't allow it. You couldn't
1:35:00
Speaker 1: help it if it wasn't your fault. Where did you
1:35:02
Speaker 1: hide it? I didn't want to set her to thinkin
1:35:06
Speaker 1: about her troubles again, and I couldn't seem to get
1:35:09
Speaker 1: my mouth to tell her what would make her see
1:35:11
Speaker 1: that corpse layin' in the coffin with that bag of
1:35:14
Speaker 1: money on his stomach. So for a minute I didn't
1:35:18
Speaker 1: say nothin. Then I says, I'd rather not tell you
1:35:22
Speaker 1: where I put it, miss Mary Jane, if you don't
1:35:25
Speaker 1: mind letting me off, But I'll write it for you
1:35:28
Speaker 1: on a piece of paper and you can read it
1:35:30
Speaker 1: along the road to mister Lothrop's if you want to
1:35:33
Speaker 1: do you reckon? That'll do? Oh? Yes, so I wrote,
1:35:39
Speaker 1: I put it in the coffin. I was in there
1:35:41
Speaker 1: when you was cryin there away in the night. I
1:35:45
Speaker 1: was behind the door, and I was mighty sorry for you,
1:35:48
Speaker 1: Miss Mary Jane. It made my eyes water a little
1:35:52
Speaker 1: ter remember her crying there all by herself in the night.
1:35:55
Speaker 1: An them devils layin there right under her own roof,
1:35:59
Speaker 1: shamin her and ribbin' her. And when I folded it
1:36:02
Speaker 1: up and give it to her, I see the water
1:36:04
Speaker 1: coming to her eyes too. And she shook me by
1:36:07
Speaker 1: the hand hard and says, good bye. I'm going to
1:36:11
Speaker 1: do everything just as you've told me. And if I
1:36:14
Speaker 1: don't ever see you again, I shan't ever forget you.
1:36:17
Speaker 1: And I'll think of you a many and a many
1:36:19
Speaker 1: a time, and I'll pray for you too. And she
1:36:23
Speaker 1: was gone pray for me, I reckoned. If she knowed me,
1:36:28
Speaker 1: she'd take a job that was more near her size.
1:36:31
Speaker 1: I bet she'd done it just the same. She was
1:36:34
Speaker 1: just that kind. She had the grit to pray for
1:36:37
Speaker 1: Judas if she took the notion, there warn't no back
1:36:40
Speaker 1: down to her. I judge, you may say what you
1:36:43
Speaker 1: want too, But in my opinion, she had more sand
1:36:47
Speaker 1: in her than any girl I ever see. In my opinion,
1:36:50
Speaker 1: she was just full of sand. And sounds like flattery,
1:36:53
Speaker 1: but it ain't no flattery. And when it comes to
1:36:56
Speaker 1: beauty an goodness too, she lays over them all. I
1:37:02
Speaker 1: ain't ever seen her since that time that I see
1:37:04
Speaker 1: her go out of that door. No, I hain't ever
1:37:07
Speaker 1: seen her since, But I reckon, I've thought of her
1:37:10
Speaker 1: a many and a many a million times, and of
1:37:13
Speaker 1: her saying she would pray for me. And if ever
1:37:16
Speaker 1: i'd a thought it would do any good for me
1:37:18
Speaker 1: to pray for her, blamed if I wouldn't have done it,
1:37:21
Speaker 1: or bust well, Mary Jane, she lit out the back way,
1:37:25
Speaker 1: I reckon, because nobody see her go. When I struck
1:37:29
Speaker 1: Susan in the hairlip, I says, what's the name of
1:37:32
Speaker 1: them people over on the other side of the river
1:37:34
Speaker 1: that ye all goes to sea? Sometimes? They says, there's several,
1:37:39
Speaker 1: but the Proctor's mainly that's the name, I says, I
1:37:44
Speaker 1: most forgot it. Well, miss Mary Jane. She told me
1:37:47
Speaker 1: to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry.
1:37:50
Speaker 1: One of them's sick, which one I don't know. Least
1:37:55
Speaker 1: two ways I kinder forget, but I think it's six alive.
1:37:59
Speaker 1: I hope it ain't Hannah. I'm sorry to say it,
1:38:03
Speaker 1: I says, but Hannah's the very one, My goodness, An,
1:38:08
Speaker 1: she's so well. Only last week as she took bad.
1:38:13
Speaker 1: It ain't no name for it. They set up with
1:38:16
Speaker 1: her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, an, they don't
1:38:18
Speaker 1: think she'll last many hours. Only think of that, now,
1:38:24
Speaker 1: what's the matter with her? I couldn't think of anything
1:38:27
Speaker 1: reasonable right off that way, So I says, mumps, mumps,
1:38:32
Speaker 1: shirt granny. They don't set up with people that's got
1:38:35
Speaker 1: the mumps. They don't, don't they. You better bet they
1:38:39
Speaker 1: do with these mumps. These mumps is different. It's a
1:38:43
Speaker 1: new kind. Miss Mary Jane said. How's it a new kind?
1:38:48
Speaker 1: Because it's mixed up with other things? What other things? Well,
1:38:53
Speaker 1: measles and whooping cough and air simplest and consumption and
1:38:58
Speaker 1: y'aller genders and brain fever and I don't know what
1:39:00
Speaker 1: all my land. And they call it the mumps, that's
1:39:05
Speaker 1: what Miss Mary Jane said. Well, what in the nation
1:39:09
Speaker 1: do they call it the mumps for? Why? Because it
1:39:13
Speaker 1: is the mumps, that's what it starts with. Well, there
1:39:17
Speaker 1: ain't no sense in it. A body might stump his
1:39:20
Speaker 1: toe and take poison and fall down the well and
1:39:22
Speaker 1: break his neck and bust his brains out, and somebody
1:39:25
Speaker 1: come along and asks what killed him? And some numps
1:39:27
Speaker 1: skull up and say why he stumped his toe? Will
1:39:31
Speaker 1: there be any sense in that? No? And there ain't
1:39:34
Speaker 1: no sense in this another? Is it catchin? Is it catchin'?
1:39:40
Speaker 1: Why how you talk? Is a harow kitchen in the dark.
1:39:45
Speaker 1: If you don't hitch onto one tooth, you're bound to
1:39:47
Speaker 1: one another, ain't you? And you can't get away with
1:39:50
Speaker 1: that tooth without fetching the whole harrow along, can you? Well?
1:39:54
Speaker 1: These kind of mumps is a kind of a harrow,
1:39:56
Speaker 1: as you may say, And it ain't no slouch of
1:39:59
Speaker 1: a harow another you come to get it hitched on? Good? Well,
1:40:04
Speaker 1: it's awful, I think, said the hair lip. I'll go
1:40:08
Speaker 1: to Uncle Harvey aunt. Oh, yes, I says I would.
1:40:13
Speaker 1: Of course I would. I wouldn't lose no time. Well,
1:40:17
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you jest? Look at him minute? Maybe you
1:40:21
Speaker 1: can see, ain't yer Uncle's obleached to get along home
1:40:25
Speaker 1: to England as fast as they can? An? Do you reckon?
1:40:28
Speaker 1: They be mean enough to go off an leave you
1:40:29
Speaker 1: to go all that journey by yourselves. You know they'll
1:40:33
Speaker 1: wait for you so first, So good yer, uncle Harvey's preacher,
1:40:37
Speaker 1: ain't he very well? Then, is a preacher goin to
1:40:41
Speaker 1: deceive it steamboat clerk? Is he goin to deceive its
1:40:44
Speaker 1: ship clerk, so as to git them to let miss
1:40:47
Speaker 1: Mary Jane go aboard? Now you know he ain't. What
1:40:51
Speaker 1: will he do then? Why he'll say it's a great pity.
1:40:55
Speaker 1: But my church matters has got to git along the
1:40:57
Speaker 1: best they can, for my niece has been exposed to
1:41:00
Speaker 1: the dreadful pluribus unu munths, and so it's my bounding
1:41:05
Speaker 1: duty to sit down here and wait the three months
1:41:08
Speaker 1: it takes to show on her if she's got it.
1:41:11
Speaker 1: But never mind if you think it's best to tell
1:41:13
Speaker 1: your uncle Harvey shucks and stay fooling around here when
1:41:16
Speaker 1: we could all be having a good time into England
1:41:19
Speaker 1: whilst we was waitin to find out whether Mary Jane's
1:41:21
Speaker 1: guided or not? Why you talk like a muggin's Well, anyway,
1:41:26
Speaker 1: maybe you'd better tell some of the neighbors. Listen at that,
1:41:30
Speaker 1: Now you do beat all for natural stupidness. Can't you
1:41:34
Speaker 1: see that they ain't go and tell there ain't no way,
1:41:37
Speaker 1: but jest not to tell anybody at all. Well, maybe
1:41:42
Speaker 1: you're right, Yes, I judge you are right, But I reckon,
1:41:46
Speaker 1: we ought to tell Uncle Harvey she's gone out for
1:41:48
Speaker 1: a while anyway, so he won't be uneasy about her. Yes,
1:41:53
Speaker 1: miss Mary Jane, she wants you to do that, she says,
1:41:56
Speaker 1: Tell them to give Uncle Harvey an will you my
1:41:59
Speaker 1: love an a kiss? An say, I've run over the
1:42:01
Speaker 1: river to see mister mister, what is the name of
1:42:05
Speaker 1: that rich family your uncle Peter used to think so
1:42:08
Speaker 1: much of? I mean the one that why, you must
1:42:12
Speaker 1: mean the Apthorp's, ain't it? Of course? Bother them kind
1:42:15
Speaker 1: o names a bidy can't ever seem to remember them
1:42:18
Speaker 1: half the time. Somehow, Yes, she said, say she is
1:42:23
Speaker 1: run over to ask the Apthorpes to be sure an
1:42:25
Speaker 1: come to the auction an buy this house, because she
1:42:28
Speaker 1: allied her uncle Peter would rather they had it than
1:42:30
Speaker 1: anybody else. An, She's goin to stick to them till
1:42:33
Speaker 1: they say they'll come. An then if she ain't too tired,
1:42:36
Speaker 1: she's comin home. An if she is, she'll be home
1:42:39
Speaker 1: in the mornin'. Anyway, she said, don't say nothin about
1:42:43
Speaker 1: the Proctors, but only by the Apthorps, which will be
1:42:46
Speaker 1: perfectly true, because she is going there to speak about
1:42:48
Speaker 1: there buyin the house. I know it because she told
1:42:51
Speaker 1: me so herself. All right, they said, and cleared out
1:42:57
Speaker 1: to lay for their uncles and give them the love
1:42:59
Speaker 1: an the kisses, and tell them the message. Everything was
1:43:02
Speaker 1: all right now. The girls wouldn't say nothin' because they
1:43:06
Speaker 1: wanted to go to England. An the King and the
1:43:08
Speaker 1: Duke would rather marry. Jane was off working for the
1:43:10
Speaker 1: auction than around and reach a doctor Robinson. I felt
1:43:15
Speaker 1: very good. I judged I had done it pretty neat.
1:43:18
Speaker 1: I reckon Tom Sawyer couldn't have done it no needer himself.
1:43:21
Speaker 1: O course he would have thrown more style into it.
1:43:24
Speaker 1: But I can't do that, very handy, not beIN brung
1:43:27
Speaker 1: up to it well. They held the auction in the
1:43:31
Speaker 1: public square along towards the end of the afternoon, and
1:43:35
Speaker 1: had strung along an strung along an the old man.
1:43:39
Speaker 1: He was on hand and looking his level of poisonous
1:43:42
Speaker 1: up there alongside of the auctioneer, an chippin in a
1:43:45
Speaker 1: little scripture now and then, or a little goody goody
1:43:48
Speaker 1: saying of some kind. An the Duke he was a
1:43:51
Speaker 1: round goo goin for sympathy. All he knowed how and
1:43:55
Speaker 1: just spreadin himself generally. But by and by the thing
1:44:00
Speaker 1: dragged through and everything was sold, everything but a little
1:44:03
Speaker 1: old trifling lot in the graveyard. So they've got to
1:44:07
Speaker 1: work that off. I never see such a graft as
1:44:11
Speaker 1: the King was for wanting to swallow everything. Well. Whilst
1:44:15
Speaker 1: they was added, a steamboat landed and in about two
1:44:19
Speaker 1: minutes up comes a crowd of whooping and yelling and
1:44:22
Speaker 1: laughing and carrying on and singing out, here's your opposition line,
1:44:27
Speaker 1: here's your two sets of airs to old Peter Wilkes,
1:44:31
Speaker 1: and you pays your money, and you takes your choice.
1:44:35
Speaker 1: End of chapter twenty eight. Chapter twenty nine. They was
1:44:43
Speaker 1: fetching a very nice looking old gentleman along and a
1:44:46
Speaker 1: nice looking younger one with his right arm in the sling.
1:44:50
Speaker 1: And my soul's how the people yelled and laughed and
1:44:55
Speaker 1: kept it up. But I didn't see no joke about it,
1:44:58
Speaker 1: and I judged it with drained the Duke and the
1:45:01
Speaker 1: King some to see any I reckon they'd turn pale,
1:45:05
Speaker 1: But no nary a pal did they turn. The Duke
1:45:09
Speaker 1: he never let on. He's suspicioned what was up. But
1:45:12
Speaker 1: jest went to googlin' around, happy and satisfied, like a
1:45:16
Speaker 1: jug that's googlin' out buttermilk. And as for the King,
1:45:21
Speaker 1: he just gazed an gazed down, sorrowful on them newcomers.
1:45:25
Speaker 1: I could give him the stomach ache in his very
1:45:28
Speaker 1: heart to think there could be such frauds an rascals
1:45:31
Speaker 1: in the world. Oh, he done it, admirable. Lots of
1:45:36
Speaker 1: the principal people gathered round the king to let him
1:45:39
Speaker 1: see they was on his side. That old gentleman that
1:45:42
Speaker 1: had just come looked all puzzled to death. Pretty soon
1:45:46
Speaker 1: he begun to speak an I see straight off, he
1:45:50
Speaker 1: pronounced like an Englishman, not the King's way, though the
1:45:54
Speaker 1: King's was pretty good foreign imitation. I can't give the
1:45:58
Speaker 1: old jent's words, nor I can't imitate him. But he
1:46:02
Speaker 1: turned round to the crowd and says about like this.
1:46:07
Speaker 1: This is a surprise to me which I wasn't looking for.
1:46:10
Speaker 1: And I'll acknowledge candid and Frank, I ain't very well
1:46:13
Speaker 1: fixed to meet it and answer it. For my brother
1:46:16
Speaker 1: and me has had misfortunes. He's broke his arm, and
1:46:20
Speaker 1: our baggage got put off at a town above here
1:46:22
Speaker 1: last night in the night by a mistake. I am
1:46:26
Speaker 1: Peter Wilkes's brother Harvey, and this is his brother William,
1:46:29
Speaker 1: which can't here nor speak, and can't even make signs
1:46:32
Speaker 1: to amount to much. Now t's only got one hand
1:46:35
Speaker 1: to work them with. We are who we say we are,
1:46:38
Speaker 1: and in a day or two, when I get the baggage,
1:46:40
Speaker 1: I can prove it. But up till then, I won't
1:46:43
Speaker 1: say nothing more, but go to the hotel and wait.
1:46:47
Speaker 1: So him and the new dummy started off, and the King,
1:46:51
Speaker 1: he laughs and blothers out, broke his arm. Very likely,
1:46:56
Speaker 1: ain't it? And very convenient too for a fraud that's
1:46:59
Speaker 1: got to make sense fines and ain't learnt how lost
1:47:02
Speaker 1: their baggage. That's mighty good and mighty and genius under
1:47:07
Speaker 1: the circumstances. So he laughed again, and so did everybody
1:47:12
Speaker 1: else except three or four or maybe half a dozen.
1:47:16
Speaker 1: One of these was that doctor. Another one was a
1:47:19
Speaker 1: sharp looking gentleman with a carpet bag of the old
1:47:22
Speaker 1: fashioned kind made out of carpet stuff that had just
1:47:25
Speaker 1: come off of the steamboat, and was talking to him
1:47:27
Speaker 1: in a low voice and glancing towards the king now
1:47:31
Speaker 1: and then and noding their heads. It was Levi Bell,
1:47:35
Speaker 1: the lawyer that was gone up to Louisville. And another
1:47:39
Speaker 1: one was a big rough husky that come along and
1:47:42
Speaker 1: listened to all the old gentleman said, and was listening
1:47:45
Speaker 1: to the king now. And when the king got done,
1:47:49
Speaker 1: this husky up and says, say, look here, if you
1:47:53
Speaker 1: are Harvey Wilkes, whence you come to this town the
1:47:57
Speaker 1: day before the funeral? Friend says king, But what time
1:48:02
Speaker 1: of day? In the evening, about an hour or two
1:48:05
Speaker 1: before sundown? How'd you come? I come down on the
1:48:10
Speaker 1: Susan Powell from Cincinnati. Well, then, how'd you come to
1:48:15
Speaker 1: be up at the point in the mornin in a canoe?
1:48:19
Speaker 1: I warn't up at the point in the mornin'. It's
1:48:22
Speaker 1: a lie. Several of them jumped for him and begged
1:48:26
Speaker 1: him not to talk that way to an old man,
1:48:29
Speaker 1: and a preacher. Preacher be hanged. He's a fraud and
1:48:33
Speaker 1: a liar. He was up at the point that mornin'.
1:48:36
Speaker 1: I live up there, don't I? Well? I was up there,
1:48:40
Speaker 1: an he was up there. I see him there. He
1:48:43
Speaker 1: come in a canoe along with Tim Collins and a
1:48:46
Speaker 1: boy the doctor. He up and says would you know
1:48:50
Speaker 1: the boy again if you was to see him, Hines,
1:48:53
Speaker 1: I reckon, I would, but I don't know why yonder
1:48:57
Speaker 1: he is now. I know him perfectly easy. It was me,
1:49:02
Speaker 1: He pointed at the doctor, says, neighbors, I don't know
1:49:08
Speaker 1: whether the new couple is frauds or not, but if
1:49:10
Speaker 1: these two ain't frauds, I am an idiot, that's all.
1:49:15
Speaker 1: I think it's our duty to see that they don't
1:49:17
Speaker 1: get away from here till we've looked into this thing.
1:49:20
Speaker 1: Come along, Hines, Come along the rest of you. We'll
1:49:23
Speaker 1: take these fellows to the tavern and to front them
1:49:26
Speaker 1: with the other couple, and I reckon we'll find out
1:49:29
Speaker 1: something before we get through. It was nuts for the crowd,
1:49:33
Speaker 1: though maybe not for the King's friends. So we all started.
1:49:38
Speaker 1: He was about sundown. The doctor. He led me along
1:49:42
Speaker 1: by the hand and was plenty kind enough, but he
1:49:45
Speaker 1: never let go my hand. We all got in a
1:49:49
Speaker 1: big room in the hotel and lit up some candles
1:49:52
Speaker 1: and fetched in the new couple first. The doctor says,
1:49:57
Speaker 1: I don't wish to be hard on these two men,
1:50:00
Speaker 1: but I think they're frauds. An they may have complices
1:50:03
Speaker 1: that we don't know nothin bout. If they have, won't
1:50:07
Speaker 1: the complices get away with that bag of gold Peter
1:50:10
Speaker 1: Wilkes left. It ain't unlikely if these men ain't frauds,
1:50:15
Speaker 1: they won't object to sendin for that money, an lettin
1:50:18
Speaker 1: us keep it till they prove they're all right? Ain't
1:50:21
Speaker 1: that so everybody agreed to that? So I judge they
1:50:27
Speaker 1: had our gang in a pretty tight place right at
1:50:29
Speaker 1: the outstart. But the king, he only looked sorrowful and says, gentlemen,
1:50:36
Speaker 1: I wish the money was there, for I ain't got
1:50:38
Speaker 1: no disposition to throw anything in the way of a fair, open,
1:50:43
Speaker 1: out an out investigation of this miserable business. But alas
1:50:48
Speaker 1: the money ain't there, you can send an see if
1:50:52
Speaker 1: you want to where is it? Then? Well, when my
1:50:57
Speaker 1: niece give it to me to keep fer her, I
1:50:59
Speaker 1: took a hit it inside the straw tick o my bed,
1:51:02
Speaker 1: not wishing to bank it for the few days we'd
1:51:04
Speaker 1: be here, an considering the bed a safe place, we
1:51:08
Speaker 1: not bein' used to niggers and supposin', I'm honest, like
1:51:11
Speaker 1: servants in England. The niggers stole the very next mornin'
1:51:15
Speaker 1: after I had went downstairs, and when I sold em,
1:51:18
Speaker 1: I hadn't missed the money yet, so they got cleaned
1:51:20
Speaker 1: away with it. My servant here can tell you about it. Gentlemen,
1:51:25
Speaker 1: the doctor and several said shucks, an, I see. Nobody
1:51:30
Speaker 1: didn't altogether believe him. One man asked me, if I
1:51:34
Speaker 1: see the nigger steal it? I said no, but I
1:51:37
Speaker 1: see them sneakin out of the room and hustlin away. An,
1:51:40
Speaker 1: I never thought nothin', only I reckon they was afraid
1:51:43
Speaker 1: they had waked up my master and was trying to
1:51:45
Speaker 1: get away before he made trouble with them. That was
1:51:49
Speaker 1: all they asked me. Then the doctor whirls on me
1:51:52
Speaker 1: and says, are you English too? I says yes, an
1:51:57
Speaker 1: him and some others laughed and said well. Then they
1:52:02
Speaker 1: sailed in on the general investigation. And there we had
1:52:06
Speaker 1: it up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody
1:52:10
Speaker 1: never said a word about supper, nor ever seemed to
1:52:13
Speaker 1: think about it. And so they kept it up and
1:52:16
Speaker 1: kept it up, and it was the worst mixed up
1:52:20
Speaker 1: thing you ever see. They made the king tell his yarn,
1:52:24
Speaker 1: and they made the old gentleman tell his'n an. Anybody
1:52:27
Speaker 1: but a lot of prejudiced truckleheads would a scene that
1:52:30
Speaker 1: the old gentleman was spending truth and the other one lies.
1:52:35
Speaker 1: And by and by they had me up to tell
1:52:37
Speaker 1: what I knowed the King. He gave me a left
1:52:40
Speaker 1: handed look out of the corner of his eye, and
1:52:43
Speaker 1: so I knowed enough to talk on the right side.
1:52:46
Speaker 1: I begun to tell about Sheffield and how we lived there,
1:52:50
Speaker 1: and all about the English Wilkeses and so on. But
1:52:53
Speaker 1: I didn't get pretty fur till the doctor begun to
1:52:56
Speaker 1: laugh and leave. I bell. The lawyer says, set down,
1:53:00
Speaker 1: my boy, I wouldn't strain myself if I was you.
1:53:04
Speaker 1: I reckon, you ain't used to lyin it. Don't seem
1:53:07
Speaker 1: to come handy. What you want is practice. You do
1:53:11
Speaker 1: it pretty awkward. I didn't care nothin for the compliment,
1:53:15
Speaker 1: but I was glad to be let off anyway. The
1:53:19
Speaker 1: doctor he started to say something, and turns and says,
1:53:23
Speaker 1: if you'd been in town at first, LEVI bell. The
1:53:27
Speaker 1: King broke in and reached out his hand and says,
1:53:30
Speaker 1: why is this my poor dead brother's old friend that
1:53:33
Speaker 1: he's wrote so often about the lawyer and him shook hands,
1:53:38
Speaker 1: and the lawyer smiled and looked pleased, and they talked
1:53:42
Speaker 1: right along awhile, and then got to one side and
1:53:45
Speaker 1: talked low, and at last the lawyer speaks up and says,
1:53:50
Speaker 1: that'll fix it. I'll take the order and send it
1:53:53
Speaker 1: along with your brothers, and then they'll know it's all right.
1:53:58
Speaker 1: So they got some paper and a pa an the king.
1:54:01
Speaker 1: He sat down, an twisted his head to one side,
1:54:04
Speaker 1: an chawed his tongue and scrawled off somethin' And then
1:54:08
Speaker 1: they give the pen to the Duke. And then for
1:54:10
Speaker 1: the first time, the Duke looked sick, but he took
1:54:14
Speaker 1: the pen and wrote. So then the lawyers turns to
1:54:17
Speaker 1: the new old gentleman and says, you an your brother,
1:54:22
Speaker 1: please write a line or two an sign your names.
1:54:26
Speaker 1: The old gentleman wrote, but nobody couldn't read it. The
1:54:30
Speaker 1: lawyer looked powerful, astonished and says, well, it beats me,
1:54:36
Speaker 1: and snaked a light of old letters out of his
1:54:38
Speaker 1: pocket an examined them, an then examine the old man's writin',
1:54:43
Speaker 1: an then them again, and then says, these old letters
1:54:48
Speaker 1: is from Harvey Wilkes an these two handwritin's an anybody
1:54:52
Speaker 1: can see they didn't write them. The King and the
1:54:55
Speaker 1: Duke looked sold and foolish. I tell you to see
1:54:57
Speaker 1: how the lawyer had took them in. And here's this
1:55:01
Speaker 1: old gentleman's handwritin' an anybody can tell easy enough he
1:55:05
Speaker 1: didn't write them. Fact is a scratch as he makes,
1:55:08
Speaker 1: ain't properly writin at all. Now here's some letters from
1:55:13
Speaker 1: the new old gentleman says, if you please let me explain.
1:55:18
Speaker 1: Nobody can read my hand but my brother there, so
1:55:21
Speaker 1: he copies for me. It's his hand you've got there,
1:55:24
Speaker 1: not mine. Well, says the lawyer. This is a state
1:55:29
Speaker 1: of things. I've got some of William's letters too, So
1:55:33
Speaker 1: if you'll get him to write a line or so,
1:55:35
Speaker 1: we can come. He can't write with his left hand,
1:55:39
Speaker 1: says the old gentleman. If he could use his right hand,
1:55:42
Speaker 1: you would see that he wrote his own letters and
1:55:44
Speaker 1: mine too. Look at both, please, they're by the same hand.
1:55:49
Speaker 1: The lawyer done it, and says, I believe it's so.
1:55:54
Speaker 1: And if it ain't so, there's a heap's stronger resemblance
1:55:57
Speaker 1: than i'd noticed before. Anyway. Well, well, well, I thought
1:56:02
Speaker 1: we was right on the track of a solution. And
1:56:04
Speaker 1: it's gone to grass partly. But anyway, one thing is proved.
1:56:10
Speaker 1: These two ain't either of them Wilkes's. And he wagged
1:56:14
Speaker 1: his head towards the King and the Duke. Well, what
1:56:18
Speaker 1: do you think that mule headed old fool when't given
1:56:21
Speaker 1: then indeed he wouldn't said it warn't no fair test,
1:56:26
Speaker 1: said his brother William was the cussedest joker in the world,
1:56:30
Speaker 1: and hadn't tried to write. He see, William was going
1:56:34
Speaker 1: to play one of his jokes the minute he put
1:56:36
Speaker 1: the pen to paper, And so he warmed up and
1:56:38
Speaker 1: went marblin right along till he was actually beginnin to
1:56:42
Speaker 1: believe what he was saying himself. But pretty soon the
1:56:45
Speaker 1: new gentleman broke in and says, I've thought of something.
1:56:49
Speaker 1: Is there anybody here that helps to lay out my
1:56:52
Speaker 1: bru helped to lay out the late Peter Wilkes for burying? Yes,
1:56:58
Speaker 1: says somebody me an ab turn underdone it. We're both here.
1:57:03
Speaker 1: Then the old man turns toward the King and says,
1:57:07
Speaker 1: perhaps this gentleman can tell me what was tattooed on
1:57:10
Speaker 1: his breast blamed if the King didn't have to brace
1:57:14
Speaker 1: up mighty quick or he'd a swished down like a
1:57:17
Speaker 1: bluff bank that the river has cut under. It took
1:57:21
Speaker 1: him so sudden, and mind you, it was a thing
1:57:24
Speaker 1: that was calculated to make most anybody squish, to get
1:57:27
Speaker 1: fetched such a solid one as that without any notice.
1:57:31
Speaker 1: Because how was he goin to know what was tattooed
1:57:33
Speaker 1: on the man? He whitened a little, He couldn't help it.
1:57:38
Speaker 1: An it was mighty still in there, and everybody bendin
1:57:41
Speaker 1: a little forwards, an gazin at him, says, I to myself,
1:57:46
Speaker 1: now he'll throw up the sponge. There ain't no more use.
1:57:50
Speaker 1: Well did he a bite? Can't hardly believe it, But
1:57:54
Speaker 1: he didn't. I reckon. He thought he'd keep the thing
1:57:57
Speaker 1: till he tired them people out, so thin out an
1:58:01
Speaker 1: him and the Duke would break loose and get away. Anyway,
1:58:05
Speaker 1: He sat there, and pretty soon he began to smile
1:58:07
Speaker 1: and says, humph, it's a very tough question, ain't it. Yes, sir,
1:58:13
Speaker 1: I can tell you what's tattooed on his breast. It's
1:58:16
Speaker 1: just a small, thin blue arrow, that's what it is.
1:58:19
Speaker 1: And if you don't look close, you can't see it. Now,
1:58:23
Speaker 1: what do you say, hey, well, I never see anything
1:58:27
Speaker 1: like that, old blister for clean out an out cheek.
1:58:31
Speaker 1: The new gentleman turns brisk towards ab Turner and his part,
1:58:35
Speaker 1: and his eyes lights up like he judge she'd got
1:58:38
Speaker 1: the king this time, and says, there you've heard what
1:58:42
Speaker 1: he said. Was there any such mark on Peter Wilkes's breast?
1:58:46
Speaker 1: Both of them spoke up and says, we didn't see
1:58:49
Speaker 1: no such mark. Good, says the old gentleman. Now what
1:58:54
Speaker 1: you did see on his breast was a small dim
1:58:58
Speaker 1: pea and a bee, which is an initial he dropped
1:59:02
Speaker 1: when he was young, and a W with dashes between them.
1:59:06
Speaker 1: So p dash b dash w An you mark them
1:59:13
Speaker 1: that way on a piece of paper. Come, ain't that
1:59:16
Speaker 1: what you saw? Both of them spoke up again and says, no,
1:59:21
Speaker 1: we didn't, We never seen any marks at all. Well,
1:59:26
Speaker 1: everybody was in a state of mind now, an they
1:59:29
Speaker 1: sings that the whole bolin of 'em's frauds. Let's stuck em,
1:59:34
Speaker 1: let's drown him, let's ride him on a rail, And
1:59:37
Speaker 1: everybody was whoopin at once. An there was a rattlin'
1:59:40
Speaker 1: pie wow. But the lawyer he jumps on the table
1:59:44
Speaker 1: and yells and says, gentlemen, gentlemen, hear me, just a word,
1:59:50
Speaker 1: just a single word, if you please. There's one way yet,
1:59:55
Speaker 1: Let's go and dig up the corpse. An look that
1:59:59
Speaker 1: took the hooray. They all shouted, and was startin right off.
2:00:05
Speaker 1: But the lawyer and the doctor sung out, hold on,
2:00:08
Speaker 1: hold on collar all these four men, an the boy an,
2:00:13
Speaker 1: fetch them along too, we'll do it, they all shouted.
2:00:18
Speaker 1: An if we don't find them marks, we'll lynch the
2:00:20
Speaker 1: whole gang. I was scared, now, I tell you, but
2:00:25
Speaker 1: there warn't no gettin away, you know. They gripped us
2:00:28
Speaker 1: all an marched us right along, straight for the graveyard,
2:00:32
Speaker 1: which was a mile and a half down the river.
2:00:35
Speaker 1: An the whole town at our heels. For we made
2:00:37
Speaker 1: noise enough, An it was only nine in the evenin
2:00:41
Speaker 1: As we went by our house, I wished to hand
2:00:43
Speaker 1: sent Mary Jane out of town, because now if I
2:00:46
Speaker 1: could tip her the wink, she'd lie out an save
2:00:49
Speaker 1: me a blow on our dead beats. Well, we swarmed
2:00:53
Speaker 1: along down the river roades, carryin on like wildcats. An
2:00:58
Speaker 1: to make it more scary, the sky was darkened up
2:01:02
Speaker 1: and the lightnin beginnin to wink an flitter, an the
2:01:05
Speaker 1: wind to shiver amongst the leaves. This was the most
2:01:08
Speaker 1: awful trouble, an most dangersome I ever was in An
2:01:13
Speaker 1: I was kinder stunned. Everything was going so different from
2:01:17
Speaker 1: what I had allowed forstead of beIN fixed so I
2:01:20
Speaker 1: could take my own time if I wanted to an
2:01:23
Speaker 1: see all the fun and have Mary Jane at my
2:01:25
Speaker 1: back to save me, an set me free. When the
2:01:28
Speaker 1: clothes fit come here was nothing in the world betwixt
2:01:32
Speaker 1: me an sudden death, but just them tattoo marks. If
2:01:36
Speaker 1: they didn't find them, I couldn't bear to think about it.
2:01:40
Speaker 1: An Yet, somehow I couldn't think about nothin else it
2:01:45
Speaker 1: got darker and darker. An it was a beautiful time
2:01:48
Speaker 1: to give the crowd the slip, but that big husky
2:01:52
Speaker 1: had me by the wrist. Hines an a body might
2:01:55
Speaker 1: as well try to give Gollier the slip. He dragged
2:01:59
Speaker 1: me along. He was so excited, and I had to
2:02:03
Speaker 1: run to keep up. When they got there, they swarmed
2:02:07
Speaker 1: into the graveyard and washed over it like an overflow.
2:02:11
Speaker 1: And when they got to the grave they found they
2:02:13
Speaker 1: had about a hundred times as many shovels as they wanted,
2:02:16
Speaker 1: but nobody hadn't thought to fetch a lantern. But they
2:02:20
Speaker 1: sailed into diggin' anyway by the flicker of the lightning,
2:02:24
Speaker 1: and sent a man to the nearest house a half
2:02:26
Speaker 1: mile off to borrow one. So they dug and dug
2:02:31
Speaker 1: like everything, and it got awful dark, and the rain started,
2:02:36
Speaker 1: and the wind swished and swished along, and the lightning
2:02:39
Speaker 1: come brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed. But them
2:02:44
Speaker 1: people never took no notice of it. They was so
2:02:47
Speaker 1: full of this business. And one minute you could see
2:02:50
Speaker 1: everything in every facin that big crowd, and the shovelfuls
2:02:54
Speaker 1: of dirt sailing up out of the grave, and the
2:02:56
Speaker 1: next second the dark watted it all out, and you
2:02:59
Speaker 1: couldn't see nothin at all. At last they got out
2:03:03
Speaker 1: the coffin and begun to unscrew the lid. An then
2:03:07
Speaker 1: such another crowding and shouldering and shoving as there was
2:03:11
Speaker 1: to scrouch in and get a sight you never see.
2:03:15
Speaker 1: And in the dark that way, it was awful. Hines,
2:03:19
Speaker 1: he hurt my wrists, dreadful pulling and tugging, so an
2:03:22
Speaker 1: I reckon he clean forgot I was in the world.
2:03:25
Speaker 1: He was so excited and panting. All of a sudden,
2:03:29
Speaker 1: the lightnin' let go a perfect sluice of white glare. An,
2:03:33
Speaker 1: somebody sings out by the livin Jingo, here's the back
2:03:37
Speaker 1: of gold on his breast. Hines let out a whoop
2:03:42
Speaker 1: like everybody else, and dropped my wrist and give a
2:03:45
Speaker 1: big serge to bust his way in and get a look.
2:03:49
Speaker 1: An the way I lit out, an shinned for the
2:03:51
Speaker 1: road in the dark, there ain't nobody can tell. I
2:03:55
Speaker 1: had the road all to myself. An I fairly flew leastways.
2:03:59
Speaker 1: I had it all to myself except the solid dark.
2:04:02
Speaker 1: And then now an then glares an the buzzin' of
2:04:04
Speaker 1: the rain, an the thrashin' of the wind, an the
2:04:07
Speaker 1: splittin' of the thunder. An, sure as you are born,
2:04:10
Speaker 1: I did clip it along. When I struck the town,
2:04:14
Speaker 1: I see there warn't nobody out in the storm. So
2:04:17
Speaker 1: I never hunted for no back streets, but humped it
2:04:20
Speaker 1: straight through the main one. An when I begun to
2:04:23
Speaker 1: get towards our house, I aimed my eye an set
2:04:26
Speaker 1: it no light there the house all dark, which made
2:04:31
Speaker 1: me feel sorry and disappointed. I didn't know why. But
2:04:36
Speaker 1: at last jest as I was sailin by flash comes
2:04:39
Speaker 1: the light in Mary Jane's window. An My heart swelled
2:04:42
Speaker 1: up sudden like to bust. An. The same second the
2:04:46
Speaker 1: house was all behind me in the dark. An wasn't
2:04:49
Speaker 1: ever goin to be before me no more in this world.
2:04:52
Speaker 1: She was the best girl I ever see. An had
2:04:56
Speaker 1: the most sand. The minute I was far enough above
2:05:00
Speaker 1: the town to see I could make the towhead, I
2:05:03
Speaker 1: begun to look sharp for a boat to borrow. An.
2:05:06
Speaker 1: The first time the lightnin' showed me one that wasn't chained,
2:05:09
Speaker 1: I snatched it, An shoved. It was a canoe. An
2:05:13
Speaker 1: it warn't fastened with nothin but a rope. The towhead
2:05:16
Speaker 1: was a rattlin big distance off away out there in
2:05:19
Speaker 1: the middle of the river. But I didn't lose no time. An.
2:05:23
Speaker 1: When I struck the raft at last, I was so
2:05:26
Speaker 1: fagged I would have just laid down to blow a
2:05:29
Speaker 1: gasp if I could afforded it, But I didn't. As
2:05:33
Speaker 1: I sprung aboard, I sung out out with you. Jim
2:05:36
Speaker 1: An said he loose glory be to Goodn's wort. Shut
2:05:39
Speaker 1: of them. Jim let out An was a comin' for
2:05:43
Speaker 1: me with both arms spread. He was so full of joy.
2:05:46
Speaker 1: But when I glimpsed him in thy lightnin my heart
2:05:49
Speaker 1: shut up in my mouth. An I went overboard backwards,
2:05:53
Speaker 1: for I forgot he was old king, lear and a
2:05:55
Speaker 1: drowned a rab all in one an. It most scared
2:05:59
Speaker 1: the livers and lights o o me. But Jim he
2:06:02
Speaker 1: fished me out. An was goin to hug me, an
2:06:04
Speaker 1: bless me, and so on. He was so glad I
2:06:06
Speaker 1: was back. An. We was shut of the king and
2:06:09
Speaker 1: the duke. But I says, not now have it for breakfast?
2:06:13
Speaker 1: Have it for breakfast? Cut loose, an let her slide.
2:06:17
Speaker 1: So in two seconds away we went a slidin down
2:06:21
Speaker 1: the river. An. It did seem so good to be
2:06:24
Speaker 1: free again, an all by ourselves on the big river,
2:06:29
Speaker 1: an nobody to bother us. I had to skip around
2:06:33
Speaker 1: a bit, an jump up, an crack my heels a
2:06:35
Speaker 1: few times. I couldn't help it. But about the third
2:06:39
Speaker 1: crack I noticed a sound that I knowed mighty well.
2:06:43
Speaker 1: An held my breath, An listened, an waited, an sure enough,
2:06:48
Speaker 1: when the next flash busted out over the water. Here
2:06:51
Speaker 1: they come an jest a layin to their oars, an
2:06:55
Speaker 1: makin their skiff. Hum. It was the King and the Duke.
2:07:00
Speaker 1: So I wilted right down onto the planks. Then an
2:07:04
Speaker 1: give up. It was all I could do to keep
2:07:07
Speaker 1: from cryin' end of chapter twenty nine, Chapter thirty. When
2:07:18
Speaker 1: they got aboard, the King went for me and shook
2:07:21
Speaker 1: me by the collar and says, tryin to give us
2:07:24
Speaker 1: the slip? Was ye, you pup tired of our company? Hey,
2:07:29
Speaker 1: I says, knowing your majesty, we warn't. Please, don't your
2:07:33
Speaker 1: majesty quick then an tell us what was your idea?
2:07:37
Speaker 1: Or I'll shake the insides out o you honest, I'll
2:07:41
Speaker 1: tell you everything, jest as it happened, your majesty. The
2:07:44
Speaker 1: man that had a hole to me was very good
2:07:46
Speaker 1: to me and kept saying he had a boy bout
2:07:49
Speaker 1: as big as me that died last year. An he
2:07:52
Speaker 1: was sorry to see a boy in such a dangerous fix.
2:07:55
Speaker 1: When they was all took by surprise by finding the
2:07:57
Speaker 1: gold and made a rush for the coffee, an he
2:08:01
Speaker 1: let's go o me and whispers, heal it now, or
2:08:04
Speaker 1: they'll hang Ye sure, an I lit out it didn't
2:08:08
Speaker 1: seem no good for me to stay. I couldn't do
2:08:11
Speaker 1: nothin an. I didn't want to be hung if I
2:08:13
Speaker 1: could get away, so I never stopped running till I
2:08:17
Speaker 1: found the canoe. An when I got here, I told
2:08:19
Speaker 1: Jim to hurry or they'd catch me and hang me yet,
2:08:22
Speaker 1: and I said, I was afeared you an the Duke
2:08:24
Speaker 1: wasn't alive now, and I was awful sorry, and so
2:08:28
Speaker 1: is Jim. An was awful glad when we see you comin',
2:08:32
Speaker 1: you may ask Jim if I didn't. Jim said it
2:08:36
Speaker 1: was so, and the King told him to shut up,
2:08:39
Speaker 1: and said, oh yes, it's a mighty likely, and shook
2:08:43
Speaker 1: me up again and said he reckoned, he drowned me.
2:08:47
Speaker 1: But the Duke says, let go the boy, you old idiot.
2:08:51
Speaker 1: Would you ha done any different? Did you inquire around
2:08:55
Speaker 1: for him when you got loose? I don't remember it.
2:08:59
Speaker 1: So the King went go of me and begun to
2:09:01
Speaker 1: cuss that town and everybody in it. But the Duke says,
2:09:06
Speaker 1: you better a blame sight, give yourself a good cussin,
2:09:10
Speaker 1: for you're the one that's entitled to it most. You
2:09:13
Speaker 1: hain't done a thing from the start that had any
2:09:16
Speaker 1: sense in it except comin out so cool and cheeky
2:09:20
Speaker 1: with that imaginary blue ara mark that was bright. It
2:09:25
Speaker 1: was right down, bully An. It was the thing that
2:09:28
Speaker 1: saved us. For if it hadn't been for that, they'd
2:09:32
Speaker 1: a jailed us till them englishmen's baggage came an then
2:09:37
Speaker 1: the penitentiary, you bet, But that trick took him to
2:09:41
Speaker 1: the graveyard. An the gold done us a still bigger kindness,
2:09:47
Speaker 1: For if the excited fools hadn't let go all holts
2:09:51
Speaker 1: An made that rush to get a look, we'd a
2:09:54
Speaker 1: slept in our cravates tonight. Cravates warned it to wear
2:09:58
Speaker 1: too long than we didn't need him. They was still
2:10:03
Speaker 1: a minute thinking. Then the King says, kind of absent
2:10:07
Speaker 1: minded like humph, and we reckon the niggers stole it.
2:10:13
Speaker 1: That made me squirm, Yes, said the Duke, kinder, slow
2:10:19
Speaker 1: and deliberate and sarcastic. We did. After about a half
2:10:25
Speaker 1: a minute, the King draws out leastways I did. The
2:10:31
Speaker 1: Duke says the same way. On the contrary, I did.
2:10:38
Speaker 1: The King kind of ruffles up and says, look at here,
2:10:41
Speaker 1: Bill Dwater, what are you referring to The Duke says
2:10:46
Speaker 1: pretty brisk. When it comes to that, maybe you'll let
2:10:50
Speaker 1: me ask what was you referring to? Shucks, says the King,
2:10:57
Speaker 1: very sarcastic. But I don't know. Maybe you was asleep
2:11:01
Speaker 1: and didn't know what he was about. The Duke bristles
2:11:05
Speaker 1: up now and says, oh, let up on this cussed nonsense.
2:11:10
Speaker 1: Do you take me for a blame fool? Don't you reckon?
2:11:14
Speaker 1: I know who hid that money in that coffin. Yes, sir,
2:11:18
Speaker 1: I know you do know, because you've done it yourself.
2:11:22
Speaker 1: It's a lie. An The Duke went for him. The
2:11:26
Speaker 1: King sings, out, take your hands off, lick on my throat.
2:11:30
Speaker 1: I take it on back. The Duke says, well, you
2:11:35
Speaker 1: est own up first that you did hide that money there,
2:11:39
Speaker 1: intended to give me the slip one of these days
2:11:43
Speaker 1: an come back and dig it up and have it
2:11:45
Speaker 1: all to yourself. Wait just a minute, Duke, answer me
2:11:50
Speaker 1: this one question, honest and fair. If you didn't put
2:11:53
Speaker 1: the money there, say it, and I'll believe you and
2:11:56
Speaker 1: take back everything I said, you old scoundrel, I didn't
2:12:02
Speaker 1: and you know I didn't there. Now, well, then I
2:12:07
Speaker 1: believe you but answer me only just this one more now,
2:12:11
Speaker 1: don't get mad. Didn't you have it in your mind
2:12:14
Speaker 1: to hook the money and hide it? The Duke never
2:12:18
Speaker 1: said nothing for a little bit. Then he says, well,
2:12:23
Speaker 1: I don't care if I did. I didn't do it
2:12:26
Speaker 1: anyway for you, not on the head in mind to
2:12:30
Speaker 1: do it. But you done it. I wished I never
2:12:34
Speaker 1: die if I done it, Duke, And that's honest. I
2:12:37
Speaker 1: won't say I weren't going to do it, because I was.
2:12:40
Speaker 1: But you, I mean, somebody got in ahead of me.
2:12:45
Speaker 1: It's a lie. You done it, and you got to
2:12:48
Speaker 1: say you done it or The King began to gurgle,
2:12:52
Speaker 1: and then he gasps out nough, I own up. I
2:12:57
Speaker 1: was very glad to hear him say that, and it
2:13:00
Speaker 1: made me feel much more easier than what I was
2:13:02
Speaker 1: feeling before. So the Duke took his hands off and says,
2:13:07
Speaker 1: if you ever deny it again, I'll drown you. It's
2:13:11
Speaker 1: well for you to sit there and blubber like a baby.
2:13:15
Speaker 1: It's fittin for you after the way you've acted. I
2:13:19
Speaker 1: never see such an old ostridch for wantin to gobble everything.
2:13:23
Speaker 1: And I trust in you all the time, like you
2:13:26
Speaker 1: was my own father. You ought to ben ashamed o
2:13:30
Speaker 1: yourself to stand by and hear it saddled on to
2:13:34
Speaker 1: a lot of poor niggers an you never say a
2:13:37
Speaker 1: word for him. It makes me feel ridiculous to think
2:13:41
Speaker 1: I was soft enough to believe that rubbage cuss you.
2:13:46
Speaker 1: I can see now why you was so anxious to
2:13:49
Speaker 1: make up the deaf sit. You wanted to get what
2:13:52
Speaker 1: money I'd got out of the nuns. Such an one
2:13:55
Speaker 1: thing or another? An scoop it all, the King says,
2:14:01
Speaker 1: timid and still a snufflin'. Why, duke, it was you
2:14:05
Speaker 1: that said make up the deaf sit and warn't me
2:14:10
Speaker 1: dry up? I don't want to hear no more out
2:14:13
Speaker 1: o you, says the duke. An now you see what
2:14:17
Speaker 1: you got by it. They've got all their own money back,
2:14:21
Speaker 1: and all of our but a shekel or two besides
2:14:26
Speaker 1: golong to bed An. Don't you deficit me no more
2:14:29
Speaker 1: deficits long as you live. So the king sneaked into
2:14:36
Speaker 1: the wigwam and took to his bottle for comfort, And
2:14:40
Speaker 1: before long the Duke tackled his bottle, and so in
2:14:44
Speaker 1: about half an hour they was as thick as thieves. Again,
2:14:48
Speaker 1: and the tighter they got, the lovin'er they got, an
2:14:51
Speaker 1: went a snorin in each other's arms. They both got
2:14:55
Speaker 1: powerful mellow, but I noticed the king didn't get mellow
2:14:58
Speaker 1: enough to forget to remember to not deny about hiding
2:15:01
Speaker 1: the money back again. That made me feel easy and satisfied.
2:15:07
Speaker 1: Of course, when they got to snoring, we had a
2:15:10
Speaker 1: long gabble and I told Jim everything. End of chapter
2:15:16
Speaker 1: thirty Chapter thirty one. We doesn't stop again at any
2:15:25
Speaker 1: time for days and days kept right along down the river.
2:15:30
Speaker 1: We was down south in the warm weather now, and
2:15:32
Speaker 1: a mighty long ways from home. We begun to come
2:15:36
Speaker 1: to trees with Spanish moss on them, hanging down from
2:15:39
Speaker 1: the limbs like long gray beards. It was the first
2:15:44
Speaker 1: I ever see it growing, and it made the woods
2:15:46
Speaker 1: look solemn and dismal. So now the frauds reckoned. They
2:15:50
Speaker 1: was out of danger, an they'd begun to work the
2:15:52
Speaker 1: villages again. First they'd done a lecture on temperance, but
2:15:57
Speaker 1: they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk gone.
2:16:01
Speaker 1: Then in another village they started a dance in school,
2:16:04
Speaker 1: but they didn't know no more how to dance, and
2:16:06
Speaker 1: a kangaroo does. So the first prance they made, the
2:16:09
Speaker 1: general public jumped in and prance them out of town.
2:16:13
Speaker 1: Another time they tried to go at yell acution, but
2:16:16
Speaker 1: they didn't yell acute long till the audience got up
2:16:19
Speaker 1: and give them a solid good cussin and made them
2:16:22
Speaker 1: skip out. They tackled missionary in and mesmerizing and doctoring
2:16:28
Speaker 1: and telling fortunes and a little at everything, but they
2:16:32
Speaker 1: couldn't seem to have no luck. So at last they
2:16:35
Speaker 1: got just about dead broke and laid around the raft
2:16:39
Speaker 1: as she floated along, thinking and thinking and never saying nothing.
2:16:44
Speaker 1: By the half a day at a time, and dreadful,
2:16:47
Speaker 1: blue and desperate, And at last they took a change
2:16:51
Speaker 1: and begun to lay their heads together in the wigwam
2:16:54
Speaker 1: and talk low and confidential two or three hours at
2:16:58
Speaker 1: a time. Jim and me got uneasy. We didn't like
2:17:02
Speaker 1: the look of it. We judged they were studying up
2:17:06
Speaker 1: some kind of worse deviltry than ever. We turned it
2:17:09
Speaker 1: over and over, and at last we made up our
2:17:12
Speaker 1: minds they was going to break into somebody's house or store,
2:17:16
Speaker 1: or was going into the counterfeit money business or something.
2:17:19
Speaker 1: So then We was pretty scared and made up an
2:17:22
Speaker 1: agreement that we wouldn't have nothing in the world to
2:17:24
Speaker 1: do with such actions, and if we ever got the
2:17:27
Speaker 1: least show, we would give them the cold shake and
2:17:30
Speaker 1: clear out and leave them behind. Well. Early one morning
2:17:34
Speaker 1: we hid the raft in a good safe place about
2:17:38
Speaker 1: two miles below a little bit of a shabby village
2:17:40
Speaker 1: named Pikesville, and the king he went ashore and told
2:17:44
Speaker 1: us all to stay hid whilst he went up to
2:17:47
Speaker 1: town and smelt around to see if anybody had got
2:17:50
Speaker 1: any wind of the royal nun such there yet house
2:17:53
Speaker 1: to rob you mean, says I to myself. And when
2:17:57
Speaker 1: you get through robbin it, you'll come back here and
2:18:00
Speaker 1: what has become a mean jim in the raft and
2:18:02
Speaker 1: you'll have to take it out an wonderin'. And he
2:18:05
Speaker 1: said if he warn't back by midday, the Duke and
2:18:08
Speaker 1: me would know it was all right and we was
2:18:10
Speaker 1: to come along. So we stayed where we was. The
2:18:14
Speaker 1: Duke he fretted and sweated around and was in a
2:18:17
Speaker 1: mighty sour way. He scolded us for everything, and we
2:18:21
Speaker 1: couldn't seem to do nothing right. He found fault with
2:18:24
Speaker 1: every little thing. Somethin was a bruin. Sure, I was
2:18:30
Speaker 1: good an glad when midday came and no king. We
2:18:34
Speaker 1: could have a change anyway, and maybe a chance for
2:18:37
Speaker 1: thee chance on top of it. So me and the
2:18:40
Speaker 1: Duke went up to the village and hunted around there
2:18:43
Speaker 1: for the King, and by and by we found him
2:18:45
Speaker 1: in the back room of a little low doggery, very
2:18:49
Speaker 1: tight and a lot of loafers bully ragging him for sport,
2:18:53
Speaker 1: and he a cussin' and a threatening with all his might,
2:18:57
Speaker 1: and so tight he couldn't walk and couldn't do no
2:19:00
Speaker 1: nothing to them. The Duke he begun to abuse him
2:19:03
Speaker 1: for an old fool, and the King begun to sash back.
2:19:07
Speaker 1: And the minute they was fairly at it, I lit
2:19:10
Speaker 1: out and shook the reefs out of my hind legs
2:19:13
Speaker 1: and spun down the river road like a deer, for
2:19:15
Speaker 1: I see our chance, and I made up my mind
2:19:18
Speaker 1: that it would be a long day before they ever
2:19:20
Speaker 1: seen me and Jim again. I got down there, all
2:19:24
Speaker 1: out of breath, but loaded up with joy, and sung
2:19:27
Speaker 1: out set her loose, Jim, We're all right now, But
2:19:31
Speaker 1: there warn't no answer, and nobody come out of the wigwam,
2:19:35
Speaker 1: Jim was gone. I set up a shout, and then another,
2:19:40
Speaker 1: and then another one, and run this way and that
2:19:43
Speaker 1: in the woods, whooping and screeching. But it warn't no use.
2:19:48
Speaker 1: Old Jim was gone. Then I sat down and cried.
2:19:52
Speaker 1: I couldn't help it, but I couldn't sit still long.
2:19:56
Speaker 1: Pretty Soon I went out on the road, trying to
2:19:59
Speaker 1: think what I better do. And I run across a
2:20:02
Speaker 1: boy walkin and asked him if he'd seen a strange
2:20:05
Speaker 1: nigger dress so and so, and he says yes, whereabouts,
2:20:10
Speaker 1: says I down to Silas Phelps's place two mile below here.
2:20:16
Speaker 1: He's a runaway nigger. An they've got him. Was you
2:20:19
Speaker 1: lookin for him? You bet I ain't. I run across
2:20:23
Speaker 1: him in the woods about an hour or two ago,
2:20:25
Speaker 1: an he said if I hollered, he'd cut my livers
2:20:28
Speaker 1: out and told me to lay down and stay where
2:20:30
Speaker 1: I was. And i'd done it, been there ever since,
2:20:32
Speaker 1: afeared to come out. Well, he says, you needn't be
2:20:37
Speaker 1: afeared no more, because they've got him. He run off
2:20:40
Speaker 1: from down south somewheres. It's a good job they got him. Well,
2:20:45
Speaker 1: I reckon, there's two hundred dollars reward on him. It's
2:20:49
Speaker 1: like pickin up money out in the road. Yes, it is. An.
2:20:54
Speaker 1: I could have had it if i'd been big enough.
2:20:57
Speaker 1: I see him first. Who nailed him? It was an
2:21:02
Speaker 1: old fellow, a stranger. An. He sold out his chance
2:21:05
Speaker 1: in him for forty dollars because he's got to go
2:21:08
Speaker 1: up the river and can't wait. Think o that now,
2:21:12
Speaker 1: you bet i'd wait if it was seven year. That's
2:21:16
Speaker 1: me every time, says I. But maybe his chance ain't
2:21:20
Speaker 1: worth no more than that if he'll sell it so cheap.
2:21:23
Speaker 1: Maybe there's something ain't straight about it. But it is though,
2:21:28
Speaker 1: straight as a string. I see the handbill myself. It
2:21:33
Speaker 1: tells all about him to a dit paints him like
2:21:36
Speaker 1: a picture. An tells the plantation he's from below, No
2:21:40
Speaker 1: or Leans, No, sirree Bob. They ain't no trouble about
2:21:44
Speaker 1: that speculation. You bet you say, gimme a try tobacco,
2:21:49
Speaker 1: won't ye? I didn't have none, So he left. I
2:21:54
Speaker 1: went to the raft, an set down in the wig.
2:21:57
Speaker 1: WHI I'm to think? But I couldn't come up to nothing.
2:22:01
Speaker 1: I thought till I wore my head sore. But I
2:22:04
Speaker 1: couldn't see no way out of the trouble. After all
2:22:08
Speaker 1: this long journey, and after all we'd done for them
2:22:10
Speaker 1: scoundrels here, it was all come to nothing, everything all
2:22:15
Speaker 1: busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart
2:22:18
Speaker 1: to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make
2:22:21
Speaker 1: him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers too,
2:22:26
Speaker 1: for forty dirty dollars. Once I said to myself it
2:22:31
Speaker 1: would be a thousand times better for Jim to be
2:22:33
Speaker 1: a slave at home where his family was, as long
2:22:36
Speaker 1: as he'd got to be a slave. And so I'd
2:22:39
Speaker 1: better write a letter to Tom Sawyer and tell him
2:22:42
Speaker 1: to tell miss Watson where he was. But I soon
2:22:46
Speaker 1: give up that notion, for two things. She'd be mad
2:22:49
Speaker 1: and disgusted at his rascality and ungratefulness for leaving her,
2:22:54
Speaker 1: and so she'd sell him straight down the river again.
2:22:57
Speaker 1: And if she didn't, everybody naturally did spies is an
2:23:00
Speaker 1: ungrateful nigger, and then make Jim feel it all the time,
2:23:05
Speaker 1: and so he'd feel ornery and disgraced, and then think
2:23:09
Speaker 1: of me. It would get all around the huck Finn
2:23:12
Speaker 1: helped a nigger to get his freedom. And if I
2:23:14
Speaker 1: was ever to see anybody from that town again, I'd
2:23:18
Speaker 1: be ready to get down and lick his boots for shame.
2:23:21
Speaker 1: That's just the way a person does a low down thing,
2:23:24
Speaker 1: and then he don't want to take no consequences of it, thinks,
2:23:28
Speaker 1: as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.
2:23:31
Speaker 1: That was my fix, exactly. The more I studied about this,
2:23:36
Speaker 1: the more my conscience went to grinding me, and the
2:23:39
Speaker 1: more wicked and low down and ornery I got to feelin',
2:23:43
Speaker 1: And at last when it hit me all of a sudden,
2:23:46
Speaker 1: that here was the plain hand of Providence slapping me
2:23:49
Speaker 1: in the face and letting me know my wickedness was
2:23:52
Speaker 1: being watched all the time from up there in heaven,
2:23:54
Speaker 1: whilst I was stealing a poor old woman's nigger that
2:23:57
Speaker 1: hadn't ever done me no harm, and now will show
2:24:00
Speaker 1: on me. There's one that's always on the lookout, and
2:24:02
Speaker 1: ain't a goin to allow no such miserable Doin's to
2:24:05
Speaker 1: go only just so far and no further. I most
2:24:08
Speaker 1: dropped in my tracks. I was so scared well, I
2:24:13
Speaker 1: tried the best I could to kinder soften it up
2:24:16
Speaker 1: somehow for myself by saying I was brung up wicked,
2:24:20
Speaker 1: and so I warn't so much to blame, but something
2:24:23
Speaker 1: inside of me kept saying, there was the Sunday School.
2:24:27
Speaker 1: You could have gone to it, and if you'd ha
2:24:29
Speaker 1: done it, they'd learnt you There the people that acts
2:24:32
Speaker 1: as I'd been acting about that nigger goes to everlastin' fire.
2:24:38
Speaker 1: It made me shiver, an I about made up my
2:24:40
Speaker 1: mind to pray an see if I couldn't try to
2:24:43
Speaker 1: quit beIN the kind of a boy I was an
2:24:45
Speaker 1: be better. So I kneeled down, But the words wouldn't come.
2:24:51
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't they It warn't no use to try and
2:24:54
Speaker 1: hide it from him nor from me neither. I knowed
2:24:58
Speaker 1: very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my
2:25:02
Speaker 1: heart warn't right, and it was because I warn't square.
2:25:05
Speaker 1: It was because I was playing double. I was letting
2:25:09
Speaker 1: on to give up sin, but away inside of me,
2:25:12
Speaker 1: I was holding on to the biggest one of all.
2:25:15
Speaker 1: I was trying to make my mouth say I would
2:25:17
Speaker 1: do the right thing and the clean thing, and going
2:25:20
Speaker 1: right to that nigger's owner until where he was. But
2:25:24
Speaker 1: deep down in me, I knowed it was a lie,
2:25:27
Speaker 1: and he knowed it. You can't pray a lie. I
2:25:31
Speaker 1: found that out. So I was full of trouble, full
2:25:36
Speaker 1: as I could be, and didn't know what to do.
2:25:39
Speaker 1: At last I had an idea, and I says, I'll
2:25:43
Speaker 1: go and write the letter and then see if I
2:25:45
Speaker 1: can pray. Why it was astonishing the way I felt
2:25:49
Speaker 1: as light as a feather right straight off, and my
2:25:52
Speaker 1: trouble's all gone. So I got a piece of paper
2:25:55
Speaker 1: and a pencil, all glad and excited, and sat down
2:25:59
Speaker 1: and wrote, Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down
2:26:04
Speaker 1: here to my blow Pikesville. An. Mister Phelps has got him,
2:26:09
Speaker 1: an he will give him up for the reward if
2:26:11
Speaker 1: you send huck Finn. I felt good, an, all washed
2:26:17
Speaker 1: clean of sin, for the first time I had ever
2:26:20
Speaker 1: felt so in my life. An, I knowed I could
2:26:23
Speaker 1: pray now, but I didn't do it straight off, but
2:26:27
Speaker 1: laid the paper down, an set there thinkin' thinkin how
2:26:31
Speaker 1: good it was all this happened, so an, how near
2:26:34
Speaker 1: I come to beIN lost? An goin to hell? An
2:26:36
Speaker 1: went on thinkin, an got to thinkin over our trip
2:26:40
Speaker 1: down the river. And I see Jim before me all
2:26:43
Speaker 1: the time in the day and in the night time,
2:26:47
Speaker 1: sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms an we are floating along, talkin
2:26:54
Speaker 1: and singin an laughin'. But somehow I couldn't seem to
2:26:58
Speaker 1: strike no place to hearten me against him, but only
2:27:02
Speaker 1: the other kind. I'd see him stand in my watch
2:27:06
Speaker 1: on top of his'n' instead of calling me, so I
2:27:09
Speaker 1: could go on sleeping and see him. How glad he
2:27:13
Speaker 1: was when I come back out of the fog, and
2:27:16
Speaker 1: when I come home to him again in the swamp
2:27:18
Speaker 1: up there where the feud was, and such like times,
2:27:23
Speaker 1: and would always call me honey and pet me, and
2:27:25
Speaker 1: do everything he could think of for me, and how
2:27:28
Speaker 1: good he always was. And at last I struck the
2:27:33
Speaker 1: time I saved him by telling the men we had
2:27:36
Speaker 1: smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful and said I
2:27:39
Speaker 1: was the best friend Old Jim ever had in the world,
2:27:43
Speaker 1: and the only one he's got now. And then I
2:27:47
Speaker 1: happened to look around and see that paper. It was
2:27:51
Speaker 1: a close place. I took it up and held it
2:27:55
Speaker 1: in my hand. I was a trembling because I'd got
2:27:59
Speaker 1: to decide for ever betwixt two things, and I knowed it.
2:28:03
Speaker 1: I studied a minute sare to holding my breath and
2:28:07
Speaker 1: then says to myself, all right, then I'll go to
2:28:12
Speaker 1: hell and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and
2:28:17
Speaker 1: awful words, but they was said, and I let them
2:28:20
Speaker 1: stay said, and never thought no more about reforming. I
2:28:23
Speaker 1: shoved the whole thing out of my head and said
2:28:26
Speaker 1: I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line,
2:28:30
Speaker 1: beIN brung up to it and the other warn't, and
2:28:33
Speaker 1: for a starter, I will go to work and steal
2:28:36
Speaker 1: Jim out of slavery again. And if I could think
2:28:39
Speaker 1: up anything worse, I would do that too, because as
2:28:42
Speaker 1: long as I was in and in for good, I
2:28:44
Speaker 1: might as well go the whole hog. Then I set
2:28:48
Speaker 1: to thinking over how to get at it, and turned
2:28:51
Speaker 1: over some considerable many ways in my mind, and at
2:28:54
Speaker 1: last fixed up a plan that suited me. So then
2:28:58
Speaker 1: I took the bearings of a wood the island that
2:29:00
Speaker 1: was down the river apiece an as soon as it
2:29:03
Speaker 1: was fairly dark, I crept out with my raft and
2:29:06
Speaker 1: went for it and hid it there, and then turned in.
2:29:10
Speaker 1: I slept the night through and got up before it
2:29:13
Speaker 1: was light, and had my breakfast, and put on my
2:29:16
Speaker 1: store clothes, and tied up some others in one thing
2:29:19
Speaker 1: or another in a bundle, and took the canoe and
2:29:22
Speaker 1: cleared for shore. I landed below where I judged was
2:29:26
Speaker 1: Phelps's place, and hidden my bundle in the woods, and
2:29:29
Speaker 1: then filled up the canoe with water and loaded rocks
2:29:32
Speaker 1: into her and sunk her where I could find her
2:29:34
Speaker 1: again when I wanted her, about a quarter of a
2:29:37
Speaker 1: mile below a little steam sawmill that was on the bank.
2:29:42
Speaker 1: Then I struck up the road, and when I passed
2:29:44
Speaker 1: the mill, I see a sign on it Phelps saw Mill.
2:29:49
Speaker 1: And when I come to the farm houses two or
2:29:51
Speaker 1: three hundred yards further long, I kept my eyes pealed,
2:29:55
Speaker 1: but didn't see nobody around, though it was good daylight now,
2:30:00
Speaker 1: but I didn't mind, because I didn't want to see
2:30:02
Speaker 1: nobody just yet. I only wanted to get the lay
2:30:05
Speaker 1: of the land. According my plan, I was goin to
2:30:08
Speaker 1: turn up there from the village, not from below, so
2:30:12
Speaker 1: I just took a look an shoved along straight for town. Well,
2:30:17
Speaker 1: the first man I see when I got there was
2:30:20
Speaker 1: the duke. He was stickin up a bill for the
2:30:24
Speaker 1: Royal nun such three night performance like that other time
2:30:28
Speaker 1: they had the cheek them frauds. I was right on
2:30:32
Speaker 1: him before I could shirk. He looked astonished and says, hullo,
2:30:38
Speaker 1: where'd you come from? Then he says, kind of glad
2:30:42
Speaker 1: and eager. Where's the raft got her in a good place?
2:30:48
Speaker 1: I says, why, that's just what I was goin to
2:30:51
Speaker 1: ask your grace. Then he didn't look so joyful and says,
2:30:56
Speaker 1: what was your idea for askin me? He says, well,
2:31:02
Speaker 1: I says, when I see the king an that doggery yesterday,
2:31:06
Speaker 1: I says to myself. We can't get him home for
2:31:09
Speaker 1: hours till he's soberer. So I went a loafing around
2:31:12
Speaker 1: town to put in the time and wait. A man
2:31:15
Speaker 1: up An offered me ten cents to help him pull
2:31:17
Speaker 1: the skiff over the river an back to fetch a sheep,
2:31:20
Speaker 1: and so I went along. But when we was dragging
2:31:23
Speaker 1: him to the boat and the man left me a
2:31:25
Speaker 1: holt so of the rope and went behind him to
2:31:27
Speaker 1: shove him along, he was too strong for me and
2:31:30
Speaker 1: jerked loose and run and we after him. We didn't
2:31:34
Speaker 1: have no dog, and so we had to chase him
2:31:37
Speaker 1: all over the country till we tired him out. We
2:31:40
Speaker 1: never got him till dark. Then we fetched him over
2:31:43
Speaker 1: an I started down for the raft. When I got there,
2:31:47
Speaker 1: an I see it was gone. I says to myself,
2:31:49
Speaker 1: they've gotten into trouble. AN had to leave. An They've
2:31:52
Speaker 1: took my nigger, which is the only nigger I've gotten
2:31:55
Speaker 1: the world. And now I'm in a strange country and
2:31:57
Speaker 1: ain't got no property, no more, no or nothing, and
2:32:01
Speaker 1: no way to make my living. So I sat down
2:32:04
Speaker 1: and cried. I slept in the woods all night. But
2:32:09
Speaker 1: what did become of the raft? Then? And Jim, poor
2:32:13
Speaker 1: Jim blamed if I know that is what's become of
2:32:18
Speaker 1: the raft. That old fool had made a trade and
2:32:22
Speaker 1: got forty dollars, And when we found him in the doggery,
2:32:26
Speaker 1: the loafers had matched half dollars with him and got
2:32:30
Speaker 1: every cent but what he'd spent for whiskey. And when
2:32:34
Speaker 1: I got him home late last night and found the
2:32:36
Speaker 1: raft gone, we said that little rascal has stole our
2:32:41
Speaker 1: raft and shook us and run off down the river.
2:32:46
Speaker 1: I wouldn't shake my nigger, would I The only nigger
2:32:49
Speaker 1: I had in the world, and the only property. We
2:32:52
Speaker 1: never thought of that fact, is I reckon. We'd come
2:32:57
Speaker 1: to consider him our nigger. Yeah, we did consider him
2:33:01
Speaker 1: so Goodness knows we had trouble enough for him. So
2:33:06
Speaker 1: when we see the raft was gone and we flat broke,
2:33:10
Speaker 1: there warn't anything for it but to try the royal nuns.
2:33:13
Speaker 1: Such another shake, And I've pegged along ever since, dry
2:33:18
Speaker 1: as a powder horn. Where's that ten cents? Give it here?
2:33:25
Speaker 1: I had considerable money, so I give him ten cents,
2:33:29
Speaker 1: but begged him to spend it for something to eat
2:33:31
Speaker 1: and give me some because it was all the money
2:33:33
Speaker 1: I had, and I hadn't had nothing to eat since yesterday.
2:33:38
Speaker 1: He never said nothing. The next minute he whirls on
2:33:42
Speaker 1: me and says, do you reckon that nigger will blow
2:33:45
Speaker 1: on us? We'd skin him if he done that? How
2:33:50
Speaker 1: can he blow? Ain't he run off? No, that old
2:33:55
Speaker 1: fool sold him and never divided with me. And the
2:34:00
Speaker 1: he's gone sold him, I says, an begun to cry.
2:34:05
Speaker 1: Why he was my nigger? An that was my money?
2:34:09
Speaker 1: Where is he? I want my nigger? Well you can't
2:34:13
Speaker 1: get yer nigger, that's all, So dry up your blubberin
2:34:17
Speaker 1: look ye here? Do ye think you'd venture to blow
2:34:21
Speaker 1: on us? Blamed? If I think I'd trust you? Why
2:34:26
Speaker 1: if you was to blow on us. He stopped. But
2:34:30
Speaker 1: I never see the duke look so ugly out of
2:34:33
Speaker 1: his eyes before I went on a whimperin An says,
2:34:38
Speaker 1: I don't want to blow on nobody. An, I ain't
2:34:41
Speaker 1: got no time to blow nohow, I got to turn
2:34:44
Speaker 1: out an find my nigger. He looked kinder bothered. An
2:34:49
Speaker 1: stood there with his bills flutterin on his arm, thinkin
2:34:53
Speaker 1: and wrinkling up his forehead. At last, he says, I'll
2:34:58
Speaker 1: tell ye somethin'. We got to be here three days.
2:35:03
Speaker 1: If you'll promise you won't blow and won't let the
2:35:05
Speaker 1: nigger blow, I'll tell you where to find him. So
2:35:10
Speaker 1: I promised, and he says, a farmer by the name
2:35:14
Speaker 1: of Silas. And then he stopped. You see, he started
2:35:19
Speaker 1: to tell me the truth. But when he stopped that
2:35:22
Speaker 1: way and begun to study and think again, I reckoned
2:35:25
Speaker 1: he was changing his mind, and so he was. He
2:35:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't trust me. He wanted to make sure of having
2:35:31
Speaker 1: me out of the way the whole three days. So
2:35:35
Speaker 1: pretty soon he says. The man that bought him is
2:35:38
Speaker 1: named Abram Foster, Abram G. Foster, and he lives fot
2:35:44
Speaker 1: a mile back here in the country on the road
2:35:47
Speaker 1: to Lafaye. Yet all right, I says, I can walk
2:35:52
Speaker 1: it him three days, and I'll start this very afternoon.
2:35:57
Speaker 1: No you won't. You'll start now. An. Don't you lose
2:36:01
Speaker 1: any time about it, neither nor do any gabblin. By
2:36:05
Speaker 1: the way, jest, keep a tight tongue in your head.
2:36:08
Speaker 1: An move right along, An, then you won't get into
2:36:11
Speaker 1: trouble with us, d'ye hear? That was the order I wanted, An,
2:36:17
Speaker 1: that was the one I played for. I wanted to
2:36:19
Speaker 1: be left free to work my plans. So clear out,
2:36:24
Speaker 1: he says, An. You can tell mister Foster whatever you
2:36:27
Speaker 1: want to. Maybe you can git him to believe that
2:36:31
Speaker 1: Jim is your nigger. Some idiots don't require documents, leastways
2:36:36
Speaker 1: I've heard they're such down south here. When you tell
2:36:40
Speaker 1: him the handbill an, the reward's bogus, maybe he'll believe
2:36:44
Speaker 1: you when you explain to him what the idea was
2:36:47
Speaker 1: for gettin em out, Go along now, An, tell him
2:36:51
Speaker 1: anything you want to, but mind you don't work your
2:36:55
Speaker 1: jaw any between here and there. So I left and
2:37:00
Speaker 1: struck for the back country. I didn't look around, but
2:37:04
Speaker 1: I kind of felt like he was watching me, but
2:37:07
Speaker 1: I knowed I could tire him out of that. I
2:37:10
Speaker 1: went straight out in the country as much as a
2:37:12
Speaker 1: mile before I stopped. Then I doubled back through the
2:37:15
Speaker 1: woods towards Phelps's. I reckoned, I'd better start in on
2:37:19
Speaker 1: my plants straight off, without fooling around, because I wanted
2:37:23
Speaker 1: to stop Jim's mouth till these fellows could get away.
2:37:27
Speaker 1: I didn't want no trouble with their kind. I'd seen
2:37:30
Speaker 1: all I wanted to of them, and wanted to get
2:37:33
Speaker 1: entirely shut of them. End of chapter thirty one. This
2:37:43
Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
2:37:47
Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
2:37:51
Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Annie Coleman in Saint Louis, Missouri,
2:37:58
Speaker 1: in May two thousand and six. The Adventures of Huckleberry
2:38:02
Speaker 1: Finn by Mark Twain, Chapter thirty two. When I got there,
2:38:10
Speaker 1: it was all still and sunday like and hot and sunshiny.
2:38:14
Speaker 1: The hands was gone to the fields, and there was
2:38:17
Speaker 1: them kind of faint dronings of bugs and flies in
2:38:20
Speaker 1: the air that makes it seem so lonesome and like
2:38:23
Speaker 1: everybody's dead and gone. And if a breeze fans along
2:38:27
Speaker 1: and quivers the leaves, it makes you feel mournful because
2:38:30
Speaker 1: you feel like it's spirits, whispering spirits that's been dead
2:38:35
Speaker 1: ever so many years, and you always think they're talking
2:38:38
Speaker 1: about you as a general thing. It makes a body
2:38:42
Speaker 1: wish he was dead too and done with it all.
2:38:45
Speaker 1: Phelps's was one of these little one horse cotton plantations,
2:38:50
Speaker 1: and they all look alike. A rail fence round a
2:38:53
Speaker 1: two acre yard, a style made out of log sawed
2:38:56
Speaker 1: off and upended in steps like barrels of a different
2:39:00
Speaker 1: at length to climb over the fence with, and for
2:39:03
Speaker 1: the women to stand on when they are going to
2:39:05
Speaker 1: jump on to a horse. Some sickly grass patches in
2:39:08
Speaker 1: the big yard, but mostly it was barren, smooth like
2:39:12
Speaker 1: an old hat with the nub rubbed off. Big double
2:39:16
Speaker 1: log house for the white folks. Hewed logs with the
2:39:20
Speaker 1: chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mudstrips
2:39:24
Speaker 1: been whitewashed sometime or another round log kitchen with a big, broad,
2:39:30
Speaker 1: open but roofed passage joining it to the house. Logs
2:39:34
Speaker 1: smoke house back of the kitchen, three little log nigger
2:39:38
Speaker 1: cabins in a road the other side of the smoke house,
2:39:41
Speaker 1: one little hut all by itself away down against the
2:39:44
Speaker 1: back fence, and some outbuildings down a piece the other side,
2:39:48
Speaker 1: ash hopper and big kettle to buy a soap in
2:39:51
Speaker 1: by the little hut bench by the kitchen door, with
2:39:55
Speaker 1: bucket of water, and a gourd hound to sleep there
2:39:58
Speaker 1: in the sun. More hounds asleep round about about three
2:40:03
Speaker 1: shade trees away off in a corner, some currant bushes
2:40:06
Speaker 1: and gooseberry bushes in one place by the fence. Outside
2:40:10
Speaker 1: of the fence, a garden and a watermelon patch. Then
2:40:14
Speaker 1: the cotton fields begins, and after the fields the woods.
2:40:19
Speaker 1: I went around and clumb over the back style by
2:40:22
Speaker 1: the ash hopper, and started for the kitchen. When I
2:40:26
Speaker 1: got a little ways, I heard the dim hum of
2:40:28
Speaker 1: a spinning wheel, wailing along up and sinking along down again.
2:40:34
Speaker 1: And then I knowed for certain I wished I was dead,
2:40:37
Speaker 1: for that is the lonesomest sound in the whole world.
2:40:41
Speaker 1: I went right along, not fixing up any particular plan,
2:40:45
Speaker 1: but just trusting to Providence to put the right words
2:40:48
Speaker 1: in my mouth when the time come. For I noticed
2:40:51
Speaker 1: that Providence always did put the right words in my
2:40:54
Speaker 1: mouth if I left it alone. When I got half way,
2:40:58
Speaker 1: first one hound and then another got up and went
2:41:01
Speaker 1: for me, And of course I stopped and faced them
2:41:04
Speaker 1: and kept still, and such another pow wow as they
2:41:07
Speaker 1: made in a quarter of a minute. I was a
2:41:11
Speaker 1: kind of a hub of a wheel, as you may say,
2:41:13
Speaker 1: spokes made out of dogs. Circle of fifteen of them
2:41:17
Speaker 1: packed together around me, with their necks and noses stretched
2:41:21
Speaker 1: up towards me, a barkin' an howlin', an more comin'.
2:41:25
Speaker 1: You could see them sailin over fences and round corners
2:41:29
Speaker 1: from everywheres. A nigger woman come tearin out of the
2:41:32
Speaker 1: kitchen with a rolling pin in her hand, singin out
2:41:36
Speaker 1: begone you tag you spot begone sah. And she fetched
2:41:41
Speaker 1: first one and then another, then with a clip and
2:41:43
Speaker 1: sent them howlin'. And then the rest followed, and the
2:41:47
Speaker 1: next second half of them come back, wagging their tails
2:41:50
Speaker 1: round me and making friends with me. There ain't no harm,
2:41:54
Speaker 1: an hound, no how an. Behind the woman comes a
2:41:58
Speaker 1: little nigger girl and two little nicker boys without anything
2:42:01
Speaker 1: on but tow linen shirts. And they hung on to
2:42:04
Speaker 1: their mother's gown and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful,
2:42:09
Speaker 1: the way they always do. And here comes the white
2:42:12
Speaker 1: woman runnin from the house, about forty five or fifty
2:42:16
Speaker 1: years old, bare headed and her spinnin sticking her hand,
2:42:20
Speaker 1: and behind her comes her little white children, acting the
2:42:24
Speaker 1: same way the little niggers was goin. She was smilin
2:42:27
Speaker 1: all over so she could hardly stand, and says, it's
2:42:31
Speaker 1: you at last, ain't it? I out with a yis'um
2:42:37
Speaker 1: before I thought. She grabbed me and hugged me tight,
2:42:41
Speaker 1: and then gripped me by both hands and shook and shook,
2:42:45
Speaker 1: and the tears come in her eyes. An run down
2:42:47
Speaker 1: over an. She couldn't seem to hug an shake enough,
2:42:51
Speaker 1: An kept saying, you don't look as much like your
2:42:54
Speaker 1: mother as I reckoned you would. But loss sikes, I
2:42:57
Speaker 1: don't care for that. I'm so glad to see you, dear, dear,
2:43:01
Speaker 1: it does seem like I could eat you up. Children.
2:43:03
Speaker 1: It's your cousin Tom, tell him howdye. But they ducked
2:43:08
Speaker 1: their heads and put their fingers in their mouths and
2:43:10
Speaker 1: hid behind her. So she run on lies hurry up
2:43:15
Speaker 1: an get him a hot breakfast. Right away, or did
2:43:17
Speaker 1: you get your breakfast on the boat? I said I
2:43:20
Speaker 1: had got it on the boat. So then she started
2:43:23
Speaker 1: for the house, leading me by the hand, and the
2:43:26
Speaker 1: children taggin after. When we got there, she stepped me
2:43:29
Speaker 1: down in a split bottomed chair and set herself down
2:43:32
Speaker 1: on a little low stool in front of me, holding
2:43:35
Speaker 1: both of my hands, and says, now I can have
2:43:38
Speaker 1: a good look at you, an laws an me. I've
2:43:41
Speaker 1: been hungry for it a many an a many a
2:43:44
Speaker 1: time all these long years. An, It's comin at last.
2:43:48
Speaker 1: We've been expectin you a couple of days and more.
2:43:51
Speaker 1: What kep you boat get a ground? Yes'm? She don't
2:43:56
Speaker 1: say yes'm, see aunt sally, which get aground? I didn't
2:44:02
Speaker 1: rightly know what to say, because I didn't know whether
2:44:05
Speaker 1: the boat would be comin up the river or down.
2:44:08
Speaker 1: But I go a good deal on instinct, and my
2:44:10
Speaker 1: instincts said she would be comin up from down towards Orleans.
2:44:15
Speaker 1: That didn't help me much, though, for I didn't know
2:44:17
Speaker 1: the names of bars down that way. I see, I
2:44:21
Speaker 1: got to invent a bar, or forget the name of
2:44:23
Speaker 1: the one we got aground on or now I struck
2:44:27
Speaker 1: an idea, An fetched it out. It warn't the groundin
2:44:31
Speaker 1: that didn't keep us back, but a little we blowed
2:44:34
Speaker 1: out a cylinder head. Good gracious, anybody hurt? No, um
2:44:41
Speaker 1: killed a nigger. Well it's lucky because sometimes people do
2:44:46
Speaker 1: get hurt. Two years ago, last Christmas, your uncle Silas
2:44:49
Speaker 1: was comin up from New Orleans on the lally rook An.
2:44:52
Speaker 1: She blowed out a cylinder head an crippled a man,
2:44:55
Speaker 1: and I think he died afterwards. He was a Baptist,
2:44:59
Speaker 1: your uncle, not a family in Baton Rouge that knowed
2:45:02
Speaker 1: his people very well. Yes, I remember now he did die.
2:45:06
Speaker 1: Mortification set in an They had to amputate him, but
2:45:10
Speaker 1: it didn't save him. Yes, it was mortification, that was it.
2:45:14
Speaker 1: He turned blue all over an died in the hope
2:45:17
Speaker 1: of a glorious resurrection. They say he was a sight
2:45:21
Speaker 1: to look at. Your uncle's been up to the town
2:45:24
Speaker 1: every day to fetch you an he's gone again, not
2:45:27
Speaker 1: morn an hour ago. I'll be back any minute. Now.
2:45:30
Speaker 1: You must have met him on the road, didn't you,
2:45:32
Speaker 1: Oldish man with a No, I didn't see nobody, Aunt Sallie.
2:45:37
Speaker 1: The boat landed just to daylight, and I left my
2:45:40
Speaker 1: baggage on the wharf boat and went looking around the
2:45:43
Speaker 1: town an out a piece in the country to put
2:45:45
Speaker 1: in the time and not get here too soon. And
2:45:48
Speaker 1: so I come down the back way. Who'd you give
2:45:51
Speaker 1: the baggage to nobody? Why? Child, it'll be stole, not
2:45:57
Speaker 1: where I hidden. I reckon it won't, I says. How'd
2:46:01
Speaker 1: you get your breakfast so early on the boat? It
2:46:05
Speaker 1: was kinder thin ice, But I says, the captain seen
2:46:09
Speaker 1: me standing around and told me I'd better have something
2:46:11
Speaker 1: to eat before I went ashore. So he took me
2:46:14
Speaker 1: in the Texas to the officer's lunch and give me
2:46:17
Speaker 1: all I wanted. I was getting so uneasy I couldn't
2:46:21
Speaker 1: listen good. I had my mind on the children all
2:46:24
Speaker 1: the time. I wanted to get them out to one
2:46:26
Speaker 1: side and pump them a little and find out who
2:46:29
Speaker 1: I was. But I couldn't get no show. Missus Phelps
2:46:32
Speaker 1: kept it up and run on. So pretty soon she
2:46:35
Speaker 1: made the cold chill streak all down my back, because
2:46:38
Speaker 1: she says, but here we're a running on this way,
2:46:42
Speaker 1: and you hain't told me a word about Cis nor
2:46:45
Speaker 1: any of them. Now, I'll rest of my works a little,
2:46:48
Speaker 1: and you start up, yorn. Just tell me everything. Tell
2:46:52
Speaker 1: me all about em, all every one of em, and
2:46:54
Speaker 1: how they are, and what they're doing, and what they
2:46:57
Speaker 1: told you to tell me, and every last thing you
2:47:00
Speaker 1: can think of. Well, I see I was up a stump,
2:47:05
Speaker 1: an up it. Good providence had stood by me. This
2:47:09
Speaker 1: fur all right, But I was hard an tight o ground.
2:47:12
Speaker 1: Now I see it warn't a bit of use to
2:47:14
Speaker 1: try to go ahead. I'd got to throw up my hand.
2:47:18
Speaker 1: So I says to myself, here's another place where I
2:47:21
Speaker 1: got to risk the truth. I opened my mouth to begin,
2:47:25
Speaker 1: but she had grabbed me an hustled me in behind
2:47:28
Speaker 1: the bed, An says, here he comes, stick your head
2:47:32
Speaker 1: down lower there, that'll do. He can't be seen. Now,
2:47:36
Speaker 1: don't you let on your hair. I'll play joke on him. Children,
2:47:40
Speaker 1: don't you say a word. I see I was in
2:47:44
Speaker 1: a fix now, But it warn't no use to worry.
2:47:47
Speaker 1: There warn't nothin to do, But jes hold still, an
2:47:49
Speaker 1: try to be ready to stand from under. When the
2:47:52
Speaker 1: lightnin struck, I had just one little glimpse of the
2:47:55
Speaker 1: old gentleman when he come in. Then the bed hid him.
2:48:00
Speaker 1: Missus phelps She jumps from him and says, has he come? No,
2:48:05
Speaker 1: says her husband. Goodness gracious, She says, what in the
2:48:11
Speaker 1: world can have to come o him? I can't imagine,
2:48:15
Speaker 1: says the old gentleman. And I must say it makes
2:48:18
Speaker 1: me dreadful, uneasy, uneasy, she says, I'm ready to go distracted.
2:48:25
Speaker 1: He must a come, and you've missed him along the road.
2:48:28
Speaker 1: I know it's so, Something tells me. So why Sally,
2:48:34
Speaker 1: I couldn't miss him along the road? You know that?
2:48:38
Speaker 1: But oh, dear, dear, what will SIS say? He must
2:48:42
Speaker 1: a come, he must have missed him? He? Oh, don't
2:48:46
Speaker 1: distress me any more'n I'm already distressed. I don't know
2:48:50
Speaker 1: what in the world to make of it. I'm at
2:48:52
Speaker 1: my wits end. An, I don't mind acknowledging that I'm
2:48:56
Speaker 1: right down scared. But there's no hope that he's come
2:48:59
Speaker 1: for couldn't come an me miss him? Salah, It's terrible,
2:49:04
Speaker 1: just terrible. Something's happened to the boat. Sure, why Silas,
2:49:10
Speaker 1: look yonder up the road. Ain't that somebody comin? He
2:49:15
Speaker 1: sprung to the window at the head of the bed.
2:49:18
Speaker 1: An that give missus Phelps a chance? She wanted. She
2:49:21
Speaker 1: stooped down quick at the foot of the bed and
2:49:23
Speaker 1: give me a pull, and out I come. And when
2:49:26
Speaker 1: he turned back from the window, there she stood, a
2:49:29
Speaker 1: beaming and a smilin' like a house of fire. And
2:49:32
Speaker 1: I standin pretty, meek and sweaty alongside. The old gentleman
2:49:37
Speaker 1: stared and says, why who's that? Who do you reckon
2:49:42
Speaker 1: it is? I ain't no idea who is it? It's
2:49:48
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer by jings, I'm most slumped through the floor,
2:49:55
Speaker 1: But there warn't no time to swap knives. The old
2:49:58
Speaker 1: man grabbed me by the hand and sho and kept
2:50:00
Speaker 1: on shaking. And all the time how the woman did
2:50:04
Speaker 1: dance around and laugh and cry, And then how they
2:50:07
Speaker 1: both did fire off questions about sid and marrying the
2:50:10
Speaker 1: rest of the tribe. But if they was joyful, it
2:50:14
Speaker 1: weren't nothing to what I was. For. It was like
2:50:17
Speaker 1: being born again. I was so glad to find out
2:50:19
Speaker 1: who I was. Well. They froze to me for two hours,
2:50:23
Speaker 1: and at last, when my chin was so tired it
2:50:26
Speaker 1: couldn't hardly go anymore, I had told them more about
2:50:29
Speaker 1: my family, I mean, the Sawyer family, than ever happened
2:50:33
Speaker 1: to any six Sawyer families, and I explained all about
2:50:37
Speaker 1: how we blow it out a cylinder head at the
2:50:39
Speaker 1: mouth of White River, and it took us three days
2:50:42
Speaker 1: to fix it, which was all right and worked first
2:50:44
Speaker 1: rate because they didn't know but what it would take
2:50:47
Speaker 1: three days to fix it. If i'd ha called it
2:50:50
Speaker 1: a bolt head, it would have done just as well.
2:50:53
Speaker 1: Now I was feeling pretty comfortable all down one side,
2:50:56
Speaker 1: and pretty uncomfortable all up the other. Being Tom Sawyer
2:51:00
Speaker 1: was easy and comfortable, and it stayed easy and comfortable
2:51:04
Speaker 1: till by and by I hear a steamboat coughing along
2:51:08
Speaker 1: down the river. Then I says to myself, s'pose Tom
2:51:13
Speaker 1: Sawyer comes down on that boat, and s'pose he steps
2:51:16
Speaker 1: in here an a minute and sings out my name
2:51:19
Speaker 1: before I can throw him a wink to keep quiet. Well,
2:51:24
Speaker 1: I couldn't have it that way. It wouldn't do at all.
2:51:27
Speaker 1: I must go up the road and waylay him. So
2:51:30
Speaker 1: I told the folks I reckoned, I will go up
2:51:32
Speaker 1: to the town and fetch down my baggage. The old
2:51:36
Speaker 1: gentleman was for going along with me, but I said no,
2:51:39
Speaker 1: I could drive the horse myself, and i'd ruther he
2:51:42
Speaker 1: wouldn't take no trouble about me. End of chapter thirty two,
2:51:49
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three. So I started for town in the wagon,
2:51:56
Speaker 1: and when I was halfway, I see a wagon coming,
2:51:59
Speaker 1: and sure enough it was Tom Sawyer, and I stopped
2:52:03
Speaker 1: and waited till he come along. I says, hold on,
2:52:07
Speaker 1: And it stopped alongside, and his mouth opened up like
2:52:11
Speaker 1: a trunk and stayed so, and he swallowed two or
2:52:15
Speaker 1: three times, like a person that's got a dry throat,
2:52:18
Speaker 1: and then says, I ain't ever done you no harm?
2:52:22
Speaker 1: You know that? So then what you want to come
2:52:25
Speaker 1: back and haunt me for? I says, I ain't come back.
2:52:30
Speaker 1: I ain't been gone. When he heard my voice, it
2:52:33
Speaker 1: righted him up some, but he warn't quite satisfied yet.
2:52:37
Speaker 1: He says, don't you play nothing on me, because I
2:52:41
Speaker 1: wouldn't on you, honest engine. You ain't a ghost, honest engine,
2:52:46
Speaker 1: I ain't, I says, well I I. Well, that ought
2:52:53
Speaker 1: to settle it, of course, but I can't somehow seem
2:52:56
Speaker 1: to understand it. No way. Look here, weren't you ever
2:52:59
Speaker 1: murdered at all? No? I war ever murdered at all.
2:53:03
Speaker 1: I played it on them. You come in here and
2:53:06
Speaker 1: feel of me if you don't believe me. So he
2:53:09
Speaker 1: done it, and it satisfied him, and he was that
2:53:12
Speaker 1: glad to see me again. He didn't know what to do,
2:53:16
Speaker 1: and he wanted to know all about it right off,
2:53:18
Speaker 1: because it was a grand adventure and mysterious, and so
2:53:22
Speaker 1: it hit him where he lived. But I said leave
2:53:25
Speaker 1: it alone till by and by, and told his driver
2:53:27
Speaker 1: to wait, and we drove off a little piece, and
2:53:30
Speaker 1: I told him the kind of a fix I was in,
2:53:32
Speaker 1: and what did he reckon? We better do? He said,
2:53:36
Speaker 1: Let him alone a minute, and don't disturb him. So
2:53:39
Speaker 1: he thought and thought, and pretty soon he says, it's
2:53:43
Speaker 1: all right. I've got it. Take my trunk and your
2:53:46
Speaker 1: wagon and let on. It's yorn, and you turn back
2:53:50
Speaker 1: and full a long slow so as to get to
2:53:52
Speaker 1: the house about the time you ought to, And all
2:53:55
Speaker 1: go towards town a piece and take a fresh start
2:53:59
Speaker 1: and get there quarter or a half an hour after you.
2:54:02
Speaker 1: And you needn't let on to know me at first,
2:54:06
Speaker 1: I says, all right, but wait a minute. There's one
2:54:09
Speaker 1: more thing, a thing that nobody don't know but me,
2:54:13
Speaker 1: and that is there's a nigger here that I'm a
2:54:16
Speaker 1: trying to steal out of slavery. And his name is Jim. Oh,
2:54:21
Speaker 1: Miss Watson's Jim. He says, what why Jim is? He
2:54:28
Speaker 1: stopped and went to study in. I says, I know
2:54:32
Speaker 1: what you'll say. You'll say it's dirty, low down business.
2:54:36
Speaker 1: But what if it is? I'm low down and I'm
2:54:38
Speaker 1: a going to steal him? And I want you keep
2:54:40
Speaker 1: mum and not let on? Will you? His eye lit
2:54:44
Speaker 1: up and he says, I'll help you steal him. Well,
2:54:50
Speaker 1: I let go all holts then like I was shot.
2:54:53
Speaker 1: It was the most astonishing speech I ever heard, and
2:54:56
Speaker 1: I'm bound to say Tom Sawyer felt considerable in my estimation.
2:55:01
Speaker 1: Only I couldn't believe it. Tom Sawyer a nigger stealer.
2:55:06
Speaker 1: Ah shucks, I says, you're jokin'. I ain't jokin' either. Well,
2:55:13
Speaker 1: then I says, jokin or no jokin'. If you hear
2:55:17
Speaker 1: anything said about a runaway nigger, don't forget to remember
2:55:20
Speaker 1: that you don't know nothin about him. An I don't
2:55:23
Speaker 1: know nothin about him. Then we took the trunk and
2:55:27
Speaker 1: put it on my wagon, and he drove off his way,
2:55:29
Speaker 1: an I drove mine. But of course, I forgot all
2:55:32
Speaker 1: about driving slow on account of beIN glad and full
2:55:36
Speaker 1: of sinkin', so I got home a heap too quick
2:55:38
Speaker 1: for that length of a trip. The old gentleman was
2:55:41
Speaker 1: at the door, and he says, why this is wonderful?
2:55:45
Speaker 1: Whoever would have thought it was in that mare to
2:55:47
Speaker 1: do it? I wish we'da timed her an she hain't
2:55:51
Speaker 1: sweated a hare, not a hare. It's wonderful. Why I
2:55:56
Speaker 1: wouldn't take a hundred dollars for that horse? Now, I
2:55:58
Speaker 1: wouldn't honest, And yet i'd a sold her for fifteen before,
2:56:02
Speaker 1: and thought twas all she was worth. That's all he said.
2:56:06
Speaker 1: He was the innocentest, best old soul I ever see.
2:56:10
Speaker 1: But it warn't surprising because he warn't only just a farmer.
2:56:14
Speaker 1: He was a preacher too, and had a little one
2:56:16
Speaker 1: horse log church down back of the plantation, which he
2:56:20
Speaker 1: built it himself at his own expense, for a church
2:56:23
Speaker 1: and schoolhouse, and never charged nothing for his preachin and
2:56:27
Speaker 1: it was worth it too. There was plenty other farmer
2:56:30
Speaker 1: preachers like that An done the same way down south.
2:56:34
Speaker 1: In about half an hour, Tom's wagon drove up to
2:56:37
Speaker 1: the front style and Aunt Sally. She seed through the
2:56:40
Speaker 1: window because it was only about fifty yards and says,
2:56:45
Speaker 1: why there's somebody come, I wonder who tis? Why? I
2:56:49
Speaker 1: do believe it's a stranger, Jimmy, that's one of the
2:56:52
Speaker 1: children running to lies to put on another plate for dinner.
2:56:57
Speaker 1: Everybody made a rush for the front door, because of
2:57:00
Speaker 1: course a stranger don't come every year, and so he
2:57:03
Speaker 1: lays over the yowler fever for interest. When he does come,
2:57:08
Speaker 1: Tom was over the stile and starting for the house.
2:57:11
Speaker 1: The wagon was spinning up the road for the village,
2:57:13
Speaker 1: and we was all bunched in the front door. Tom
2:57:17
Speaker 1: had his store clothes on and an audience, and that
2:57:20
Speaker 1: was always nuts for Tom Sawyer and them circumstances. It
2:57:25
Speaker 1: warn't no trouble to him to throw in an amount
2:57:27
Speaker 1: of style that was suitable. He warn't a boy to
2:57:31
Speaker 1: meet you along up that yard like a sheep. No,
2:57:34
Speaker 1: he come calm and important like the ram. When he
2:57:38
Speaker 1: got in front of us, he lifts his hat ever
2:57:40
Speaker 1: so gracious and dainty, like it was the lid of
2:57:43
Speaker 1: a box that had butterflies asleep in it, and he
2:57:46
Speaker 1: didn't want to disturb them, and says mister Archibald Nichols.
2:57:50
Speaker 1: I presume no, my boy, says the old gentleman. I'm
2:57:56
Speaker 1: sorry to say to your driver has deceived you. Nichols's
2:57:59
Speaker 1: places down a matter three mile more. Come in, Come in, Tom.
2:58:05
Speaker 1: He took a look back over his shoulder and says,
2:58:08
Speaker 1: too late, he's out of sight. Yes, he's gone, my son,
2:58:12
Speaker 1: And you must come in and eat your dinner with us,
2:58:14
Speaker 1: and then we'll hitch up and take you down to Nichols. Oh,
2:58:18
Speaker 1: I can't make you so much trouble. I couldn't think
2:58:21
Speaker 1: of it. I'll walk. I don't mind the distance, but
2:58:24
Speaker 1: we won't let you walk. It wouldn't be Southern hospitality
2:58:28
Speaker 1: to do it. Come right in, oh, do, says Aunt Sally.
2:58:33
Speaker 1: It ain't a bit of trouble to us, not a
2:58:36
Speaker 1: bit in the world. You must stay. It's a long,
2:58:39
Speaker 1: dusty three mile and we can't let you walk. And besides,
2:58:43
Speaker 1: I've already told him to put on another plate when
2:58:45
Speaker 1: I see you coming, So you mustn't disappoint us. Come
2:58:48
Speaker 1: right in and make yourself at home. So Tom he
2:58:52
Speaker 1: thanked him, very hearty and handsome, and let himself be persuaded,
2:58:56
Speaker 1: and come in and when he was in he said
2:58:58
Speaker 1: he was a stranger from Hicksville, Ohio, and his name
2:59:02
Speaker 1: was William Thompson, and he made another bow. Well, he
2:59:07
Speaker 1: run on and on and on, making up stuff about
2:59:10
Speaker 1: Hicksville and everybody in it he could invent. And I
2:59:13
Speaker 1: getting a little nervous and wondering how this was going
2:59:16
Speaker 1: to help me out of my scrape. And at last,
2:59:19
Speaker 1: still talking along, he reached over and kissed Aunt Sally
2:59:23
Speaker 1: right on the mouth, and then settled back again in
2:59:26
Speaker 1: his chair, comfortable, and was going on talking. But she
2:59:30
Speaker 1: jumped up and wiped it off with the back of
2:59:32
Speaker 1: her hand and says, you audacious puppy. He looked kind
2:59:37
Speaker 1: of hurt and says, I'm surprised at you, ma'am. You're sir,
2:59:43
Speaker 1: what do you reckon? I am, I have a good
2:59:45
Speaker 1: notion to taking. Say what do you mean by kissing me?
2:59:49
Speaker 1: He looked kind of humble and says, I didn't mean nothing, ma'am.
2:59:54
Speaker 1: I didn't mean no harm. I thought you'd like it.
2:59:59
Speaker 1: Why you fool. She took up the spinning stick, and
3:00:03
Speaker 1: it looked like it was all she could do to
3:00:05
Speaker 1: keep from giving him a crack with it. What men
3:00:07
Speaker 1: do you think i'd like it, Well, I don't know.
3:00:11
Speaker 1: Only they They told me you would, They told you
3:00:16
Speaker 1: I would. Whoever told you was another lunatic. I never
3:00:20
Speaker 1: heard the beat of it. Who's they? Why? Everybody? They
3:00:24
Speaker 1: all said so, ma'am. It was all she could do
3:00:27
Speaker 1: to hold in, and her eyes snapped and her fingers
3:00:31
Speaker 1: worked like she wanted to scratch him. And she says,
3:00:34
Speaker 1: who's everybody out with their names? Or there'll be an
3:00:37
Speaker 1: idiot short. He got up and looked distressed and fumbled
3:00:42
Speaker 1: his hat and says, I'm sorry. I warn't expecting it.
3:00:46
Speaker 1: They told me to. They all told me to. They
3:00:49
Speaker 1: all said kiss her and said she'd like it. They
3:00:52
Speaker 1: all said, every one of them. But I'm sorry, ma'am.
3:00:55
Speaker 1: And I won't do it no more. I won't. Honest,
3:00:58
Speaker 1: you won't, won't you? Well, I should reckon you won't. No,
3:01:02
Speaker 1: I'm honest about it. I won't ever do it again
3:01:05
Speaker 1: till you ask me, till I ask you. Well, I
3:01:09
Speaker 1: never see the beat of it in my born days.
3:01:12
Speaker 1: I lay you'll be the methusulum numbskull of creation before
3:01:15
Speaker 1: ever I ask you, or the lax of you. Well,
3:01:20
Speaker 1: he says, it does surprise me, So I can't make
3:01:24
Speaker 1: it out somehow They said you would, and I thought
3:01:27
Speaker 1: you would. But he stopped and looked around slow, like
3:01:31
Speaker 1: he wished she could run across a friendly eye somewheeres
3:01:34
Speaker 1: and fetched up on the old gentleman's and says, didn't
3:01:38
Speaker 1: you think she'd like me to kiss her? Sir? Why no? I? I? Well, no,
3:01:44
Speaker 1: I believe I didn't. Then he looks on around the
3:01:47
Speaker 1: same way to me and says, Tom, didn't you think
3:01:52
Speaker 1: Aunt Sally'd open up her arms and say, sid sawyer
3:01:56
Speaker 1: my land? She says, breaking in and jumping for him.
3:02:00
Speaker 1: You impudent, young rascal to fool a body. So and
3:02:04
Speaker 1: was goin to hug him, but he fended her off
3:02:06
Speaker 1: and says, no, not till you've asked me first. So
3:02:10
Speaker 1: she didn't lose no time, but asked him and hugged
3:02:12
Speaker 1: him and kissed him over and over again, and then
3:02:15
Speaker 1: turned him over to the old man and he took
3:02:18
Speaker 1: what was left, and after they got a little quiet again,
3:02:21
Speaker 1: she says, why, dear me, I never see such a surprise.
3:02:26
Speaker 1: We weren't looking for you at all, but only Tom
3:02:29
Speaker 1: Sis never wrote to me by anybody coming but him
3:02:33
Speaker 1: it's because it warn't intended for any of us to come,
3:02:35
Speaker 1: but Tom, he says, But I begged and begged, and
3:02:39
Speaker 1: at the last minute she let me come too. So
3:02:42
Speaker 1: coming down the river, me and Tom thought it would
3:02:45
Speaker 1: be a first rate surprise for him to come here
3:02:47
Speaker 1: to the house first, and for me to buy and
3:02:49
Speaker 1: buy a tag along and drop in and led on
3:02:52
Speaker 1: to be a stranger. But it was a mistake, Aunt Sally.
3:02:55
Speaker 1: This ain't no healthy place for a stranger to come.
3:02:59
Speaker 1: No impudent whelps said you ought to have your jaws boxed.
3:03:04
Speaker 1: I ain't been so put out since I don't know when,
3:03:06
Speaker 1: but I don't care. I don't mind the terms. I'd
3:03:09
Speaker 1: be willing to stand a thousand such jokes to have
3:03:11
Speaker 1: you here. Well, to think of that performance, I don't
3:03:16
Speaker 1: deny it. I was most putrefied with astonishment when you
3:03:19
Speaker 1: give me that smack. We had dinner out in that
3:03:23
Speaker 1: broad open passage betwixt the house and the kitchen, and
3:03:26
Speaker 1: there was things enough on that table for seven families,
3:03:30
Speaker 1: and all hot too. None of your flabby, tough meat
3:03:33
Speaker 1: that's laid in a cupboard in a damp cellar all
3:03:35
Speaker 1: night and tastes like a hunk of old cold cannibal
3:03:38
Speaker 1: in the mornin' Uncle Silas. He asked a pretty long
3:03:42
Speaker 1: blessing over it. But it was worth it, and it
3:03:45
Speaker 1: didn't cool it a bit neither the way I've seen
3:03:47
Speaker 1: them kind of interruptions do lots of times. There was
3:03:51
Speaker 1: a considerable good deal of talk all the afternoon, and
3:03:54
Speaker 1: me and Tom was on the lookout all the time.
3:03:57
Speaker 1: But it warn't no use. They didn't happen to say
3:03:59
Speaker 1: no nothing about any runaway nigger, and we was afraid
3:04:02
Speaker 1: to try to work up to it. But at supper
3:04:05
Speaker 1: at night, one of the little boys says, Pa, men's
3:04:10
Speaker 1: Tom and Sid and Me go to the show? No,
3:04:13
Speaker 1: says the old man. I reckon, there ain't goin to
3:04:16
Speaker 1: be Annie, And you couldn't go if there was, because
3:04:19
Speaker 1: the runaway nigger told Burton and me all about that
3:04:21
Speaker 1: scandalous show, and Burton said he would tell the people.
3:04:25
Speaker 1: So I reckon they've drove the audacious loafers out of
3:04:28
Speaker 1: town before this time. So there it was, but I
3:04:33
Speaker 1: couldn't help it. Tom and Me was to sleep in
3:04:35
Speaker 1: the same room in bed, so beIN tired. We bid
3:04:39
Speaker 1: good night and went up to bed. Right after supper
3:04:42
Speaker 1: and clumb out of the window and down the lightning ride.
3:04:45
Speaker 1: An shoved for the town, for I didn't believe anybody
3:04:49
Speaker 1: was going to give the King and the Duke a hint,
3:04:51
Speaker 1: and so if I didn't hurry up and give them one,
3:04:54
Speaker 1: they'd get into trouble. Sure. On the road, Tom he
3:04:58
Speaker 1: told me all about how it was re reckon, I
3:05:00
Speaker 1: was murdered, and how Pap disappeared pretty soon and didn't
3:05:04
Speaker 1: come back no more. And what a stir there was
3:05:06
Speaker 1: when Jim run away, and I told Tom all about
3:05:09
Speaker 1: our royal none such raps, gallions, and as much of
3:05:12
Speaker 1: the rapped voyage as I had time to And as
3:05:15
Speaker 1: we struck into the town, here comes a raging rush
3:05:19
Speaker 1: of people with torches and an awful whooping and yelling
3:05:22
Speaker 1: and banging tin pans and blowing horns. And we jumped
3:05:25
Speaker 1: to one side to let them go by. And as
3:05:28
Speaker 1: they went by, I'd see they had the King and
3:05:31
Speaker 1: the Duke a straddle of a rail. That is, I
3:05:35
Speaker 1: knowed it was the King and the Duke, though they
3:05:38
Speaker 1: was all over tar and feathers and didn't look like
3:05:41
Speaker 1: nothing in the world I was human, just looked like
3:05:44
Speaker 1: a couple of monstrous, big soldier plumes. Well, it made
3:05:49
Speaker 1: me sick to see it, and I was sorry for them,
3:05:52
Speaker 1: poor pitiful rascals. It seemed like I couldn't ever feel
3:05:55
Speaker 1: any hardness against them anymore in the world. It was
3:05:59
Speaker 1: a dreadful thing to see. Human beIN's can be awful
3:06:03
Speaker 1: cruel to one another. We see, we was too late,
3:06:08
Speaker 1: couldn't do no good. We asked them stragglers about it,
3:06:11
Speaker 1: An they said, everybody went to the show looking very innocent.
3:06:14
Speaker 1: An laid low and kept dark till the poor old
3:06:17
Speaker 1: king was in the middle of his cavortin's on the stage.
3:06:20
Speaker 1: An then somebody give a signal, An the house rose
3:06:22
Speaker 1: up and went for them. So we poked along back home. An,
3:06:26
Speaker 1: I warn't feelin so brash as I was before, but
3:06:30
Speaker 1: kind of ornery and humble. An to blame somehow, though
3:06:34
Speaker 1: I hadn't done nothin. But that's always the way. It
3:06:37
Speaker 1: don't make no difference whether you do right or wrong.
3:06:40
Speaker 1: A person's conscience ain't got no sense, an jest goes
3:06:43
Speaker 1: for him anyway. If I had a yellow dog that
3:06:46
Speaker 1: didn't know no more than a person's conscience does, I
3:06:49
Speaker 1: would poison him. It takes up more room than all
3:06:53
Speaker 1: the rest of a person's insides. An yet ain't no
3:06:56
Speaker 1: good no how Tom Sawyer, He says the same end
3:07:04
Speaker 1: of chapter thirty three, Chapter thirty four, We stopped talking
3:07:10
Speaker 1: an got to thinkin by and by Tom says, look
3:07:15
Speaker 1: ye here, huck, what fools we are not to think
3:07:17
Speaker 1: of it before? I bet I know where Jim is.
3:07:22
Speaker 1: No where an that hook down by the ash hopper.
3:07:26
Speaker 1: Why look a here when we was at dinner, didn't
3:07:29
Speaker 1: you see a nigger man go in there with some vittles? Yes?
3:07:34
Speaker 1: What did you think the vittles was for for a dog?
3:07:38
Speaker 1: So'd I? Well it wasn't for a dog? Why because
3:07:43
Speaker 1: part of it was watermelon? So it was I noticed it. Well,
3:07:49
Speaker 1: it does beat all that I never thought about a
3:07:51
Speaker 1: dog not eatin watermelon. It shows how a body can
3:07:54
Speaker 1: see an don't see at the same time. Well, the
3:07:58
Speaker 1: nigger unlocked the paddler when he went in, and he
3:08:01
Speaker 1: locked it again when he came out. He fetched uncle
3:08:04
Speaker 1: a key about the time we got up from the table.
3:08:07
Speaker 1: Same key. I bet watermelon shows man. Lock shows a prisoner.
3:08:12
Speaker 1: An it ain't likely there's two prisoners on such a plantation,
3:08:16
Speaker 1: and where the people's all so kind and good. Jim's
3:08:19
Speaker 1: the prisoner. All right, I'm glad we found it out,
3:08:23
Speaker 1: Detective Fashion. I wouldn't give shucks for any other way. Now,
3:08:27
Speaker 1: you work your mind and study out a plan to
3:08:30
Speaker 1: steal Jim, and I will study out one too, and
3:08:33
Speaker 1: we'll take the one we like the best. What a
3:08:37
Speaker 1: head for just a boy to have. If I had
3:08:40
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer's head, I wouldn't trade it off to be
3:08:42
Speaker 1: a duke, nor made of a steamboat, nor clown in
3:08:46
Speaker 1: a circus, nor nothing I can think of. I went
3:08:49
Speaker 1: to thinking out a plan, but only just to be
3:08:52
Speaker 1: doing something I knowed very well where the right plan
3:08:55
Speaker 1: is going to come from. Pretty soon Tom says, ready, yes,
3:09:01
Speaker 1: I says, all right, bringin out. My plan is this,
3:09:06
Speaker 1: I says, We can easy find out if it's jimin there.
3:09:10
Speaker 1: Then get up to my canoe tomorrow mornin an fetch
3:09:13
Speaker 1: my raft over from the island. Then the first dark
3:09:16
Speaker 1: knight that comes steal the key out of the old
3:09:19
Speaker 1: man's breeches after he goes to bed, an shove off
3:09:23
Speaker 1: down the river on the raft with Jim. Hidin daytimes,
3:09:26
Speaker 1: an runnin nights tho way me an Jim used to
3:09:28
Speaker 1: do before. Wouldn't that plan work work? Why? Certainly it
3:09:34
Speaker 1: would work like rats a fightin', But it's too blamed simple.
3:09:39
Speaker 1: There ain't nothin to it. What's the good of a
3:09:42
Speaker 1: plan that ain't no more trouble than that? It's as
3:09:44
Speaker 1: mild as goose milk? Why huck, It wouldn't make no
3:09:48
Speaker 1: more talk than breakin into a soap factory. I never
3:09:52
Speaker 1: said nothin, cause I warn't expectin nothin different. But I
3:09:55
Speaker 1: knowed mighty well that whenever he got his plan ready,
3:09:59
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have none of them objections to it. And
3:10:02
Speaker 1: it didn't. He told me what it was, and I
3:10:05
Speaker 1: see in him minute it was worth fifteen of mine
3:10:08
Speaker 1: for style, and would make Jim just as free a
3:10:11
Speaker 1: man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed. Besides,
3:10:16
Speaker 1: so I was satisfied and said we would waltz in
3:10:19
Speaker 1: on it. I needn't tell what it was here, because
3:10:23
Speaker 1: I knowed it wouldn't stay the way it was. I
3:10:26
Speaker 1: knowed he would be a changing it around every which
3:10:28
Speaker 1: way as we went along, and even in new bullinesses,
3:10:32
Speaker 1: whenever he got a chance and that is what he done. Well,
3:10:37
Speaker 1: one thing was dead sure, and that was that Tom
3:10:39
Speaker 1: Sawyer was in earnest and was actually going to help
3:10:43
Speaker 1: steal that nigger out of slavery. That was the thing
3:10:46
Speaker 1: that was too many for me. Here was a boy
3:10:49
Speaker 1: that was respectable and well brung up and had a
3:10:52
Speaker 1: character to lose, and folks at home that had characters,
3:10:56
Speaker 1: and he was bright and not leather headed, and knowing
3:10:59
Speaker 1: and not ignorant, and not mean but kind. And yet
3:11:03
Speaker 1: here he was without any more pride or rightness or
3:11:06
Speaker 1: feeling than to stoop to this business and make himself
3:11:10
Speaker 1: ashame and his family ashamed before everybody. I couldn't understand it,
3:11:15
Speaker 1: no way at all. It was outrageous, and I know
3:11:19
Speaker 1: what I ought to just up and tell him so
3:11:21
Speaker 1: and so be his true friend and let him quit
3:11:24
Speaker 1: the thing right where he was and save himself. And
3:11:27
Speaker 1: I did start to tell him, but he shut me
3:11:30
Speaker 1: up and says, don't you reckon, I know what I'm about.
3:11:33
Speaker 1: Don't I generally know what I'm about? Yes? Didn't I
3:11:38
Speaker 1: say I was going to help steal the nigger? Yes? Well,
3:11:43
Speaker 1: then that's all he said, And that's all I said.
3:11:47
Speaker 1: It weren't no use to say anymore, because when he
3:11:50
Speaker 1: said he'd do a thing, he always done it. But
3:11:54
Speaker 1: I couldn't make out how he was willing to go
3:11:56
Speaker 1: into this thing, so I just let it go and
3:11:59
Speaker 1: never bother no more about it. If he was bound
3:12:02
Speaker 1: to have it, so I couldn't help it. When we
3:12:05
Speaker 1: got home, the house was all dark and still, so
3:12:09
Speaker 1: we went on down to the hut by the ash
3:12:11
Speaker 1: hopper for to examine it. We went through the yards
3:12:15
Speaker 1: so as to see what the hounds would do. They
3:12:17
Speaker 1: knowed us and didn't make no more noise than country
3:12:20
Speaker 1: dogs is always doing when anything comes by in the night.
3:12:24
Speaker 1: When we got to the cabin, we took a look
3:12:26
Speaker 1: at the front and the two sides, and on the
3:12:28
Speaker 1: side I warn't acquainted with, which was the north side,
3:12:32
Speaker 1: we found a square window hole up tolerable high, with
3:12:36
Speaker 1: just one stout board nailed across it. I says, here's
3:12:40
Speaker 1: the ticket. This hole's big enough for Jim to get
3:12:43
Speaker 1: through if we wrench off the board. Tom says, it's
3:12:47
Speaker 1: as simple as tit tat toe three in a row
3:12:50
Speaker 1: and as easy as plain hooky. I should hope we
3:12:53
Speaker 1: can find a way that's a little more complicated than
3:12:56
Speaker 1: that huck Finn. Well, then I says, how will it
3:13:01
Speaker 1: do to saw him out the way I done before
3:13:03
Speaker 1: I was murdered that time? That's more like, he says.
3:13:08
Speaker 1: It's real mysterious and troublesome and good, he says, But
3:13:12
Speaker 1: I bet we can find a way that's twice as long.
3:13:15
Speaker 1: There ain't no hurry. Let's keep on looking around. Betwixt
3:13:20
Speaker 1: the hut and the fence. On the back side was
3:13:22
Speaker 1: a lean to that joined the hut at the eaves
3:13:25
Speaker 1: and was made out a plank. It was as long
3:13:28
Speaker 1: as the hut, but narrow, only about six foot wide.
3:13:32
Speaker 1: The door to it was at the south end and
3:13:34
Speaker 1: was padlocked. Tom he went to the soap kettle and
3:13:38
Speaker 1: searched around and fetched back the iron thing they left
3:13:41
Speaker 1: the lid with, so he took it and prized out
3:13:44
Speaker 1: one of the staples. The chain fell down, and we
3:13:47
Speaker 1: opened the door and went in and shut it and
3:13:49
Speaker 1: struck a match. And see the shed was only built
3:13:52
Speaker 1: against a cabin and had no connection with it. And
3:13:55
Speaker 1: there warn't no floor to the shed, nor nothin in
3:13:58
Speaker 1: it but some old rust. He played out hoes and
3:14:01
Speaker 1: spades and picks and a crippled plow. The match went out,
3:14:06
Speaker 1: and so did we and shoved in the staple again
3:14:09
Speaker 1: and the door was locked as good as ever. Time
3:14:12
Speaker 1: was joyful. He says, now we're all right. We'll dig
3:14:17
Speaker 1: him out. It'll take about a week. Then we started
3:14:21
Speaker 1: for the house and I went in the back door.
3:14:24
Speaker 1: He'll only have to pull a buckskin latch string. They
3:14:27
Speaker 1: don't fasten the doors. But that warn't romantical enough for
3:14:30
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer. No way would do him. But he must
3:14:34
Speaker 1: climb up the lightning ride. But after he got up
3:14:37
Speaker 1: halfway about three times and missed fire and fell every time,
3:14:41
Speaker 1: and the last time most busted his brains out, he
3:14:44
Speaker 1: thought he'd give it up. But after he was rested,
3:14:47
Speaker 1: he allowed he would give her one more turn for luck,
3:14:50
Speaker 1: and this time he made the trip. In the mornin'
3:14:54
Speaker 1: we was up a break a day, an down to
3:14:57
Speaker 1: the nigger cabins to pet the dogs and make free
3:15:00
Speaker 1: friends with the nigger that fed Jim. If it was
3:15:03
Speaker 1: Jim that was beIN fed. The niggers was just getting
3:15:06
Speaker 1: through breakfast and starting for the fields, and Jim's nigger
3:15:09
Speaker 1: was pilin up a tin pan with bread an meatin things,
3:15:13
Speaker 1: and whilst the others was leaving, the key come from
3:15:16
Speaker 1: the house. This nigger had a good natured, chuckle headed face,
3:15:21
Speaker 1: and his wool was all tied up in little bunches
3:15:23
Speaker 1: with thread that was to keep witches off. He said.
3:15:27
Speaker 1: The witches was pestering him awful these nights, and making
3:15:30
Speaker 1: him see all kinds of strange things and hear all
3:15:33
Speaker 1: kinds of strange words and noises, and he didn't believe
3:15:36
Speaker 1: he was ever witched so long before in his life.
3:15:39
Speaker 1: He got so worked up and got to running on
3:15:42
Speaker 1: so about his troubles, he forgot all about what he'd
3:15:45
Speaker 1: been a goin to do. So Tom says, what's the
3:15:49
Speaker 1: victuals for goin to feed the dogs? The nigger kind
3:15:53
Speaker 1: of smiled around gradually over his face, like when you
3:15:56
Speaker 1: heave a brick bat and a mud puddle, And he says, yes,
3:16:01
Speaker 1: Mars said a dog, curious dog too? Does he want
3:16:06
Speaker 1: to go and look at him? Yes? I hunched Tom
3:16:10
Speaker 1: and whispers, you going right here in the daybreak. That
3:16:14
Speaker 1: warn't the plan, No it weren't, but it's a plan now,
3:16:19
Speaker 1: So drapped him. We went along, but I didn't like
3:16:22
Speaker 1: it much When we got in, we couldn't hardly see anything,
3:16:25
Speaker 1: it was so dark. But Jim was there sure enough,
3:16:28
Speaker 1: and he could see us, and he sings out, why
3:16:31
Speaker 1: hook an good land? Ain't that missed? To Tom, I
3:16:37
Speaker 1: just knowed how it would be. I just expected it.
3:16:40
Speaker 1: I didn't know nothing to do, and if I had,
3:16:42
Speaker 1: I couldn't have done it. Because the nigger busted in
3:16:44
Speaker 1: and says, why the gracious six do he know you? Gentlemen?
3:16:50
Speaker 1: We could see pretty well now, Tom. He looked at
3:16:53
Speaker 1: the nigger steady and kind of wondering and says, does
3:16:56
Speaker 1: who know us? Why this year runaway nigger? I don't
3:17:01
Speaker 1: reckon he does, But what put that into your head?
3:17:05
Speaker 1: What put it there? Then he just dismant, sing out
3:17:08
Speaker 1: like he knowed you. Tom says, in a puzzled up
3:17:11
Speaker 1: kind of way, why that's mighty curious. Who sung out?
3:17:16
Speaker 1: When did he sing out? What did he sing out?
3:17:19
Speaker 1: And turns to me, perfectly calm and says, did you
3:17:23
Speaker 1: hear anybody sing out? Of course there warn't nothin to
3:17:27
Speaker 1: be said, but the one thing, so I says, no,
3:17:30
Speaker 1: I ain't heard nobody say nothin'. Then he turns to
3:17:34
Speaker 1: Jim and looks him over like you never see him before,
3:17:37
Speaker 1: and says, did you sing out? No? Suh, says Jim,
3:17:43
Speaker 1: I hain't said nothin suh, not a word? No Suh,
3:17:47
Speaker 1: I hain't said a word. Did you ever see yus before? No, sah,
3:17:52
Speaker 1: not as I knows on. So Tom turns to the nigger,
3:17:56
Speaker 1: which was looking wild and distressed, and says, kind of severe.
3:18:00
Speaker 1: What do you Reckon's the matter with ye? Anyway? What
3:18:03
Speaker 1: made you think somebody sung out? Oh? It's to dab
3:18:07
Speaker 1: blame witches, sah an, I wished I was dead, I do.
3:18:11
Speaker 1: They's always at at s an. They'd most kill me.
3:18:14
Speaker 1: They scares me. So please don't tell nobody by it,
3:18:17
Speaker 1: sir or old Mars Silas, he'll scold me cause he
3:18:21
Speaker 1: said they ain't no witches. I jest wish to goodness
3:18:24
Speaker 1: he was he a Now then what would he say?
3:18:27
Speaker 1: I just bet he couldn't find no way to get
3:18:29
Speaker 1: around it this time. But it's always jist. So people
3:18:34
Speaker 1: that sot stays sot, they won't look into nothin' an
3:18:37
Speaker 1: find it out for theyselves. An when you find it out,
3:18:40
Speaker 1: an tell em bout it. They don't believe you Tom
3:18:45
Speaker 1: give him a dime. An said, we wouldn't tell nobody.
3:18:48
Speaker 1: An told him to buy some more thread to tie
3:18:50
Speaker 1: up his wool with. An then looks at Jim and says,
3:18:55
Speaker 1: I wonder if Uncle Silas is goin to hang this nigger.
3:18:58
Speaker 1: If I was to catch nigger that was ungrateful enough
3:19:01
Speaker 1: to run away, I wouldn't give him up. I'd hang him.
3:19:05
Speaker 1: And whilst the nigger stepped to the door to look
3:19:07
Speaker 1: at the dime and bite it to see if it
3:19:09
Speaker 1: was good, he whispers to Jim and says, don't ever
3:19:13
Speaker 1: let on to know us. And if you hear any
3:19:16
Speaker 1: diggin goin on nights, it's us. We're going to set
3:19:19
Speaker 1: you free. Jim only had time to grab us by
3:19:22
Speaker 1: the hand and squeeze it. Then the nigger come back,
3:19:26
Speaker 1: and we said we'd come again sometime if the nigger
3:19:28
Speaker 1: wanted us to, and he said he would, more particular
3:19:32
Speaker 1: if it was dark, because the witches went for him
3:19:35
Speaker 1: mostly in the dark, and it was good to have
3:19:37
Speaker 1: folks around. Then end of chapter thirty four, chapter thirty five,
3:19:47
Speaker 1: it would be most an hour yet till breakfast, so
3:19:50
Speaker 1: we left and struck down into the woods because Tom said,
3:19:53
Speaker 1: we got to have some light to see how to
3:19:56
Speaker 1: dig by, and a lantern makes too much and might
3:19:59
Speaker 1: get us into trouble. What we must have was a
3:20:02
Speaker 1: lot of them rotten chunks that's called fox fire and
3:20:05
Speaker 1: just makes a soft kind of a glow when you
3:20:08
Speaker 1: lay them in a dark place. We fetched an armful
3:20:11
Speaker 1: and hid it in the weeds and set down to rest.
3:20:14
Speaker 1: And Tom says, kind of dissatisfied, blame it. This whole
3:20:19
Speaker 1: thing is just as easy and awkward as it can be,
3:20:22
Speaker 1: and so it makes it so rotten difficult to get
3:20:25
Speaker 1: up a difficult plan. There ain't no watchman to be drugged.
3:20:29
Speaker 1: Now there ought to be a watchman. There ain't even
3:20:32
Speaker 1: a dog to give a sleepin' mixture too. An, there's
3:20:35
Speaker 1: Jim chained by one leg with a ten foot chain
3:20:38
Speaker 1: to the leg of his bed. Why all you got
3:20:41
Speaker 1: to do is lift up the bedstead and slip off
3:20:43
Speaker 1: the chain. And Uncle Silas he trusts everybody sends the
3:20:48
Speaker 1: key to the punkin headed nigger. An, don't send nobody
3:20:51
Speaker 1: to watch the nigger. Jim coulda got out of that
3:20:54
Speaker 1: window hole before this, only there wouldn't be no use
3:20:56
Speaker 1: tryin to travel with a ten foot chain on his leg.
3:21:00
Speaker 1: Why drag huck, it's the stupid disarrangement I ever see.
3:21:04
Speaker 1: You got to invent all the difficulties. Well, we can't
3:21:08
Speaker 1: help it. We got to do the best we can
3:21:10
Speaker 1: with the materials we've got. Anyhow, there's one thing. There's
3:21:14
Speaker 1: more honor in getting him out through a lot of
3:21:16
Speaker 1: difficulties and dangers where there weren't one of them furnished
3:21:20
Speaker 1: to you by the people who it was their duty
3:21:22
Speaker 1: to furnish them, and you had to contrive them all
3:21:25
Speaker 1: out of your own head. Now look at just that
3:21:28
Speaker 1: one thing in the lantern, when you come down to
3:21:30
Speaker 1: the cold facts. We simply got to let on that
3:21:34
Speaker 1: a lantern's risky. Why we could work with a torchlight
3:21:37
Speaker 1: procession if we wanted to, I believe now whilst I
3:21:41
Speaker 1: think of it. We got to hunt up something to
3:21:43
Speaker 1: make a saw out of the first chance we get,
3:21:46
Speaker 1: What do we want of a saw? What do we
3:21:49
Speaker 1: want of a saw? Hain't We got to saw the
3:21:52
Speaker 1: leg of Jim's bed off so as to get the
3:21:54
Speaker 1: chain loose. Why you just said about it could lift
3:21:58
Speaker 1: up the bedstead and slip the chain off off. Well,
3:22:01
Speaker 1: if that ain't just like you, huck Finn, you can
3:22:04
Speaker 1: get up the infant schooliest ways that are going at
3:22:07
Speaker 1: a thing. Why han't you ever read any books at all?
3:22:11
Speaker 1: Bearn Train, nor Casanova, nor Benvenudo, Cellini, nor Henry Forth,
3:22:17
Speaker 1: nor none of them here arose? Whoever heard again in
3:22:20
Speaker 1: a prisoner loose in such an old matey way as that? No,
3:22:24
Speaker 1: The way all the best authorities does is to saw
3:22:27
Speaker 1: the bed leg in two and leave it just so,
3:22:30
Speaker 1: and swallow the saw dust so it can't be found,
3:22:33
Speaker 1: and put some dirt and grease around the sawed place,
3:22:37
Speaker 1: so the very keenest cinescal can't see no sign of
3:22:40
Speaker 1: its being sawed, and thinks the bed leg is perfectly sound.
3:22:45
Speaker 1: Then the night you're ready fetch the leg a kick down,
3:22:49
Speaker 1: she goes, slip off your chain, and there you are
3:22:52
Speaker 1: nothing to do but hitch your rope ladder to the
3:22:54
Speaker 1: battlement's shin down it break your leg in the moat,
3:22:58
Speaker 1: because a rope ladder is nineteen foot too short, you know.
3:23:01
Speaker 1: And there's your horses and your trusty vassals, and they
3:23:04
Speaker 1: scoop you up and fling you across the saddle. On
3:23:06
Speaker 1: away you go to your native Languedoc or Navarre or
3:23:10
Speaker 1: wherever it is. It's gaudy, huck. I wish there was
3:23:13
Speaker 1: a moat to this cabin. If we get time the
3:23:17
Speaker 1: night of the escape, we'll dig one, I says, what
3:23:21
Speaker 1: shall we want of a moat when we're going to
3:23:22
Speaker 1: snake him out from under the cabin? But he never
3:23:26
Speaker 1: heard me. He had forgot me and everything else. He
3:23:29
Speaker 1: had his chin in his hand. Thinking pretty soon. He
3:23:33
Speaker 1: sighs and shakes his head, then sighs again and says, no,
3:23:38
Speaker 1: it wouldn't do. There ain't necessity enough for it. For what,
3:23:43
Speaker 1: I says, why to saw Jim's leg off? He says,
3:23:48
Speaker 1: good Land, I says, why There ain't no necessity for it?
3:23:53
Speaker 1: And what would you want to saw his leg off for? Anyway? Well,
3:23:57
Speaker 1: some of the best authorities has done it. They couldn't
3:24:00
Speaker 1: get the chain off, so they just cut their hand
3:24:02
Speaker 1: off and shoved, and a leg would be better still,
3:24:06
Speaker 1: But we got to let that go. There ain't necessity
3:24:09
Speaker 1: enough in this case. And besides Jim's and nigger w
3:24:12
Speaker 1: onen't understand the reasons for it, and how it's the
3:24:14
Speaker 1: custom in Europe. So we'll let it go. But there's
3:24:18
Speaker 1: one thing. He can have a rope ladder. We can
3:24:21
Speaker 1: tear up our sheets and make him a rope ladder,
3:24:23
Speaker 1: easy enough, and we can send it to him in
3:24:25
Speaker 1: a pie. It's mostly done that way, and I've ate
3:24:29
Speaker 1: worse pies. Why, Tom Sawyer, How you talk? I says,
3:24:34
Speaker 1: Jim ain't got no use for a rope ladder. He
3:24:37
Speaker 1: has got used for it. How you talk? You better
3:24:41
Speaker 1: say he don't know nothing about it. He's got to
3:24:44
Speaker 1: have a rope ladder. They all do. What in the
3:24:48
Speaker 1: nation can he do with it? Do with it? He
3:24:51
Speaker 1: can hide it in his bed, can't he? That's what
3:24:54
Speaker 1: they all do. And he's got to too, Huck. You
3:24:58
Speaker 1: don't ever seem to want to do anything. It's regular.
3:25:01
Speaker 1: You wanna be starting something fresh all the time. Suppose
3:25:04
Speaker 1: he don't do nothing with it? Ain't it there in
3:25:07
Speaker 1: his bed for a clue after he's gone? And don't
3:25:10
Speaker 1: you reckon? They'll want clues, of course they will, and
3:25:13
Speaker 1: you wouldn't leave them Annie. That would be pretty how
3:25:17
Speaker 1: to do, wouldn't it. I never heard of such thing? Well,
3:25:22
Speaker 1: I says, If it's in the regulations and he's got
3:25:25
Speaker 1: to have it, all right, let him have it, because
3:25:27
Speaker 1: I don't wish to go back on no regulations. But
3:25:31
Speaker 1: there's one thing, Tom Sawyer. If we go to tearing
3:25:34
Speaker 1: up our sheets to make jim rope ladder, we'ren't going
3:25:37
Speaker 1: to get into trouble with Aunt Sally, just as sure
3:25:39
Speaker 1: as you're born. And now, the way I look at it,
3:25:42
Speaker 1: the hickrew bark ladder don't cost nothing and don't waste nothing.
3:25:46
Speaker 1: And it's just as good to load up a pie
3:25:48
Speaker 1: with a hide in a straw tick as any rag
3:25:50
Speaker 1: ladder you can start. And as for Jim, he ain't
3:25:54
Speaker 1: had no experience, and so he don't care what kind
3:25:56
Speaker 1: of a oh shucks huck finn. If I was as
3:26:00
Speaker 1: ignorant as you, I'd keep still. That's what I do.
3:26:03
Speaker 1: Whoever heard of a state prisoner is given by a
3:26:06
Speaker 1: hickory bar ladder. Why it's perfectly ridiculous. Well, all right,
3:26:13
Speaker 1: Tom picks out your own way. But if you'll take
3:26:15
Speaker 1: my advice, you'll let me borrow a sheet off of
3:26:18
Speaker 1: the clothesline. He said that would do, And that give
3:26:21
Speaker 1: him another idea, and he says borrow a shirt too.
3:26:26
Speaker 1: What do we want of a shirt? Tom? Want it
3:26:29
Speaker 1: for Jim to keep a journal. On journal, you're granny.
3:26:32
Speaker 1: Jim can't write. Suppose he can't write, he can make
3:26:36
Speaker 1: marks on the shirt, canny. If we make him a
3:26:39
Speaker 1: pen out of an old pewter spoon or a piece
3:26:42
Speaker 1: of an old iron barrel hoop, what tom, We can
3:26:45
Speaker 1: pull a feather out of a goose and make him
3:26:47
Speaker 1: a better one and quicker too. Prisoners don't have geese
3:26:51
Speaker 1: running around the dungeon keep to pull pins out of,
3:26:54
Speaker 1: you muggins. They always make their pens out of the hardest, toughest,
3:26:58
Speaker 1: troublesomest piece of old old brass candlestick or something like
3:27:02
Speaker 1: that they can get their hands on, and it takes
3:27:05
Speaker 1: them weeks and weeks and months and months to file
3:27:07
Speaker 1: it out too, because they've got to do it by
3:27:10
Speaker 1: rubbing it on the wall. They wouldn't use a goose
3:27:13
Speaker 1: quill if they had it it ain't regular. Well, then
3:27:17
Speaker 1: what'll we make him? The ink out of many makes
3:27:20
Speaker 1: it out of iron, rust and tears. But that's the
3:27:23
Speaker 1: common sword in women. The best authorities uses their own blood.
3:27:29
Speaker 1: Jim can do that when he wants to send any little, common, ordinary,
3:27:33
Speaker 1: mysterious message to let the world know where he's captivated.
3:27:37
Speaker 1: He can write it on the bottom of a tin
3:27:39
Speaker 1: plate with a fork and throw it out of the window.
3:27:42
Speaker 1: The iron mask always done that, And it's a blame
3:27:45
Speaker 1: good way too. Jim ain't got no tin plates. They
3:27:49
Speaker 1: feed him in a pan. That ain't nothing we can
3:27:53
Speaker 1: get him. Some can't nobody read his plates. That hain't
3:27:58
Speaker 1: got anything to do with it, huck. All he's got
3:28:00
Speaker 1: to do is write on the plate and throw it out.
3:28:03
Speaker 1: You don't have to be able to read it. Why
3:28:06
Speaker 1: half the time you can't read anything a prisoner writes
3:28:08
Speaker 1: on a tin plate or anywhere else. Well, then what's
3:28:13
Speaker 1: the sense and wasting the plates? Why blame it all?
3:28:16
Speaker 1: It ain't the prisoner's plates, But it's somebody's plates, ain't it. Well,
3:28:22
Speaker 1: supposing it is, what does the prisoner care? Who's He
3:28:27
Speaker 1: broke off there because we heard the breakfast horn blowing,
3:28:31
Speaker 1: so we cleared out for the house along. During the morning,
3:28:35
Speaker 1: I borrowed a sheet and a white shirt off of
3:28:37
Speaker 1: the clothesline, and I found an old sack and put
3:28:40
Speaker 1: them in it, And we went down and got the
3:28:43
Speaker 1: fox fire and put that in it too. I call
3:28:46
Speaker 1: it borrowing because that was what Pap always called it.
3:28:49
Speaker 1: But Tom said it warn't borrowing, it was stealing. He said,
3:28:53
Speaker 1: we was representing prisoners, and prisoners don't care how they
3:28:56
Speaker 1: get a thing, so they get it, and nobody don't
3:28:59
Speaker 1: blame them for it either. It ain't no crime in
3:29:02
Speaker 1: a prisoner to steal things he needs to get away with.
3:29:05
Speaker 1: Tom said it's his right, and so as long as
3:29:09
Speaker 1: we was representing a prisoner, we had a perfect right
3:29:12
Speaker 1: to steal anything on this place we had the least
3:29:14
Speaker 1: use for to get ourselves out of prison with. He said,
3:29:18
Speaker 1: if we want prisoners, it would be a very different thing.
3:29:21
Speaker 1: And nobody but a mean, ornery person would steal when
3:29:25
Speaker 1: he warn't a prisoner. So we allied we would steal
3:29:28
Speaker 1: everything there was to come handy. And yet he made
3:29:31
Speaker 1: a mighty fuss one day after that when I stole
3:29:34
Speaker 1: a watermelon out of the nigger patch, need it, and
3:29:36
Speaker 1: he made me go and give the niggers a dime
3:29:38
Speaker 1: without telling them what it was for. Tom said that
3:29:42
Speaker 1: what he meant was we could steal anything we needed. Well,
3:29:46
Speaker 1: I says I needed the watermelon, but he said I
3:29:49
Speaker 1: didn't need it to get out of prison with. That's
3:29:52
Speaker 1: where the difference was, he said, if I'd have wanted
3:29:55
Speaker 1: it to hide a knife in and smuggle it to
3:29:57
Speaker 1: Jim to kill the centiskull with, it would have been
3:29:59
Speaker 1: all right. So I let it go with that, though
3:30:03
Speaker 1: I couldn't see no advantage in my representing a prisoner
3:30:06
Speaker 1: if I got to sit down and try over a
3:30:08
Speaker 1: lot of gold leaf distinctions like that every time I
3:30:10
Speaker 1: see a chance to hog a watermelon. Well, as I
3:30:14
Speaker 1: was saying, we waited that morning till everybody was settled
3:30:17
Speaker 1: down to business and nobody in sight around the yard.
3:30:21
Speaker 1: Then Tom he carried the sack into the lean to
3:30:24
Speaker 1: whilst I stood off a piece to keep watch. Bye
3:30:28
Speaker 1: and bye he come out, and we went and sitting
3:30:30
Speaker 1: down on the woodpile to talk. He says, everything's all
3:30:34
Speaker 1: right now except tools, and that's easy fixed tools. I says, yes,
3:30:41
Speaker 1: tools for what what to dig with? We ain't a
3:30:45
Speaker 1: going to gnaw him out? Are we? Ain't them old
3:30:49
Speaker 1: crippled picks and things in there good enough to dig
3:30:51
Speaker 1: a nigger out with, I says. He turns on me,
3:30:55
Speaker 1: looking pitying enough to make a body cry, and says, huck,
3:31:00
Speaker 1: did you ever hear of a prisoner? Having picks and
3:31:03
Speaker 1: shovels and all the modern conveniences in his wardrobe to
3:31:06
Speaker 1: dig himself out with. Now, I want to ask you,
3:31:09
Speaker 1: if you've got any reasonableness in you at all, what
3:31:13
Speaker 1: kind of a show would that give him? To be
3:31:15
Speaker 1: a hero. Why they might as well lend him the
3:31:18
Speaker 1: key and done with it, picks and shovels. Why they
3:31:21
Speaker 1: wouldn't furnish him to a king? Well, then, I says,
3:31:26
Speaker 1: if we don't want the picks and shovels, what do
3:31:29
Speaker 1: we want a couple of case knives to dig the
3:31:33
Speaker 1: foundation out from under that cabin? With? Yes, confound it.
3:31:38
Speaker 1: It's foolish, Tom, It don't make no difference how foolish
3:31:42
Speaker 1: it is. It's the right way, and it's the regular way.
3:31:46
Speaker 1: And there ain't no other way that ever I heard of,
3:31:49
Speaker 1: and I've read all the books that gives any information
3:31:51
Speaker 1: about these things. They always dig out with a case knife,
3:31:55
Speaker 1: and not through dirt, mind you. Generally it's through solid rock.
3:31:59
Speaker 1: And it takes them weeks and weeks and weeks and
3:32:02
Speaker 1: forever and ever. Why look at one of them prisoners
3:32:05
Speaker 1: in the bottom dungeon of the Castle d'ef in the harbor,
3:32:09
Speaker 1: of Marseilles that dug himself out that way? How long
3:32:13
Speaker 1: was he at it? You reckon? I don't know. Well,
3:32:17
Speaker 1: guess I don't know. A month and a half, thirty
3:32:21
Speaker 1: seven years and he come out in China. That's the
3:32:25
Speaker 1: kind I wish the bottom of this fortress was solid rock.
3:32:30
Speaker 1: Jim don't know nobody in China. What's that got to
3:32:34
Speaker 1: do with it? Neither did that other fellow. But you're
3:32:37
Speaker 1: always a wandering off on a side issue. Why can't
3:32:40
Speaker 1: you stick to the main point? All right? I don't
3:32:43
Speaker 1: care where he comes out. So he comes out, and
3:32:46
Speaker 1: Jim don't either, I reckon. But there's one thing anyway,
3:32:50
Speaker 1: Jim's too old to be dug out with a case knife.
3:32:54
Speaker 1: He won't last. Yes, he will last too, He don't reckon.
3:32:59
Speaker 1: It's going to take thirty seven years to dig out
3:33:01
Speaker 1: through a dirt foundation. Do you how long will it take? Tom? Well,
3:33:07
Speaker 1: we can't risk being as long as we ought to,
3:33:09
Speaker 1: because it mayn't take very long for Uncle Silas to
3:33:12
Speaker 1: hear from down there. By New Orleans, he'll hear Jim
3:33:16
Speaker 1: ain't from there. Then his next move will be to
3:33:19
Speaker 1: advertise Jim or something like that. So we can't resk
3:33:22
Speaker 1: being as long digging him out as we ought to
3:33:25
Speaker 1: by rights, I reckon, we ought to be a couple
3:33:27
Speaker 1: of years, but we can't. Things being so uncertain. What
3:33:32
Speaker 1: I recommend is this that we really dig right in
3:33:35
Speaker 1: as quick as we can, and after that we can
3:33:38
Speaker 1: let on to ourselves that we was at it thirty
3:33:41
Speaker 1: seven years. Then we can snatch him out and rush
3:33:44
Speaker 1: him away the first time there's an alarm. Yes, I reckon,
3:33:47
Speaker 1: that'll be the best way. Now, there's sense in that.
3:33:52
Speaker 1: I says, letting on don't cost nothing. Letting on ain't
3:33:56
Speaker 1: no trouble. And if it's any object, I don't mind
3:33:59
Speaker 1: letting on. We was we had one hundred and fifty year.
3:34:02
Speaker 1: It wouldn't strain me none after I got my hand in.
3:34:05
Speaker 1: So I'll mosey along now and smouch a couple of
3:34:08
Speaker 1: case knives. Smouch three. He says, we want to make
3:34:12
Speaker 1: a saw out of it, Tom, if it ain't unregular
3:34:17
Speaker 1: and irreligious to suggest it, I says, there's an old
3:34:22
Speaker 1: rusty saw blade around Yonder, sticking under the weather board
3:34:25
Speaker 1: and behind the smokehouse. He looked kind of weary and
3:34:29
Speaker 1: discouraged like, and says it ain't no use to try
3:34:32
Speaker 1: to learn you nothing, huck, run along and smouch the knives,
3:34:37
Speaker 1: three of them. So I done it. End of chapter
3:34:43
Speaker 1: thirty five, Chapter thirty six. As soon as we reckoned,
3:34:49
Speaker 1: everybody was asleep that night. We went down the lightning
3:34:52
Speaker 1: ride and shut ourselves up in the lean to and
3:34:55
Speaker 1: got out our pile of fox fire and went to work.
3:34:59
Speaker 1: We cleared every everything out of the way, about four
3:35:02
Speaker 1: or five foot along the middle of the bottom log.
3:35:05
Speaker 1: Tom said, we was right behind Jim's bed now, and
3:35:08
Speaker 1: we'd dig in under it. And when we got through
3:35:11
Speaker 1: there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there was
3:35:14
Speaker 1: any hole there, because Jim's counterpin hung down most to
3:35:17
Speaker 1: the ground, and you'd have to raise it up and
3:35:20
Speaker 1: look under to see the hole. So we dug and
3:35:23
Speaker 1: dug with the case knives till most midnight, and then
3:35:27
Speaker 1: we was dog tired and our hands was blistered, and
3:35:30
Speaker 1: yet you couldn't see we'd done hardly anything. At last,
3:35:35
Speaker 1: I says, this ain't no thirty seven year job. This
3:35:39
Speaker 1: is a thirty eight year job. Tom sawyer. He never
3:35:43
Speaker 1: said nothing, but he sighed, and pretty soon he stopped digging.
3:35:49
Speaker 1: And then for a good little while I knowed that
3:35:51
Speaker 1: he was thinking. Then he says, it ain't no use, Huck,
3:35:56
Speaker 1: It ain't a going to work. If we was prisoners,
3:35:59
Speaker 1: it would because then we'd have as many years as
3:36:01
Speaker 1: we wanted, and no hurry, and we couldn't get but
3:36:04
Speaker 1: a few minutes to dig every day while they was
3:36:06
Speaker 1: changing watches, and so our hands wouldn't get blistered, and
3:36:10
Speaker 1: we could keep it up right along, year in and
3:36:12
Speaker 1: year out, and do it right and the way it
3:36:14
Speaker 1: ought to be done. But we can't fool along. We
3:36:17
Speaker 1: got to rush. We ain't got no time to spare.
3:36:20
Speaker 1: If we was to put in another night this way,
3:36:22
Speaker 1: we'd have to knock off for a week to let
3:36:24
Speaker 1: our hands get well. Couldn't touch a case knife with
3:36:27
Speaker 1: them sooner. Well then what we're going to do, Tom,
3:36:32
Speaker 1: I'll tell you it ain't right, and it ain't moral,
3:36:36
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't like it to get out. But there
3:36:38
Speaker 1: ain't only just the one way. We got to dig
3:36:41
Speaker 1: him out with the picks and let on its case knives.
3:36:45
Speaker 1: Now you're talking, I says, your head gets leveler and
3:36:49
Speaker 1: leveler all the time, Tom Sawyer, I says, picks is
3:36:53
Speaker 1: the thing moral or no moral And as for me,
3:36:57
Speaker 1: I don't care shucks for the morality of it. Now,
3:37:00
Speaker 1: when I start in to steal a nigger or a
3:37:03
Speaker 1: watermelon or a Sunday school book, I ain't noways particular
3:37:06
Speaker 1: how it's done. So it's done. What I want is
3:37:10
Speaker 1: my nigger, or what I want is my watermelon, or
3:37:13
Speaker 1: what I want is my Sunday school book. And if
3:37:16
Speaker 1: it picks the handiest thing, that's the thing I'm a
3:37:19
Speaker 1: goin to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that
3:37:21
Speaker 1: Sunday school book out with. And I don't give a
3:37:24
Speaker 1: dead rat what the authorities thinks about it. Another well,
3:37:29
Speaker 1: he says, there's excuse for picks and letting on in
3:37:32
Speaker 1: a case like this if it warn't so, I wouldn't
3:37:35
Speaker 1: approve of it, nor I wouldn't stand by and see
3:37:38
Speaker 1: the rules broke, because right is right and wrong is wrong.
3:37:42
Speaker 1: And a body ain't got no business doing wrong when
3:37:44
Speaker 1: he ain't ignorant and knows better. And my answer for
3:37:48
Speaker 1: you to dig jim out with a pick without any
3:37:51
Speaker 1: letting on because you don't know no better. But it
3:37:54
Speaker 1: wouldn't for me because I do know better. Give me
3:37:57
Speaker 1: a case knife. He had his own him, but I
3:38:01
Speaker 1: handed him mine. He flung it down and says, gimme
3:38:05
Speaker 1: a case knife. I didn't know just what to do,
3:38:09
Speaker 1: but then I thought. I scratched around amongst the old tools,
3:38:14
Speaker 1: an got a pickcack's an give it to him, and
3:38:16
Speaker 1: he took it and went to work and never said
3:38:18
Speaker 1: a word. He was always just that particular full of principle.
3:38:25
Speaker 1: So then I got a shovel and we picked and shoveled,
3:38:29
Speaker 1: turned about and made the fur fly. We stuck to
3:38:32
Speaker 1: it about a half an hour, which is as long
3:38:34
Speaker 1: as we could stand up. But we had a good
3:38:36
Speaker 1: deal of a hole to show for it. When I
3:38:39
Speaker 1: got upstairs, I looked out at the window and see
3:38:42
Speaker 1: Tom doin his level best with the lightning ride. But
3:38:45
Speaker 1: he couldn't come it. His hands was so sore. At last,
3:38:49
Speaker 1: he says, it ain't no use, it can't be done.
3:38:52
Speaker 1: What you reckon i'd better do? Can't you think of
3:38:55
Speaker 1: no way? Yes, I says, but I reckon that they
3:38:59
Speaker 1: a'm regular come up the stairs and let on it's
3:39:03
Speaker 1: a lightning ride. So he done it. Next day Tom
3:39:09
Speaker 1: stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the
3:39:12
Speaker 1: house for to make some pins for Jim out of
3:39:16
Speaker 1: and six tallow candles. And I hung around the nigger
3:39:19
Speaker 1: cabins and laid for a chance and stole three tin plates.
3:39:24
Speaker 1: Tom says it wasn't enough, But I said nobody wouldn't
3:39:27
Speaker 1: ever see the plates that Jim throwed out because they'd
3:39:30
Speaker 1: fallen the dog fennel and jimpson weeds under the window hole.
3:39:34
Speaker 1: Then we could tote them back and he could use
3:39:36
Speaker 1: them over again. So Tom was satisfied. Then he says,
3:39:41
Speaker 1: now the thing to study out is how to get
3:39:45
Speaker 1: the things to Jim take them in through the hole.
3:39:49
Speaker 1: I says, when we get it done, he only just
3:39:52
Speaker 1: looked scornful and said something about nobody ever heard of
3:39:56
Speaker 1: such an idiotic idea, And then he went to studying
3:40:00
Speaker 1: by and by. He said he had ciphered out two
3:40:02
Speaker 1: or three ways, but there warn't no need to decide
3:40:05
Speaker 1: on any of em yet, said we'd got to post
3:40:08
Speaker 1: Jim first. That night, we went down the lightnin ride
3:40:12
Speaker 1: a little after ten and took one of the candles
3:40:15
Speaker 1: along and listened under the window hole. An heard Jim snorin,
3:40:19
Speaker 1: so we'd pitched it in an it didn't wake him.
3:40:22
Speaker 1: Then we whirled in with the pickin' shovel an in
3:40:25
Speaker 1: about two hours and a half the job was done.
3:40:28
Speaker 1: We crept in under Jim's bed, an into the cabin
3:40:32
Speaker 1: an pawed around an found the candle and lit it,
3:40:35
Speaker 1: and stood over Jim awhile and found him lookin hearty
3:40:38
Speaker 1: and healthy, And then we woke him up, gentle an gradual.
3:40:43
Speaker 1: He was so glad to see us, he most cried,
3:40:46
Speaker 1: An called us honey, and all the pet names he
3:40:48
Speaker 1: could think of. An was for havin us hunt up
3:40:51
Speaker 1: a cold chisel to cut the chain off of his
3:40:53
Speaker 1: leg with right away, an clearin out without losin any time.
3:40:57
Speaker 1: But Tom he showed him how unray regular it would be,
3:41:01
Speaker 1: and set down and told him all about our plans
3:41:04
Speaker 1: and how we could alter them in a minute any
3:41:06
Speaker 1: time there was an alarm, and not to be the
3:41:09
Speaker 1: least afraid, because we would see he got away. Sure,
3:41:13
Speaker 1: So Jim, he said it was all right, and we
3:41:16
Speaker 1: sat there and talked over old times a while, and
3:41:19
Speaker 1: then Tom asked a lot of questions. When Jim told
3:41:22
Speaker 1: him Uncle Silas come in every day or two to
3:41:24
Speaker 1: pray with him, and Aunt Sally come in to see
3:41:27
Speaker 1: if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat, and
3:41:30
Speaker 1: both of them was as kind as they could be.
3:41:33
Speaker 1: Tom says, now I know how to fix it. We'll
3:41:37
Speaker 1: send you some things by them. I said, don't do
3:41:41
Speaker 1: nothing of the kind. It's one of the most jackass
3:41:44
Speaker 1: ideas I ever struck. But he paid no attention to me,
3:41:48
Speaker 1: went right on. It was his way when he'd got
3:41:51
Speaker 1: his plans set. So he told Jim how we'd have
3:41:55
Speaker 1: to smuggle in the rope, ladder, pie and other large
3:41:58
Speaker 1: things by Nat nigger that fed him, and he must
3:42:02
Speaker 1: be on the lookout and not be surprised, and not
3:42:05
Speaker 1: let Nat see him open them. And we would put
3:42:07
Speaker 1: small things in uncle's coat pockets, and he must steal
3:42:11
Speaker 1: them out. And we would tie things to aunt's apron springs,
3:42:15
Speaker 1: or put them in her apron pocket if we got
3:42:17
Speaker 1: a chance. And told him what they would be and
3:42:20
Speaker 1: what they was for, and told him how to keep
3:42:22
Speaker 1: a journal on the shirt with his blood and all that.
3:42:26
Speaker 1: He told him everything. Jim, he couldn't see no sense
3:42:30
Speaker 1: in the most of it, but he allowed we was
3:42:32
Speaker 1: white folks an knowed better than him. So he was
3:42:35
Speaker 1: satisfied and said he would do it all just as
3:42:38
Speaker 1: Tom said. Jim had plenty corn, cob pipes and tobacco,
3:42:43
Speaker 1: so we had a right down, good sociable time. Then
3:42:46
Speaker 1: we crawled out through the hole and sew home to
3:42:49
Speaker 1: bed with hands that looked like they'd been chawed. Tom
3:42:53
Speaker 1: was in high spirits. He said it was the best
3:42:55
Speaker 1: funny ever had in his life, and the most intellectual,
3:42:59
Speaker 1: and said, if he only could see his way to it,
3:43:02
Speaker 1: we would keep it up all the rest of our
3:43:04
Speaker 1: lives and leave Jim to our children to get out,
3:43:07
Speaker 1: for he believed Jim would come to like it better
3:43:09
Speaker 1: and better the more he got used to it. He
3:43:12
Speaker 1: said that in that way it could be strung out
3:43:14
Speaker 1: to as much as eighty year and would be the
3:43:17
Speaker 1: best time on record, and he said it would make
3:43:19
Speaker 1: us all celebrated that had a hand in it. In
3:43:23
Speaker 1: the morning, we went out to the woodpile and chopped
3:43:25
Speaker 1: up the brass candlestick into handy sizes, and Tom put
3:43:29
Speaker 1: them and the pewter spoon in his pocket. Then we
3:43:33
Speaker 1: went to the nigger cabins, and while I got NAT's
3:43:35
Speaker 1: notice off, Tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the
3:43:39
Speaker 1: middle of a corn pone that was in Jim's pan,
3:43:42
Speaker 1: and we went along with Nat to see how it
3:43:44
Speaker 1: would work. And it just worked noble. When Jim bit
3:43:48
Speaker 1: into it, it most mashed all his teeth out, And
3:43:51
Speaker 1: there warn't ever anything could have worked better. Tom said
3:43:54
Speaker 1: so himself. Jim, he never let on but what it
3:43:58
Speaker 1: was only just a piece of rock or something like that.
3:44:00
Speaker 1: That's always getting into bread, you know. But after that
3:44:03
Speaker 1: he never bit into nothin' but what He jabbed his
3:44:06
Speaker 1: fork into it in three or four places. First, an,
3:44:10
Speaker 1: whilst we was a standin there in the dimish flight,
3:44:13
Speaker 1: here comes a couple of hounds bulgin in from under
3:44:16
Speaker 1: Jim's bed, and they kept on pilin in till there
3:44:19
Speaker 1: was eleven of them. An there warn't hardly roomin there
3:44:22
Speaker 1: to get your breath. By James, we forgot to fasten
3:44:25
Speaker 1: that lean to door. The nigger Nat he only just
3:44:29
Speaker 1: hollered witches. Once An keeled over on to the floor
3:44:33
Speaker 1: amongst the dogs had begun to groan like he was dyin'.
3:44:37
Speaker 1: Tom drook the door open and flung out a slab
3:44:40
Speaker 1: of Jim's meat, and the dogs went for it, and
3:44:43
Speaker 1: in two seconds he was out himself. An back again,
3:44:46
Speaker 1: An shut the door, and I knowed he'd fixed the
3:44:48
Speaker 1: other door too. Then he went to work on the nigger,
3:44:52
Speaker 1: coaxin him and pettin him. A askin him if he'd
3:44:55
Speaker 1: been imaginin' he saw something. He raised up, An blinked
3:44:59
Speaker 1: his eyes around and says. Mars said, you'll say I
3:45:03
Speaker 1: was a fool. But if I didn't believe I seen
3:45:05
Speaker 1: most a million dogs or her devils are summon, I
3:45:09
Speaker 1: wished I made day right here in these tracks. I
3:45:12
Speaker 1: did most surely, MA said, I felt them. I felt them, sir,
3:45:17
Speaker 1: They was all over me. They had to fetch it.
3:45:20
Speaker 1: I just wish I could get my hands on one
3:45:23
Speaker 1: or damn witches, just once, only just once, It's all
3:45:26
Speaker 1: I'd asked. But mostly I wish they'd let me loan
3:45:30
Speaker 1: I does. Tom says, well, I tell you what I think.
3:45:36
Speaker 1: What makes them come here, just at this runaway nigger's
3:45:39
Speaker 1: breakfast time? It's because they're hungry. That's the reason. You
3:45:44
Speaker 1: make them a witch pie. That's the thing for you
3:45:47
Speaker 1: to do. But my land Mar said, How's I going
3:45:51
Speaker 1: to make them a witch pie? I don't know how
3:45:53
Speaker 1: to make it. I ain't ever heard of such a thing. Before. Well,
3:45:58
Speaker 1: then I'll have to make it myself. Will you do it, honey?
3:46:02
Speaker 1: Will you? I'll wish up the ground under your foot.
3:46:04
Speaker 1: I will, all right, I'll do it. Seein it's you,
3:46:08
Speaker 1: and you've been good to us and showed us the
3:46:10
Speaker 1: runaway nigger. But you got to be mighty careful when
3:46:14
Speaker 1: we come around, you turn your back. And then whatever
3:46:17
Speaker 1: we've put in the pan, don't you let on you
3:46:20
Speaker 1: see it at all? And don't you look when Jim
3:46:22
Speaker 1: unloads the pan. Something might happen. I don't know what.
3:46:26
Speaker 1: And above all, don't you handle the witch things handlin
3:46:31
Speaker 1: mar suit. What is you a talkin'bout? I wouldn't lay
3:46:35
Speaker 1: the weight of my finger on 'em, not for ten
3:46:38
Speaker 1: hundred thousand billion dollars. I wouldn't. End of chapter thirty six,
3:46:46
Speaker 1: Chapter thirty seven. That was all fixed. So then we
3:46:53
Speaker 1: went away and went to the rubbish pile in the
3:46:55
Speaker 1: backyard where they keep the old boots and rags, an
3:46:58
Speaker 1: pieces of bottles, and wore out ten things in all
3:47:01
Speaker 1: such truck and scratched around an found an old tin
3:47:05
Speaker 1: wash pan and stopped up the holes as well as
3:47:07
Speaker 1: we could to bake the pie in and took it
3:47:10
Speaker 1: down cellar and stole it full of flour. An started
3:47:13
Speaker 1: for breakfast and found a couple of shingle nails of Tom,
3:47:16
Speaker 1: so they would be handy for a prisoner to scrabble
3:47:19
Speaker 1: his name. An sorrows on the dungeon walls with and
3:47:22
Speaker 1: dropped one of them in Aunt Sally's apron pocket, which
3:47:25
Speaker 1: was hanging on a chair, and the other we stuck
3:47:27
Speaker 1: in the band to Uncle Silas's hat, which was on
3:47:30
Speaker 1: the bureau, because we heard the children say there pa
3:47:33
Speaker 1: An Ma was goin to the runaway nigger's house this
3:47:36
Speaker 1: mornin' An then went to breakfast, and Tom dropped the
3:47:39
Speaker 1: pewter spoon in Uncle Silas's coat pocket, and Aunt Sallie
3:47:42
Speaker 1: wasn't come yet, so we had to wait a little while.
3:47:46
Speaker 1: And when she come she was hot an red an
3:47:48
Speaker 1: cross and couldn't hardly wait for the blessin' an. Then
3:47:52
Speaker 1: she went to sluicin out coffee with one hand, an
3:47:55
Speaker 1: crackin' the handiest child's head with her thimble with the other,
3:47:58
Speaker 1: An says, I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and
3:48:02
Speaker 1: it does beat all what has become of your other shirt?
3:48:06
Speaker 1: My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things,
3:48:10
Speaker 1: and a hard piece of corn crust started down my
3:48:12
Speaker 1: throat after it, and got me on the road with
3:48:15
Speaker 1: a cough, and was shot across the table, and took
3:48:18
Speaker 1: one of the children in the eye and curled him
3:48:20
Speaker 1: up like a fishin' worm, and let a cry out
3:48:22
Speaker 1: of him the size of a war whoop, and tom.
3:48:25
Speaker 1: He turned kind of blue around the gills. And it
3:48:28
Speaker 1: all amounted to a considerable state of things for about
3:48:31
Speaker 1: a quarter of a minute, or as much as that,
3:48:34
Speaker 1: And I would have sold out for half price if
3:48:36
Speaker 1: there was a bitter But after that we was all
3:48:39
Speaker 1: right again. It was the sudden surprise of it that
3:48:42
Speaker 1: not us kind of cold Uncle Silas he says, it's
3:48:46
Speaker 1: most uncommon curious. I can't understand it. I know perfectly
3:48:51
Speaker 1: well I took it off because because you hain't got
3:48:55
Speaker 1: but one on. Just listen at the man. I know
3:48:58
Speaker 1: you took it off, and I know it by a
3:49:00
Speaker 1: better way than your wool gathering memory, too, because it
3:49:03
Speaker 1: was on the clothes line yesterday. I see it there myself.
3:49:07
Speaker 1: But it's gone. That's the long and short of it.
3:49:09
Speaker 1: And you'll just have to change to a red flannel
3:49:11
Speaker 1: one till I can get time to make a new one,
3:49:14
Speaker 1: and it'll be the third one I've made in two years.
3:49:17
Speaker 1: It just keeps a body on the jump to keep
3:49:19
Speaker 1: you in shirts, and whatever you do manage to do
3:49:22
Speaker 1: with them, all is more. And I can make out
3:49:24
Speaker 1: a body. Think you would learn to take some sort
3:49:27
Speaker 1: of care of them at your time of life. I
3:49:30
Speaker 1: know it's Sally. I do try all I can, but
3:49:33
Speaker 1: it oughtn't to be altogether my fault, because you know
3:49:37
Speaker 1: I don't see them, nor have nothing to do with
3:49:39
Speaker 1: them except when they're on me, and I don't believe
3:49:42
Speaker 1: I've ever lost one of them off of me. Well,
3:49:46
Speaker 1: it ain't your fault if you haven't, silas you'd have
3:49:48
Speaker 1: done it if you could. I reckon, And the shirt
3:49:50
Speaker 1: ain't all that's gone. Another there's a spoon gone, And
3:49:53
Speaker 1: that ain't all. There was ten and now there's only nine.
3:49:57
Speaker 1: The calf got the shirt, I reckon, But the calf
3:49:59
Speaker 1: never took the spoon, that's certain. Why what else is gone? Sally?
3:50:05
Speaker 1: There's six candles gone. That's what the rats could have
3:50:08
Speaker 1: got the candles, and I reckon they did. I wonder
3:50:11
Speaker 1: they didn't walk off of the whole place the way
3:50:13
Speaker 1: you're always going to stop their holes and don't do it.
3:50:16
Speaker 1: And if they weren't fools, they'd sleep in your hair, Silas,
3:50:19
Speaker 1: you'd never find it out. But you can't lay the
3:50:22
Speaker 1: spoon on the rats. And that I know well, Sally.
3:50:26
Speaker 1: I'm in fault, and I acknowledge it. I've been remiss,
3:50:30
Speaker 1: but I won't let tomorrow go by without stopping up
3:50:32
Speaker 1: them holes. Oh, I wouldn't hurry next year'll do, Matilda,
3:50:37
Speaker 1: Angelina Aramenta phelps whack, comes a thimble, and the child
3:50:43
Speaker 1: snatches her claws out of the sugar bowl without fooling
3:50:45
Speaker 1: around Annie. Just then the nigger woman steps onto the
3:50:49
Speaker 1: passage and says, missus, day's a sheet gone, a sheet gone. Well,
3:50:56
Speaker 1: for the land's sake, I'll step up them holes today,
3:51:01
Speaker 1: says uncle Silas, lookin sorrowful. Oh do shut up? S'pose
3:51:05
Speaker 1: the rats took the sheet? Where's it gone? Lies clyde O. Goodness,
3:51:11
Speaker 1: I hain't no notion, miss Sally. She was on the
3:51:14
Speaker 1: clothes line yesterday, but she done gone. She ain't den
3:51:17
Speaker 1: no more. Now I reckon the world. It's comin to
3:51:21
Speaker 1: an end. I never see the beat of it in
3:51:23
Speaker 1: all my born days. A shirt and a sheet and
3:51:26
Speaker 1: a spoon. An six can't missus, comes the young yeller
3:51:30
Speaker 1: wench dare's a breast candlestick missin' clear out from here,
3:51:35
Speaker 1: ye hussy. Or I'll take a skillet to ye. Well,
3:51:39
Speaker 1: she was jest a violin. I begun to lay for
3:51:42
Speaker 1: a chance, I reckoned. I would sneak out an go
3:51:44
Speaker 1: fer the woods till the weather moderated. She kept a
3:51:48
Speaker 1: ragin right along, runnin her insurrection all by herself, an
3:51:52
Speaker 1: everybody else mighty, meek and quiet. An at last, Uncle
3:51:57
Speaker 1: Silas lookin kind o foolish fishes up that spoon out
3:52:01
Speaker 1: of his pocket. She stopped with her mouth open and
3:52:04
Speaker 1: her hands up. And as for me, I wish I
3:52:08
Speaker 1: was in Jerusalem or somewheres, but not long, because she says,
3:52:13
Speaker 1: it's just as I expected. See you had it in
3:52:16
Speaker 1: your pocket all the time, and like as not, you've
3:52:19
Speaker 1: got the other things there too. How to get there?
3:52:23
Speaker 1: I really don't know, sally, he says, kind of apologizing.
3:52:28
Speaker 1: Or you know, I would tell I was a studyin
3:52:31
Speaker 1: over my text and act seventeen before breakfast, and I
3:52:35
Speaker 1: reckon I put it in there, not noticing meanin to
3:52:38
Speaker 1: put my testament in. And it must be so, because
3:52:41
Speaker 1: my testament ain't in. But I'll go and see, and
3:52:45
Speaker 1: if the testament is where I had it, I'll no,
3:52:47
Speaker 1: I didn't put it in, and that will show that
3:52:49
Speaker 1: I laid the testament down and took up the spoon.
3:52:52
Speaker 1: And oh, for the land's sake, give a body a rest.
3:52:56
Speaker 1: Go long now, the whole kitten violin of ye, and
3:52:59
Speaker 1: don't come nie me again till I've got back my
3:53:01
Speaker 1: peace of mind. I'd heard her if she'd a said
3:53:04
Speaker 1: it to herself, let alone speakin it out, and i'd
3:53:07
Speaker 1: a got up and obeyed her if i'd a been dead.
3:53:11
Speaker 1: As he was passing through the settin' room, the old man,
3:53:13
Speaker 1: he took up his hat and the shingle nail fell
3:53:16
Speaker 1: out on the floor, and he just merely picked it
3:53:19
Speaker 1: up and laid it on the mantel shelf, and never
3:53:21
Speaker 1: said nothin', and went out tom see him do it,
3:53:25
Speaker 1: and remembered about the spoon, and says, well, it ain't
3:53:28
Speaker 1: no use to send things by him no more. He
3:53:31
Speaker 1: ain't reliable, then, he says, but he done us a
3:53:34
Speaker 1: good turn with a spoon anyhow, without knowin it. And
3:53:37
Speaker 1: so we'll go and do him one without him knowin it.
3:53:41
Speaker 1: Stop up his rat holes. There was a noble good
3:53:44
Speaker 1: lot of them down cellar, and it took us a
3:53:46
Speaker 1: whole hour, but we'd done the job tight an good,
3:53:49
Speaker 1: an ship shape. Then we heard steps on the stairs,
3:53:53
Speaker 1: an blowed out our light and hid, and here comes
3:53:55
Speaker 1: the old man with a candle in one hand and
3:53:58
Speaker 1: a bundle of stuff in the other, lookin' as absent
3:54:01
Speaker 1: minded as year before last. He went to moonin around
3:54:05
Speaker 1: first of one rat hole and then another, till he'd
3:54:08
Speaker 1: been to them all. Then he stood about five minutes,
3:54:11
Speaker 1: picking towel drip off of his candle and thinking. Then
3:54:15
Speaker 1: he turns off slow an dreamy towards the stairs, saying,
3:54:19
Speaker 1: well for the laugh, O me, I can't remember when
3:54:22
Speaker 1: i'd done it. I could show her now that I
3:54:24
Speaker 1: warn't to blame on account o other rats. But never mind,
3:54:28
Speaker 1: let it go, I reckon it wouldn't do no good.
3:54:33
Speaker 1: And so he went on a mumblin' upstairs, and then
3:54:35
Speaker 1: we left. He was a mighty nice old man, and
3:54:39
Speaker 1: always is. Tom was a good deal bothered about what
3:54:43
Speaker 1: to do for a spoon, But he said we'd got
3:54:45
Speaker 1: to have it, so he took a think. When he
3:54:48
Speaker 1: had ciphered it out, he told me how we was
3:54:51
Speaker 1: to do. Then we went an waited around the spoon
3:54:54
Speaker 1: basket till we see Aunt Sally comin. And then Tom
3:54:57
Speaker 1: went to countin the spoons, an layin' them out to
3:55:00
Speaker 1: one side, and I slid one of them up my sleeve.
3:55:03
Speaker 1: And Tom says, why, Aunt Sally, there ain't put nine
3:55:07
Speaker 1: spoons yet? She says, go along to your play and
3:55:11
Speaker 1: don't bother me. I know better. I counted em myself. Well,
3:55:15
Speaker 1: I've counted them twice, Auntie, and I can't make but nine.
3:55:19
Speaker 1: She looked out of all patience. But of course she
3:55:22
Speaker 1: come to count anybody would, I declared her, gracious, there
3:55:26
Speaker 1: ain't but nine. She says, why wouldn't the world plague
3:55:31
Speaker 1: take the things? I'll count 'em again, So I slipped
3:55:35
Speaker 1: back the one I had. When she got done counting,
3:55:38
Speaker 1: she says, hang the troublesome rubbish, there's ten now, And
3:55:43
Speaker 1: she looked huffy and bothered both. But Tom says, why Auntie,
3:55:47
Speaker 1: I don't think there's ten? You numskull didn't you see
3:55:51
Speaker 1: me count em? I know, but well i'll count him again.
3:55:56
Speaker 1: So I smouched one, an they come out nine, same
3:55:59
Speaker 1: as the other time. Well, she was in a terring' way,
3:56:04
Speaker 1: just a tremblin all over. She was so mad, but
3:56:06
Speaker 1: she counted and counted till she got that addled. She'd
3:56:10
Speaker 1: start to count in a basket for a spoon sometimes,
3:56:13
Speaker 1: and so three times they'd come out right, and three
3:56:16
Speaker 1: times they come out wrong. Then she grabbed up the
3:56:19
Speaker 1: basket and slammed it across the house and knocked the
3:56:22
Speaker 1: cat gally west, and she said, Claire out an let
3:56:25
Speaker 1: her have some peace. An if we came bothering her again,
3:56:28
Speaker 1: betwixt that and dinner, she'd skin us. So we had
3:56:32
Speaker 1: the odd spoon and dropped it in her apron pocket
3:56:34
Speaker 1: while she was a givin us our sailin' orders. An
3:56:37
Speaker 1: Jim got it all right along with her shingle nail.
3:56:40
Speaker 1: Before noon, we was very well satisfied with this business.
3:56:45
Speaker 1: And Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took,
3:56:48
Speaker 1: because he said, now she couldn't ever count them spoons
3:56:50
Speaker 1: twice alike again to save her life, and wouldn't believe
3:56:53
Speaker 1: she'd counted them right if she did, and said that
3:56:56
Speaker 1: after she'd about counted her head off for the next
3:56:59
Speaker 1: three days, he judge she'd give it up and offer
3:57:01
Speaker 1: to kill anybody that wanted her to ever count them anymore.
3:57:05
Speaker 1: So we put the sheet back on the line that night,
3:57:07
Speaker 1: and stole one out of her closet, and kept on
3:57:10
Speaker 1: putting it back and stealing it again for a couple
3:57:12
Speaker 1: of days till she didn't know how many sheets she
3:57:14
Speaker 1: had anymore. And she didn't care, and warn't a goin
3:57:18
Speaker 1: to bullyrag the rest of her soul out about it,
3:57:20
Speaker 1: and wouldn't count them again, not to save her life.
3:57:23
Speaker 1: She'd rather die first. So we was all right now.
3:57:27
Speaker 1: As to the shirt and the sheet, and the spoon
3:57:29
Speaker 1: and the candles, by the help of the calf and
3:57:31
Speaker 1: the rats and the mixed up counting. And as to
3:57:34
Speaker 1: the candlestick, it warn't no consequence. It would blow over
3:57:37
Speaker 1: by and by. But that pie was a job. We
3:57:41
Speaker 1: had no end of trouble with that pie. We fixed
3:57:44
Speaker 1: it up away down in the woods and cooked it there,
3:57:46
Speaker 1: and we got it done at last, and very satisfactory too,
3:57:50
Speaker 1: but not all in one day. And we had to
3:57:52
Speaker 1: use up three wash pans full of flour before we
3:57:55
Speaker 1: got through, and we got burnt pretty much all over
3:57:59
Speaker 1: in places, and eyes put out with the smoke, because
3:58:02
Speaker 1: you see, we didn't want nothing but a crust, and
3:58:04
Speaker 1: we couldn't prop it up right and she would always
3:58:07
Speaker 1: cave in. But of course we thought of the right
3:58:10
Speaker 1: way at last, which was to cook the latter two
3:58:13
Speaker 1: in the pie. So then we laid in with Jim
3:58:16
Speaker 1: the second night and tore up the sheet all in
3:58:18
Speaker 1: little strings and twisted them together, and long before daylight
3:58:22
Speaker 1: we had a lovely rope that you could have hung
3:58:24
Speaker 1: in person with we let on. It took nine months
3:58:28
Speaker 1: to make it, and in the forenoon we took it
3:58:31
Speaker 1: down to the woods, but it wouldn't go into the pie,
3:58:35
Speaker 1: being made of a whole sheet. That way, there was
3:58:37
Speaker 1: rope enough for forty pies if we'd have wanted them,
3:58:40
Speaker 1: and plenty left over for soup or sausage or anything
3:58:43
Speaker 1: you choose. We could have had a whole dinner, but
3:58:47
Speaker 1: we didn't need it. All we needed was just enough
3:58:49
Speaker 1: for the pie, and so we throwed the rest away.
3:58:53
Speaker 1: We didn't cook none of the pies in the washpan,
3:58:55
Speaker 1: afraid the soldier would melt, but Uncle silas he had
3:58:59
Speaker 1: a noble bread warming pan which she thought considerable of
3:59:03
Speaker 1: because it belonged to one of his ancestors, with a
3:59:05
Speaker 1: long wooden handle that come over from England with William
3:59:08
Speaker 1: the Conqueror in the Mayflower or one of them early ships,
3:59:12
Speaker 1: and was hit away up Garrett with a lot of
3:59:15
Speaker 1: other old pies and things that was valuable, not on
3:59:18
Speaker 1: account of being any account, because they weren't, but on
3:59:21
Speaker 1: account of them being relics, you know. And we sneaked
3:59:24
Speaker 1: her out private and took her down there. But she
3:59:27
Speaker 1: failed on the first pies because we didn't know how,
3:59:31
Speaker 1: but she come up smiling on the last one. We
3:59:34
Speaker 1: took and lined her with dough and set her in
3:59:36
Speaker 1: the coals, and loaded her up with rag rope and
3:59:39
Speaker 1: put on a dough roof and shut down the lid
3:59:41
Speaker 1: and put hot embers on top, and stood off five
3:59:45
Speaker 1: foot with the long handle, cool and comfortable, and in
3:59:49
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes she turned out a pie that was a
3:59:51
Speaker 1: satisfaction to look at. But the person that edit would
3:59:54
Speaker 1: want to fetch a couple of CAGs that toothpicks along
3:59:57
Speaker 1: for of that rope ladder wouldn't cramp him down business
4:00:00
Speaker 1: I dun'no nothing what I'm talking about, and laying him
4:00:03
Speaker 1: in enough stomach ache to last him till next time. Too.
4:00:07
Speaker 1: Nat didn't look when we put the witch pie in
4:00:09
Speaker 1: Jim's pan, and we put the three tin plates in
4:00:12
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pan under the victuals. And so
4:00:15
Speaker 1: Jim got everything all right, And as soon as he
4:00:18
Speaker 1: was by himself, he busted into the pie and hid
4:00:21
Speaker 1: the rope ladder inside of his straw tick and scratched
4:00:24
Speaker 1: some marks on a tin plate and throwed it out
4:00:27
Speaker 1: of the window hole. End of chapter thirty seven. Chapter
4:00:34
Speaker 1: thirty eight. Making them pens was a distressed, tough job,
4:00:40
Speaker 1: and so was the saw. And Jim alied. The inscription
4:00:44
Speaker 1: was going to be the toughest of all. That's the
4:00:46
Speaker 1: one which a prisoner has to scrabble on the wall.
4:00:49
Speaker 1: But he had to have it time, said he'd got to.
4:00:52
Speaker 1: There warn't no case of a state prisoner not scrabbling
4:00:55
Speaker 1: his inscription to leave behind and his coat of arms.
4:00:59
Speaker 1: Look at Lee to Jane Gray, he says, look at
4:01:02
Speaker 1: Guilford Dudley, look at old Northumberland. Why Huck suppose it
4:01:07
Speaker 1: is considerable trouble. What you going to do? How you
4:01:10
Speaker 1: going to get around it? Jim's got to do his
4:01:13
Speaker 1: inscription and coat of arms? They all do. Jim says,
4:01:18
Speaker 1: why mars, Tom, I ain't got no coat of arm.
4:01:21
Speaker 1: I ain't got nothing but this year old shirt. And
4:01:24
Speaker 1: you knows I got to keep the journal on. Dad. Oh,
4:01:27
Speaker 1: you don't understand, Jim. A coat of arms is very different. Well,
4:01:32
Speaker 1: I says. Jim's right anyway when he says he ain't
4:01:35
Speaker 1: got no coat of arms, because he hain't, I reckon.
4:01:39
Speaker 1: I know that. Tom says, but you bet he'll have
4:01:43
Speaker 1: one before he gets out of this, because he's going
4:01:45
Speaker 1: out right, and there ain't goin to be no flaws
4:01:48
Speaker 1: in his record. So whilst me and Jim filed away
4:01:52
Speaker 1: at the pens on a brick bat a piece, Jim
4:01:55
Speaker 1: a making his and out of the brass, and I'm
4:01:57
Speaker 1: making mine out of the spoon. Tom set to work
4:02:00
Speaker 1: to think out the coat of arms by and bye.
4:02:03
Speaker 1: He said he'd struck so many good ones he didn't
4:02:05
Speaker 1: hardly know which to take, but there was one which
4:02:08
Speaker 1: he reckoned. He'd decide on, he says, on the sketchen,
4:02:12
Speaker 1: we'll have a bend or in the dexter base, a
4:02:16
Speaker 1: saltire murray and the fest with a dog kutchin for
4:02:20
Speaker 1: common charge, and under his foot a chain embattled for slavery,
4:02:25
Speaker 1: with a chevron vert and a chief engrailed, and three
4:02:29
Speaker 1: invected lines on a field azure with the nombril points
4:02:33
Speaker 1: rampant on a dancet indented crest, a runaway nigger sable
4:02:39
Speaker 1: with his bundle over his shoulder, on a bar sinister,
4:02:42
Speaker 1: and a couple of ghouls for supporters. Which is you
4:02:45
Speaker 1: and me? Motto maggiora fretta minora otto got it out
4:02:52
Speaker 1: of a book means the more haste, the less speed,
4:02:57
Speaker 1: gee willikins, I said, but what does the rest of
4:03:01
Speaker 1: it mean? We ain't got no time to bother over that,
4:03:05
Speaker 1: He says. We got to dig in like all get out. Well, anyway,
4:03:10
Speaker 1: I says, what's some of it? What's a fess? A fess?
4:03:15
Speaker 1: A fess is. You don't need to know what a
4:03:18
Speaker 1: fess is. I'll show him how to make it when
4:03:20
Speaker 1: he gets to it. Shucks, Tom, I says, I think
4:03:25
Speaker 1: you might tell a person what's a bar sinister? Oh?
4:03:29
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he's got to have it all
4:03:31
Speaker 1: the nobility does. That was just his way. If it
4:03:35
Speaker 1: didn't suit him to explain a thing to you, he
4:03:37
Speaker 1: wouldn't do it. You might pump at him a week,
4:03:39
Speaker 1: it wouldn't make no difference. He'd got all that coat
4:03:43
Speaker 1: of arms business fixed. So now he started in to
4:03:45
Speaker 1: finish up the rest of that part of the work,
4:03:48
Speaker 1: which was to plan out a mournful inscription, said, Jim
4:03:51
Speaker 1: got to have one like they all done. He made
4:03:55
Speaker 1: up a lot and wrote them out on a paper
4:03:57
Speaker 1: and read them off. So one Here a captive heart busted.
4:04:03
Speaker 1: Two Here a poor prisoner forsook by the world, and
4:04:08
Speaker 1: friends fretted his sorrowful life. Three Here a lonely heart broke,
4:04:15
Speaker 1: and a worn spirit went to its rest after thirty
4:04:19
Speaker 1: seven years of solitary captivity. Four Here, homeless and friendless,
4:04:26
Speaker 1: after thirty seven years of bitter captivity, perished a noble stranger,
4:04:32
Speaker 1: natural son of Louis fourteen. Tom's voice trembled whilst he
4:04:39
Speaker 1: was reading them, and he most broke down when he
4:04:42
Speaker 1: got done. He couldn't no way make up his mind
4:04:44
Speaker 1: which one for Jim to scrabble on to the wall.
4:04:47
Speaker 1: They was all so good but at last he allowed
4:04:50
Speaker 1: he would let him scrabble them all on. Jim said
4:04:53
Speaker 1: it would take him a year to scrabble such a
4:04:55
Speaker 1: light of truck on to the logs with a nail,
4:04:57
Speaker 1: and he didn't know how to make letters besides, so
4:05:00
Speaker 1: Tom said he would block them out for him, and
4:05:02
Speaker 1: then he wouldn't have nothin to do but just follow
4:05:04
Speaker 1: the lines. Then pretty soon, he says, come to think
4:05:09
Speaker 1: the logs ain't a goin to do. They don't have
4:05:11
Speaker 1: log walls and a dungeon. We got to dig the
4:05:14
Speaker 1: inscriptions into a rock. We'll fetch a rock. Jim said
4:05:18
Speaker 1: the rock was worse than the logs. He said it
4:05:21
Speaker 1: would take him such a pizzin' long time to dig
4:05:23
Speaker 1: them into a rock. He wouldn't ever get out. But
4:05:26
Speaker 1: Tom said he would let me help him do it.
4:05:29
Speaker 1: Then he took a look to see how me and
4:05:31
Speaker 1: Jim was gettin along with the pens. It was most pesky,
4:05:34
Speaker 1: tedious hard work and slow an didn't give my hands
4:05:38
Speaker 1: no show to get well of the sores, and we
4:05:40
Speaker 1: didn't seem to make no headway hardly. So Tom says,
4:05:44
Speaker 1: I know how to fix it. We got to have
4:05:46
Speaker 1: a rock for the coat of arms and mournful inscriptions.
4:05:50
Speaker 1: An we can kill two birds of that same rock.
4:05:52
Speaker 1: There's a gaudy big grindstone down at the middle, and
4:05:56
Speaker 1: we'll smatch it an carve the things on it, and
4:05:59
Speaker 1: file out the pens and the saw on it too.
4:06:02
Speaker 1: It warn't no slatch of an idea, and it warn't
4:06:05
Speaker 1: no slatch of a grindstone another. But we'd aloud we'd
4:06:08
Speaker 1: tackle it. It warn't quite midnight yet, so we cleared
4:06:11
Speaker 1: out for the mill, leaving Jim at work. We smouched
4:06:15
Speaker 1: the grindstone and set out to roll her home. But
4:06:18
Speaker 1: it was a most nation tough job. Sometimes do what
4:06:22
Speaker 1: we could, we couldn't keep her from fallin over an
4:06:26
Speaker 1: she come mighty near mashing us every time. Tom said
4:06:29
Speaker 1: she was going to get one of us, sure before
4:06:31
Speaker 1: we got through. We got her half way, and then
4:06:34
Speaker 1: we was plumb played out and most drownded with sweat.
4:06:39
Speaker 1: We see it warn't no use. We got to go
4:06:41
Speaker 1: and fetch Jim. So he raised up his bed and
4:06:44
Speaker 1: slid the chain off of the bed leg and wrapped
4:06:47
Speaker 1: it around and round his neck. And we crawled out
4:06:50
Speaker 1: through our hole and down there and Jim and me
4:06:52
Speaker 1: laid into that grindstone and walked her along like nothin.
4:06:56
Speaker 1: And Tom superintended. He could out superintend to any boy
4:07:00
Speaker 1: I ever see. He knowed how to do everything. Our
4:07:05
Speaker 1: hole was pretty big, but it warn't big enough to
4:07:08
Speaker 1: get the grindstone through. But Jim he took the pick
4:07:11
Speaker 1: and soon made it big enough. Then Tom marked out
4:07:14
Speaker 1: them things in it with the nail and set Jim
4:07:17
Speaker 1: to work on them with the nail for a chisel,
4:07:20
Speaker 1: and an iron bolt from the rubbage, and the lean
4:07:22
Speaker 1: to for a hammer, and told him to work till
4:07:24
Speaker 1: the rest of his candle quit on him, and then
4:07:27
Speaker 1: he could go to bed and hide the grindstone under
4:07:29
Speaker 1: his straw tick and sleep on it. Then we helped
4:07:33
Speaker 1: him fix his chain back on the bed leg, and
4:07:35
Speaker 1: was ready for bed ourselves. But Tom thought of something
4:07:39
Speaker 1: and says, you got any spiders in here? Jim no,
4:07:43
Speaker 1: s thanks to goodness. I hate murse. Tom. All right,
4:07:47
Speaker 1: we'll get you some, but bless you, honey, I don't
4:07:51
Speaker 1: want none. I's a fear num I shoustin soon have
4:07:54
Speaker 1: rattlesnakes around. Tom thought a minute or two and says
4:07:59
Speaker 1: it's a good eye. And I reckon. It's been done.
4:08:02
Speaker 1: It must have been done. It stands to reason. Yes,
4:08:05
Speaker 1: it's a prime good idea. Where could you keep it?
4:08:09
Speaker 1: Keep what? Mars Tom? Why a rattlesnake? The goodness gracious alive?
4:08:15
Speaker 1: Mars Tom? Why if there was a rattlesnake to come
4:08:17
Speaker 1: in here? I take a bus right out through that
4:08:20
Speaker 1: log while I would with my head. Why, Jim, you
4:08:23
Speaker 1: wouldn't be afraid of it. After a little you could
4:08:26
Speaker 1: tame it. Tame it? Yes, easy enough. Every animal is
4:08:32
Speaker 1: grateful for kindness and petting, and they wouldn't think of
4:08:34
Speaker 1: hurting a person that pets them. Any book will tell
4:08:37
Speaker 1: you that you try, that's all I ask, Just try
4:08:41
Speaker 1: for two or three days. Why you can get him
4:08:44
Speaker 1: so in a little while that he'll love you and
4:08:46
Speaker 1: sleep with you and won't stay away from you a minute?
4:08:49
Speaker 1: And we'll let you wrap him round your neck and
4:08:52
Speaker 1: put his head in your mouth. Please, Mars Tom, don't
4:08:55
Speaker 1: talk so I can't stand it. He let me shove
4:08:59
Speaker 1: his head my mo for a favor hanging I lay.
4:09:02
Speaker 1: He'd wait a powerful long time for I asked him,
4:09:06
Speaker 1: and mowing that I don't want him to sleep with me. Jim,
4:09:10
Speaker 1: don't act so foolish. A prisoner's got to have some
4:09:13
Speaker 1: kind of a dumb pet. And if a rattlesnake hain't
4:09:16
Speaker 1: ever been tried, why there's more glory to be gained
4:09:19
Speaker 1: in your being the first to ever try it than
4:09:22
Speaker 1: any other way you could ever think of to save
4:09:24
Speaker 1: your life. Why, morst time, I don't want no such
4:09:28
Speaker 1: glory snake taking bite Jim's chin off than what is
4:09:32
Speaker 1: the glory? No, sir, I don't want no such doings.
4:09:37
Speaker 1: Blame it. Can't you try? I only want you to try.
4:09:41
Speaker 1: You needn't keep it up if it don't work, but
4:09:44
Speaker 1: to trouble all done. If the snake bite me while
4:09:46
Speaker 1: I s a trying him, mars Tom, I was willing
4:09:49
Speaker 1: to tackle most anything. It ain't unreasonable. But if you
4:09:53
Speaker 1: and Huck fetch the rattlesnake in here for me to tame,
4:09:56
Speaker 1: I's going to leave. That's sure, well, Dan, let it go,
4:10:02
Speaker 1: Let it go. If you're so bullheaded about it, we
4:10:04
Speaker 1: can get you some garter snakes, and you can tie
4:10:07
Speaker 1: some buttons on their tails and let on the rattlesnakes,
4:10:10
Speaker 1: and I reckon they'll have to do. I can stand
4:10:13
Speaker 1: them mars, Tom, but blam if I couldn't get along
4:10:16
Speaker 1: without him, I tell you d I never know before
4:10:19
Speaker 1: twas so much botherin trouble to be a prisoner. Well
4:10:23
Speaker 1: it always is when it's done right. You got any
4:10:26
Speaker 1: rats around here? No, suh, I ain't see none. Well
4:10:31
Speaker 1: we'll get you some rats. Why most Tom, I don't
4:10:34
Speaker 1: want no rats. They's to dab blamit. His creatures disturb
4:10:38
Speaker 1: ay body and rustle round over him and bite his
4:10:40
Speaker 1: feet when he's tryin to sleep. I ever see no, suh,
4:10:44
Speaker 1: gimme garter snakes if I've got to have him, But
4:10:47
Speaker 1: don't gimme no rats. I ain't got no use for 'em, scarcely,
4:10:51
Speaker 1: But Jim, you got to have 'em. They all do,
4:10:54
Speaker 1: so don't make no more fuss about it. Prisoners ain't
4:10:57
Speaker 1: ever without rats. There ain't no instance of it. And
4:11:01
Speaker 1: they train them and pet them and learn them tricks,
4:11:04
Speaker 1: and they get to be as sociable as flies. But
4:11:07
Speaker 1: you got to play music to them. You got anything
4:11:09
Speaker 1: to play music on. I ain't got nothin but a
4:11:12
Speaker 1: coastcomb and a piece of paper and a juice harp.
4:11:15
Speaker 1: But I reckon they wouldn't take no such stock in
4:11:17
Speaker 1: a juice harp, Yes they would. They don't care. What
4:11:21
Speaker 1: kind of music tis. A jew's Harp's plenty good enough
4:11:24
Speaker 1: for a rat. All animals like music and a prison
4:11:28
Speaker 1: they dote on it, specially painful music. And you can't
4:11:32
Speaker 1: get no other kind out of a jew's harp, and
4:11:35
Speaker 1: always interests them. They come out to see what's the
4:11:37
Speaker 1: matter with you? Yes, you're all right, you're fixed very well.
4:11:41
Speaker 1: You want to sit on your bed nights before you
4:11:43
Speaker 1: go to sleep, and early in the morning's and play
4:11:46
Speaker 1: your jews harp. Play the last link is broken. That's
4:11:50
Speaker 1: the thing that'll scoop a rat quicker in anything else.
4:11:53
Speaker 1: When you've played about two minutes, you'll see all the
4:11:55
Speaker 1: rats and the snakes and spiders and things begin to
4:11:58
Speaker 1: feel worried about you, and come an. They'll jest fairly
4:12:01
Speaker 1: swarm over you, an have a noble good time. Yes
4:12:06
Speaker 1: they will. I reckon, Mars Tom A, what kinder time is?
4:12:09
Speaker 1: Jim havin bless if I can see the point. But
4:12:13
Speaker 1: I'll do it if I got to, I reckon. I
4:12:16
Speaker 1: better keep the animal satisfied, an not have no trouble
4:12:19
Speaker 1: in the house. Tom waited to think it over an
4:12:23
Speaker 1: see if there warn't nothin else an. Pretty soon he says, Oh,
4:12:27
Speaker 1: there's one thing I forgot. Could you raise a flower here?
4:12:31
Speaker 1: Do you reckon? I dunno, but maybe I couldn't, Mars Tom,
4:12:36
Speaker 1: But it's tolerable dark in here, an, I ain't got
4:12:39
Speaker 1: no use for no flour, nohow an, she'd be a
4:12:42
Speaker 1: powerful sight o trouble. Well, you've tried it anyway. Some
4:12:46
Speaker 1: other prisoners has done it. One of them, big cat
4:12:50
Speaker 1: tail lookin' mullin stocks would growin here, Mars Tom, I reckon,
4:12:54
Speaker 1: but she wouldn't be worth half the trouble she'd costs.
4:12:57
Speaker 1: Don't you believe it? We'll fetch you a little one,
4:13:00
Speaker 1: and you plant it in the corner over there, and
4:13:02
Speaker 1: raise it. And don't call it mullin. Call it pitchiola.
4:13:06
Speaker 1: That's its right name when it's in a prison an.
4:13:08
Speaker 1: You went to water it with your tears? Why I
4:13:12
Speaker 1: got plenty of spring water, Moss Tom, you don't want
4:13:16
Speaker 1: spring water. You want to water it with your tears.
4:13:19
Speaker 1: It's the way they always do. Why, Moss Tom, I
4:13:23
Speaker 1: lay I can raise one or dum mullin stocks twice
4:13:26
Speaker 1: with spring water, whilst another man's a startin one with tears.
4:13:31
Speaker 1: That ain't the idea. You got to do it with tears.
4:13:35
Speaker 1: She'll die on my hands, mars Tom. She surely will,
4:13:39
Speaker 1: cause I don't scarcely ever cry. So Tom was stumped,
4:13:45
Speaker 1: but he studied it over and then said Jim would
4:13:48
Speaker 1: have to worry along the best he could. With an onion,
4:13:51
Speaker 1: he promised he would go to the nigger cabins and
4:13:53
Speaker 1: drop one private and Jim's coffee pot in the mornin'.
4:13:57
Speaker 1: Jim said he would jest as soon have tobacker in
4:13:59
Speaker 1: his coffe and found so much fault with it, and
4:14:02
Speaker 1: with the work and bother of raising the mullin and jews,
4:14:06
Speaker 1: harping the rats, and petting and flattering up the snakes
4:14:08
Speaker 1: and spiders and things, on top of all the other
4:14:11
Speaker 1: work he had to do on pens and inscriptions and
4:14:13
Speaker 1: journals and things, which made it more trouble and worry
4:14:17
Speaker 1: and responsibility to be a prisoner than anything he ever undertook.
4:14:21
Speaker 1: That Tom most lost all patience with him, and said
4:14:25
Speaker 1: he was just loading down with more gaudier chances than
4:14:28
Speaker 1: a prisoner ever had in the world to make a
4:14:30
Speaker 1: name for himself, and yet he didn't know enough to
4:14:32
Speaker 1: appreciate them, and they was just about wasted on him.
4:14:37
Speaker 1: So Jim he was sorry and said he wouldn't behave
4:14:40
Speaker 1: so no more. And then me and Tom shoved for bed.
4:14:47
Speaker 1: End of chapter thirty eight, Chapter thirty nine. In the
4:14:54
Speaker 1: morning we went up to the village and bought a
4:14:56
Speaker 1: wire rat trap and fetched it down and unstopped the
4:15:00
Speaker 1: rat hole, and in about an hour we had fifteen
4:15:03
Speaker 1: of the bulliest kind of ones. And then we took
4:15:06
Speaker 1: it and put it in a safe place under Aunt
4:15:08
Speaker 1: Sally's bed. But while we was gone for spiders, Little
4:15:12
Speaker 1: Thomas Franklin, Benjamin Jefferson, Alexander Phelps found it there and
4:15:16
Speaker 1: opened the door of it to see if the rats
4:15:18
Speaker 1: would come out, and they did, and Aunt Sally she'd
4:15:21
Speaker 1: come in, And when we got back she was as
4:15:24
Speaker 1: standing on top of the bed raising cane, and the
4:15:27
Speaker 1: rats was doing what they could to keep off the
4:15:29
Speaker 1: dull times for her. So she took in dust to
4:15:33
Speaker 1: dust both with the hickory, and we was as much
4:15:35
Speaker 1: as two hours catching another fifteen or sixteen drapped that
4:15:39
Speaker 1: metlesome cub, and they weren't the likeliest. Another because the
4:15:43
Speaker 1: first hall was the pick of the flock. I never
4:15:46
Speaker 1: see a likelier lot of rats. And what that first
4:15:48
Speaker 1: hall was, we got a splendid stock of sordid spiders
4:15:53
Speaker 1: and bugs and frogs and caterpillars and one thing or another,
4:15:57
Speaker 1: And we'd like to guide a hornet's nest, but we didn't.
4:16:01
Speaker 1: The family was at home. We didn't give it right up,
4:16:05
Speaker 1: but stayed with them as long as we could, because
4:16:07
Speaker 1: we allowed we'd tire them out, or they'd got to
4:16:10
Speaker 1: tire us out, and they'd done it. Then we got
4:16:13
Speaker 1: ali campaign and rubbed on the places and was pretty
4:16:16
Speaker 1: near all right again, but couldn't set down convenient, and
4:16:21
Speaker 1: so we went for the snakes and grabbed a couple
4:16:23
Speaker 1: of dozen garters and house snakes and put them in
4:16:26
Speaker 1: a bag and put it in our room. And by
4:16:28
Speaker 1: that time it was supper time and a rattling good
4:16:31
Speaker 1: honesty's work, and hungry. Oh no, I reckon not, And
4:16:36
Speaker 1: there warn't a blessed snake up there. When we went back,
4:16:39
Speaker 1: we didn't have to tie the sack, and they worked
4:16:41
Speaker 1: out somehow and left, but it didn't matter much because
4:16:45
Speaker 1: they were still on the premises somewheres. So we judged
4:16:48
Speaker 1: we could get some of them again. No, there weren't
4:16:51
Speaker 1: no real scarcity of snakes about the house for a
4:16:53
Speaker 1: considerable spell. You'd see them dripping from the rafters and
4:16:57
Speaker 1: places every now and then, and they generally landed in
4:17:00
Speaker 1: your plate or down the back of your neck, and
4:17:02
Speaker 1: most of the time where you didn't want them. Well,
4:17:05
Speaker 1: they was handsome and striped, and there warn't no harm,
4:17:07
Speaker 1: and a million of them, but that never made no
4:17:09
Speaker 1: difference to Aunt Sally. She despised snakes, be the breed
4:17:13
Speaker 1: what they might, and she couldn't stand them, no way
4:17:16
Speaker 1: you could fix it. And every time one of them
4:17:18
Speaker 1: flopped down on her, it didn't make no difference what
4:17:21
Speaker 1: she was doing. She would just lay that work down
4:17:24
Speaker 1: an light out. I never see such a woman, and
4:17:27
Speaker 1: you could hear her whooped, Jericho. You couldn't get her
4:17:31
Speaker 1: to take a hold of one of them with the tongs,
4:17:33
Speaker 1: And if she turned over and found one in bed,
4:17:36
Speaker 1: she would scramble out and lift a howl that you
4:17:38
Speaker 1: would think the house was a fire. She disturbed the
4:17:40
Speaker 1: old man so that he said he could most wish
4:17:43
Speaker 1: there hadn't ever been no snakes created. Why after every
4:17:47
Speaker 1: last Nack had been gone clear out of the house
4:17:49
Speaker 1: for as much as a week. Aunt Sally warn't over it. Yet,
4:17:53
Speaker 1: she warn't near over it. When she was settin thinking
4:17:56
Speaker 1: about something, you could touch her on the back of
4:17:58
Speaker 1: her neck with a feather and she would jump right
4:18:01
Speaker 1: out of her stockings. It was very curious, But Tom
4:18:05
Speaker 1: said all women was just so. He said they was
4:18:08
Speaker 1: made that way for some reason or other. We got
4:18:11
Speaker 1: a lickin every time one of our snakes come in
4:18:13
Speaker 1: her way, and she allowed these lickins. Warn't nothin to
4:18:16
Speaker 1: what she would do if we ever loaded up the
4:18:18
Speaker 1: place again with them. I didn't mind the lickin's because
4:18:21
Speaker 1: they didn't amount to nothin', but I minded the trouble
4:18:24
Speaker 1: we had to lay in another lot, but we got
4:18:27
Speaker 1: them laid in and all the other things. An you
4:18:30
Speaker 1: never see a cabin as blithesome as Jim's was when
4:18:33
Speaker 1: they'd all swarm out for music and go for him.
4:18:36
Speaker 1: Jim didn't like the spiders, and the spiders didn't like Jim,
4:18:39
Speaker 1: and so they'd lay for him an make it mighty
4:18:42
Speaker 1: warm for him. An he said that between the rats
4:18:44
Speaker 1: and the snakes and the grindstone there warn't no room
4:18:47
Speaker 1: in bed for him. Scarcely when there was, the body
4:18:50
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep. It was so lively, And it was always lively,
4:18:53
Speaker 1: he said, because they never all slept at one time,
4:18:57
Speaker 1: but took turn about. So when the snakes was asleep,
4:19:00
Speaker 1: the rats was on deck, and when the rats turned in,
4:19:03
Speaker 1: the snakes come on watch. So we always had one
4:19:05
Speaker 1: gang under him in his way, and the other gang
4:19:08
Speaker 1: havin' a circus over him. And if he got up
4:19:10
Speaker 1: to hunt a new place, the spiders would take a
4:19:13
Speaker 1: chance at him as he crossed over. He said, if
4:19:16
Speaker 1: he ever got out this time, he wouldn't ever be
4:19:18
Speaker 1: a prisoner again, not for a salary. Well, by the
4:19:23
Speaker 1: end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape.
4:19:26
Speaker 1: The shirt was sent in early in a pie, and
4:19:29
Speaker 1: every time a rat bit Jim, he would get up
4:19:31
Speaker 1: and write a little in his journal whilst the ink
4:19:34
Speaker 1: was fresh. The pens was made, the inscriptions and so
4:19:38
Speaker 1: on was all carved on the grindstone. The bed leg
4:19:41
Speaker 1: was sawed in two when we had ed up to
4:19:42
Speaker 1: saw dust, and it give us a most amazing stomach ache.
4:19:46
Speaker 1: We reckoned we was all goin to die, but didn't.
4:19:50
Speaker 1: It was the most undigestible sawdust I ever see. And
4:19:53
Speaker 1: Tom said the same. But as I was saying, we'd
4:19:57
Speaker 1: got all the work done now at last, and we
4:19:59
Speaker 1: was all pretty much fagged out too. But mainly Jim,
4:20:03
Speaker 1: the old man, had wrote a couple of times to
4:20:05
Speaker 1: the plantation below Orleans to come and get their runaway nigger,
4:20:09
Speaker 1: but hadn't got no answer because there warn't no such plantation.
4:20:13
Speaker 1: So he allowed he would advertise Jim in the Saint
4:20:16
Speaker 1: Louis and New Orleans papers. And when he mentioned the
4:20:19
Speaker 1: Saint Louis ones, it give me the cold shivers. And
4:20:22
Speaker 1: I see, we hadn't no time to lose. So Tom said,
4:20:26
Speaker 1: Now for the anonymous letters, what's them? I says, warnings
4:20:32
Speaker 1: to the people that something is up. Sometimes it's done
4:20:35
Speaker 1: one way, sometimes another, but there's always somebody spying around
4:20:39
Speaker 1: that gives notice to the governor of the castle. When
4:20:42
Speaker 1: Louis sixteen was going to light out of the toooleries,
4:20:45
Speaker 1: a servant girl done it. It's a very good way,
4:20:48
Speaker 1: and so is the anonymous letters. We'll use them both.
4:20:51
Speaker 1: And it's usual for the prisoner's mother to change clothes
4:20:54
Speaker 1: with him, and she stays in and he slides out
4:20:57
Speaker 1: in her clothes. We'll do that too, But look at here, Tom,
4:21:02
Speaker 1: what do we want to warn anybody for that something's up.
4:21:05
Speaker 1: Let them find it out for themselves. It's their lookout, Yes,
4:21:09
Speaker 1: I know, but you can't depend on them. It's the
4:21:12
Speaker 1: way they've acted from the very start, left us to
4:21:14
Speaker 1: do everything. They're so confiding and mullet headed. They don't
4:21:19
Speaker 1: take notice and nothing at all. So if we don't
4:21:21
Speaker 1: give them notice, there won't be nobody nor nothing to
4:21:24
Speaker 1: interfere with us. And so after all our hard work
4:21:27
Speaker 1: and trouble, this escape will go off perfectly flat, won't
4:21:30
Speaker 1: amount to nothing, won't be nothing to it. Well as
4:21:35
Speaker 1: for me, Tom, that's the way I'd like shucks, he says,
4:21:39
Speaker 1: and look disgusted. So I says, but I ain't gonna
4:21:43
Speaker 1: make no complaint anyway that suits you suits me. What
4:21:48
Speaker 1: you're going to do about the servant girl, you'll be her.
4:21:52
Speaker 1: You slide in in the middle of the night and
4:21:54
Speaker 1: hook that yaller girl's frock. Why Tom, that'll make trouble
4:21:58
Speaker 1: next morning, Because of course you probably ain't got any
4:22:01
Speaker 1: but that one, I know, but you don't want it.
4:22:04
Speaker 1: But fifteen minutes to carry the nonmous letter and shove
4:22:07
Speaker 1: it under the front door. All right, then I'll do it.
4:22:11
Speaker 1: But I could carry it just as handy an my
4:22:13
Speaker 1: own dogs. You wouldn't look like a servant girl, then,
4:22:16
Speaker 1: would you. No, But there won't be nobody to see
4:22:20
Speaker 1: what I look like anyway. That ain't got nothin to
4:22:23
Speaker 1: do with it. The thing for us to do is
4:22:26
Speaker 1: just to do our duty and not worry about whether
4:22:28
Speaker 1: anybody sees us do it or not. Hain't you got
4:22:31
Speaker 1: no principle at all? All right, I ain't sayin nothin.
4:22:36
Speaker 1: I'm the servant girl who's Jim's mother. I'm his mother.
4:22:41
Speaker 1: I'll hook a gown from Aunt Sally. Well, then you'll
4:22:44
Speaker 1: have to stay in the cabin when me and Jim leaves,
4:22:48
Speaker 1: not much. I'll stuff Jim's clothes full of straw and
4:22:51
Speaker 1: lay it on his bed, represent his mother in disguise,
4:22:54
Speaker 1: and Jim will take the nigger woman's gown off of
4:22:56
Speaker 1: me and wear it, and we'll all evade together. When
4:23:00
Speaker 1: a prisoner of style escapes, it's called an evasion. It's
4:23:04
Speaker 1: always called so when a king scapes, for instance, and
4:23:08
Speaker 1: the same with a king's son. It told me no
4:23:10
Speaker 1: difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural one.
4:23:14
Speaker 1: So Tom he wrote the anonymous letter, And I smouched
4:23:17
Speaker 1: the yaller Wench's frock that night and put it on
4:23:20
Speaker 1: and shoved it under the front door the way Tom
4:23:22
Speaker 1: told me to. It said, beware, trouble is brewin'. Keep
4:23:27
Speaker 1: a sharp lookout, unknown friend. Next night we stuck a
4:23:33
Speaker 1: picture which Tom drawed in blood, of a skull and
4:23:36
Speaker 1: crossbones on the front door, and next night another one
4:23:40
Speaker 1: of a coffin on the back door. I'd never see
4:23:43
Speaker 1: a family in such a sweat. They couldn't have been
4:23:46
Speaker 1: worse scared if the place had been full of ghosts
4:23:48
Speaker 1: laying for them behind everything and under the beds and
4:23:50
Speaker 1: shivering through the air. If a door banged, Aunt Sally,
4:23:54
Speaker 1: she jumped and said out. If anything fell, she jumped
4:23:57
Speaker 1: and said out if you happen to touch her. When
4:23:59
Speaker 1: she warn'tin she'd done the same. She couldn't face snow
4:24:02
Speaker 1: way and be satisfied because she allowed there was something
4:24:05
Speaker 1: behind her every time. So she was always a whirling
4:24:08
Speaker 1: around sudden and say an ouch, And before she'd got
4:24:11
Speaker 1: two thirds around, she'd whirl back again and say it
4:24:14
Speaker 1: again and she was afraid to go to bed, but
4:24:17
Speaker 1: she doesn't set up. So the thing was working very well.
4:24:20
Speaker 1: Tom said. He said he never seen anything worth more satisfactory.
4:24:25
Speaker 1: He said, it showed it was done right. So he said,
4:24:29
Speaker 1: now for the grand bulge. So the very next morning,
4:24:33
Speaker 1: at the streak of dawn, we got another letter ready
4:24:36
Speaker 1: and was wondering what we better do with it, because
4:24:38
Speaker 1: we heard them say at supper they was goin to
4:24:40
Speaker 1: have a nigger on watch at both doors all night.
4:24:43
Speaker 1: Tom he went down the lightning and ride to spy around,
4:24:46
Speaker 1: and the nigger at the back door was asleep, and
4:24:49
Speaker 1: he stuck it in the back of his neck and
4:24:50
Speaker 1: come back. This letter said, don't betray me. I wish
4:24:55
Speaker 1: to be your friend. There's a desperate gang of cutthroats
4:24:59
Speaker 1: from over for in the Indian Territory going to steal
4:25:02
Speaker 1: your runaway nigger to night, and they have been trying
4:25:05
Speaker 1: to scare you so as you will stay in the
4:25:07
Speaker 1: house and not bother them. I am one of the gang,
4:25:11
Speaker 1: but have got religion and wish to quit it and
4:25:13
Speaker 1: lead an honest life again, and will betray the hellish design.
4:25:18
Speaker 1: They will sneak down from northwards along the fence at midnight,
4:25:22
Speaker 1: exact with a false key, and go in the nigger's
4:25:25
Speaker 1: cabin to get him. I am to be off a
4:25:28
Speaker 1: piece and blow a tin horn if I see any danger,
4:25:31
Speaker 1: but stead of that, I will bae like a sheep
4:25:34
Speaker 1: as soon as they get in, and not blow at all. Then,
4:25:38
Speaker 1: whilst they are gettin his chains loose, you slip there
4:25:41
Speaker 1: and lock them in and can kill them at your leisure.
4:25:45
Speaker 1: Don't do anything but just the way I am telling you.
4:25:48
Speaker 1: If you do, they will suspicion something' and raise whoop
4:25:52
Speaker 1: jamboree who I do not wish any reward but to
4:25:56
Speaker 1: know I have done the right thing, unknown friend. End
4:26:04
Speaker 1: of chapter thirty nine, Chapter forty. We was feeling pretty
4:26:11
Speaker 1: good after breakfast, and took the canoe and went over
4:26:14
Speaker 1: the river a fishing with a lunch, and had a
4:26:17
Speaker 1: good time, and took a look at the raft and
4:26:18
Speaker 1: found her all right, and got home late supper, and
4:26:22
Speaker 1: found them in such a sweat and worry. They didn't
4:26:24
Speaker 1: know which end they was standing on, and made us
4:26:27
Speaker 1: go right off to bed the minute we was done supper,
4:26:29
Speaker 1: and wouldn't tell us what the trouble was, and never
4:26:32
Speaker 1: let on a word about the new letter, but didn't
4:26:34
Speaker 1: need to, because we know as much about it as
4:26:36
Speaker 1: anybody did. And as soon as we was half upstairs
4:26:39
Speaker 1: and her back was turned, we slid for the cellar
4:26:42
Speaker 1: cupboard and loaded up a good lunch and took it
4:26:45
Speaker 1: up to our room and went to bed, and got
4:26:47
Speaker 1: up about half past eleven, and Tom put on Aunt
4:26:50
Speaker 1: Sally's dress that he stole, and was going to start
4:26:52
Speaker 1: with the lunch. But says, where's the butter? I laid
4:26:56
Speaker 1: out a hunk of it, I says, on a piece
4:26:59
Speaker 1: of a corn pone. Well you left laid out, then
4:27:02
Speaker 1: it ain't here. We can get along without it. I says,
4:27:07
Speaker 1: we can get along with it too. He says, jes,
4:27:10
Speaker 1: you slide down cellar and fetch it. An, then mosey
4:27:13
Speaker 1: right down the lightnin ride an come along. I'll go
4:27:16
Speaker 1: an stuffed straw into Jim's clothes to represent his mother
4:27:18
Speaker 1: in disguise. An be ready to buy like a sheep,
4:27:22
Speaker 1: an shove as soon as you get there. So out
4:27:25
Speaker 1: he went an down cellar went Aye. The hunk of butter,
4:27:29
Speaker 1: big as a person's fist, was where I had left it.
4:27:32
Speaker 1: So I took up the slab of corn pone with
4:27:34
Speaker 1: it on. An blowed out my light and started up
4:27:37
Speaker 1: stairs very stealthy and got up to the main floor.
4:27:40
Speaker 1: All right, But here comes Aunt Sally with a candle,
4:27:43
Speaker 1: and I clapped the truck in my hat, An clapped
4:27:46
Speaker 1: my hat on my head. An the next second she's
4:27:49
Speaker 1: seen me an, she says, you been down cellar? Yisum
4:27:54
Speaker 1: what you been doin down there? Nothin', nothin n um. Well,
4:28:00
Speaker 1: then what possessed you to go down there this time
4:28:02
Speaker 1: O night? I don't know em. You don't know. Don't
4:28:06
Speaker 1: answer me that way, Tom, I wanna know what you
4:28:08
Speaker 1: been doin down there. I ain't been doin a single thing,
4:28:11
Speaker 1: Aunt Sally, I hoped, gracious, if I have I reckon,
4:28:15
Speaker 1: she'd let me go now. An as a general thing,
4:28:18
Speaker 1: she would, But I suppose there were so many strange
4:28:21
Speaker 1: things goin on. She was just in a sweat about
4:28:23
Speaker 1: every little thing that warn't yard stick straight. So she says,
4:28:26
Speaker 1: very decided, you jest march into that settin' room, an
4:28:30
Speaker 1: stay there till I come. You've been up to somethin
4:28:32
Speaker 1: you know, business to an, I lay off find out
4:28:35
Speaker 1: what it is before I'm done with you, So she
4:28:38
Speaker 1: went away. As I opened the door, an walked into
4:28:40
Speaker 1: the settin' room. My but there was a crowd there,
4:28:45
Speaker 1: fifteen farmers, an every one of them had a gun.
4:28:48
Speaker 1: I was most powerful, sick An slunk to a chair,
4:28:52
Speaker 1: an set down. They was sittin around, Some of them
4:28:55
Speaker 1: talkin a little in a low voice. An all them fidgety,
4:28:58
Speaker 1: an uneasy, but tryin to look like they warn't. But
4:29:02
Speaker 1: I knowed they was, cause they was always taking off
4:29:04
Speaker 1: their hats and putting them on a scratching their heads
4:29:07
Speaker 1: and changing their seats and fumbling with their buttons. I
4:29:11
Speaker 1: warn't easy myself, but I didn't take my hat off
4:29:14
Speaker 1: all the same. I did wish Aunt Sally would come
4:29:17
Speaker 1: an get done with me, an lick me if she
4:29:19
Speaker 1: wanted to, an let me get away, an tell Tom
4:29:21
Speaker 1: how we'd overdone this thing, what a thunderin hornsn's we'd
4:29:25
Speaker 1: got ourselves into. So we could stop fooling around, straight
4:29:28
Speaker 1: off an clear out with Jim before these rips got
4:29:31
Speaker 1: out O patience and come for us. At last, she
4:29:34
Speaker 1: come an begun to ask me questions, but I couldn't
4:29:37
Speaker 1: answer them straight. I didn't know which end Tom me
4:29:40
Speaker 1: was up because these men was in such a fidget
4:29:42
Speaker 1: now that some of them was wantin to start right now,
4:29:44
Speaker 1: an lay for them desperadoes, an sayin it warn't but
4:29:47
Speaker 1: a few minutes to midnight. An others was tryin to
4:29:50
Speaker 1: get them to hold on an wait for the sheep's signal.
4:29:53
Speaker 1: An here was Auntie peggin away at the questions. An
4:29:56
Speaker 1: me is shakin all over an ready to sink down
4:29:58
Speaker 1: in my tracks. I was scared, and the police getting
4:30:02
Speaker 1: hotter and hotter, and the butter beginning to melt and
4:30:05
Speaker 1: run down my neck and behind my ears. And pretty
4:30:08
Speaker 1: soon when one of them says, I'm for going and
4:30:11
Speaker 1: getting in the cabin first and right now and catching
4:30:14
Speaker 1: them when they come, I'm most dropped. And a streak
4:30:18
Speaker 1: of butter come a tricklin down my forehead, and Aunt's
4:30:21
Speaker 1: alas she sees it, and turns white as a sheet
4:30:24
Speaker 1: and says, for the land's sake, what is the matter
4:30:27
Speaker 1: with a child? He's got the brain fever as sure
4:30:30
Speaker 1: as you're born. And there oozin out and everybody runs
4:30:34
Speaker 1: to see. And she snatches off my hat and out
4:30:37
Speaker 1: comes the bread and what was left of the butter,
4:30:40
Speaker 1: and she grabbed me and hugged me and says, oh,
4:30:43
Speaker 1: what a turn you did give me, And how glad
4:30:45
Speaker 1: and grateful I am, And ain't no worse for lucks
4:30:48
Speaker 1: against us. And it never rains, but it pours. And
4:30:51
Speaker 1: when I see that truck, I thought we'd lost you,
4:30:54
Speaker 1: for I knowed by the color and all it was
4:30:56
Speaker 1: just like your brains would be if dear dear white,
4:30:59
Speaker 1: did you tell me that was what you've been down
4:31:01
Speaker 1: there for? I wouldn't a cared. Now, clear up the
4:31:04
Speaker 1: bed and don't let me see no more you till mornin'.
4:31:07
Speaker 1: I was upstairs in a second, an down the lightnin'
4:31:10
Speaker 1: ridin' another one, an chinnin through the dark for the
4:31:13
Speaker 1: lean to. I couldn't hardly get my words out. I
4:31:16
Speaker 1: was so anxious, but I told Tom as quick as
4:31:19
Speaker 1: I could, we must jump for it now, and not
4:31:22
Speaker 1: a minute to lose the house full of men yonder
4:31:25
Speaker 1: with guns. His eyes just blazed, and he says, no,
4:31:31
Speaker 1: is that so? Ain't it? Bully? Why huck? If I
4:31:36
Speaker 1: was to do it over again, I'd bet I could
4:31:37
Speaker 1: fetch two hundred if we could put it off till hurry, hurry,
4:31:42
Speaker 1: I says, where's Jim right at your elbow. If you
4:31:46
Speaker 1: reach out your arm you can touch him. He's dressed
4:31:49
Speaker 1: and everything's ready. Now we'll slide out an give the
4:31:52
Speaker 1: sheep signal. But then we heard the tramp of men
4:31:56
Speaker 1: comin to the door, and heard them begin to fumble
4:31:58
Speaker 1: with the padlock, and heard a man say, I told
4:32:02
Speaker 1: you we'd be too soon. They haven't come. The door's
4:32:04
Speaker 1: locked here all like some of you into the cabin,
4:32:07
Speaker 1: and you lay for him in the dark and killing
4:32:10
Speaker 1: when they come, and the rest scatter around a piece
4:32:12
Speaker 1: and listen if you can hear him coming. So in
4:32:15
Speaker 1: they come, but couldn't see us in the dark, and
4:32:18
Speaker 1: most tried on us whilst we was hustling to get
4:32:20
Speaker 1: under the bed. But we got under all right, and
4:32:23
Speaker 1: out through the hole swift but soft, Jim first, Me next,
4:32:28
Speaker 1: and Tom last, which was according to Tom's orders. Now
4:32:32
Speaker 1: we was in the lean to and heard trampets close
4:32:34
Speaker 1: by outside, so we crept to the door, and Tom
4:32:37
Speaker 1: stopped us there and put his eye to the crack,
4:32:40
Speaker 1: but couldn't make out nothing it was so dark, and
4:32:43
Speaker 1: whispered and said he would listen for the steps to
4:32:45
Speaker 1: get further. And when he nudged us. Jim must slide
4:32:48
Speaker 1: out first and him last. So he set his ear
4:32:52
Speaker 1: to the crack and listened and listened and listened, and
4:32:55
Speaker 1: the steps of scraping around out there all the time,
4:32:58
Speaker 1: And at last he nudged us, and we slid out
4:33:02
Speaker 1: and stooped down, not breathing and not making the least noise,
4:33:06
Speaker 1: and slipped stealthy towards the fence in injun file and
4:33:09
Speaker 1: got to it all right, and me and Jim over it.
4:33:12
Speaker 1: But Tom's breeches catched fast on a splinter on the
4:33:15
Speaker 1: top rail, and then he hear the steps coming, so
4:33:17
Speaker 1: he had to pull loose, which snapped the splinter and
4:33:20
Speaker 1: made a noise. And as he dropped in our tracks
4:33:23
Speaker 1: and started, somebody sings out, who's that answer? Or I'll shoot,
4:33:29
Speaker 1: But we didn't answer. We just unfurled our heels and shoved.
4:33:33
Speaker 1: Then there was a rush and a bang, bang, bang,
4:33:37
Speaker 1: and the bullets fairly whizzed around us. We heard them
4:33:40
Speaker 1: sing out, here they are. They broke for the river
4:33:43
Speaker 1: after him, boys, and turned loose the dogs. So here
4:33:46
Speaker 1: they come full tilt. We could hear them because they
4:33:50
Speaker 1: wore boots and yelled, but we didn't wear no boots
4:33:53
Speaker 1: and didn't yell. We was in the path to the mill.
4:33:56
Speaker 1: When they got pretty close on to us. We dodged
4:33:58
Speaker 1: into the bush and let them go by, and then
4:34:01
Speaker 1: dropped in behind them. They'd had all the dogs shut
4:34:04
Speaker 1: up so they wouldn't scare off the robbers by this time.
4:34:07
Speaker 1: Somebody had let them loose, and here they come, makin
4:34:10
Speaker 1: pile wow enough for a million, But they was our dogs,
4:34:13
Speaker 1: so we stopped in our tracks till they catched up.
4:34:16
Speaker 1: And when they see it, warn't nobody but us an
4:34:18
Speaker 1: no excitement to offer them. They only just said howdie
4:34:21
Speaker 1: and tore right ahead towards the shoutin and clatterin' an
4:34:24
Speaker 1: then we up steam again an whizzed along after them
4:34:27
Speaker 1: till we was nearly to the mill, and then struck
4:34:29
Speaker 1: up through the bush to where my canoe was tied,
4:34:32
Speaker 1: and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the
4:34:34
Speaker 1: middle of the river, but didn't make no more noise
4:34:37
Speaker 1: than we was obleedged to. Then we struck out easy
4:34:41
Speaker 1: and comfortable for the island where my raft was, and
4:34:44
Speaker 1: we could hear them yelling and barking at each other
4:34:46
Speaker 1: all up and down the bank till we was so
4:34:49
Speaker 1: far away the sounds got dim and died out. And
4:34:53
Speaker 1: when we stepped on to the raft, I says, now,
4:34:56
Speaker 1: old Jim, you're a free man again, and I bet
4:34:59
Speaker 1: you won't ever be a slave no more. An a
4:35:03
Speaker 1: mighty good job. It was, too huck. It is plain beautiful,
4:35:07
Speaker 1: an it is dumb beautiful, an dey. Ain't nobody kin
4:35:10
Speaker 1: git up a plane. It's more mixed up an splendid
4:35:13
Speaker 1: an what that one was. We was all glad as
4:35:16
Speaker 1: we could be, but Tom was the gladdest of all
4:35:20
Speaker 1: because he had a bullet in the calf of his leg.
4:35:24
Speaker 1: When me an Jim heard that, we didn't feel so
4:35:26
Speaker 1: brash as what we did before. It was hurtin him
4:35:29
Speaker 1: considerable an bleedin'. So we laid him in the wigwam
4:35:32
Speaker 1: and tore up one of the Duke's shirts ford to
4:35:34
Speaker 1: bandage him, But he says, gimme the rags, I can
4:35:38
Speaker 1: do it myself. Don't stop now, don't fool around here.
4:35:41
Speaker 1: An the evasion boomin along, so handsome man the sweeps
4:35:45
Speaker 1: an set her loose. Boys, We done it elegant, indeed
4:35:48
Speaker 1: we did. I wish we'd a had the handlin of
4:35:51
Speaker 1: Louis sixteen, there wouldn't been a No son of Saint
4:35:53
Speaker 1: Louis ascend to heaven, wrote down in his biography. No, sir,
4:35:58
Speaker 1: we'd a whooped him over the border. That's what we'd
4:36:00
Speaker 1: a done with him. An done it jest as slick
4:36:03
Speaker 1: as nothin at all, too, man. The sweeps mean the sweeps.
4:36:08
Speaker 1: But me an Jim was consultin' an thinkin an after
4:36:11
Speaker 1: we'd thought a minute, I says, say it, Jim. So
4:36:15
Speaker 1: he says, well, den this is the way he look
4:36:18
Speaker 1: to me, Huck, if it was him that is beIN
4:36:21
Speaker 1: set free one of the boys was to get shot,
4:36:23
Speaker 1: would he say, go on an save me na mind
4:36:26
Speaker 1: by a doctor for to save this one? Is that
4:36:29
Speaker 1: like Mars Tom Sawyer, would he say dat? You bet
4:36:32
Speaker 1: he wouldn't. Well, den is Jim gwine to say it? No, suh,
4:36:38
Speaker 1: I don't bud j step out and displaced doubt a doctor,
4:36:40
Speaker 1: not if it's forty year. I knowed he was white inside,
4:36:45
Speaker 1: an I reckoned he'd say what he did say, So
4:36:48
Speaker 1: it was all right now. An I told Tom I
4:36:50
Speaker 1: was a goin for a doctor. He raised considerable row
4:36:54
Speaker 1: about it. But me and Jim stuck to it and
4:36:56
Speaker 1: wouldn't budge. So he was for crawlin out an settin'
4:36:59
Speaker 1: raftless himself, but we wouldn't let him. Then he gives
4:37:02
Speaker 1: us a piece of his mind, but it didn't do
4:37:04
Speaker 1: no good. So when he sees me getting the canoe ready,
4:37:08
Speaker 1: he says, well, then, if you're bound to go, I'll
4:37:11
Speaker 1: tell you the way to do. When you get to
4:37:13
Speaker 1: the village, shut the door and blindfold the doctor tight
4:37:16
Speaker 1: and fast, and make him swear to be silent as
4:37:19
Speaker 1: the grave, and put a purse full of gold in
4:37:21
Speaker 1: his hand, and then take and lead him all around
4:37:24
Speaker 1: the back alleys and everywhere's in the dark. And then
4:37:27
Speaker 1: fetch him here in the canoe and a roundabout way
4:37:30
Speaker 1: amongst the islands, and search him, and take his chalk
4:37:33
Speaker 1: away from him, and don't give it back to him
4:37:35
Speaker 1: until you get him back to the village, or else
4:37:37
Speaker 1: he will chalk this raft so he can find it again.
4:37:40
Speaker 1: It's the way they all do. So I said I would,
4:37:45
Speaker 1: and left, And Jim was to hide in the woods
4:37:48
Speaker 1: when he sees the doctor coming, till he was gone again.
4:37:54
Speaker 1: End of chapter forty Chapter forty one. The doctor was
4:38:00
Speaker 1: an old man, a very nice, kind lookin' old man.
4:38:02
Speaker 1: When I got him up, I told him me and
4:38:05
Speaker 1: my brother was over on Spanish Island hunting yesterday afternoon.
4:38:09
Speaker 1: An camped on a piece of raft. We found an
4:38:11
Speaker 1: bout midnight. He must have kicked his gun in his dreams,
4:38:14
Speaker 1: for it went off an shot him in the leg.
4:38:17
Speaker 1: And we wanted him to go over there and fix it.
4:38:19
Speaker 1: An not say nothin about it, nor let nobody know,
4:38:22
Speaker 1: because we wanted to come home this evenin and surprise
4:38:24
Speaker 1: the folks. Who is your folks, he says, The phelpses
4:38:29
Speaker 1: down yonder. Oh, he says. And after a minute he says,
4:38:35
Speaker 1: how'd you say he got shot? He had a dream,
4:38:39
Speaker 1: I says, An, it's shot him singular dream, he says.
4:38:45
Speaker 1: So he lit up his lantern and got his saddle
4:38:47
Speaker 1: bags and we started. But when he seized the canoe,
4:38:49
Speaker 1: he didn't like the look of her. Said she was
4:38:52
Speaker 1: big enough for one, but didn't look pretty safe for two.
4:38:55
Speaker 1: I says, Oh, you needn't be afeared, sir. She carried
4:38:58
Speaker 1: the three of us easy enough. What three? Why me
4:39:02
Speaker 1: an sid an an an the guns? That's what I mean? Oh,
4:39:09
Speaker 1: he says, but he put his foot on the gunnel
4:39:12
Speaker 1: and rocked her and shook his head and said he reckoned.
4:39:14
Speaker 1: He'd look round for a bigger one, but they was
4:39:16
Speaker 1: all locked an chained. So he took my canoe and
4:39:19
Speaker 1: said for me to wait till he come back, or
4:39:22
Speaker 1: I could hunt around further. Or maybe I better go
4:39:24
Speaker 1: down home and get them ready for the surprise if
4:39:26
Speaker 1: I wanted to. But I said I didn't, so I
4:39:29
Speaker 1: told him just how to find the raft an then
4:39:31
Speaker 1: he started. I struck an idea. Pretty soon, I says
4:39:36
Speaker 1: to myself, s'posin. He can't fix that leg just in
4:39:39
Speaker 1: three shakes of a sheep's tail, as a sayin' is s'posin.
4:39:43
Speaker 1: It takes him three or four days? What are we
4:39:45
Speaker 1: goin to do? Lay around there till he lets a
4:39:47
Speaker 1: cat out of the bag, No, sir, I know what
4:39:50
Speaker 1: I'll do. I'll wait when he comes back. If he
4:39:54
Speaker 1: says he's got to go any more, I'll get down
4:39:56
Speaker 1: there too. If I swim an, we'll take and tie
4:39:59
Speaker 1: him and ca keep him and shove out down the river.
4:40:02
Speaker 1: And when Tom's done with him, we'll give him what
4:40:04
Speaker 1: it's worth, or all we got. And then let him
4:40:07
Speaker 1: get ashore. So then I crept into a lumber pile
4:40:10
Speaker 1: to get some sleep, and next time I waked up,
4:40:13
Speaker 1: the sun was away up over my head. I shot
4:40:16
Speaker 1: out an went for the doctor's house, but they told
4:40:18
Speaker 1: me he'd gone away in the night sometime or other
4:40:21
Speaker 1: and warn't back yet. Well, thinks I that looks powerful
4:40:25
Speaker 1: mad for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island
4:40:28
Speaker 1: right off. So away I shoved and turned the corner
4:40:32
Speaker 1: and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's stomach. He says,
4:40:38
Speaker 1: why Tom, where you been all this time, you rascal?
4:40:41
Speaker 1: I ain't been nowheres, I says, only just hunting for
4:40:45
Speaker 1: the runaway nigger means said, why wherever did you go?
4:40:50
Speaker 1: He says, Your aunty's been mighty uneasy. She needn't, I says,
4:40:56
Speaker 1: because we was all right. We followed the man and
4:40:58
Speaker 1: the dogs, but they out run us and we lost them.
4:41:01
Speaker 1: But we thought we heard them on the water, so
4:41:03
Speaker 1: we got a canoe and took out after them and
4:41:05
Speaker 1: crossed over, but couldn't find nothing of them. So we
4:41:08
Speaker 1: cruised along up shore till we got kind of tired
4:41:10
Speaker 1: an beat out, and tied up the canoe and went
4:41:12
Speaker 1: to sleep and never waked up till about an hour ago.
4:41:15
Speaker 1: Then we paddled over here to hear the news, and
4:41:18
Speaker 1: Sid at the post office to see what he can hear.
4:41:20
Speaker 1: And I'm a branching out to get something to eat
4:41:22
Speaker 1: for us, an then we're goin home. So then we
4:41:26
Speaker 1: went to the post office to get Sid. But just
4:41:28
Speaker 1: as I suspicioned, he warn't there. So the old man
4:41:32
Speaker 1: he got a letter out of the office, and we
4:41:33
Speaker 1: waited a while longer, but Sid didn't come. So the
4:41:37
Speaker 1: old man said, come along, let Sid foot it home
4:41:40
Speaker 1: or canoe it when he got done fooling around, but
4:41:43
Speaker 1: we would ride. I couldn't get him to let me
4:41:46
Speaker 1: stay and wait for Sid, and he said there warn't
4:41:48
Speaker 1: no use in it, and I must come along and
4:41:51
Speaker 1: let Aunt Sally see we was all right. When we
4:41:54
Speaker 1: got home. Aunt Sally was that glad to see me.
4:41:56
Speaker 1: She laughed and cried both and hugged me and give
4:41:59
Speaker 1: me one of them lickin' hern that don't amount shucks,
4:42:02
Speaker 1: and said she'd serve Sid the same one he come. Now.
4:42:05
Speaker 1: The place was plum full of farmers and farmers wives
4:42:08
Speaker 1: to dinner, and such another clack of bidy never heard
4:42:12
Speaker 1: old missus Hotchkiss was the worst. Her tongue was a
4:42:16
Speaker 1: goin all the time. She says, Well, Sister Phelps, I've
4:42:20
Speaker 1: ransacked that air cappin' over and I believe an nigger
4:42:23
Speaker 1: is crazy, I says to Sister Damrel, didn't I, Sister
4:42:26
Speaker 1: Damrel says I. He's crazy, says I, Them's the very
4:42:29
Speaker 1: words I said. You all hearin me. He's crazy, says I.
4:42:33
Speaker 1: Everything shows us, says I. Look at that air Grindstone
4:42:36
Speaker 1: says I want to tell me to anty creating his
4:42:38
Speaker 1: right mind's going to scrabble all them crazy things on
4:42:40
Speaker 1: to a grindstone, says I. Here's such and such in
4:42:43
Speaker 1: person busted his heart, and here and so and so
4:42:45
Speaker 1: pegged along for thirty seven years and all that natural
4:42:48
Speaker 1: son of louis somebody and such everlasting rubbish. He's plumb crazy,
4:42:52
Speaker 1: says I. That's what I says in the first place,
4:42:54
Speaker 1: it's what I says in the middle, and it's what
4:42:56
Speaker 1: I says last and all the time. The nigger's crazy.
4:42:58
Speaker 1: Crazy's nippokin' easy, ter, says I. An look at that
4:43:02
Speaker 1: air ladder, meet out an rags. Sister Hatchkiss said old
4:43:06
Speaker 1: missus Damrell wouldn't the name of goodness? Could he ever won?
4:43:09
Speaker 1: Of the very words? I was a sayin no longer
4:43:12
Speaker 1: in this minute to sister Utterback. And she'll tell you
4:43:14
Speaker 1: so herself. Should she look at that air rag letter?
4:43:17
Speaker 1: Should she? An says I? Yes, look at it? Says I?
4:43:20
Speaker 1: What could o you wanted of it? Says I, she's
4:43:23
Speaker 1: sister hatchkiss She but I win the nation? They'd ever
4:43:26
Speaker 1: get that grindstone in there? Anyway? An who dug that
4:43:30
Speaker 1: air hole? An who my very words, bra up hadn't ride.
4:43:34
Speaker 1: I was a sayin pass that her sasserin molasses won't ye.
4:43:37
Speaker 1: I was a sayin to sister Dunlap just this minute.
4:43:40
Speaker 1: How did they get that grindstone in there? Says I?
4:43:43
Speaker 1: Without help? Mind you without help? That's where tis don't
4:43:47
Speaker 1: tell me? Says I. There was help, says I. An
4:43:50
Speaker 1: there was a plenty help too, says I. There's been
4:43:52
Speaker 1: a dozen o helpin that nigger. An I laid id
4:43:54
Speaker 1: skin ever last nigger on this place. But i'd find
4:43:57
Speaker 1: out who done it, says I. An more rovers as
4:43:59
Speaker 1: I a dozen says you forty couldn't a done everything
4:44:03
Speaker 1: that's been done. Look at them Kate's knife saws an things,
4:44:07
Speaker 1: how tedious they've been made. Look at that bed leg
4:44:10
Speaker 1: sawed off with em a week's work for six men.
4:44:13
Speaker 1: Look at that nigger made out an straw on the
4:44:15
Speaker 1: bed an look at you may well see Brear High Tower.
4:44:19
Speaker 1: It's es as I was sayin to bre Phelps's own self,
4:44:21
Speaker 1: says EVE, what ye've think of it? Sister Hatkins's E
4:44:24
Speaker 1: think o what Berear Phelps is? I think o that
4:44:26
Speaker 1: bed leg sawed off? That a way, says he think
4:44:29
Speaker 1: of it? Says I, I lay I never sawed itself off,
4:44:32
Speaker 1: says I. Somebody saw it, it, says I. That's my opinion.
4:44:34
Speaker 1: Take er leave it. It main't be no counts as I,
4:44:37
Speaker 1: but such as it is, it's my opinion, says I.
4:44:39
Speaker 1: An If anybody can start a better one, says I,
4:44:41
Speaker 1: let him do it, it, says I. That's all I
4:44:44
Speaker 1: says to Sister Dunlap says I, well, dog my cats,
4:44:48
Speaker 1: they must have been a house full of niggers in
4:44:50
Speaker 1: there every night for four weeks to have done all
4:44:52
Speaker 1: that works. Sister Phelps. Look at that shirt, every last
4:44:56
Speaker 1: inch of it covered over with secretin African writin done
4:44:59
Speaker 1: with blood. Must have been a raft of em at
4:45:01
Speaker 1: it right along all the time. Amost why i'd give
4:45:05
Speaker 1: two dollars to have it read to me? An as
4:45:07
Speaker 1: for the niggers it rode it, I allow, I'd taken
4:45:10
Speaker 1: lash em till people to help him. Brother Marples, Well
4:45:14
Speaker 1: I reckon you'd think so if you'd been in this
4:45:16
Speaker 1: house for a while back. Why they've stole everything they
4:45:19
Speaker 1: could lay their hands on. An we are watching all
4:45:21
Speaker 1: the time, mind you. They stole that shirt right off
4:45:24
Speaker 1: of the line. An as for that sheet they made
4:45:26
Speaker 1: the rag ladder out of'ar, ain't no tellin how many
4:45:29
Speaker 1: times they didn't steal that and flour, an candles and
4:45:33
Speaker 1: candlesticks and spoons, an the old warmin' pan, an most
4:45:36
Speaker 1: a thousand things that I disremember now, An my new
4:45:39
Speaker 1: calico dress, an me an silas an my sittin' time
4:45:43
Speaker 1: on the constant watch day an night. As I was
4:45:46
Speaker 1: a tellin you, an not a one of us could
4:45:48
Speaker 1: catch hide nor hair, nor sight nor sound o them.
4:45:51
Speaker 1: An hear the last minute, loun behold you, they slides
4:45:55
Speaker 1: right in under our noses. An fools us, not only
4:45:58
Speaker 1: fools us but the in territory bribers too naturally gets
4:46:02
Speaker 1: away with that nigger safe and sound, and with that
4:46:05
Speaker 1: sixteen men and twenty two dogs right on their very
4:46:08
Speaker 1: heels at that very time. I tell you, it just
4:46:11
Speaker 1: bangs anything I ever heard of. Why spirits couldn't have
4:46:15
Speaker 1: done it better and been no smarter? And I reckon
4:46:19
Speaker 1: they must have been spirits, because you know our dogs,
4:46:22
Speaker 1: and there ain't no better well them dogs never even
4:46:25
Speaker 1: got on the track of them. Once you explain that
4:46:28
Speaker 1: to me, if you can, any of you, well, it
4:46:33
Speaker 1: does beat lost alive. I never so help me. I
4:46:38
Speaker 1: wouldn't a beat house thieves as well as couldn't as
4:46:42
Speaker 1: gracious sikes i'd have been. If you're to live in
4:46:44
Speaker 1: such afraid to live? Why I was that scared? I
4:46:49
Speaker 1: doesn't hardly go to bed or get up or lay
4:46:52
Speaker 1: down or set down, Sister rich Way, Why they'd steal
4:46:56
Speaker 1: the very Why couldn't it six You can guess what
4:46:58
Speaker 1: kind of a fluster I was. Then by the time
4:47:00
Speaker 1: midnight come last night, I hoped to gracious, if I
4:47:04
Speaker 1: weren't afraid they'd steal some of the family, I was
4:47:07
Speaker 1: just to that pass. I didn't have no reasoning faculties
4:47:10
Speaker 1: no more. It looks foolish enough now in the daytime.
4:47:14
Speaker 1: But I says to myself, there's my two poor boys
4:47:17
Speaker 1: asleep way upstairs in that lonesome room. An, I declared
4:47:21
Speaker 1: to goodness, I was that uneasy that I crept up
4:47:24
Speaker 1: there and locked em in. I did an anybody would,
4:47:27
Speaker 1: because you know, when you get scared that way, and
4:47:30
Speaker 1: it keeps running on, a gettin worse and worse all
4:47:33
Speaker 1: the time, and your wits get to adlin' and you
4:47:36
Speaker 1: get to doing all sorts of wild things. An by
4:47:38
Speaker 1: and bye, you think to yourself, supposin, I was a boy,
4:47:42
Speaker 1: an was away up here, an the door ain't locked,
4:47:44
Speaker 1: and you She stopped looking kind of wondering, and then
4:47:48
Speaker 1: she turned her head around slow when her eye lit
4:47:52
Speaker 1: on me. I got up and took a walk, says
4:47:55
Speaker 1: I to myself. I can explain better how we come
4:47:59
Speaker 1: to not be in that room this mornin' if I
4:48:01
Speaker 1: go out to one side and study over it a little.
4:48:04
Speaker 1: So I done it. But I doesn't go fur or
4:48:07
Speaker 1: she'd as sent for me. And when it was late
4:48:09
Speaker 1: in the day, the people all went. And then I
4:48:12
Speaker 1: come in and told her the noise, and Shootin waked
4:48:15
Speaker 1: up me and said, and the door was locked, and
4:48:18
Speaker 1: we wanted to see the fun. So we went down
4:48:20
Speaker 1: the lightnin and ride, and both of us got hurt
4:48:22
Speaker 1: a little, and we didn't never want to try that
4:48:25
Speaker 1: no more. And then I went on and told her
4:48:27
Speaker 1: all what I told Uncle Silas before, and then she
4:48:31
Speaker 1: said she'd forgive us an maybe it was all right
4:48:33
Speaker 1: enough anyway, and about what a body might expect A
4:48:36
Speaker 1: boy's for all boys was a pretty harem scarum lot
4:48:39
Speaker 1: as far as she could see, And so as long
4:48:42
Speaker 1: as no harm hadn't come of it, she judged she'd
4:48:44
Speaker 1: better put in her time beIN grateful we was alive
4:48:47
Speaker 1: an well, and she had us still stood of frettin
4:48:50
Speaker 1: over what was pasted an done. So then she kissed
4:48:54
Speaker 1: me and patted me on the head, and dropped into
4:48:56
Speaker 1: a kind of a brown study, And pretty soon jumps
4:48:59
Speaker 1: up and says, why laws a mercy? It's most night
4:49:03
Speaker 1: and sin's not come yet. What has become of that boy?
4:49:08
Speaker 1: I see my chance? So I skips up and says
4:49:11
Speaker 1: I'll run right up to town an get him. I says, no,
4:49:15
Speaker 1: you won't. She says, you'll stay right where you are.
4:49:18
Speaker 1: One's enough to be lost at a time. If he
4:49:21
Speaker 1: ain't here to supper, your uncle will go. Well, he
4:49:25
Speaker 1: warn't there to supper. So right after supper Uncle went.
4:49:30
Speaker 1: He come back about ten a little bit uneasy, had
4:49:33
Speaker 1: it run across Tom's tracks. Aunt Sally was a good
4:49:36
Speaker 1: deal uneasy. But Uncle Silas, he said, there warn't no
4:49:40
Speaker 1: occasion to be boys. Will be boys, he said, An,
4:49:43
Speaker 1: you'll see this one turn up in the mornin' all
4:49:45
Speaker 1: sound an rite. So she had to be satisfied. But
4:49:49
Speaker 1: she said she'd set up for him awhile anyway, and
4:49:51
Speaker 1: keep a light burnin so he could see it. An
4:49:54
Speaker 1: then when I went to bed, she come up with
4:49:56
Speaker 1: me and fetched her candle. An tucked me in a
4:49:59
Speaker 1: mothered me so good, I felt mean an like I
4:50:02
Speaker 1: couldn't look her in the face. And she sat down
4:50:05
Speaker 1: on the bed. An talked with me a long time
4:50:07
Speaker 1: and said what a splendid boy said was An didn't
4:50:10
Speaker 1: seem to want to ever stop talkin' about him. An
4:50:13
Speaker 1: kept askin me every now, An then if I reckoned,
4:50:16
Speaker 1: he could a got lost or hurt or maybe drowned.
4:50:19
Speaker 1: An might be layin at this minute somewhere sufferin' or dead.
4:50:22
Speaker 1: An she not by him to help him, And so
4:50:25
Speaker 1: the tears would drip down silent, and I would tell
4:50:28
Speaker 1: her that Sid was all right, An would be home
4:50:31
Speaker 1: in the mornin' shore. An she would squeeze my hand
4:50:34
Speaker 1: or maybe kiss me, An tell me to say it again,
4:50:36
Speaker 1: An keep on sayin' it, because it done her good. An.
4:50:39
Speaker 1: She was in so much trouble. And when she was
4:50:43
Speaker 1: going away, she looked down in my eyes, so steady
4:50:46
Speaker 1: and gentle, and says, the door ain't goin to be locked, Tom, An,
4:50:51
Speaker 1: there's the window in the rod. But she'll be good,
4:50:54
Speaker 1: won't you? An, you won't go for my sake, laws Nos,
4:51:01
Speaker 1: I wanted to go bad enough to see about Tom,
4:51:04
Speaker 1: and was all intending to go, But after that I
4:51:07
Speaker 1: wouldn't have went, not for kingdoms. But she was on
4:51:10
Speaker 1: my mind, and Tom was on my mind. So I
4:51:13
Speaker 1: slept very restless, And twice I went down the ride
4:51:17
Speaker 1: away in the night and slipped around front and see
4:51:20
Speaker 1: her settin there by her candle in the window, with
4:51:23
Speaker 1: her eyes towards the road, and the tears in them,
4:51:26
Speaker 1: And I wished I could do something for her, But
4:51:28
Speaker 1: I couldn't only to swear that I wouldn't never do
4:51:31
Speaker 1: nothing to grieve her any more. And the third time
4:51:35
Speaker 1: I waked up at dawn and slid down, and she
4:51:37
Speaker 1: was there yet, and her candle was most out, and
4:51:40
Speaker 1: her old gray head was resting on her hand, and
4:51:45
Speaker 1: she was asleep. End of chapter forty one. Chapter forty two.
4:51:55
Speaker 1: The old man was uptown again before breakfast, but couldn't
4:51:58
Speaker 1: get no track of tom An both of them sat
4:52:01
Speaker 1: at the table, thinkin' an not sayin nothin and lookin
4:52:04
Speaker 1: mournful an their coffee gettin cold, and not eatin anything.
4:52:08
Speaker 1: An By and by, the old man says, did I
4:52:11
Speaker 1: give you the letter? What letter? The one I got
4:52:15
Speaker 1: yesterday out of the post office? No, you didn't give
4:52:19
Speaker 1: me no letter. Well I must a forgot it. So
4:52:23
Speaker 1: he rummaged his pockets and then went off somewhares where
4:52:26
Speaker 1: he had laid it down, an fetched it and give
4:52:28
Speaker 1: it to her. She says, why it's from Saint Petersburg,
4:52:33
Speaker 1: it's from Ciss. I allowed another walk would do me good,
4:52:38
Speaker 1: but I couldn't stir. But before she could break it open,
4:52:41
Speaker 1: she dropped it and brun for she sees something and
4:52:45
Speaker 1: so do I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress,
4:52:49
Speaker 1: an that old doctor, and Jim in her calico dress
4:52:54
Speaker 1: with his hands tied behind him, an a lot o people.
4:52:58
Speaker 1: I hid the letter behind the front, first thing to
4:53:00
Speaker 1: come handy, and rushed. She flung herself at Tom, crying
4:53:05
Speaker 1: and says, oh, he's dead, he's dead. I know he's dead.
4:53:11
Speaker 1: And Tom he turned his head a little and muttered
4:53:14
Speaker 1: something or other, which showed he warn't in his right mind.
4:53:17
Speaker 1: Then she flung up her hands and says he's alive,
4:53:20
Speaker 1: thank God, and that's enough. And she snatched a kiss
4:53:24
Speaker 1: to him and flew for the house to get the
4:53:26
Speaker 1: bed ready and scattering orders right, and left it the
4:53:30
Speaker 1: niggers and everybody else as fast as her tongue can
4:53:33
Speaker 1: go every jump of the way. I followed the men
4:53:37
Speaker 1: to see what they was goin to do with Jim,
4:53:39
Speaker 1: and the old doctor and Uncle Silas followed after Tom
4:53:41
Speaker 1: into the house. The man was very huffy, and some
4:53:45
Speaker 1: of them wanted to hang Jim for an example to
4:53:47
Speaker 1: all the other niggers around there, so they wouldn't be
4:53:50
Speaker 1: trying to run away like Jim done and making such
4:53:52
Speaker 1: a raft of trouble and keeping a whole family scared
4:53:55
Speaker 1: most to death for days and nights. But the other said,
4:53:59
Speaker 1: don't do it. It wouldn't answer at all. He ain't
4:54:02
Speaker 1: our nigger, and his owner would turn up and make
4:54:04
Speaker 1: us pay for him. Sure, So that cooled them down
4:54:07
Speaker 1: a little, because the people that's always the most anxious
4:54:10
Speaker 1: for to hang a nigger that hain't done just right
4:54:13
Speaker 1: is always the very ones that ain't the most anxious
4:54:15
Speaker 1: to pay for him when they've got their satisfaction out him.
4:54:19
Speaker 1: They cussed Jim considerable, though, and give him a cuff
4:54:22
Speaker 1: or two side of the head once in a while.
4:54:25
Speaker 1: But Jim, he never said nothing, and he never let
4:54:28
Speaker 1: on to know me. And they took him to the
4:54:31
Speaker 1: same cabin and put his own clothes on him, and
4:54:34
Speaker 1: chained him again, and not to no bed leg this time,
4:54:38
Speaker 1: but to a big staple drove into the bottom log
4:54:42
Speaker 1: and chained his hands too, and both legs, and said
4:54:46
Speaker 1: he warn't to have nothing but bread and water to
4:54:48
Speaker 1: eat after this till his owner come or he was
4:54:51
Speaker 1: sold at auction because he didn't come in a certain
4:54:53
Speaker 1: length of time. And filled up our hole, and said
4:54:57
Speaker 1: a couple of farmers with guns, must stand and watch
4:55:00
Speaker 1: around about the cabin every night, and a bulldog tied
4:55:04
Speaker 1: to the door in the daytime. And about this time
4:55:07
Speaker 1: they was through with a job and was tapering off
4:55:10
Speaker 1: with a kind of a general goodbye cussin'. And then
4:55:14
Speaker 1: the old doctor comes and takes a look and says,
4:55:18
Speaker 1: don't be no rougher on him than you're obleeged to,
4:55:20
Speaker 1: because he ain't a bad nigger. When I got to
4:55:23
Speaker 1: where I found the boy, I see I couldn't cut
4:55:25
Speaker 1: the bullet out without some help. And he warn't in
4:55:28
Speaker 1: no condition for me to leave to go and get help.
4:55:31
Speaker 1: And he got a little worse and a little worse,
4:55:34
Speaker 1: and after a long time he went out of his
4:55:36
Speaker 1: head and wouldn't let me come an eye him anymore,
4:55:39
Speaker 1: and said if I chalked his raf he'd kill me,
4:55:41
Speaker 1: and no end of wild foolishness like that. And I
4:55:45
Speaker 1: see I can do anything out all with him, So
4:55:47
Speaker 1: I says I got to have help somehow. And the
4:55:51
Speaker 1: minute I says it, out crawls this nigger from somewheres
4:55:54
Speaker 1: and says he'll help. And he done it too, and
4:55:57
Speaker 1: done it very well. Of course, I judge he must
4:56:00
Speaker 1: be a runaway nigger, and there I was, and there
4:56:04
Speaker 1: I had to stick right straight along all the rest
4:56:06
Speaker 1: of the day and all night. It was a fix.
4:56:09
Speaker 1: I tell you, I had a couple of patients with
4:56:12
Speaker 1: the chills, and of course i'd a liked to run
4:56:14
Speaker 1: up to town and see them, but I doesn't because
4:56:17
Speaker 1: a nigger might get away, an then I'd be to blame.
4:56:20
Speaker 1: And yet never a skiff come close enough for me
4:56:23
Speaker 1: to hail. So there I had to stick plumb until
4:56:27
Speaker 1: daylight this mornin'. An I never see a nigger that
4:56:30
Speaker 1: was a better nurse or more faithfuller, And yet he
4:56:33
Speaker 1: was risking his freedom to do it, and was all
4:56:36
Speaker 1: tired out too nice plain enough, he'd been worked main
4:56:39
Speaker 1: hard lately. I liked the nigger for that, I tell you, gentlemen,
4:56:44
Speaker 1: a nigger like that is worth a thousand dollars and
4:56:46
Speaker 1: kind treatment too. I had everything I needed, and the
4:56:50
Speaker 1: boy was doing as well there as he would have done,
4:56:53
Speaker 1: and home better, maybe because it was so quiet. But
4:56:57
Speaker 1: there I was, with both of 'em on my hands.
4:57:00
Speaker 1: An there I had to stick till about dawn this mornin'.
4:57:04
Speaker 1: Then some men an a skiff come by, an as
4:57:06
Speaker 1: good luck would have it. The nigger was settin by
4:57:09
Speaker 1: the pallet with his head propped on his knees, sound asleep.
4:57:12
Speaker 1: So I motioned them in quiet An. They slipped up
4:57:15
Speaker 1: on him, An grabbed him, an tied him before he
4:57:18
Speaker 1: knowed what he was about. An we never had no trouble. An.
4:57:21
Speaker 1: The boy beIN in a kind of a flighty sleep too.
4:57:24
Speaker 1: We muffled the oars, an hitched the raft on, an
4:57:27
Speaker 1: towed her over, real nice and quiet. An. The nigger
4:57:30
Speaker 1: never made the least row nor said a word from
4:57:32
Speaker 1: the start. He ain't no bad nigger, gentlemen, That's what
4:57:36
Speaker 1: I think about him. Somebody says, well, it sounds very good. Doctor,
4:57:43
Speaker 1: I'm obleached to say. Then the other softened up a
4:57:46
Speaker 1: little too, and I was mighty thankful to that old
4:57:49
Speaker 1: doctor for doin Jim that good turn. An. I was
4:57:51
Speaker 1: glad it was, according to my judgment, him too, because
4:57:55
Speaker 1: I thought he had a good heart in him. An
4:57:57
Speaker 1: was a good man the first time I see him.
4:58:00
Speaker 1: Then they all agreed that Jim had acted very well
4:58:02
Speaker 1: and was deserving to have some notice took of it
4:58:04
Speaker 1: and reward. So every one of them promised right out
4:58:08
Speaker 1: and hearty that they wouldn't cuss him no more. Then
4:58:11
Speaker 1: they come out and locked him up. I hoped they
4:58:14
Speaker 1: was going to say he could have one or two
4:58:16
Speaker 1: of the chains took off because they was rotting heavy,
4:58:19
Speaker 1: or could have meat and greens with his bread and water,
4:58:21
Speaker 1: But they didn't think of it, and I reckoned it
4:58:24
Speaker 1: warn't best for me to mix in, But I judged
4:58:26
Speaker 1: i'd get the doctor's yarn to Aunt Sally somehow or
4:58:29
Speaker 1: other as soon as I got through the breakers that
4:58:31
Speaker 1: was laying just ahead of me explanations. I mean of
4:58:35
Speaker 1: how I forgot to mention about Syd being shot when
4:58:39
Speaker 1: I was telling how him and me put in that
4:58:41
Speaker 1: dratted night paddling around hunting the runaway nigger. But I
4:58:45
Speaker 1: had plenty of time Aunt Sally, she'd stuck to the
4:58:48
Speaker 1: sickroom all day and all night, and every time I
4:58:51
Speaker 1: see Uncle Silas mooning around, I dodged him. Next morning,
4:58:56
Speaker 1: I heard Tom was a good deal better, and they
4:58:58
Speaker 1: said Aunt Sally was going to get a nap. So
4:59:01
Speaker 1: I slips to the sick room and if I found
4:59:03
Speaker 1: him awake, I reckon we could put up a yarn
4:59:05
Speaker 1: for the family that would wash. But he was sleeping,
4:59:08
Speaker 1: and sleeping very peaceful too, and pale, not fireface the
4:59:13
Speaker 1: way he was when he come. So I sat down
4:59:16
Speaker 1: and laid for him to wake and about half an
4:59:19
Speaker 1: hour Aunt Sally comes gliding in, and there I was
4:59:22
Speaker 1: up a stump again. She motioned me to be still
4:59:26
Speaker 1: and sat down by me and begun to whisper and
4:59:29
Speaker 1: said we could all be joyful now because all the
4:59:32
Speaker 1: symptoms was first straight and he'd been sleeping like that
4:59:35
Speaker 1: for ever so long and looking better and peacefuller all
4:59:38
Speaker 1: the time, and ten to one he'd wake up in
4:59:40
Speaker 1: his right mind. So we sat there watching, and by
4:59:45
Speaker 1: and by he stirs a bit and opened his eyes,
4:59:48
Speaker 1: very natural, and takes a look and says, hello, why
4:59:53
Speaker 1: I'm at home? How's that? Where's the raft? It's all right,
4:59:57
Speaker 1: I says, And Jim this I says, but couldn't say
5:00:02
Speaker 1: it pretty brash, but he never noticed, but says, good splendid.
5:00:07
Speaker 1: Now we're all right and safe. Did you tell Auntie?
5:00:11
Speaker 1: I was going to say yes, but she chipped in
5:00:14
Speaker 1: and says, about what's it? Why about the way the
5:00:18
Speaker 1: whole thing was done? What whole thing? Why the whole thing?
5:00:23
Speaker 1: There ain't But one. How we set the runaway nigger free.
5:00:26
Speaker 1: Me and Tom good Land set the run What is
5:00:31
Speaker 1: the child talking about, dear, dear, out of his head again? No,
5:00:36
Speaker 1: I ain't out of my head. I know all what
5:00:39
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. We did set him free, me and Tom.
5:00:42
Speaker 1: We laid out to do it, and we done it,
5:00:44
Speaker 1: and we done it elegant too. He'd got a start
5:00:48
Speaker 1: and she never checked him up, just sat and stared
5:00:51
Speaker 1: and stared and let him clip along. And I see
5:00:54
Speaker 1: it warn't no use for me to put in. Why, Auntie,
5:00:58
Speaker 1: It cost us a power of work, weeks of it,
5:01:01
Speaker 1: hours and hours every night whilst you was all asleep,
5:01:04
Speaker 1: and we had to steal candles and the sheet and
5:01:06
Speaker 1: the shirt and your dress, and spoons and tin plates
5:01:09
Speaker 1: and case knives in the warming pan and the grindstone
5:01:12
Speaker 1: and flour and just no end of things. And you
5:01:16
Speaker 1: can't think what work it was to make the saws
5:01:18
Speaker 1: and pens and inscriptions and one thing or another. And
5:01:22
Speaker 1: you can't think half the fun it was. And we
5:01:25
Speaker 1: had to make up the pictures of coffins and things,
5:01:28
Speaker 1: anonymous letters from the robbers, and get up and down
5:01:31
Speaker 1: the lightning rod and dig the hole into the cabin
5:01:33
Speaker 1: and made the rope ladder and send it in and
5:01:36
Speaker 1: cooked up in a pie, and send in spoons and
5:01:38
Speaker 1: things to work with in your apron pocket, mercy sakes,
5:01:43
Speaker 1: and load up the cabin with rats and snakes and
5:01:45
Speaker 1: some on for company for Jim. And then you kept
5:01:48
Speaker 1: Tom here so long with the butter in his hat,
5:01:50
Speaker 1: that you come near spial in the whole business. Because
5:01:53
Speaker 1: the men come before we was out of the cabin,
5:01:55
Speaker 1: and we had to rush, and they hurt us and
5:01:58
Speaker 1: let drive at us. And I got my I share
5:02:00
Speaker 1: and we dodged out of the path and let them
5:02:02
Speaker 1: go by. And when the dogs come, they weren't interested
5:02:05
Speaker 1: in us, but went for the most noise. And we
5:02:08
Speaker 1: got our canoe and made for the raft and was
5:02:11
Speaker 1: all safe, and Jim was a free man, and we
5:02:15
Speaker 1: done it all by ourselves. And wasn't it bully, Auntie? Well?
5:02:21
Speaker 1: I never heard the likes of it in all my
5:02:23
Speaker 1: born days. So it was you, you little rapscallions, that's been
5:02:26
Speaker 1: making all this trouble and turned everybody's wits clean inside
5:02:29
Speaker 1: out and scared us almost to death. I've as good
5:02:32
Speaker 1: a notion as ever I had in my life. To
5:02:34
Speaker 1: take it out of you this very minute, to think
5:02:37
Speaker 1: here I've been night after night. A you just get
5:02:41
Speaker 1: well once, you young scamp, and I lay all ten
5:02:43
Speaker 1: the old harry out of both of ee. But Tom,
5:02:47
Speaker 1: he was so proud and joyful he just couldn't hold in,
5:02:51
Speaker 1: and his tongue just went it. She had chippin in
5:02:54
Speaker 1: and spitting fire all along, and both of them goin
5:02:57
Speaker 1: it at once, like a cat convention. And she says, well,
5:03:02
Speaker 1: you get all the enjoyment you can out of it now.
5:03:05
Speaker 1: For mind, I tell you if I catch ye a
5:03:07
Speaker 1: Meddlin with him again? Meddlin with who, Tom says, dropping
5:03:12
Speaker 1: his smile and looking surprised, with who? Why? The runaway nigger?
5:03:17
Speaker 1: Of course, who'd you reckon? Tom looks at me very
5:03:21
Speaker 1: grave and says, Tom, didn't you just tell me he
5:03:25
Speaker 1: was all right? Hasn't he got away? Him? Says Aunt Sallie,
5:03:30
Speaker 1: the runaway nigger? Indeed he hasn't. They've got him back,
5:03:34
Speaker 1: safe and sound. An he's in that cabin again, on
5:03:36
Speaker 1: bread and water and loaded down with chains till he's
5:03:38
Speaker 1: claimed her. Souled. Tom rows square up in bed with
5:03:43
Speaker 1: his eye hot an, his nostrils opening and shutting like gills.
5:03:47
Speaker 1: An sings out to me. They ain't no right to
5:03:50
Speaker 1: shut him up. Shove an, don't you lose minute, turn
5:03:53
Speaker 1: him loose. He ain't no slave, He's freeze any creature
5:03:56
Speaker 1: the walks of earth. What does the child? I mean
5:04:01
Speaker 1: every word I say, Aunt Sally, And if somebody don't go,
5:04:04
Speaker 1: I'll go. I've known him all his life, and so
5:04:06
Speaker 1: has Tom. There Ole miss Watson died two months ago,
5:04:09
Speaker 1: and she was ashamed. She ever was going to sell
5:04:11
Speaker 1: him down the river, and said so, and she set
5:04:14
Speaker 1: him free in her will. And what on earth did
5:04:17
Speaker 1: you want to set him free for, seeing he was
5:04:19
Speaker 1: already free? Well, that is a question, I must say.
5:04:24
Speaker 1: And just like women, why I wanted the adventure of it?
5:04:28
Speaker 1: And I had awaited, neck deep in blood, suit, goodness, life,
5:04:32
Speaker 1: Aunt Polly. If she weren't standing right there, just inside
5:04:37
Speaker 1: the door, looking as sweet and contented as an angel
5:04:39
Speaker 1: half full of pie, I wish I may never Aunt
5:04:44
Speaker 1: Sally jumped for her and most hugged the head off
5:04:46
Speaker 1: of her and cried over her. And I found a
5:04:49
Speaker 1: good enough place for me under the bed, for it
5:04:51
Speaker 1: was getting pretty sultry for us, seemed to me and
5:04:54
Speaker 1: I peeped out, and in a little while Tom's aunt
5:04:57
Speaker 1: Polly shook herself loose and stood there looking across a
5:05:01
Speaker 1: Tom over her spectacles, kind of grinding him into the earth,
5:05:05
Speaker 1: you know. And then she says, yes, you better turn
5:05:09
Speaker 1: your head away. I would if I was you. Tom. Oh,
5:05:13
Speaker 1: dear me, says Aunt Sally. Is he changed? So why
5:05:17
Speaker 1: that ain't Tom? It's sid Tom's Tom's Why where is Tom?
5:05:22
Speaker 1: He was here a minute ago. You mean where's huck Finn?
5:05:26
Speaker 1: That's what you mean? I reckon, I hain't raised such
5:05:29
Speaker 1: a scamp as my Tom all these years, not to
5:05:31
Speaker 1: know him when I see him? That would be a
5:05:34
Speaker 1: pretty heigy do come out from under that bat, huck Finn?
5:05:38
Speaker 1: So I done it, but not feeling brash. Aunt Sally
5:05:43
Speaker 1: she was one of the mixed uppest looking persons I
5:05:47
Speaker 1: ever see, except one, and that was Uncle Silas. When
5:05:50
Speaker 1: he come in and they told it all to him,
5:05:53
Speaker 1: it kind of made him drunk, as you may say,
5:05:55
Speaker 1: and he didn't know nothing at all the rest of
5:05:57
Speaker 1: the day and preached a prayer meeting so that night.
5:06:00
Speaker 1: That gave him a rattling reputation because the oldest man
5:06:04
Speaker 1: in the world couldn't understood it. So Tom's Aunt Polly,
5:06:08
Speaker 1: she told all about who I was and what and
5:06:11
Speaker 1: I had to up and tell how I was in
5:06:13
Speaker 1: such a tight place that when missus Phelps took me
5:06:15
Speaker 1: for Tom Sawyer, she chipped in and says, oh, go
5:06:19
Speaker 1: on and call me Aunt Sally. I'm used to it
5:06:21
Speaker 1: now and t ain't no need to change. And when
5:06:24
Speaker 1: Aunt Sally took me for Tom Sawyer, I had to
5:06:27
Speaker 1: stand it. There weren't no other way. And I knowed
5:06:29
Speaker 1: he wouldn't mind, because it would be nuts for him,
5:06:32
Speaker 1: being a mystery, and he'd make an adventure out of
5:06:34
Speaker 1: him be perfectly satisfied. And so it turned out, and
5:06:38
Speaker 1: he let on to be said, and made things as
5:06:40
Speaker 1: soft as he could for me and his Aunt Polly.
5:06:43
Speaker 1: She said, Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting
5:06:46
Speaker 1: Jim free in her will. And so sure enough Tom
5:06:50
Speaker 1: Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother
5:06:53
Speaker 1: to set a free nigger free. And I couldn't ever
5:06:56
Speaker 1: understand before until that minute, in that talk, how he
5:07:00
Speaker 1: could help a body sett a nigger free with his
5:07:02
Speaker 1: bringing up. Well Aunt Polly, she said that when Aunt
5:07:06
Speaker 1: Sally wrote to her that Tom and Sid had come
5:07:08
Speaker 1: all right and safe. She says to herself, look at that, now,
5:07:12
Speaker 1: I might have expected it, letting him go off that
5:07:14
Speaker 1: way without anybody to watch him. So now I got
5:07:17
Speaker 1: to go and traps all the way down the river
5:07:19
Speaker 1: eleven hundred mile and find out what that creature's up to.
5:07:21
Speaker 1: This time, as long as I couldn't seem to get
5:07:23
Speaker 1: any answer to you about it, why I never heard
5:07:27
Speaker 1: nothing from you, says Aunt Sally. Well, I wonder why
5:07:32
Speaker 1: I wrote to you twice. Ask you what you can
5:07:34
Speaker 1: mean by Sid being here? Well, I never got him, sis,
5:07:38
Speaker 1: Aunt Polly. She turns around, slow and severe and says,
5:07:42
Speaker 1: you Tom, Well, what he says kind of pettish. Don't
5:07:49
Speaker 1: you want me, you impudent thing? Hand out them letters?
5:07:53
Speaker 1: What letters? Them letters? I be bound if I have
5:07:56
Speaker 1: to take hold of you out. They're in the trunk
5:07:59
Speaker 1: there now, and they're just the same as they was
5:08:01
Speaker 1: when I got them out of the office. I hain't
5:08:03
Speaker 1: looked into them, I ain't touched them, but I knowed
5:08:06
Speaker 1: they'd make trouble. And I thought, if you aren't in
5:08:08
Speaker 1: no hurry, i'd well, you do need skinnin there? Ain't
5:08:12
Speaker 1: no mistake about it. And I wrote another one to
5:08:14
Speaker 1: tell you I was comin'. I suppose he no it
5:08:17
Speaker 1: come yesterday. I ain't read it yet, but it's all right.
5:08:20
Speaker 1: I've got that one. I wanted Doller to bet two dollars.
5:08:24
Speaker 1: She hadn't, but I reckon maybe it was just a
5:08:27
Speaker 1: safe to not to, so I never said nothing. And
5:08:33
Speaker 1: of chapter forty two, chapter the last. The first time
5:08:40
Speaker 1: I catched Tom private, I asked him what was his
5:08:43
Speaker 1: idea time of the evasion, what it was he'd planned
5:08:46
Speaker 1: to do if the evasion worked all right and he
5:08:48
Speaker 1: managed to set a nigger free that was already free before.
5:08:52
Speaker 1: And he said what he planned in his head from
5:08:54
Speaker 1: the start, if we got Jim out all safe was
5:08:58
Speaker 1: for us to run him down the river on the
5:08:59
Speaker 1: road and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river,
5:09:03
Speaker 1: and then tell him about his being free, and take
5:09:06
Speaker 1: him back up home on a steamboat in style, and
5:09:09
Speaker 1: pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead
5:09:12
Speaker 1: and get out all the niggers round and have them
5:09:14
Speaker 1: waltz him into town with a torchlike procession and a
5:09:17
Speaker 1: brass band, and then he would be a hero, and
5:09:20
Speaker 1: so would we but I reckoned it was about as
5:09:23
Speaker 1: well the way it was. We had Jim out of
5:09:27
Speaker 1: the chains in no time. And when Aunt Polly and
5:09:29
Speaker 1: Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he
5:09:32
Speaker 1: helped the doctor nurse Tom, they made a heap of
5:09:35
Speaker 1: fuss over him and fixed him up prime and give
5:09:38
Speaker 1: him all he wanted to eat and a good time,
5:09:41
Speaker 1: had nothing to do. And we had him up to
5:09:44
Speaker 1: the sick room and had a high talk, and Tom
5:09:47
Speaker 1: give Jim forty dollars for being prisoner for us so
5:09:50
Speaker 1: patient and doing it up so good. And Jim was
5:09:53
Speaker 1: placed most to death and busted out and says, there now, huk,
5:09:59
Speaker 1: what I tell you? What I tell you up there
5:10:01
Speaker 1: on Jackson Island. I told you I got a hairy breast.
5:10:05
Speaker 1: And what's to signing it? An? I told you I've
5:10:07
Speaker 1: been rich once, an goin to be rich again, and
5:10:11
Speaker 1: it's come true. And here she is there now, don't
5:10:15
Speaker 1: talk to me. Signs and signs mine, I tell you,
5:10:19
Speaker 1: And I know just as well as I is gwine
5:10:21
Speaker 1: to be rich again, as I a standing here this minute.
5:10:26
Speaker 1: And then Tom, he talked along and talked along and says,
5:10:30
Speaker 1: let's all three slide out o here one of these
5:10:33
Speaker 1: nights and get an outfit and go for howling adventures
5:10:36
Speaker 1: amongst the injuns over in the territory for a couple
5:10:38
Speaker 1: of weeks or two. And I says, all right, that
5:10:42
Speaker 1: suits me, but I ain't got no money for to
5:10:44
Speaker 1: buy the outfit. And I reckon I couldn't get none
5:10:46
Speaker 1: from home, because it's likely PAP's been back before now
5:10:49
Speaker 1: and got it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk
5:10:52
Speaker 1: it up. No he hain't. Tom says, it's all there
5:10:56
Speaker 1: yet six thousand dollars a more. And your pap hain't
5:10:59
Speaker 1: ever been back, sin hadn't when I come away anyhow,
5:11:03
Speaker 1: Jim says, kind of solemn. He ain't a comin back
5:11:07
Speaker 1: no mole. Hook. I says, why Jim, Never mind why hook?
5:11:12
Speaker 1: But he ain't comin back no mole. But I kept
5:11:16
Speaker 1: at him, so at last he says, don't you remember
5:11:20
Speaker 1: the house that was floating down the river and there
5:11:22
Speaker 1: was a man in there covered up, and when I
5:11:24
Speaker 1: went in and uncovered him and didn't let you come in. Well, Dan,
5:11:29
Speaker 1: you can get your money when you wants it, because
5:11:31
Speaker 1: that was him. Tom's most well now an got his
5:11:36
Speaker 1: bullet around his neck on a WatchGuard for a watch,
5:11:39
Speaker 1: and as always seeing what time it is. And so
5:11:42
Speaker 1: there ain't nothing more to write about. And I am
5:11:45
Speaker 1: right an glad of it, because if i'd a knowed
5:11:47
Speaker 1: what a trouble it was to make a book, I
5:11:48
Speaker 1: wouldn't have tackled it. And ain't a goin to no more.
5:11:52
Speaker 1: But I reckon, I got to light out for the
5:11:54
Speaker 1: territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally, she's going
5:11:57
Speaker 1: to adopt me and ciphlize me, and I can't stand it.
5:12:02
Speaker 1: I've been there before thee and yours truly huck Finn.
5:12:12
Speaker 1: End of chapter The Last and End of the Adventures
5:12:15
Speaker 1: of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain