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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Part 1 - Mark Sawyer · Mark Twain Audiobooks

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  Speaker 1: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's Comrade, by Mark Twain. Notice.
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  Speaker 1: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in it
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  Speaker 1: will be banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: it will be shot by order of the author per g. G.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Chief of Ordinance. Explanatory. In this book, a number of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: dialects are used to wit the Missouri Negro dialect, the
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  Speaker 1: extremest form of the backwards Southwestern dialect, the ordinary Pike
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  Speaker 1: County dialect, and four modified varieties of this last. The
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  Speaker 1: shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion or
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  Speaker 1: by guesswork, but painstakingly and with the trustworthy guidance and
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  Speaker 1: support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
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  Speaker 1: I make this explanation for the reason that without it,
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  Speaker 1: many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying
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  Speaker 1: to talk alike in not succeeding the author. Chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: you don't know much about me without you have read
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  Speaker 1: a book by the name of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
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  Speaker 1: But that ain't no matter. That book was made by
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  Speaker 1: mister Mark Twain, and he told the truth. Mainly. There
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  Speaker 1: was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.
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  Speaker 1: That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one
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  Speaker 1: time or another without it was Aunt Polly or the widow,
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  Speaker 1: or maybe Mary, Aunt Polly, Tom's aunt Polly. She is
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  Speaker 1: and Mary and the widow Douglas is all told about
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  Speaker 1: in that book, which is mostly a true book with
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  Speaker 1: some stretchers. As I said before, now, the way that
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the book winds up is this. Tom and me found
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  Speaker 1: the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and
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  Speaker 1: it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars apiece,
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  Speaker 1: all gold. It was an awful sight of money when
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  Speaker 1: it was piled up. Well, judge thatcher. He took it
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  Speaker 1: an put it out at interest, and it fetched us
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  Speaker 1: a dollar a day apiece all the year round. More
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  Speaker 1: than a body could tell what to do with the
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  Speaker 1: widow Douglas. She took me for her son and allowed
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  Speaker 1: she would civilize me. But it was rough living in
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  Speaker 1: the house all the time, considering how dismal, regular and
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  Speaker 1: decent the widow was in all her ways. And so
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  Speaker 1: when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out.
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  Speaker 1: I got into my old rags and my sugar hogs
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  Speaker 1: had again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom sawyer.
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  Speaker 1: He hunted me up and said he was going to
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  Speaker 1: start a band of robbers, and I might join if
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  Speaker 1: I would go back to the widow and be respectable.
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  Speaker 1: So I went back the widow. She cried over me
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  Speaker 1: and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called
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  Speaker 1: me a lot of other names too, but she never
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  Speaker 1: meant no harm by it. She put me in them
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  Speaker 1: new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and sweat and feel all cramped up. Well, then the
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  Speaker 1: old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper,
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  Speaker 1: and you had to come to time. When you got
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  Speaker 1: to the table, you couldn't go right to eating, but
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  Speaker 1: you had to wait for the widow to tuck down
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  Speaker 1: her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though
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  Speaker 1: there weren't really anything the matter with them. That is, nothing,
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  Speaker 1: only everything that's cooked by itself, and a barrel of
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  Speaker 1: odds and ends. That is different, things get mixed up,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things
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  Speaker 1: go better. After supper, she get out her book and
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  Speaker 1: learned me about Moses and the bull rushers, and I
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  Speaker 1: was in a sweat find out all about him. But
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: by and by she let it out that Moses had
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  Speaker 1: been dead a considerable long time. So then I didn't
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  Speaker 1: care no more about him, because I don't take no
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  Speaker 1: stock in dead people. Pretty Soon I wanted to smoke
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  Speaker 1: and asked the widow to let me, but she wouldn't.
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  Speaker 1: She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm you must try to not do it anymore.
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  Speaker 1: That is just the way with some people, to get
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  Speaker 1: down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it.
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  Speaker 1: Here she was of botherin about Moses, which was no
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  Speaker 1: kin to her and no use to anybody being gone,
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  Speaker 1: you see, yet finding a power a fault with me
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  Speaker 1: for doing a thing that had some good in it.
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  Speaker 1: And she took snuff too. Of course that was all right,
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  Speaker 1: because she done it herself. Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable,
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  Speaker 1: slim old maid with goggles on, had just come to
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  Speaker 1: live with her and took a set at me now
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  Speaker 1: with a spelling book. She worked me middling hard for
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  Speaker 1: about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it much longer. Then for an hour
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  Speaker 1: it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson
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  Speaker 1: would say, don't put your feet up there, Huckleberry, and
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  Speaker 1: don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry. Set up straight, and
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  Speaker 1: pretty soon she would say, don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry.
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  Speaker 1: Why don't you try to behave Then she told me
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  Speaker 1: all about the bad place, and I said I wished
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  Speaker 1: I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't
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  Speaker 1: mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres.
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  Speaker 1: All I wanted was a change. I warn't particular. She
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  Speaker 1: said it was wicked to say what I said, said
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  Speaker 1: she wouldn't say it for the whole world. She was
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  Speaker 1: going to live so as to go to the good place. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't see no advantage in going where she was going,
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  Speaker 1: so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it.
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  Speaker 1: But I never said so, because it would only make trouble.
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  Speaker 1: Wouldn't do no good. Now she had got a start,
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  Speaker 1: and she went on and told me all about the
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  Speaker 1: good place. She said all the body would have to
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  Speaker 1: do there was to go around all day with a
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  Speaker 1: harp and sing forever and ever so I didn't think
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  Speaker 1: much of it, but I never said so. I asked
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  Speaker 1: her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and
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  Speaker 1: she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad
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  Speaker 1: about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Watson. She kept pecking at me, and it got
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  Speaker 1: tiresome and lonesome. By and bye, they fetched the niggers
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  Speaker 1: in and had prayers, and then everybody was a bed.
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  Speaker 1: I went up to my room with a piece of
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  Speaker 1: candle and put it on the table. Then I set
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  Speaker 1: down in a chair by the window and tried to
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  Speaker 1: think of something cheerful, but it warn't no use. I
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  Speaker 1: felt so lonesome. I most wished I was dead. The
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  Speaker 1: stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods,
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  Speaker 1: ever so mournful. And I heard an owl away off
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  Speaker 1: hoo hooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippa
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  Speaker 1: will and a dog crying about somebody that was going
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  Speaker 1: to die. And the wind was trying to whisper something
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  Speaker 1: to me, and I couldn't make out what it was,
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  Speaker 1: and so it made the cold shivers run over me.
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  Speaker 1: Then away out in the woods, I heard that kind
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  Speaker 1: of a sound that a ghost makes it at wants
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  Speaker 1: to tell about something that's on its mind and can't
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  Speaker 1: make itself understood, and so can't breast easy in its grave,
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  Speaker 1: and has to go about that way every night grieving.
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  Speaker 1: I got so downhearted and scared I did wish I
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  Speaker 1: had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up
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  Speaker 1: my shoulder, and I flipped it off and did it
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  Speaker 1: lit in the candle, and before I could budge it
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  Speaker 1: was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell
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  Speaker 1: me that that was an awful bad sign and would
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  Speaker 1: fetch me some bad luck. So I was scared, and
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  Speaker 1: most shook the clothes off of me. I got up
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  Speaker 1: and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed
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  Speaker 1: my breast every time. And then I tied up a
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  Speaker 1: little lock of my hair with a thread to keep
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  Speaker 1: witches away. But I hadn't no confidence. You do that
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  Speaker 1: when you've lost a horseshoe that you found, instead of
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  Speaker 1: nailing it up over the door. But I hadn't never
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  Speaker 1: heard anybody say it was any way to keep off
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  Speaker 1: bad luck when you'd kill the spider. I sat down again,
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  Speaker 1: a shaken all over, and got out my pipe for smoke,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: for the house was all as still as death now,
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  Speaker 1: and so the widow wouldn't know well. After a long time,
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  Speaker 1: I heard the clock away off in the town go boom, boom, boom.
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  Speaker 1: Twelve flicks, and all still again, stiller than ever. Pretty
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  Speaker 1: soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark
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  Speaker 1: amongst the trees. Something was astirring. I sat still and
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  Speaker 1: listened directly. I could just barely hear a meow meow
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  Speaker 1: down there. That was good, says I. Meow meow as
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  Speaker 1: soft as I could, and then I put out the
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  Speaker 1: light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed.
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  Speaker 1: Then I slipped down to the ground and crawled in
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  Speaker 1: among the trees, and sure enough there was Tom Sawyer
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  Speaker 1: waiting for me. End of chapter one. Chapter two. We
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  Speaker 1: went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees, back towards
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  Speaker 1: the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as
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  Speaker 1: the branches wouldn't scrape our heads. When we was passing
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  Speaker 1: by the kitchen, I fell over a root and made
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  Speaker 1: a noise. We scratched down and laid still. Miss Watson's
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  Speaker 1: big nigger named Jim was settin in the kitchen door.
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  Speaker 1: We could see him pretty clear because there was a
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  Speaker 1: light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck
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  Speaker 1: out about a minute listening, Then he says, who dare
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  Speaker 1: He listened some more, Then he came tiptoeing down and
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  Speaker 1: stood right between us. We could have touched him nearly
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  Speaker 1: well likely. It was minutes and minutes that there warn't
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  Speaker 1: a sound, and we all there so close together. There
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  Speaker 1: was a place on my ankle that got to itchin',
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  Speaker 1: but I daresn't scratch it, And then my ear begun
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  Speaker 1: to itch, and next my back right between my shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. Well, I've
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  Speaker 1: noticed that thing plenty times since. If you are with
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  Speaker 1: a quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go
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  Speaker 1: to sleep when you ain't sleepy, if you are anywheres
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  Speaker 1: where it won't do for you to scratch, why you
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  Speaker 1: will itch all over and upwards of a thousand places.
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  Speaker 1: Pretty soon, Jim says, say, who is you? Why is you? Dog?
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  Speaker 1: My cats? If I didn't hear somethin', well I know
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  Speaker 1: what I was gwine to do. I was gwine to
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  Speaker 1: sit down here and listen till I hears it again,
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  Speaker 1: so he sat down on the ground betwixt me and Tom.
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  Speaker 1: He leaned his back up against it and stretched his
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  Speaker 1: legs out till one of them most touched one of mine.
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  Speaker 1: My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears
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  Speaker 1: come into my eyes, but I doesn't scratch. Then I
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  Speaker 1: begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to
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  Speaker 1: itching underneath. I didn't know how I was going to
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  Speaker 1: set still. This miserableness went on as much as six
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  Speaker 1: or seven minutes, but it seemed to sit longer than that.
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  Speaker 1: I was itching in eleven different places. Now I reckoned.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it moren a minute longer, but I
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  Speaker 1: set my teeth hard and got ready to try. Just
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: then Jim begun to breathe heavy. Next he begun to snore,
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  Speaker 1: and then it was pretty soon comfortable again. Tom he
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  Speaker 1: made a sign to me, kind of a little noise
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  Speaker 1: with his mouth, and we went creeping away on our
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  Speaker 1: hands and knees. When we was ten foot off, Tom
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  Speaker 1: whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the
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  Speaker 1: tree for fun, but I said no. He might waken
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  Speaker 1: Maggie asturbance, and then they'd find out I warned ten.
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  Speaker 1: Then Tom said he hadn't got caned enough and he
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  Speaker 1: would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't want him to try. I said Jim might wake
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  Speaker 1: up and come, but Tom wanted to resk it. So
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  Speaker 1: we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom
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  Speaker 1: laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we
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  Speaker 1: got out, and I was in a sweat to get away,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing would do. Tom but he must crawl to
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  Speaker 1: where Jim was on his hands and knees and play
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  Speaker 1: something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: while everything was so still and lonesome. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: Tom was back, we cut along the path around the
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  Speaker 1: garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the
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  Speaker 1: steep top of the hill the other side of the house.
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  Speaker 1: Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off his head and
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  Speaker 1: hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim
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  Speaker 1: stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards, Jim said
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  Speaker 1: the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance
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  Speaker 1: and rode him all over the state, and then set
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  Speaker 1: him under the trees again and hung his hat on
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  Speaker 1: a limb to show who done it. And next time
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  Speaker 1: Jim told it, he said they rode him down to
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  Speaker 1: New More, Orleans. And after that, every time he told
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  Speaker 1: it he spread it more and more till by and
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  Speaker 1: by he said, they rode him all over the world
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  Speaker 1: and tired him most to death, and his back was
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  Speaker 1: all over saddle boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it,
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  Speaker 1: an he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers.
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  Speaker 1: Niggers would come miles ye hear Jim tell about it,
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  Speaker 1: An he was more looked up to than any nigger
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  Speaker 1: in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths
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  Speaker 1: open and look him all over, same as if he
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  Speaker 1: was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the dark by the kitchen fire. But whenever one was
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: talking and letting on to know all about such things,
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  Speaker 1: Jim would happen in and say, hum, what you know
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  Speaker 1: about witches? And that nigger was corked up and had
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: center piece around his neck with a string and said
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  Speaker 1: it was a charm the devil give to him with
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody
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  Speaker 1: with it, and fetch witches whenever he wanted to jest
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: by saying something to it, but he never told what
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  Speaker 1: it was. As he said to it. Niggers would come
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: from all around there and give them anything they had
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: just for a sight of that five centerpiece, but they
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't touch it because the devil had had his hands
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  Speaker 1: on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant because
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: he got stuck up on account of having seen the
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  Speaker 1: devil and been rowed by witches. Well, when Tom and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: me got to the edge of the hilltop, we looked
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  Speaker 1: away down into the village and could see three or
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: four lights twinkling where there was sick folks maybe, and
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the stars over us was sparkling ever so fine. And
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  Speaker 1: down by the village was the river, a whole mile
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  Speaker 1: broad and awful still and grand. We went down the
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  Speaker 1: hill and found Joe Harper and Ben Rogers, and two
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  Speaker 1: or three more of the boys hid in the old taniard.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river
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  Speaker 1: two mile and a half to the big scar on
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  Speaker 1: the hillside, and went ashore. We went to a clump
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  Speaker 1: of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the secret,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and then showed them a hole in the hill, right
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: in the thick part of the bushes. Then we lit
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  Speaker 1: the candles and crawled in on our hands and knees.
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  Speaker 1: We went about two hundred yards and then the cave
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  Speaker 1: opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages and pretty
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  Speaker 1: soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't have noticed
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  Speaker 1: that there was a hole. We went along a narrow
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  Speaker 1: place and got into a kind of room, all damp
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and sweaty and cold, and there we stopped. Tom says,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: now we'll start this band of robbers and call it
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to take an oath and write his name in blood.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Everybody was willing, so Tom got out a sheet of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: paper that he had wrote the oath on and read it.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: It swore every boy to stick to the band and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: never tell any of the secrets. And if anybody done
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: ordered to kill, that person and his family must do it,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and he mustn't eat, and he mustn't sleep till he
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: had killed them and hacked across in their breasts, which
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: was the sign of the band, and nobody that didn't
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: belong to the band could use that mark, and if
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: he did, he must be sued, and if he done
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: it again, he must be killed. And if anybody that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: its throat cut and then have his carcass burnt up,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: off of the list with blood, and never mentioned again
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: by the gang, but have a curse put on it,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and be forgot forever. Everybody said it was a real
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he had got it
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: out of his own head. He said some of it,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: but the rest was out of pirate books and robber books,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and every gang that was high toned had it. Some
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: thought it would be good to kill the families of
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: boys that told the secrets. Tom said it was a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote it in.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Then Ben Rogers says, here's Huck Finn. He ain't got
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: no family. What you going to do about him? Well,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: hain't he got a father, says Tom Sawyer. Yes, he's
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: got a father, but you can't never find him these days.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: He used to lay drunk with the hogs and the Taniard.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: But he ain't been seen in these parts for a
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: year or more. They talked it over an they was
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: goin to rule me out, because they said every boy
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: must have a family or somebody to kill, or else
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be fair and square for the others. Well,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: nobody could think of anything to do. Everybody was stumped
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and set still. I was most ready to cry, but
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: all at once I thought of a way, and so
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I offered them miss Watson. They could kill her. Everybody said, oh,
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  Speaker 1: she'll do that's all right, Huck can come in. Then
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: blood to sign with. And I made my mark on
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the paper. Now, says Ben Rogers. What's the line of
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: business of this gang? Nothing? Only robbery and murder? Tom said,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: But who we goin to rob houses or cattle or stuff?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery. It's burglary, says
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer. We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: road with masks on, and kill the people and take
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: their watches and money. Must we always kill the people. Oh,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: certainly it's best. Some authorities think differently, but mostly it's
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: considered best to kill them, except some that you bring
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to the cave here and keep them till they're ransomed. Ransomed?
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: What's that? I don't know, but that's what they do.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I've seen it in books and so of course that's
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: what we've got to do. But how can we do
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: it if we don't know what it is? Why blame
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: it all? We've got to do it, don't I tell
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you it's in the books. Do you want to go
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to doing different from what's in the books and get
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: things all muddled up? Oh that's very fine to say,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer. But how in the nation are these fellows
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: going to be ransom if we don't know how to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: do it to them? That's the thing I want to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: get at. Now, what do you reckon it is? Well?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But perhaps if we keep them till
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: they're ransomed, it means that we keep them till they're dead.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Now that's something like that'll answer why couldn't you said
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: that before? We'll keep them till they're ransom to death
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and to bother some lot. They'll be too eating up everything,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and always trying to get loose. How you talk, Ben Rogers,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: How can they get loose when there's a guard over them,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: A guard? Well that is good. So somebody's got to
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: sit up all night, never get any sleep, just so
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: as to watch them. I think that's foolishness. Why can't
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a body take a club and ransom them as soon
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: as they get here? Because it ain't in the books.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: So that's why. Now, Ben Rogers, do you want to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: do things regular or don't you that's the idea. Don't
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you reckon that? The people that made the books knows
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: what's the correct thing to do. Do you reckon? You
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: can learn them anything, not buy a good deal, No, sir,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: all right. I don't mind, but I say it's a
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: fool's way anyhow, say do we kill the women too? Well,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you, I
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: wouldn't let on kill the women. No nobody ever saw
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: anything in the books like that. You fetch them to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: an by and by they fall in love with you
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and never want to go home any more. Well, if
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that's the way, I'm agreed, but I don't take no
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: stock in it. Mighty soon we'll have the cave so
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: cluttered up with women an fellows waitin to be ransomed,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: that there won't be no place for the robbers. But
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: go ahead. I ain't got nothin to say. Little Tommy
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Barnes was asleep now, and when they waked him up,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: he was scared and cried and said he wanted to
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: go home to his ma and didn't want to be
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: a robber anymore. So they all made fun of him
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and called him cry baby, an that made him mad,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and he said he would go straight an tell all
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the secrets. But time give him five cents to keep quiet,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and said we would all go home and meet next
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: week and rob somebody an kill some people. Ben said
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to begin next Sunday. But all the boys said
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: it'd be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: settled the thing. They agreed to get together and fix
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: a day as soon as they could, and then we
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: elected tom Sawyer first captain and Joe Harper, second captain
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of the gang, and so started home. I clumb up
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the shed and crept into my window just before day
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: was breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and I was dog tired. End of chapter two, Chapter three. Well,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I got a good going over in the morning from
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: old Miss Watson on account of my clothes. But the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and clay, and looked so sorry that I thought I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: would behave a while if I could. Then Miss Watson
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: come of it. She told me to pray every day
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and whatever I asked for I would get it. But
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: it weren't so oh. I tried it once. I got
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a fish line, but no hooks. It warn't any good
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: By and by one day I asked Miss Watson to
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: try for me, but she said I was a fool.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: She never told me why, and I couldn't make it
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: out no way. I sat down one time back in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the woods and had a long think about it. I
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: says to myself, if a body can get anything they
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: pray for, why can't Deacon win get back the money
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: he lost on pork. Why can't the widow get back
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: her silver snuff box that was stole? Why can't miss
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain't
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: nothin in it. I went and told the widow about it,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: an she said the thing a body could get by
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: prayin for it was spiritual gifts. This was too many
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: for me, but she told me what she meant. I
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: must help other people and do everything I could for
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: other people, and look out for them all the time,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and never think about myself. This was including miss Watson.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: As eye took it. I went out in the woods
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and turned it over in my mind a long time,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't see no advantage about it except for
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the other people. So at last I reckoned I wouldn't
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: worry about it anymore, but just let it go. Sometimes
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a widow would take me one side and talk about
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: providence and a way to make a body's mouth water.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: But maybe next day Miss Watson would take hold and
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: knock it all down again. I judged. I could see
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that there was two providences, and a poor chap Wild's
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: dawn considerable show with a widow's providence. But if miss
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Watson's got him, there warn't no help for him anymore.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I thought it all out and reckoned I would belong
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to the widows if he wanted me, though I couldn't
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: make out how he was going to be any better
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: off than than what he was before, seeing I was
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: so ignorant and so kind of low down an ornery pap.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: He hadn't been seen for more than a year, and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: that was comfortable for me. I didn't one to see
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: him no more. He used to always whaal me when
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: he was sober and could get his hands on me,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: though I used to take to the woods most of
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the time when he was around. Well about this time
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: he was found in the river Drownded, about twelve mile
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: above town. So people say they judged it was him anyway,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: said this drownded man was just his size and was
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: ragged and had uncommon long hair, which was all like Pap.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: But they couldn't make nothing out of the face because
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: it had been in the water so long, and warn't
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: much like a face at all. They said he was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: floating on his back in the water. They took him
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and buried him on the bank. But I warn't comfortable
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: long because I happened to think somethin'. I knowed mighty
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: well that a drownded man don't float on his back,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: but on his face. So I knowed then that this
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: warn't pop but a woman dressed up in a man's clothes.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: So I was uncomfortable again. I judged the old man
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: would turn up again by and by I wished he wouldn't.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: We played robber now and then about a month, and
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: then I resigned. All the boys did. We hadn't robbed nobody,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: hadn't killed any people, but only just pretended. We used
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to hop out of the woods and go charging down
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: on hog drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: to market, but we never hid any of them. Tom
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Sawyer called the hogs ingots, and he called the turnips
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and stuff jewelry. And we would go to the cave
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and pow wow over what we had done and how
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: many people we had killed and marked, But I couldn't
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: see no profit in it. One time Tom sent a
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: boy to run about town with a blazing stick, which
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: he called a slogan, which was the signed for the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: gang to get together. And then he said he had
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: got secret news by his spies that next day a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich a Rabs was
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: going to camp and Cave Hollow, with two hundred elephants
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and six hundred camels and over a thousand sumpter mules,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: all loaded down with diamond. And they didn't have only
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a guard of four hundred soldiers. And so we would
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: lay an ambuscade, as he called it, and kill the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: lot and scoop the things. He said, we must slick
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: up our swords and guns an get ready. He never
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: could go after even a turnip cart, but he must
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: have the swords and guns all scoured up for it,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: though they was only laugh and broomsticks. And you might
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: scour at them till you're righted. Then they warn't worth
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: a mouthful of ashes more than what they was before.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't believe we could lick such a crowd as
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Spaniards and a Rabs, but I wanted to see the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: camels and elephants, so I was on hand next day Saturday,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: in the ambuscade. And when we got the word, we
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: rushed out of the woods and down the hill. But
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: there warn't no spaniards and a rabs, and there warn't
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: no camels, nor no elephants. It warn't nothing but a
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Sunday school picnic, and only a primer class at that.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: We busted it up and chased the children up the hollow,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: but we never got anything but some doughnuts and jam,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: though Ben Roders got a rag and Joe Harper got
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: a hymn book and a tract. And then the teacher
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: charged in and made us drop everything and cut. I
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: didn't see no diamonds, and I told Tom Sawyer, So
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: he said there was loads of em there anyway, And
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he said there was Arabs there too, and elephants and things.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I said, why couldn't we see them? Then he said,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: if I warn't so ignorant but had read a book
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: called Don Quixote, I would know without asking. He said
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: it was all done by enchantment. He said there was
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: hundreds of soldiers there, and elephants and treasures and so on,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: but we had enemies, which he called magicians, and they
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: had turned the whole thing into an infant Sunday School.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Just out of spite, I said, all right, then the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: thing for us to do was to go for the magicians.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer said, I was a numbskull. Why said he?
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: A magician could call up a lot of genies and
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: they would hash you up like nothin before you could say,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Jack Robinson. They are as tall as a dree, as
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: big around as a church. Well, I says, suppose we
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: got some genies to help us, can't we lick the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: other crowd? Then how you goin to get them? I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: don't know how did they get them? Why they rub
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: an old tin lamp or an iron ring, and then
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the genies come tearin in with a thunder and lightnin
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and rippin around, and the smoke a rollin' an everything
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: they're told to do, they up an do it. They
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: don't think nothing of pulling a shot tower up by
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the roots, an belt in a Sunday School superintendent over
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the head with it, or any other man who makes
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: them tear around. So why whoever rubs the lamp or
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the ring they belong to, whoever rubs the lamp or
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the ring, an they've got to do whatever, he says,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: if he tells them to build a palace forty miles
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: long out of diamonds, an fill it full of chewing
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: gum or whatever you want, an fetch an emperor's daughter
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: from China for you to marry. They've got to do it,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and they've got to do it before sun up next
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: mornin' too, and more. They've got to waltz that palace
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: us a round over the country wherever you want it.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: You understand, well, says I. I think they are a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: pack of flatheads for not keeping the palace themselvestead of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: fooling them away like that. And what's more, if I
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: was one of them, I would see a man in
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Jericho before I would drop my business and come to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp. How
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you talk, huck Finn, Why you'd have to come when
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: he rubbed it, whether you wanted to or not? What
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: an I as high as a tree and as big
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: as a church? All right, then I would come, But
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I lay, I'd make that man climb the highest tree
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: there was in the country. Shucks, it ain't no use
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to talk to you, huck Finn. You don't seem to
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: know anything. Somehow perfect sap head. I thought all this
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: over for two or three days, and then I reckoned,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I would see if there was anything in it. I
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: got an old tin lamp and an iron ring and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I sweat like an injun. Calculatin to build a palace
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and sell it. But it warn't no use. None of
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the genies come. So then I judged that all that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: stuff was only just one of time Sawyer's lies. I reckoned.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: He believed in the Arabs and the elephants, but as
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: for me, I think different. It had all the marks
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of a Sunday school. End of chapter three, Chapter four, well,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: three or four months run along, and it was well
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: into the winter. Now I had been to school most
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: all of the time, and could spell and read and
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: write just a little, and could say the multiplication table
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: up to six times seven is thirty five. And I
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: don't reckon I could ever get any further than that
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: if I was to live forever. I don't take no
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: stock of mathematics anyway. At first I hated the school,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: but by and by I got so I could stand it.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Whenever I got uncommon tired, I played hooky and the hide,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and I got next day done me good and cheered
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: me up. So the longer I went to school, the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: easier it got to be. I was gettin sort o
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: used to the widow's ways too, and they warn't so
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: rasp beyond me. Livin in a house and sleeping in
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, But before
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the cold weather I used to slide out an sleep
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to me. I liked the old ways best, but I
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: was gettin, so I liked the new ways too a
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: little bit. The widow said I was comin along slow
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: but sure, and doing very satisfactory. She said she warn't
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: ashamed to me at all. One mornin' I happened to
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: turn over the salt cellar at breakfast. I reached for
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: some of it as quick as I could, to throw
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: over my left shoulder and keep off the bad luck.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: But Miss Watson was in ahead of me and crossed
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: me off. She says, take your hands away, huncle Berry,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: what a mess you were always makin. The widow put
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: in a good word for me, but that warn't going
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to keep off the bad luck. I knowed that well enough.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I started out after breakfast, feelin worried, an shaky, an
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: wonderin' where it was goin to fall on me? An
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: what it was goin to be. There's ways to keep
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: off some kinds of bad luck, but this wasn't one
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: of them kind. So I never tried to do anything,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: but jes poked along low spirited, an on the watch out.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I went down to the front garden, an clumb over
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the stile where you go through the high board fence.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: There was an inch o new snow on the ground.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: An I seen somebody's tracks. They had come up from
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the quarry. AN stood around the stile awhile, and then
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: went on around the garden fence. It was funny they
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: hadn't come in after standin around, so I couldn't make
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: it out. It was very curious. Somehow. I was goin
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to follow around, but I stooped down to look at
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the tracks. First. I didn't notice anything at first, but
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: next I did. There was a cross an the left
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: boot heel made with big nails to keep off the devil.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: I was up an a second, an shinnin down the hill.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I looked over my shoulder every now and then but
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't see nobody. I was at Judge Thatcher's as
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: quick as I could get there. He said, why, my boy,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: you are all out of breath. Did you come for
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: your interest? No, sir, I says, is there some for me? Oh? Yes,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: A half yearly is in last night over a hundred
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and fifty dollars. Quite a fortune for you. You had
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: better let me invest it along with your six thousand,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: cause if you take it, you'll spend it. No, sir,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: I says, I don't want to spend it. I don't
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: want it at all, nor the six thousand. Another. I
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: want you to take it. I want to give it
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to you the six thousand in all. He looked surprised.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: He couldn't seem to make it out. He says, why,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: what can you mean? My boy? I says, don't you
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: ask me no questions about it? Please? You'll take it,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: won't you? He says, well, I'm puzzled. It's something the matter.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Please take it, says I, and don't ask me nothing.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Then I won't have to tell no lies. He studied, awhile,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: and then he says, oh, I think I see you
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: want to sell all your property to me, not to
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: give it. That's the correct idea. Then he wrote something
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: on a paper and read it over and says, there
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: you see it says for a consideration. That means I
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: have bought it of you and paid you for it.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Here's a dollar for you, now you sign it. So
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: I signed it and left Miss Watson's nigger. Jim had
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: a hair ball as big as your fist which had
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: been took out of the fourth stomach of an Ox,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and he used to do magic with it. He said
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: there was a spirit inside of it and it knowed everything.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: So I went to him that night and told him
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Pap was here again, for I found his tracks in
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the snow. What I wanted to know was what he
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: was goin to do, and was he goin to stay.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Jim got out his hair ball and said something over it,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and then he held it up and dropped it on
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the floor. It fell pretty solid and only rolled about
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: an inch. Jim tried it again and then another time,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: and it acted just the same. Jim got down on
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: his knees and put his ear against it and listened.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: But it warn't no use. He said it wouldn't talk.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: He said sometimes it wouldn't talk without money, I told
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: him I had an old slit counterfeit quarter that warn't
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: no good because the brass showed through the silver a little,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and it wouldn't pass nohow. Even if the brass didn't show,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: because it was so slick, it felt greasy, and so
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that would tell on it. Every time I reckoned, I
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: wouldn't say nothing about the dollar I got from the judge.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I said it was pretty bad money, but maybe the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: hair ball would take it, because maybe it wouldn't know
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the difference. Jim smelt it and bit it and rubbed it,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and said he would manage so the hair ball would
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: think it was good. He said he would split open
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a raw Irish potato and stick the order in between,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and keep it there all night. An next mornin' you
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't see no brass, an it wouldn't feel greasy no more,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: And so anybody in town would take it in a minute,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: let alone a hairball. Well, I knowed a potato would
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: do that before, but I'd forgot it. Jim put the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: quarter under the hair ball and got down and listened again.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: This time he said the hair ball was all right.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: He said it would tell my whole fortune if I
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: wanted it to I says, go on. So the hair
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: ball talked to Jim, and Jim told it to me.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: He says, you, old father don't know yet what he's
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a gwine to do. Sometimes he's speck he'll go away,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: and then again he's beck he'll stay. The best way
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: is dress easy, and let the old man take his
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: own way. Day's two angels hovering round about him. One
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: of em is white and shiny, and the other one
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: is black. The white one gets him to go right
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: a little while, then the black one sail in an
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: bust it all up. A body can't tell yet which
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: one gwan f fetch him at the last. But you's
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: all right. You goin to have considerable trouble in your life,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: in considerable joy. Sometimes you goin to get hurt, and
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes you go on to get sick. But every time
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: he's goin to get well again. Day's two gales flying
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: about you and your life. One of 'em's light and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the other one is dark. One is rich, and the
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: other's pole. You's gwine to marry the pole one first,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: and a rich one by and by. You wants to
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: keep away from the water as much as you can
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and don't run no risk case it's down into bills
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: that you's gwine to get hung. When I lit my
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: candle and went up to my room that night, there
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: sat pap his own self. End of chapter four, Chapter five.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I had shut the door too. Then I turned around,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and there he was. I used to be scared of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: him all the time. He tanned me so much. I reckoned.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: I was scared now too, But in a minute I
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: see I was mistaken. That is, after the first jolt,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: as you may say, when my breath's sort of hitched.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: He beIN so unexpected. But right away after I see him,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I warn't scared him worth botherin bout. He was most fifty,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: and he looked it. His hair was long and tangled
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: and greasy and hung down, and you could see his
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: eyes shining through like he was behind fines. It was
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: all black, no gray, So was his long mixed up whiskers.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: There warn't no color in his face. Where his face
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: showed it was white, not like another man's white, but
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: a white to make a body sick, a white to
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: make a body's flesh crawl, a tree toad white, a
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: fish belly white. As for his clothes, just rags. That
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: was all. He had. One ankle rested on the other knee.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: The boot on that foot was busted, and two of
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: his toes stuck through, and he worked them now. And
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: then his hat was layin on the floor, an old
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: black slouch with the top caved in like a lid.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: I stood a lookin at him. He's set there, lookin
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: at me with his chair tilted back a little. I
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: set the candle down. I noticed the window was up,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: so he had clumb in by the shed. He kept
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: a lookin me all over by and by, he says,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: starchy clothes. Very. You think you're a good deal of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: a big bug, don't you? Maybe I am? Maybe I ain't,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I says, don't you give me none? O? Your lip
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: says he. You've put on consider'ble many frills since I've
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: been away. I'll take you down a peg before I
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: get done with you. You're educated, too, they say, kin
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: read an write? You think you're better an yer father? Now,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: don't you? Because he can't, I'll take it out o you.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Who told you you might meddle with such high falutin foolishness? Hey?
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Who told you you could? The widow she told me
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: the widow. Eh an who told the widow she could
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: put in her shovel about a thing that ain't none
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: of her business. Nobody never told her. Well, I'll learn
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: her how to meddle. And look you here, you drop
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: that school, you hear, I'll learn people to bring up
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: a boy to put on airs over his own father
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: and let on to be better an what he is.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: You let me catch you fooling around that school again.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: You hear your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: another before she died. None of the family couldn't before
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: they died. I can't. And here you're a swellin yourself
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: up like this. I ain't the man to stand it,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: you hear. See, let me hear you read. I took
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: up a book and begun something about General Washington and
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the Wars. When I'd read about half a minute, he
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: fetched the book a whack with his hand and knocked
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: it across the house. He says, it's so you can
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: do it. I have my doubts when you told me, now,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: looky here, you stopped that putting on frills. I won't
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: have it. I'll lay for you, smarty, And if I
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: catch you about that school. I'll ten you good first.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: You know you'll get religion too. I never see such
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: a son. He took up a little blue and yeller
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: picture of some cows and a boy and says, what's this?
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: It's something they give me for learning my lessons. Good.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: He tore it up and says, I'll give you something better.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a cow hide. He's sat there a
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: mumbling and a growl in a minute, and then he says,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: ain't you a sweet scented dandy? Though a bed and
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: bed clothes and a looking glass and a piece of
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: carpet on the floor, and your own father got to
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: sleep with the hogs and the taniard. I never see
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: such a son. I bet I'll take some of these
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: froze out of you before I'm done with you. Why
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: there ain't no end to your heirs? They say you're rich? Hey,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: how's that? They lie? That's how? Lookye here? Mind how
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: you talk to me. I'm a standing about all I
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: can standing now, So don't give me no sass. I've
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: been in town two days and I hain't heard nothing
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: but about you being rich. I heard about it away
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: down the river too. That's why I came, you get
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: me that money tomorrow. I want it. I ain't got
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: no money. It's a lie. Judge Thatcher's got it, you
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: get it. I want it. I ain't got no money.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I tell you, you asked Judge Thatcher. I'll tell you
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: the same, all right. I'll ask him and I'll make
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: him bungle too, or I'll know the reason why. Say
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: how much you got in your pocket? I want it.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I hain't got only a dollar and I want that too.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: It don't make no difference what you want it for,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: you just shell it out. He took it and bid
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: it to see if it was good, and then he
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: said he was going downtown to get some whiskey. Said
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: he hadn't had a drink all day. When he had
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: got out on the shed, he put his head in
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: again and cussed me for putting on frills and trying
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: to be better than him. And when I I reckoned
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: he was gone. He'd come back and put his head
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: in again, an told me to mind about that school,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: cause he was goin to lay for me and lick
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: me if I didn't drop That next day, he was
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: drunk when he went to Judge Thatcher's and bully ragged
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: him and tried to make him give up the money,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: but he couldn't. An. Then he swore he'd make the
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: law force him. The judge An the widow went to
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: law to get the court to take me away from him.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: An let one of them be my guardian. But it
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: was a new judge that had just come an he
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: didn't know the old man, so he said courts mustn't
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: interfere and separate families if they could help it. Said
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: he'd rather not take a child away from its father.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: So Judge Thatcher An the widow had to quit on
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: the business that pleased the old man till he couldn't rest.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: He said he'd cow hide me till I was black
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and blue if I didn't raise some money for him.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: I borrowed three dollars from Judge Thatcher and Pap took it.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: An got drunk and went to blowin around an cussin
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: an whoopin an carryin on an. He kept it up
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: all over town with a tin pan till most midnight.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Then they jailed him, and next day they had him
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: before a court and jailed him again for a week.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: But he said he was satisfied, said he was the
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: boss of his son, an he'd make it warm for
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: him when he got out. The new judge said he
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: was goin to make a man of him, So he
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: took him to his own house and dressed him up
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: clean an nice, and had him to breakfast and dinner
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: and supper with the family, and was just old pie
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: to him, so to speak. And after supper he talked
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: to him about temperance and such things till the old
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: man cried and said he'd been a fool, an fooled
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: away his life, but now he was goin to turn
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: over a new leaf and be a man nobody wouldn't
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: be ashamed of, and he hoped the judge would help
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: him and not looked down on him. The judge said
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: he could hug him for them words. So he cried,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: and his wife, she cried again. Perhaps said he'd been
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: a man that had always been misunderstood before, and the
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: judge said he believed it. The old man said that
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: what a man wanted that was down was sympathy, and
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the judge said it was so, so they cried again,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: and when it was bedtime, the old man rose up
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: and held out his hand and says, look at it.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Gentlemen and ladies, all take hold of it. Shake it.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: There's a hand that was the hand of a hog,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: but it ain't so no more. It's the hand of
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: a man that started in on a new life, and
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: he'll die before he'll go back. You mark them words,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: don't forget, I said them. It's a clean hand. Now
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: shake it, don't be afeared. So they shook it, one
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: after the other, all around, and cried the judge's wife.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: She kissed it. Then the old man he signed a pledge,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: made his mark. The judge said it was the holiest
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: time on record, or somethin like that. Then they tucked
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: the old man into a beautiful room, which was the
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: spare room. And in the night sometime he got powerful
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: thirsty and clumb out on to the porch roof and
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a jug of forty rod, and clumb back again and
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: had a good old time. And towards daylight he crawled
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: out again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: porch and broke his left arm in two places, and
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: was most froze to death when somebody found him after
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: sun up, and when they come to look at that
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: spare room. They had to take soundings before they could
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: navigate it. The judge he felt kind o sore. He said,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: he reckoned. A body could reform the old man with
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: a shotgun, maybe, but he didn't know no other way.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five, Chapter six. Well, pretty soon the
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: old man was up and around again. And then he
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: went for Judge Thatcher in the courts to make him
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: give up that money. And he went for me too,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: for not stopping school. He catched me a couple of
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: times and thrashed me. But I went to school just
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the same, an dodged him or out running him most
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: of the time. I didn't want to go to school
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: much before, but I reckon i'd go now to spite Pap.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: That law trial was a slow business. Appeared like there
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: warn't ever going to get started on it. So every
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: now an then I'd borrow two or three dollars off
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: of the judge for him to keep from gettin a
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: cow hidin'. Every time he got money, he got drunk,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: and every time he got drunk he raised caine around town,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and every time he raised caine, he got jailed. He
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: was just suited this kind of thing was right in
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: his line. He got to hanging around the widows too much,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: and so she told him at last that if he
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: didn't quit usin around there, she would make trouble for him. Well,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't he mad? He said he would show who was
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: huck Finn's boss. So he watched out for me. One
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: day in the spring, An catched me and took me
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: up the river about three miles in a skiff and
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: crossed over to the Illinois shore where it was woody
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: an there warn't no houses but an old log hutting
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: a place where the temper was so thick you couldn't
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: find it if you didn't know where it was. He
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: kept me with him all the time, and I never
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: got a chance to run off. We lived in that
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: old cabin and he all locked the door and put
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: the key under his head. Nights. He had a gun
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: which he had stole I reckon and we fished an hunted,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: and that was what we lived on. Every little while.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: He locked me in and went down to the store
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: three miles to the ferry and traded fishin' game for whiskey,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and fetched it home and got drunk and had a
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: good time and licked me. The widow she found out
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: where I was, by and by, and she sent a
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: man over to try to get a hold of me,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: but Pap drove him off with a gun. And it
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: warn't long after that till I was used to being
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: where I wasn't liked it all but the cowhide part.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: It was kind of lazy and jolly, layin off comfortable
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: all day, smokin' and fishin and no books nor study.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Two months or more run along, and my clothes got
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: to be all rags and dirt, and I didn't see
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: how I'd ever got to like it so well at
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: the widow's where he had to wash and eat on
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: a plate and comb up an go to bed and
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: get up regular and be forever botherin over a book
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: and have old miss Watson peckin at you all the
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: time to go back no more. I had stopped cussin
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: because the widow didn't like it, But now I took
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: to it again because Pap hadn't no objections. It was
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: pretty good times up in the woods there, take it
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: all around. But by and by Pap got too handy
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: with his hickory, and I couldn't stand it. I was
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: all over welts he got to goin' away so much
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: too and locking me in. Once he locked me in
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: and was gone three days, it was dreadful, lonesome. I
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: judged he had drowned, and I wasn't ever goin to
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: get out anymore. I was scared. I made up my
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: mind I would fix up some way to leave there.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I had tried to get out of that cabin many
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: a time, but I couldn't find no way. There warn't
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: a window to it big enough for a dog to
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: get through. I couldn't get up the chimbley, it was
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: too narrow. The door was thick solid oak slabs. Pap
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: was pretty careful not to leave an eye for anything
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: in the cabin when he was away. I reckon I
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: had hunted the place over as much as a hundred times. Well,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I was most all the time at it, because it
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: was about the only way to put in the time.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: But this time I found something At last, I found
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: an old rusty wood saw without any handle. It was
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: laid in between a rafter and the clappards of the roof.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: I greased it up and went to work. There was
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: an old horse blanket nailed against the logs at the
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: far end of the cabin, behind the table to keep
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the wind from blowing through the chinks and putting the
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: candle out. I got under the table and raised the
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: blanket and went to work to saw a section of
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: the big bottom log out big enough to let me through. Well,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: it was a good long job, but I was getting
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: towards the end of it when I heard PAP's gun
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: in the woods. I got rid of the signs of
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: my work and dropped the blanket and hid my saw,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: and pretty soon Pap came in. Pap warn't in a
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: good humor, so he was his natural self. He said
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: he was downtown and everything was going wrong. His lawyer
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: said he reckoned. He would win his lawsuit and get
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: the money if they ever got started on the trial,
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: And there was ways to put it off a long time,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and Judge Thatcher knowed how to do it, and he
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: said people aloud, there'd be another trial to get me
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: away from him and give me to the widow for
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: my guardian, and they guessed it would win this time.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: This shook me up considerable because I didn't want to
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: go back to the widows anymore, be so cramped up
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: an civilized as they called it. Then the old man
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: got to cuss in, an cussed everything and everybody he
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: could think of, and then cussed them all over again
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: to make sure he hadn't skipped any And after that
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: he polished off with a kind of a general cuss
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: all around, including a considerable parcel of people which he
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: didn't know the names of, and so called them what's
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: his name? When he got to them and went right
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: along with his cussin, he said he would like to
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: see the widow get me. He said he would watch out,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: and if they tried to come any such game on him,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: he knowed of a place six or seven mile off
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: to stowe me in where they might hunt till they dropped,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: and they couldn't find me. That made me pretty uneasy again,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: but only for a minute, I reckoned. He wouldn't stay
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: on hand till he got that chance. The old man
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: made me go to the skiff and fetch the things
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: he had got. There was a fifty pound sack of
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: corn meal and a sight of bacon ammunition, and a
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: four gallon drug, a whiskey, and an old book and
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: two newspapers for wadding, beside some tow I towed it
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: up a load and went back and set down on
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: the ba of the skiff to rest. I thought it
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: all over, and I reckoned I would walk off with
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: a gun, an some lines, an take to the woods.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: When I run away, I guessed I wouldn't stay at
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: one place, but just tramp right across the country, mostly
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: night times, an hunting fish to keep alive, and so
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: get so far away that the old man nor the
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: widow couldn't ever find me any more. I judged I
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: would thaw out an leave that night. If Pap got
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: drunk enough and I reckoned, he would I got so
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: full of it I didn't notice how long I was
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: stayin till the old man hollered and asked me whether
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I was asleep or drownded. I got the things all
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: up to the cabin, an then it was about dark.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: While I was cooking supper. The old man took a
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: swig or two, an got sort o, warmed up, and
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: went to rippin again. He had been drunk over in
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: town an laid in the gutter all night. An he
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: was a sight to look at. A body woulda thought
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: he was at him. He was just all mud. Whenever
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: his liquor begun to work. He most always went for
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the government. This time, he says, call this a government.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Why just look at it and see what it's like.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Here's the law standin ready to take a man's son
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: away from him, a man's own son, which he has
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: had all the trouble, an all the anxiety, an all
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the expense, O raisin, Yes, jest as that man has
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: got that son raised at last, an ready to go
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: to work, an begin to do somethin for him, An
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: give 'em a rest. The law up an goes for him.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: An they called that government. That ain't all another. The
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: law backs that old judge thatcher up an helps him
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: to keep me out of my property. Ear's what the
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: law does. The law takes a man worth six thousand
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: dollars an upwards, an jam's em into an old trap
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: of gabin like this, and lets em go round and clothes.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: It ain't fittin for a hog. They call that government.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: A man can't get his rights in a government like this.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I've a mighty notion to just leave the country
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: for good and all. Yes, An, I told him so.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: I told old thatcher so to his face. Lots of em.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Hermain can tell what I said, says I. For two cents,
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: I'd leave the blame's country and never comin near it again.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Dam's the very words, I says. Look at my hat.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: If you call it a hat, but the lid raises
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: up and the rest, if it goes down till it's
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: below my chin, An, then it ain't rightly a hat
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: at all, but more like my head was shoved up
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: through a gentle stove pipe. Look at it, I says,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Such a hat for me to wear, one of the
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: wealthiest men in this town, if I could get my rights.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, this is a wonderful government. Wonderful Why look
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: ye here he was a free nigger there from Ohio.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a lotter, most as white as any man. He
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: the shiniest hat. An, there ain't a man in that
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: town that's got as fine clothes as what he had.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: And he had a gold watch and chain and a
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: silver had a cane, the awfullest old gray head, and
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: a bob in the state. And what do you think
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: they said? He was a professor in a college and
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: could talk all kinds of languages and note everything, and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: that ain't the worst. They said he could vote when
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: he was at home. Well, that let me out, thinks I.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: What is the country you're coming to? It was election day.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: I was just about to go and vote myself, if
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: I weren't too drunk to get there. But when they
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: told me there was a state in this country where
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: they let that nigger vote, I draw it out. I says,
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: I'll never vote again. Them's the very words I said.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: They all heard me, and the country may write for
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: all me. I'll never vote again as long as I live.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: And to see the cool way of that nigger. Why
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: shoved him out of the way, I says to the people,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: Why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold?
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: That's what I want to know. And what do you reckon?
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: They said? Why? They said he couldn't be sold till
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: he'd been in the state six months, and he an't
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: been there that long yet. There, now that's a specimen.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: They call that a government that can't sell a free
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: nigger till he's been in the state six months. Here's
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: a government that calls itself a government and lets it
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: on to be a government, and thinks that it's a government,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: and it's got to set Stocksville for six on months.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Fucking get a hold of a prowling thieve in infernal
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: white shirted free nigger and pap was a going on,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: so he never noticed where his old limber legs was
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: taking him to. So he went head over heels over
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the tub of salt pork and barked both shins, and
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: the rest of his speech was all the hottest kind
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: of language, mostly hot the nigger and the government, though
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: it give the tub some too. While along here and
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: there he hopped around the cabin considerable first on one
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: leg and then on the other, holding first one shin
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: an then the other one, and at last he let
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: out with his left foot all of a sudden and
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: fetched the tub a rattling kick. But it warn't a
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: good judgment, because that was the boot that had a
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: couple of his toes leaking out of the front end
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: of it, So now it raised a howl that fairly
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: made a body's hair raise. And down he went in
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: the dirt and rolled there and held his toes and
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: the cussin' he done, then laid over anything he had
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: ever done previous. He said so his own self. Afterwards
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: he had heard old so Berry Hagen in his best days,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: and he said it laid over him too. But I
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: reckon that was sort of pilin' at all. Maybe After supper,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Pap took the jug and said he had enough whisky
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: there for two drunks and one delirium trumends. That was
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: always his word. I'd judge he'd be blind drunkin about
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: an hour, and then I would steal the key or
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: saw myself out one or the other. He drank and
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: drank and tumbled down on his plankets by and by,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: But luck didn't run my way. He didn't go so
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: to sleep, but was uneasy. He groaned and moaned and
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: thrashed around this way and that for a long time.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: And last I got so sleepy I couldn't keep my
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: eyes open. All I could do, And so before I
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: knowed what I was about, I was sound asleep and
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: the candle burning. I don't know how long I was asleep,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: but all of a sudden there was an awful scream,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: and I was up. There was Pap, looking wild and
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: skipping around every which way and yelling about snakes. He said,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: they was crawling up his legs, and then he would
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: give a jump and screaming, say one had bit him
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: on the cheek, but I couldn't see no snakes. He
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: started and run around and round the cap and hollerin'.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Tack him off, Tack him off. He's biting me on
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the neck. I never see a man look so wild
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: in the eyes. Pretty soon he was all fagged out
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: and fell down panting. Then he rolled over and over
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: wonderful fast, kicking things every which way and striking and
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: grabbing at the air with his hands and screaming and
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: saying there was devils a hole to him. He wore
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: out by by and laid still awhile moanin'. Then he
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: laid stiller and then make a sound. I could hear
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: the owls and the wolves away off in the woods,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: and it seemed terrible. Still he was layin over by
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the corner by and by. He raised up partway and
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: listened with his head to one side. He says, very low,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: tramp tramp tramp, that's the dead tramp tramp tramp. They're
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: comin after me, but I won't go. Oh they're here,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: don't touch me, don't hands off, they're gold. Let go oh,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: let a poor devil alone. Then he went down on
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: all fours and crawled off, begging them to let him alone.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: And he rolled himself up in his blanket and wallowed
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: in under the old pine table, still a beggin'. And
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: then he went to cryin. I could hear him through
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: the blanket. By and by he rolled out and jumped
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: up on his feet, looking wild, and he seen me,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: An went for me. He chased me round around the
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: place with the claps knife, callin me the angel o death,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: An sayin he would kill me. An then I couldn't
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: come for him no more. I begged and told him
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: I was only hook. But he laughed such a screechy laugh.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: An roared and cussed and kept on chasin me up.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Once when I turned short, An dodged under his arm.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: He made a grab An got me by the jacket
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: between my shoulders. An I thought I was gone, but
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: I slid out of the jacket quick as lightnin' An
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: saved myself. Pretty soon. He was all tired out and
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: dropped down with his back against the door, and said
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: he would rest a minute, an then kill me. He
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: put his knife under him and said he would sleep
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: an get strong an then he would see who was who?
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: So he dozed off pretty soon by an by I
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: got the old split bottom chair. An clumb up as
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: easy as I could, not to make any noise. An
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: got down the gun. I slipped the ram ride down
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: it to make sure it was loaded. Then I laid
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: it across the turnip barrel, pointing towards Pap. An set
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: down behind it to wait for him to stir. And
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: how slow An still did the time drag along? End
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of chapter six, Chapter seven, Get up what you bout?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I opened my eyes and looked around, tryin to make
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: out where I was. It was after sun up. An
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: I had been sound asleep. Pap was standin over me,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: lookin sour, an sick too. He says, what you doin
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: with this gun? I judged he didn't know nothing about
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: what he had been doin. So I says, somebody tried
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: to get in, so I was layin for him. Why
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: didn't you roust me out? Well? I tried to, but
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't budge you. Well, all right, don't
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: stand there palaverin all day, but out with you and
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: see if there's a fish on the lines for breakfast.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: I'll be long in a minute. He unlocked the door,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and I cleared out up the river bank. I noticed
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: a pieces of limb and such things floatin down, and
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: a sprinklin a bark, so I knowed the river had
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: begun to rise. I reckoned. I would have great times
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: now if I was over at the town. The June
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: rise used to be always luck for me, because as
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: soon as that rise begins, here comes cordwood floatin down,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: an pieces of log rafts, sometimes a dozen logs together,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: So all you have to do is catch 'em an
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: sell him to the woodyards and the sawmill. I went
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: along up the bank with one eye out for pap an,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: the other one out for what the rise might fetch along. Well,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: all at once here comes a canoe, just a beauty too,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: about thirteen or fourteen foot long, ridin high like a duck.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: I shot head first off of the bank like a frog,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: closin' all on an struck out for the canoe. I
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: just expected there'd be somebody layin down in it, because
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: people often done that to fool folks. And when a
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: chap had pulled a skiff out most to it. They'd
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: raise up and laugh at him, but it warn't so
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: this time I'm it was a drift canoe sure enough,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: and I clumb in a paddled her ashore. Thinks I
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: the old man will be glad when he sees this.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: She's worth ten dollars. But when I got to shore,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Pep wasn't in sight yet. And as I was running
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: her into a little creek like a gully, all hung
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: over with vines and willows, I struck another idea. I
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: judged i'd hide her good an then instead of taking
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: to the woods when I run off, I'd go down
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: the river about fifty mile an camp in one place
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: for good and i'd have such a rough time trampin'
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: on foot. It was pretty close to the shanty, and
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: I thought I heard the old man coming all the time.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: But I got her head an then I out an
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: looked around a bunch of willows, an there was the
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: old man down the path apiece, just drawin a bead
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: on a bird with his gun, so he hadn't seen anything.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: When he got along. I was hard at it, takin
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: up a trot line. He abused me a little for
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: beIN so slow, but I told him I fell in
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the river. An that was what made me so long.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: I knowed you would see I was wet, an then
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: he would be askin questions. We got five catfish off
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: the lines and went home. While we laid off after
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: breakfast to sleep up, both of us beIN about war out.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: I got to thinkin that if I could fix up
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: some way to keep papin the widow from tryin to
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: follow me, it would be a certainer thing than trustin
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: to luck to get far enough off before they missed me.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: You see, all kinds of things might happen. Well, I
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: didn't see no way for a while. But by and
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: by pep raised up a minute to drink another barrel
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: o water. An, he says, another time a man comes
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: a prowlin round here, you rouse me out, ye hear.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: That man warn't here for no good. I'd a shot him.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Next time you brows me out, ye hear. Then he
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: dropped down and went to sleep again. But what he
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: had been saying give me the very idea I wanted,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: I says to myself, I can fix it now, so
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: nobody won't think of followin me. About twelve o'clock we
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: turned out and went along up the bank. The river
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: was comin up pretty fast, and lots of drift wood
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: going by on the rise. By and by along comes
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: part of a log raft, nine logs fast. Together. We
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: went out with skiff and towed it ashore. Then we
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: had dinner. Anybody but Pap would have waited and seen
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: the day through so as to catch more stuff. But
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: that warn't pap style. Nine logs was enough for one time.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: He must shove right over to town and sell. So
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: he locked me in and took the skiff and started
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: off towing the raft. About half past three. I judged
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't come back that night. I waited till I
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: reckoned he had got a good start. Then I out
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: with my saw and went to work on that log again.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: Before he was the other side of the river, I
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: was out of the hole. Him and his raft was
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: just a speck on the water, away off yonder. I
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: took the sack of corn meal and took it to
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: where the canoe was hid, an shoved the vines and
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: branches apart and put it in. Then I'd done the
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: same with the side of bacon, then the whisky jug.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: I took all the coffee an sugar there was, and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: all the ammunition. I took the widing. I took the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: bucket and gourd. I took a dipper and a tin cup,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: and my old saw, and two blankets, and the skillet
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: and the coffee pot. I took fish lines, an matches
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: and other things, everything that was worth the scent. I
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: cleaned out the place. I wanted an axe, but there
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: wasn't any, only the one out at the woodpile. And
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: I knowed why I was goin to leave that. I
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: fetched out the gun, and now I was done. I
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: had worn the ground a good deal, crawling out of
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: the hole and dragging out so many things. So I
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: fixed that as good as I could from the outside
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: by scattering dust on the place, which covered up the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: smoothness and the sawdust. Then I fixed a piece of
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: log back into its place, and put two rocks under
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: it and one against it to hold it there, for
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: it was bent up at that place and didn't quite
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: touch ground. If you stood four or five feet away
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: and didn't know it was sawed, you wouldn't never notice it.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: An Besides, this was the back of the cabin, an
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: it warn't likely anybody would go foolin around there. It
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: was all grass clear to the canoe, so I hadn't
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: left a track. I followed around to see I stood
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: on the bank and looked out over the river. All safe.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: So I took the gun and went up a piece
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: into the woods and was hunting around for some birds
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: when I see a wild pig. Hogs soon went wild
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: in them bottoms after they had got away from the
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: prairie farms. I shot this fellow and took him into camp.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: I took the axe and smashed in the door. I
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: beat it an hacked it considerable a doin' it. I
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: fetched the pig in an took him back nearly to
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: the table and hacked into his throat with the axe
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: and laid him down on the ground to bleed. I
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: say ground because it was ground, hard packed and no boards. Well. Next,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: I took an old sack an put a lot of
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: big rocks in it, all like a drag, and I
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: started it from the pig, an dragged it to the
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: door and threw the woods down to the river and
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: dumped it in and down it sunk out of sight.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: You could easy see that something had been dragged over
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: the ground. I did wish Tom Sawyer was there. I
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: knowed he would take an interest in this kind of
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: business and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody could spread
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: himself like Tom Sawyer, and such a thing as that. Well, last,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: I pulled out some of my hair and blooded the
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: axe good and stuck it on the backside, and slung
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: the axe in the corner. Then I took up the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: pig and held him to my breast with my jacket
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: so he couldn't drip till I got a good piece
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: below the house, and then dumped them into the river.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Now I thought of something else, so I went and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: got the bag of meal and my old saw out
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: of the canoe and fetch them to the house. I
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: took the bag to where it used to stand and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: ripped a hole in the bottom of it with a saw,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: for there warn't no knives and forks on the place.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: Pep done everything with his clasp knife about the cookin.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: Then I carried the sack about a hundred yards across
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the grass and through the willows east of the house
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: to a shallow lake that was five mile wide and
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: full of rushes and ducks too. You might say. In
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: the season there was a slough or a creek leading
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: out of it on the other side that went miles away,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: I don't nowhere, but it didn't go to the river.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: The meal sifted out and made a little track all
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the way to the lake. I dropped paps wetstone there too,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: so as to look like it had been done by accident.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Then I tied up the rip in the meal sack
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: with a string so it wouldn't leak no more, and
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: took it and my saw to the canoe again. It
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: was about dark now, so I dropped the canoe down
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: the river under some willows that hung over the bank,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: and waited for the moon to rise. I made fast
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: to a willow. Then I took a bike to eat,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: and by and by laid down in the canoe to
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: smoke a pipe and lay out a plan, I says
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: to myself. They'll follow the track of that sack full
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: of rocks to the shore and then drag the river
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: for me. And they'll follow that meal track to the lake.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Can go browsing down the creek that leads out of
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: it to find the robbers that killed me and took
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: of things. They won't ever hunt the river for anything
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: and won't bother no more about me. All right, I
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: can stop anywhere I want to. Jackson's Island is good
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: enough for me. I know that island pretty well, and
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: nobody ever comes there, and then I can paddle over
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: to town nights and slink around and pick up things
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: I want. Jackson's Island's the place. I was pretty tired,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: and the first thing I knowed I was asleep. When
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: I woke up, I don't know where I was for
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: a minute. I sat up and looked around a little scared.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Then I remembered the river looked miles and miles across.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: The moon was so bright I could have counted the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: drift logs that went to slipping along black and still
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: hundreds of yards out from shore. Everything was dead quiet,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: and it looked late and smelt late. You know what
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: I mean. I don't know the words to put it in.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: I took a good gap and a stretch and was
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: just going to unhitch and start when I heard a
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: sound away over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: made it out. It was that dull kind of a
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: regular sound that comes from oars working in row locks.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: When it's a still night. I peeped out through the
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: willow branches, and there it was a skiff away across
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the water. I couldn't tell how many was in it.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: It kept a comin, and when it was abreast to me,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: I see there warn't but one man in it. Thinks
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: I maybe it's Pap, though I warn't expecting him. He
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: dropped below me with the current, and by and by
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: he came a swingin up shore in the easy water,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: and he went by so close I could have reached
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: out of the gun and touched him. Well. It was Pap,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: sure enough, and sober too, by the way he laid
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: his oars. I didn't lose no time. The next minute
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: I was a spinnin' down stream, soft but quick in
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the shape to the bank. I made two mile and
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: a half, and then struck out a quarter of a
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: mile or more towards the middle of the river, because
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: pretty soon i'd be passing the ferry landing and people
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: might see me and hail me. I got out amongst
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: the driftwood and then laid down in the bottom of
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: the canoe and let her float. I laid there and
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: looking away into the sky, not a cloud in it.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: on your back in the moonshine. I never knowed it before,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: And how far a body can hear on the water
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: such nights. I heard people talking at the faery landin'
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: I heard what they said, too, every word of it.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: One man said it was gettin towards the long days
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: and the short nights now. The other one said, this
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: warn't one of the short ones. He reckoned, and then
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: they laughed, and he set it over again, and they
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: laughed again. Then they waked up another fella and told
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: him and laughed, but he he didn't laugh. He ripped
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: out somethin brisk and said let him alone. The first
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: fellow said he allowed to tell it to his old woman.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: She would think it was pretty good. But he said
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: that warn't nothin to some things he had said in
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: his time. I heard one man say it was nearly
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: three o'clock, and he hoped daylight wouldn't wait more than
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: about a week longer. After that, the talk got further
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: and further away, and I couldn't make out the words
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: any more. But I could hear the mumble an now an,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: then a laugh too, but it seemed a long ways off.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: I was away below the ferry. Now I rose up
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: an there was Jackson's Island about two mile and a
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: half down stream, heavy timbered, a standin' up out of
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: the middle of the river, big an dark and solid
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: like a steamboat without any lights. There warn't any signs
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: of the bar at the head. It was all under water. Now.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: It didn't take me long to get there. I shot
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: past the head at a rippin' rate. The current was
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: so swift, and then I got into the dead water
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: and landed on the side towards the Illinois shore. I
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: run the canoe into a deep dent in the bank
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: that I knowed about. I had to part the willow
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: branches to get in, and when I made fast, nobody
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: could have seen the canoe from the outside. I went
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: up and set down on a log at the head
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: of the island and looked out on the big river
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: and the black drift wood and away over to the
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: town three mile away, where there was three or four
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: lights twinkling. A monstrous, big lumber raft was about a
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: mile up stream, coming along down with a lantern in
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: the middle of it. I watched it come creeping down,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: and when it was most abreast to where I stood,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: I heard a man say, stern oars there eave her
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: head to starboard. I heard that just as plaint as
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: if the man was by my side. There was a
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: little gray in the sky now, so I stepped into
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: the woods and laid down for a nap before breakfast,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: and of chapter seven Chapter eight. The sun was up
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: so high when I waked that I judged it was
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: after eight o'clock. I laid there in the grass, in
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: the cool shade, thinking about things, and feeling rested and
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: rather comfortable and satisfied. I could see the sun out
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: at one or two holes, but mostly it was big
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: trees all about and gloomy in there. Amongst them there
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: was freckle places on the ground where the light sifted
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: down through the leaves, and the freckle places swapped about
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: a little, showing there was a little breeze up there.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: A couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: at me, very friendly. I was powerful, lazy and comfortable,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: didn't want to get up and cook breakfast. Well. I
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: was dozing off again. When I thinks I hear a
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: deep sound of boom away up the river. I rouses
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: up and rests on my elbow and listens. Pretty soon
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: I hears it again. I hopped up and went and
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: looked out at a hole in the leave an. I
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: see a bunch of smoke layin on the water along
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: ways up about abreast of the faery, and there was
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: the ferryboat full of people floating along down. I knowed
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: what was the matter. Now, boom, I see the white
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's side. Ye see, they
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: was firin cannin over the water, tryin to make my
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: carcass come to the top. I was pretty hungry, but
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: it warn't goin to do for me to start a fire,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: because they might see the smoke. So I set there
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: and watched the cannon smoke and listened to the boom.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: The river was a mile wide there, and it always
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: looks pretty on a summer mornin'. So I was having
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: a good enough time seeing them hunt from my remainders
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: if I only had a bite to eat. Well, then
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: I happened to think how they always put quicksilver and
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: loaves of bread an float them off, because they always
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: go right to the drowned carcass and stop there. So
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: says I. I'll keep a lookout, an if any of
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: them's floating around after me, I'll give the Emma show.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: I changed to the Illinois edge of the island to
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: see what luck I could have, and I warn't disappointed.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: A big double loaf come along, and I most got
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: it with a long stick, but my foot slipped and
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: she floated out further. Of course, I was where the
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: currents set in the closest to the shore. I knowed
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: enough for that. But by and by along comes another one,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: and this time I won. I took out the plug
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: and shook out the little dab of quicksilver and set
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: my teeth in. It was baker's bread. What the quality eat?
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: Noney'er a low down corn pone. I got a good
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: place amongst the leaves and set there on a log,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: munching the bread and watching the ferry boat, and very
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: well satisfied. And then something struck me. I says, now,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: that this bread would find me, And here it has
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: gone and done it. So there ain't no doubt, But
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: there's somethin in that. That is, there's somethin in it
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: when a body like the widow or the parson prays.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: But it don't work for me, and I reckon it
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: don't work for only just the right kind. I lit
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: a pipe, an had a good long smokin went on
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: watchin the ferry boat was floating with the current, and
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: I allowed i'd have a chance to see who was
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: aboard when she come along, because she would come in
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: close where the bread did. When she got pretty well
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: long down towards me, I put out my pipe and
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: went to where I fished out the bread and laid
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: down behind a log on the bank, in a little
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: open place where the log forked, I could peep through.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: By and by she come along, and she drifted in
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: so close that they could a run out a plank
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: an walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat, pap
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: an Judge Thatcher, and Bessy Thatcher, and Joe Harper, and
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer and his old aunt Polly An sittin merry
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: an plenty more. Everybody was talkin about the murder. But
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the captain broke in and says, look sharp now the
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: current sets in the closest here an maybe he's washed ashore,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: an got tangled amongst the brush at the water ud,
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: I hope so anyway, I didn't hope. So they all
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: crowded up an leaned over the rails nearly in my face,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: and kept still watching with all their might. I could
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: see them first rate, but they couldn't see me. Then
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: the captain sung out stand away, and the cannon let
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: off such a blast right before me that it made
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: me deaf with a noise and pretty near blind with
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: the smoke. And I'd judged I was gone. If they'd
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: ha had some bullets in, I reckoned they'd a got
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: the corpse they was after. Well, I see I warn't hurt,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks to goodness. The boat floated on and went out
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: of sight around the shoulder of the island. I could
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: hear the booming now, an then further and further off,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: and by and by. After an hour, I didn't hear
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: it no more. The island was three mile long. I
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: judged they had got to the foot and was givin
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: it up, but they didn't yet. Awhile they turned around
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: the foot of the island and started up the channel,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: on the Missouri side under steam an boomin wonce in
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: a while. As they went I crossed over to that
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: side and watched them. When they got abreast the head
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: of the island, they quit shootin An dropped over to
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: the Missouri shore and went home to the town. I
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: knowed I was all right now, nobody else will come
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: a huntin after me. I got my traps out of
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: the canoe. AN made me a nice camp in the
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: thick woods. I made a kind of tent out o
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: my blankets to put my things under so the rain
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't get at them. I catched a catfish, an haggled
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: him open with my saw, and towards sundown, I started
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: my camp fire and had supper. Then I set out
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: a line to catch some fish for breakfast. When it
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: was dark, I set by my camp fire smokin' an
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: feelin pretty well satisfied. But by and by he got
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: sort o lonesome. An So I went An set on
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: the bank and listened to the currents swashin along, An
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: counted the stars, an drift logs, an rafts that come down.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: An then went to bed. There ain't no better way
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: to put in time when you were lonesome. You can't
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: stay so you soon get over it. And so for
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: three days and nights, no difference, just the same thing.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: But the next day I went explorin around down through
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: the island. I was boss of it. It all belonged
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: to me, so to say, and I wanted to know
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: all about it, but mainly I wanted to put in
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: the time. I found plenty of strawberries, ripe and prime,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: and green summer grapes and green raspberries, and the green
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: blackberries was just beginning to show. They would all come
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: handy by and by I judged well. I went foolin
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: along in the deep woods till I judged I warn't
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: far from the foot of the island. I had my
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: gun along, but I hadn't shot nothin'. It was for protection.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: Thought I would kill some game nigh home. About this
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: time I mighty near stepped on a good sized snake.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: An it went sliding off through the grass and flowers,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: and I after it, trying to get a shot at it.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: I clipped along an all of a sudden I bounded
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: right on to the ashes of a camp fire that
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: was still smokin'. My heart jumped up amongst my lungs.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: I never waited for her to look further, but uncocked
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: my gun and went sneakin back on my tiptoes as
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: fast as ever I could. Every now and then I
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened. But
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: my breath comes so hard I couldn't hear nothing else.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: I slunk along another piece further, then listened again, and
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: so on and so on. If I see a stump,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: I took it for a man. If I tried on
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: a stick and broke, it made me feel like a
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: person had cut one of my breaths in two, and
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: I only got half, and the short half too. When
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: I got to camp, I warn't feeling very brash. There
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: warn't much sand in my craw, But I says, this
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: ain't no time to be foolin around. So I got
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: all my traps into my canoe again so as to
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: have them out of sight. And I put out the
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: fire and scattered the ashes around to look like an
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: old last year's camp, and then clumb a tree I reckon.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: I was up in the tree two hours, but I
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: didn't see nothing. I didn't hear nothing. I only thought
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: I heard an seen as much as a thousand things. Well,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: I couldn't stay up there forever, so at last I
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: got down. But I kept in the thick woods and
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: on the lookout all the time. All I could get
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: to eat was berries and what was left over from breakfast.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: By the time it was night, I was pretty hungry.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: So when it was good and dark, I slid up
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: from shore before moonrise and paddled over to the Illinois
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: bank about a quarter of a mile. I went out
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: in the woods and cooked a supper, and I had
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: about made up my mind I would stay there all night.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: When I hear it plunketty plunk, plunketty plunk, and says
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: to myself, horses coming, and next I hear people's voices.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: I got everything into the canoe as quick as I could,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: and then went creeping through the woods to see what
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: I could find out. I hadn't got far when I
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: hear a man say, we better camp here if we
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: can find a good place. The horses about beat out,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: let's look around. I didn't wait, but shoved out and
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: paddled away easy. I tied up in the old place
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe. I didn't
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: sleep much I couldn't somehow for thinkin', and every time
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: I waked up, I thought somebody had me by the neck.
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: So the sleep didn't do me no good. By and by,
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: I says to myself, I can't live this way. I'm
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: a goin to find out who it is that's here
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: on the island with me. I'll find it out or bust. Well,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: I felt better right off, so I took my paddle
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: an slid out from shore just a step or two
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: an then let the canoe drop along down amongst the shadows.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: The moon was shinin and outside of the shadows, it
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: made it most as light as day. I poked along
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: well on to an hour, everything still as rocks and
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: sound asleep. Well, by this time I was most down
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: to the foot of the island. A little ripply cool
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: breeze begun to blow, and that was as good as sayin'.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: The night was about done. I gave a return with
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: a paddle and brung her nose to shore, and I
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: got my gun and slipped out an into the edge
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: of the woods. I sat down there on a log
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: and looked out through the leaves. I see the moon
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: and go off watch and the darkness begin to blanket
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: the river. But in a little while I see a
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: pale streak over the tree tops. An knowed the day
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: was comin. So I took my gun an slipped off
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: towards where I had run across that camp fire, stoppin
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: every minute or two to listen. But I hadn't no luck.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: Somehow I couldn't seem to find the place. But by
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: an by, sure enough I catched a glimpse of fire
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: away through the trees. I went for it cautious, an
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: slow by, and by I was close enough to have
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: a look. An there laid a man on the ground.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: It must give me the fantits. He had a blanket
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: round his head, and his hand was nearly in the fire.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: I sat there behind a clump of bushes and about
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: six foot o him. An kept my eyes on him steady.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: It was gettin gray daylight. Now pretty soon he gasped
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: and stretched himself an hove off the blanket. An it
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: was miss Watson's jim. I bet I was glad to
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: see him, I says, hullo Jim An skipped out. He
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: bounced out up and stared at me wild. Then he
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: drops down on his knees An puts his hand together
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: and says, don't hurt me, don't. I ain't never done
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: no harm, do o gos? I always like dead people.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: An done all I could for. 'm you go an
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: gettin the river again? What you belongs an? Don't do
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: nothin to old Jim, I was always your friend. Well,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: I warn't long makin him understand I warn't dead. I
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: was ever so glad to see Jim. I warn't lonesome.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: Now I told him I warn't afraid of him. Tellin
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: the people where I was. I talked along, But he
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: only sat there an looked at me, never said nothin.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: Then I says, it's good daylight, Let's get breakfast, make
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: up your camp fire? Good? What's to use in makin
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: up to camp fire? To cook? Strawberries on sitch truck?
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: You got a gun, hain't you? Then we can get
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: somethin better than strawberries. Strawberries an such truck, I says,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: is that what you live on? I couldn't git nothin else?
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: He says, why how long you've been on the island, Jim?
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: I come here to night after you's killed? What all
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: that time? Yes, indeedy an, you hain't had nothin but
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: that kind o rubbish to eat, no sighnfin else, Well,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: you must be most starved, ain't yer? I reckon I
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: could eat a hoss? I think I could. How long
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: you been on to island since the night I got killed? No?
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: Why what has you lived on? But you got a gun? Oh, yes,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: you got a gun. Dat's good. Now you kill suthin an,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: I'll make up to fire. So we went over to
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: where the canoe was. An while he built a fire
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: in a grassy open place amongst the trees, I fetched meal,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: an bacon and coffee, an coffee pot, an fryin pan,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: an sugar, and tin cups. An. The nigger was set
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: back considerable because he reckoned. It was all done with witchcraft.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: I catched a good big catfish too. An Jim cleaned
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: him with his knife and fried him. When breakfast was ready,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: we lolled on the grass an eat it smokin' hot.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: Jim laid it in with all his might, for he
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: was most about starved. Then, when he had got pretty
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: well stuffed, we laid off n lazied by and by.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: Jim says, look ye here Huck who was a dad
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: as killed in that shindy if it weren't you. Then
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: I told him the whole thing and he said it
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: was smart. He said Tom Sawyer couldn't get up no
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: better plan than what I had. Then I says, how
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: do you come to be here? Jim? And how'd you
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: get here? He looked pretty uneasy and didn't say nothing
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: for a minute. Then he says, maybe I'd better not
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: tell why? Jim? Well, these reasons, but you wouldn't tell
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: on me. If I was to tell you, would you
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: Huck blamed? If I would? Jim? Well, I believe you, Huck.
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: I I've run off Jim. But mind you said you
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: wouldn't tell, you'd know. You said you wouldn't tell, Huck, Well,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: I did. I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: honest injun I will. People will call me a low
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum, But that
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: don't mean no difference. I ain't a goin to tell
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: an I ain't a goin back there anyways. So now
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: let's know all about it? Well, ye see it was
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: this way, ol missus, that's miss Watson. She pecks on
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: me all the time, An treats me pooty rough an.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: She always says she wouldn't sell me down to or Orleans.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: But I noticed there was a nigger trade around the
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: place considerable lately, and I begin to get uneasy. Well,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: one night I creeped to the door, putty late and
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: don't want quite shut an. I hear old Missus tell
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: the wider she'd goin to sell me to ol' Leans.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: But she didn't want to. But she could get eight
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars for me. An, it's such a big stack
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: o money. She couldn't resist the widder. She tried to
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: get her to say she wouldn't do it, But I
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: never waited to hear the rest. I lit out mighty quick,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: I tell you, I tuck out an shin down the hill.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: A'spect to steal a skift long to show somewheers above
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: the town. But they was people astirring yet, so I
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: hid in the old tumble down copper shop on the
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: bank to wait for everybody to go away. Well, I
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: was there all night. There was somebody round all the time.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Long bout six in the mornin' skiff's begun to go by.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: An' bout eight or nine, every skiffa went long, was
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: talkin'bout how yo pap come over to town and says,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: you's killed. These last skiffs was full of ladies and
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: gentlemen a goin' over for to see the place. Sometimes
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: they'd pull up at the shore an take a rest
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: before they started across, so by to talk. I got
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: ya know all about to killin'. I was powerful, sorry
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: you was killed, huck, but I ain't no moan now.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: I laid there under the shaven's all day. I was hungry,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: but I warn't a feared, because I knowed ol missus
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: and the winter was goin to start to the camp
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: meetin' right after breakfast, an be goin' all day. An
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: they knows I goes off with the gattle about daylight,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: so they wouldn't bet to see me round the place,
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: an so they wouldn't miss me till after dark in
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: the evenin' d'e other servants wouldn't miss me, cause dy'd
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: shin out an take holiday soon as de ol folks
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: is out an the way. Well, when it come dark,
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: I took out up the river Roa and went about
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: two miles or more to get where they warn't no houses.
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: I'd made up my mind bout what I's awan to do.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: Ye see, if I kept on tryin to get away afoot,
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: the dogs d track me. If I stole a skiff
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: to cross over, they'd miss that skift, ye see, An
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: they'd know about where I land on the other side,
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: an where pick up my track? So I says, er
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: raff is what I after. It don't make no track.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: I see a light o comin' round to point by
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: and by, so I wade in an shove a log ahead,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: a mean swum more'n half way across the river. An
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: got in amongst the drift wood and kept my head
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: down low an kinder swum against a current till the
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: raft come along. Then I swum too the stern of it,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: an tuck a halt. It clattered up. An It's pretty
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: dark for a little while, so I clumb up an
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: lay down onto planks. The men is all way yonder
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: in the middle where the lantern was, the river was
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: arisin' an they was a good current. So I reckoned
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: that by full in the mornin' i'd be twenty five
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: mile down the river. An then I'd slip in jest
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: before daylight and swim ashore an take too the woods
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: onto Illinois side. But I didn't have no luck. When
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: we was most down to the head of the island,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: a man begin to come aft with the lantern. I
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: see it warn't no use for to wait, So I
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: slid overboard and struck out for the island. Well, I
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: had a notion I could land most anywheres, but I
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: couldn't bank two bluff. I was most to the foot
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: of the island before I found some good place. I
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: went into the woods an jagged. I wouldn't fool wood
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: rafts no more long as they moved the lantern around.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: So I had my pipe and a plugger dog leg
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: an some matches in my cap. An they warn't wet,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: so I was all right. And so you ain't had
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: no meat nor bread to eat all this time? Why
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: didn't you get mud trickles? How you goin to get 'em?
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: You can't slip up on em an grab em? An?
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: How's a body goin to hit him wi a rock?
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: How could a body do it in to night? An?
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: I warn't goin to show myself on to bank in daytime? Well,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: that's so you've had to keep in the woods all
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: the time. O course, did ye hear him shootin the cannon? Oh? Yes,
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: I know, day was our to you. I see him
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: go by here, watched him through the bushes. Some young
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: birds come along, flyin a yard or two at a time,
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: en lightin. Jim said it was a sign it was
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: goin to rain. He said it was a sign when
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: young chickens flew that way, and so he reckoned it
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: was the same way when young birds done it. I
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: was goin to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn't
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: let me. He said it was death. He said his
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: father laid mighty sick once an some of em catched
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: a bird an his old granny said his father would
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: die an he did. And Jim said, you mustn't count
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: the things you're goin to cook for dinner, cause that
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: would bring bad luck, the same if you shook the
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: tablecloth after sundown. And he said, if a man owned
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: a bee hive, an that man died, the bees must
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: be told about it before sun up next mornin', or
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: else the bees would all weaken down an quit work
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: and die. Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots. But I
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: didn't believe that because I had tried them lost of
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: times myself, an they wouldn't sting me. I had heard
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: about some of the things before, but not all of them.
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: Jim knowed all kinds of signs, he said, he knowed
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: most everything. I said. It looked to me like all
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: the signs was about bad luck. So I asked him
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: if there warn't any good luck signs? He says, mighty few.
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: An they ain't no use to a body. What you
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: want to know when good luck's a comin? For? Want
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: to keep it off? Andy said, if you's got hairy
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: arms an a hairy breast, it's a sign that us
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: agwine to be rich. Well, they's some use in a
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: sign like that, cause it's so furr head you see.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe he's got to be poe a long time first,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: and so you might get discouraged an kill yerself if
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: you didn't known by the sign that you gwine to
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: be rich by and by have you got hairy arm
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: and a hairy breast? Jim, what's do you use to
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: aks that question? Don't you see? I has well? Are
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: you rich? No? But I've been rich once? An I
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: gwine to be rich again once I had fourteen dollars,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: but I tuck to speculatin' an got busted out. What
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: did y speculate in, Jim? Well, first I tackled stock.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: What kind of stock? Why live stock? Cattle? You know,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: I put ten dollars in a cow, but I ain't
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: goin to ask no more money in stock? The cow
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: up an died on my hands. So you lost a
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: ten dollars. No, I didn't lose it all. I only
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: lost about nine of it. I sold a hide an
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: taler for a dollar and ten cents. You had a
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: dollar and ten cents left. Did you speculate any more? Yes?
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: You know that one linkin nigger that belongs to old
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: mister bradish. Well, he sat up a bank an say
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: anybody to put in a dollar would get four dollars
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: more at the end of the year. Well, all de
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: niggers went in, but they didn't have much. I was
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: the only one to have much, so I stuck out
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: from more'n four dollars. An. I said, if I didn't
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: get it, I'd start a bank myself. Well, O course,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: dat nigga want to keep me out o the business,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: because he says there warn't business enough for two banks.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: So he said I could put in my five dollars,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: an he pay me thirty five at the end o
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: the year. So I done it. Then I reckon I'd
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: invest the thirty five dollars right off an keep things
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: a movin. They was a nigger named Bob that had
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: catched a wood flat, an his marster didn't know it.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: An I bought it off in him an told him
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: to take the thirty five dollars when de Ennert the
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: year come. But somebody stole the wood flat that night.
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: An next day, the one legged nigger said the banks
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: busted so they didn't. None of us get no money.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: What did you do with the ten cents, Jim? Well,
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: I was goin to spend it, but I had a dream,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: and a dream told me to give it to a
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: nigger named Ballum. Ballum's ass, they called him for short.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: He's one o them chuckle heads, you know. But he's lucky,
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: they say, An, I see, I warn't lucky. The dream says,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: let Ballum invest a ten cents, an he'd make a
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: raise for me. Well, Ballum, he took the money. An
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: when he was a church he heard a preacher say,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: tat whoever give two de pole lent to de lord
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: an bound to give his money back a hundred times?
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: So Ballum he took an give to ten cents to
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: the pole and laid low to see what was goin
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: to come of it. Well what did come of it? Jim?
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: Nothing never came of it. I couldn't manage to collect
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: that money, no way, an Balum, he couldn't. I ain't
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: gwin to lend no more money, doubt, I see to
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: security bound to get yo money back a hundred times.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: The preacher says, if I could get to ten cents back,
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: I'd call it square an be gladder to chance. Well
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're goin to
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: be rich again some time or other. Yes, An I's
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: rich now. Come to look at it, I owns myself.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: An I's worth eight hundred dollars. I wished I had
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: the money. I wouldn't want no more. End of chapter eight.
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine. I wanted to go and look at a
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: place right about the middle of the island that I'd
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: found when I was explorin. So we started and soon
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: got to it. Cause Yallen was only three miles long
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: in a quarter of a mile wide. This place was
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: a tolerable, long steep hill or ridge about forty foot high.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: We had a rough time getting to the top. The
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: sides was so steep and the bushes so thick. We
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: tramped and clumb around all over it, and by and
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: by found a good big cavern in the rock most
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: up to the top, on the side towards Illinois. The
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: cavern was as big as two or three rooms bunched together,
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: and Jim could stand up straight in it. It was
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: cool in there. Jim was for putting our traps in
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: there right away, but I said we didn't want to
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: be climbing up and down there all the time. Jim said,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: if we had the canoe hidden a good place and
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: had all the traps in the cavern, we could rush
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: there if anybody was to come to the island, and
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: they would never find us without dogs. An besides, he said,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: them little birds as said it was going to rain,
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: and did I want the things to get wet. So
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: we went back and got the canoe and paddled up
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: abreast the cavern and lugged all the traps up there.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: Then we hunted up a place close by to hide
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: the canoe in amongst the thick willows. We took some
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: fish off of the lines and set them again, and
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: begun to get ready for dinner. The door of the
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: cavern was big enough to roll a hogshead in, and
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: on one side of the door the floor stuck out
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit and was flat and a good place
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: to build a fire on. So we built it there
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: and cooked dinner. We spread the blankets inside for a carpet,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: and eat our dinner in there. We put all the
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: other things handy at the back of the cavern. Pretty
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: soon it darkened up and begun to thunder and lighten,
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: so the birds was right about it. Directly it begun
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: to rain, and it falled like all fury too, And
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: I never seen the wind blow, So it was one
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: of these regular summer storms. It would get so dark
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: that it looked all blue black outside and lovely, and
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: the rain would thrash along by so thick that the
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: trees awful little ways looked dim and spider webby, and
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: here would come a blast of wind that would bend
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: the trees down, an turn up the pale underside of
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: the leaves, and then a perfect ripper of a gust
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: would follow along and set the branches to toss in
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: their arms as if they was just wild. And next,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: when it was just about the bluest and blackest fist,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: it was as bright as glory, and you'd have a
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: little glimpse of tree tops a plungin about away off
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: could see before, dark as sin. Again in a second,
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: awful crash, and then go rumblin', grumblin' tumblin' down the
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: sky towards the under side of the world, like rollin'
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: empty barrels downstairs where it's long stairs, an they bounce
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: a good deal, you know, Jim, this is nice, I says,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to be nowhere else but here, pass
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: me along another hunk of fish in some hot corn bread. Well,
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't have been here if it hadn't been for Jim.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: You'd been down there in the woods without any dinner,
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: and get most drownded too, that you would honey chicken's
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: nose when it s gwand a rain, and so due
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: to bird's child The river went on raisin and raisin
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: for ten or twelve days till at last it was
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: over the banks. The water was three or four feet
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: deep on the island in the low places, and on
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: the Illinois bottom. On that side it was a good
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: many miles wide, but on the Missouri side it was
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: the same old distance across a half a mile, because
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: the Missouri shore was just a wall of high bluffs.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: Daytimes we paddled all over the island in the canoe.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: It was mighty cool and shady in the deep woods,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: even if the sun was blazing outside. We went winding
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: in and out amongst the trees, and sometimes the vines
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: hung so thick we had to back away and go
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: some other way. Well, on every old, broken down tree
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: you could see rabbits and snakes and such things. And
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: when the island had been overflowed a day or two,
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: they got so tame on account of beIN hungry that
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: you could peddle right up and put your hand on
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: them if you wanted to, But not the snakes and turtles.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: They would slide off in the water. The ridge our
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: cavern was in was full of em We could have
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: had pets enough if we'd wanted them. One night we
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: catched a little section of a lumber raft, nice pine planks.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: It was twelve foot wide an about fifteen or sixteen
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: foot long, and the top stood above water six or
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: seven inches a solid level floor. We could see saw
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: logs go by in the daylight sometimes, but we let
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: them go. We didn't show ourselves in daylight. Another night,
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: when we was up at the head of the island,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: just before daylight, here comes a frame house down on
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: the west side. She was a two story and tilted
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: over considerable. We paddled out and got aboard clumb in
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: at an upstairs window. But it was too dark to
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: see yet, so we made the canoe fast and said
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: in her to wait for daylight. The light begun to
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: come before we got to the foot of the island.
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: Then we looked in at the window. We can make
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: out a bed and a table, and two old chairs,
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: and lots of things around about on the floor, and
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: there was clothes hanging against the wall. There was something
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: layin on the floor in the far corner that looked
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: like a man. So Jim says, hello you, but it
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: didn't budge. So I hollered again, and then Jim says,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: the man ain't asleep, he's dead. You hold still, I'll
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: go and see. He went and bent down and looked
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: and says it's a dead man. Yes, indeedy naked too.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: He's been shot in the back. I reckon he's been
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: dead two or three days. Come in, huck, but don't
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: look at his face. It's too ghashly. I didn't look
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: at him at all. Jim throwed some old rags over him,
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: but he needn't done it. I didn't want to see him.
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: There was heaps of old, greasy cards scattered around over
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: the floor, an old whiskey bottom, and a couple of
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: masks made out of black cloth. And all over the
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: walls was the ignorantest kind o words and pictures made
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: with charcoal. There was two old, dirty calico dresses and
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: a sun bonnet, and some women's underclothes hanging against the wall,
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: and some men's clothing too. We put the lot into
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: the canoe. It might come good. There was a boy's
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: old speckled straw hat on the floor. I took that too,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: And there was a bottle that had had milk in it,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: and it had a rag stopper for a baby to suck.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: We would have took the bottle, but it was broke.
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: There was a seedy old chest and an old hair
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: trunk with the hinges broke. They stood open, but there
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: warn't nothing left in them that was any account. The
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: way things were scattered about. We reckoned the people left
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: in a hurry an warn't fixed, so as to carry
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: off most of their stuff. We got an old tin
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: lantern and a butcher knife without any handle, and a
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: brand new barlow knife worth two bits in any store,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: and a line of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: old bed quilled off the bed, and a reticule with
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: needles and pins and beeswax and buttons and thread and
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: all such truck in it, and a hatchet and some nails,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: and a fish line as thick as my little finger
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: with some monstrous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin,
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: and a leather dog collar and a horseshoe, and some
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: bials of medicine that didn't have no label on them.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: And just as we was leaving, I found a tolerable
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: good curry comb. An Jim he found a ratty old
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: fiddle bow and a wooden leg. The straps was broke
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: off of it, but barn that it was a good
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: enough leg, though it was too long for me and
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: not long enough for Jim, and we couldn't find the
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: other one. Though we hunted all around, and so take
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: it all around. We made a good haul. When we
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: was ready to shove off, we was a quarter of
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: a mile below the island, and it was pretty broad day.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: So I made Jim lay down in the ca you
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: and cover up with the quilt, because if he set up,
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: people could tell he was a nigger. A good ways off,
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: I paddled over to the Illinois shore and drifted down
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: most a half a mile doin' it. I crept up
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: the dead water under the bank and hadn't no accidents
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: and didn't see nobody. We got home all safe. End
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: of Chapter nine, Chapter ten. After breakfast, I wanted to
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: talk about the dead man and guess out how he
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: came to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: said it would fetch bad luck, and besides, he said
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: he might come and haunt us. He said a man
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: that wasn't buried was more likely to go a haunting
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: around than one that was planted and comfortable. That sounded
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: pretty reasonable, so I didn't say no more. But I
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't keep from studyin over it an wishin' I knowed
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: who shot the man, an what they'd done it for.
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: We rummaged the clothes we'd got and found eight dollars
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: in silver sewed up in the linin of an old
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: blanket overcoat. Jim said he reckoned the people in that
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: house stole the coat, because if they'd knowed the money
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: was there, they wouldn't have left it. I said, I
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: reckon they killed him too, But Jim didn't want to
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: talk about that. I says, now, you think it's bad luck.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: But what did you say when I fetched in the
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: snake skin that I found on the top of the
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: ridge day before yesterday? You said it was the worst
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: bad luck in the world to touch snake's skin with
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: my hands. Well, here's your bad luck. We've raked in
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: all this truck an eight dollars. Besides, I wish we
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: could have some bad luck like this every day. Jim,
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don't you get
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: too pert. It's a comin mind, I tell you it's
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: a comin'. It did come too. It was a Tuesday
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: that we had that talk. Well after dinner Friday, we
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: was layin around in the grass at the upper end
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: of the ridge and got out of tobacco. I went
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: to the cavern to get some and found a rattlesnake
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: in there. I killed him and curled him up on
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: the foot of Jim's blanket. Ever so natural tink, could
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: there be some fun when Jim found him there. Well
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: by night I forgot all about the snake, And when
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: a light, the snake's mate was there an bit him.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: He jumped up yellin' an The first thing the light
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: showed was the varmint, curled up and ready for another spring.
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: I laid him out in a second with a stick.
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: An Jim grabbed PAP's whisky jug and began to pour
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: it down. He was barefooted, and the snake bit him
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: right on the heel. That all comes am I bein'
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: such a fool as to not remember that wherever you
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: leave a dead snake, its mate always comes there an
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: curls around it. Jim told me to chop off the
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: snake's head and throw it away. An then skin the
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: body an roast a piece of it. I done it,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: an he eat it, an said it would help cure him.
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: He made me take off the rattles an tie them
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: around his wrist too. He said that that would help.
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: Then I slid out quiet an throwed the snakes clear
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: away amongst the bushes, for I warn't goin to let
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: Jim find out. It was all my fault, not if
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: I could help it. Jim sucked and sucked at the jug,
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: and now and then he got out of his head
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: and pitched around and yelled. But every time he come
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: to himself he went to suckin at the jug again.
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: His foot swelled up pretty big, and so did his leg.
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: But by and by the drunk begun to come, and
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: so I judged he was all right. But I'd rather
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: been bit with a snake than PAP's whiskey. Jim was
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: was all gone, an he was around again. I made
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: up my mind I wouldn't ever take a hold of
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: a snake skin again with my hands, now that I
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: see what had come of it. Jim said he reckoned,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: I would believe him next time. And he said that
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: handlin a snake skin was such awful bad luck that
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet.
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: He said he'd rather see the new moon over his
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: up a snake skin in his hand. Well, I was
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: gettin to feel that way myself, though, I've always reckoned
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: can do. Old Hank Bunker done at once, an bragged
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: about it, and in less than two years he got
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: drunk and fell off of the shout tower and spread
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: himself out so that he was just a kind of layer,
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: as you may say. And they slid him edgeways between
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: two barn doors for a coffin and buried him. So so,
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: they say, But I didn't see it, Pap told me.
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: But anyway, it all come of looking at the moon
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: that way like a fool. Well, the days went along,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: and the river went down between its banks again, and
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: about the first thing we'd done was to bait one
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: it and catch a catfish that was as big as
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: a man beIN six foot two inches long and weighed
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: over two hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course,
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: he would have flung us into Illinois. We just sat
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: there and watched him rip and tear around till he drowned.
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: We found a brass button in his stomach, and a
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: round ball an lots of rubbage. We split the ball
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: open with hatchet, and there was a spool in it.
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: Jim said he'd had it there a long time to
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: coat it over so and make a ball of it.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: It was as big a fish as was ever catched
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: in the Mississippi. I reckon. Jim said he hadn't ever
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: seen a bigger one. He would have been worth a
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: good deal over at the village. They peddle out such
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: a fish as that by the pound in the market
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: house there. Everybody buys some of em. His meats as
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: white as snow, and makes a good fry. Next mornin',
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: I said it was gettin slow and dull, and I
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: wanted to get a stirring up some way, I said,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: I reckoned. I would slip over the river and find
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: out what was goin on. Jim liked that notion, but
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: he said I must go in the dark and look sharp.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: Then he studied it over and said, couldn't I put
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: on some of them old things and dress up like
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: a girl. That was a good notion too, So we
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: shortened up one of the calico gowns, and I turned
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: up my trouser legs to my knees and got into it.
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: a fair fit. I put on the sunbonnet and tied
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: it under my an. Then for a body to look
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: in and see my face was like lookin down a
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: joint of stove pipe. Jim said, nobody would know me
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: even in the daytime, hardly. I practiced around all day
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: to get the hang of the things. An by and
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: by I could do pretty well in them. Only Jim
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: said I didn't walk like a girl, and he said
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: I must quit pullin up my gown to get at
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: my breeches pocket. I took notice a done better. I
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: I started across to the town from a little below
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: the ferry landin' and the drift of the current fetched
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: me in at the bottom of the town. I tied
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: up an started along the bank. There was a light
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: burnin in a little shanty that hadn't been lived in
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: for a long time, and I wondered who had took
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in at
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: the window. There was a woman about forty year old
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: in there, knitting by a candle that was on a
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: pine table. I didn't know her face. She was a stranger,
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: for you couldn't start a face in that town that
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. Now this was lucky, because I was weakenin.
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: I was gettin afraid I had come. People might know
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: my voice an find me out. But if this woman
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: had been in such a little town two days, she
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: could tell me all I wanted to know. So I
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: knocked at the door and made up my mind I
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: wouldn't forget I was a girl. End of chapter ten,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. Come in, says the woman. An I did,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: She says, take a cheer, I done it. She looked
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: me all over with her little shiny eyes and says,
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: what might yer name be, Sarah Williams? Whereabouts do you
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: live in this neighborhood? Nom in Hookerville, seven mile below.
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: I've walked all the way, an I'm all tired out,
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: hungry too, I reckon, I'll find ye somethin'. Nom I
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: ain't hungry. I was so hungry I had to stop
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: two miles below here at a farm. So I ain't
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: hungry no more. It's what makes me so late. My
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: mother's down sick, an id o money and everything. An
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: I've come to tell my uncle Abner Moore. He lives
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: at the upper end of the town. She says, I
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: hain't ever been here before. Do you know him? No,
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: but I don't know everybody yet. I haven't lived here
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: quite two weeks. It's a considerable ways to the upper
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: end of the town. You'd better stay here all night.
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: Take off your bonnet, no, I says, ill rest awhile
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: I reckon an go on. I ain't a fear to
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: the dark. She said. She wouldn't let me go by myself,
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: but her husband would be in by an by maybe
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: in an hour and a half. An she'd send him
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: along with me. Then she got to talkin about her husband,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: an about her relations up the river and her relations
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: down the river, an about how much better off they
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: used to was an how they didn't know, but they'd
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: made a mistake comin to our town instead of letting
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: Well alone, And so on and so on till I
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: was afeared I had made a mistake comin to her
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: to find out what was going on in the town.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: But by and by she dropped on to Pap and
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: the murder, and I was pretty willin' let her clatter
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: ride along. She told about me and Tom Sawyer finding
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: the six thousand dollars, only she got it ten and
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 1: all about Pap and what a hard lot he was
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: and what a hard lot I was. And at last
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: she got down to where I was murdered. I says,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: who done it? We've heard considerable about these goin's on
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: down in Hookerville, but we don't know who twas that
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: killed Huck Finn. Well, I reckon, there's a right smart
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: chance of people here that I'd like to know who
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: killed him. Some think old Finn done it himself. No
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: is that so? Most everybody thought it At first, he'll
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: never know how nigh he came to Gettin lynched. But
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: before night they changed around and judged it was done
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: by a runaway nigger named Jim. Why he I stopped,
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: I reckoned, I better keep still. She run on, an
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: never noticed I had put in at all. The nigger
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: run off the very night Huck Finn was killed. So
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: there's a reward out for him three hundred dollars. An
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: there's a reward out for Old Finn too, two hundred dollars.
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: Ye see, he came to town the mornin' after the
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: murder and told about it, and was out with him
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: on the ferry boat hunt. And right away after he
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: up an left before night. They wanted to lynch him,
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: but he was gone, you see. Well, next day they
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: found out the nigger was gone. They found out he
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: hadn't been seen since ten o'clock the night the murder
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: was done. So then they put it on him, you see.
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: An while they was full of it. Next day back
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: comes Old Finn and went Boom, who went to Judge
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: Thatcher to get money to hunt for the nigger all
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: over Illinois with the judge gave him some an that
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: evenin' he got drunk and was around till after midnight
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: with a couple of mighty hard looking strangers and then
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: went off with them. Well he hain't come back since
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 1: an they ain't lookin for him back till this thing
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: blows over a little for people thinks now that he
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: killed his boy and fixed things, so folks would think
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: robbers done it. An then he'd get Huck's money without
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: havin to bother a long time with a lawsuit. People
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: do say he warn't any too good to do it.
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: Oh he's sly. I reckon. If he don't come back
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: for a year, he'll be all right. He can't prove
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: anything on him. You know, everything will be quieted down
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: then an he'll walk in Huck's money as easy as nothin'. Yes,
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: I reckon, so, ma'am, I don't see nothin in the
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: way of it. Has everybody quit thinkin' the nigger done it? Oh? No,
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: not everybody. A good many thinks he done it. But
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: they'll get the nigger pretty soon now An maybe they
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: can scare it out o him. Why are they after
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: him yet? Well, you're innocent, ain't you. Jus three hundred
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: dollars lay around every day for people to pick up.
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: Some folks think the nigger ain't far from here. I'm
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: one of em, But I hain't talked it around a
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: few days ago. I was talkin with an old couple
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: that lives next door in the log shanty. An they
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: happened to say, hardly anybody ever goes to that island
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: over yonder that they call Jackson's Island. Don't anybody live there,
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: says I, No, nobody, they says. I didn't say any more,
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: but I done some thinkin I was pretty near, and
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: i'd seen smoke over there about the head of the
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: island a day or two before that. So I says
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: to myself, like, as not that nigger's hidin' over there anyway,
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: says I, it's worth the trouble to give the place
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: a hunt. I ain't seen any smoke, sense, so I reckon,
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: maybe he's gone if it was him, But my husband's
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: going over to see him and another man he was
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: gone up the river, but he got back today, and
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: I told him as soon as he got here two
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: hours ago. I had got so uneasy I couldn't set still.
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: I had to do something with my hands, so I
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: took up a needle off of the table and went
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: to threadn it. My hands shook an I was makin
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: a bad job of it. When the woman stopped talking.
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: I looked up and she was looking at me pretty
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: curious and smiling a little. I put down the needle
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: and thread and led on to be interested. And I
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: was too, and says, three hundred dollars is a power
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: o money I wish my mother could get it. Is
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: your husband going over there tonight? Oh? Yes, he went
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: up town with a man. I was telling you of
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: to get a boat and see if they could borrow
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: another gun. They'll go over after midnight. Couldn't they see
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: better if they was to wait till daytime? Yes? And
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: couldn't the nigger see better too? After midnight he'll likely
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: be asleep and they can slip around the woods and
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: hunt up his camp fire. All the better for the
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: dark if he's got one. I didn't think of that.
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: The woman kept looking at me pretty curious, and I
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: didn't feel a bit comfortable. Pretty Soon she says, what
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: did you say? Your name was, honey, m Mary Williams.
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: Somehow it didn't seem to me that I said it
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: was mir before, so I didn't look up. Seemed to
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: me I said it was Sarah. So I felt sort
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: of concerned, and it was afeared. Maybe I was looking
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: at too. I wish the woman would say something more.
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: The longer she sat still, the uneasier I was. But
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: now she says, honey, I thought you said it was
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: Sarah when you first came in. Oh, yes I did.
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: Sarah Mary Williams. Sarah's my first name. Some calls me Sarah,
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: some calls me Mary. Oh that's the way of it.
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: Yes'm I was feelin better then, but I wished I
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: was out o there anyway. I couldn't look up yet. Well,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: the woman fell to talking about how hard times was,
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: and how poor they had to live, and how the
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: rats was as free as if they owned the place,
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: and so forth and so on. An then I got
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: easy again. She was right about the rats you'd see
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: when stick his nose out of a hole in the
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: corner every little while. She said she hadn't had things
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: hand you'd throw at them when she was alone, but
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't give her no peace. She showed me a
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: bar lead twisted up into a knot, and said she
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: was a good shot with it generally, But she'd wrenched
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: her arm a day or two ago and didn't know
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: whether she could throw true now. But she watched for
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: a chance, and directly banged away at a rat, but
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: she missed him wide and said ouch, it hurt her arm.
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: So then she told me to try for the next one.
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be gettin away before the old man
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: got back, but a course I didn't let on. I
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 1: got the thing, and the first rat that showed his
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: nose I let drive an if he'd a stayed where
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: he was, he'd have been a tolerable sick rat. She
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: said that was first straight, and she reckoned I would
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: hie the next one. She went and got the lump
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: o lead and fetched it back and brought along a
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: hank o yarn, which she wanted me to help her with.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: I held up my two hands and she put the
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: hank over them and went on talking about her and
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 1: her husband's matters. But she broke off to say, keep
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: your eye on the rats. You'd better have the lead
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: in your lap, handy. So she dropped the lump into
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: my lap just at that moment, and I clapped my
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: legs together on it, and she went on talkin but
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: only about a minute. Then she took off the hank
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: and looked at me straight in the face and very
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: pleasant and says, come, now, what's your real name? Wha
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: what mum, what's your real name? Is it Bill or
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: Tom or Bob or what is it? I reckon, I
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: shook like a leaf, and I didn't know harm what
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: to do. But I says, please don't poke fun at
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: a poor girl like me. Mum. If I'm in the
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: way here, I'll no, you won't sit down, an stay
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: where you are. I ain't goin to hurt you. An,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: I ain't goin to tell on you nuther. You just
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: tell me your secret, an trust me, I'll keep it.
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: An what's more, I'll help you, so h my old
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: man if you want him to. You see, there's a
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: runaway prentice, that's all. It ain't nothin. There ain't no
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: harm in it. You've been treated bad, an you made
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: up your mind to cut bless you child. I wouldn't
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: tell on you. Tell me all about it now. That's
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: a good boy. So I said, it wouldn't be no
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: use to try to play it any longer. An I
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: would jest make a clean breast an tell her everything,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: but she mustn't go back on a promise. Then I
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: told her my father an mother was dead and the
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: law had bound me out to a mean old farmer
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: in the country, thirty mile back from the river. An
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: he true to me so bad I couldn't stand it
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: no longer. He went away to be gone a couple
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: of days, and so I took my chance and stole
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: some of his daughter's old clothes and cleared out. An.
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: I had been three nights comin the thirty miles. I
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: traveled nights and had daytimes and slept. And the bag
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: of bread and meat I carried from home lest to
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: me all the way. An I had a plenty. I said,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: I believe my uncle Abner Moore would take care O
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: me an, so that was why I struck out for
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: this town, O Goshen, Goshen, child, This ain't Goshen. This
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: is Saint Petersburg, Gophin's, ten mile further up the river.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: Who told you this was Goshen? Why I met a
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: man at daybreak this mornin', just as I was goin
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: to turn into the woods for my regular sleep. He
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: told me when the roads forked, I must take the
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: right hand. A five mile would fetch me to Goshen.
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: He was drunk, I reckon, he told you jest exactly wrong. Well,
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: he did act like he was drunk, but it ain't
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 1: no matter. Now I got to be movin along. I'll
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: fetch goshen before daylight. Hold on a minute, I'll put
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: you up a snack to eat. You might want it.
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: So she put me up a snack and says, say,
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: when a cow's layin down, which end of her gets
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: up first? Answer up? Prompt Now, don't stop to study
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: over it. Which end gets up first? The hind end? Mum? Well,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: then a horse the forward end? Mum? Which side of
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: a tree does the moss grow on? North side? If
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: fifteen cows is browsin on a hill side, how many
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: that meets with their heads pointin in the same direction
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: the whole fifteen? Mum? Well, I reckon, you have lived
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: in the country. I thought maybe you was tryin to
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: hookess me again. What's your real name now, George Peters? Mum,
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: well try to remember it, George, don't forget an tell
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: me it's Alexander before you go an, then get out
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: by saying it's George Alexander when I catch you an.
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: Don't go about women in that old kalico. You do.
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: A girl tolerable, poor, but you might fool men. Maybe
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 1: bless you child when you set out to thread a needle.
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: Don't hold the thread still an fetch the needle up
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: to it, hold the knee. You'll still empoke the fred
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: at it. That's the way a woman most always does it,
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: but a man always does it the other way. When
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: you throw it a rat or anything, hitch yourself up
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: six or seven foot. Throw a stiff armed from the
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: shoulder like there was a pivot there, frid to turn
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: on like a girl, not from the wrist an elbow,
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: with your arm out to one side like a boy.
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: And mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: in her lap, she throws her knees apart. She don't
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: clap them together the way you did when you catch
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: the lump of lead. Why I spotted you for a
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: boy when you as thread the needle, and I can
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: try the other things, just to make certain. Now try
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 1: it along to your uncle, Sarah, Mary Williams, George Alexander
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: Peters An. If you get into trouble, you send word
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: to missus Judith Loftus, which is me, and I'll do
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 1: what I can to get you out of it. Keep
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: the river road all the way an next time you tramp,
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: takes shoes and socks with you. The river road's a
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: rocky one, and your feet'll be in a condition when
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: you get to Goshen. I reckon. I went up the
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: bank about fifty yards, and then I doubled on my
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: tracks an slipped back to where my canoe was a
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: good piece below the house. I jumped in and was
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: off in a hurry. I went up stream far enough
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: to make the head of the island, and then started across.
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: I took off the sun bonnet, for I didn't want
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: no blinders on. Then when I was about the middle,
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: I heard the clock begin to strike, so I stops
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: and listens. The sound come faint over the water, but
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: clear eleven. When I struck the head of the island,
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: I never waited to blow, though I was most winded,
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: but I shoved right into the timber where my old
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: camp used to be, and started a good fire there
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: on a high and dry spot. Then I jumped in
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: the canoe and dug out for our place a mile
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: and a half below. As hard as I could go,
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: I landed and slapped through the timber and up the
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: ridge an into the cavern. There Jim laid sound asleep
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: on the ground. I roused a mountain, says, get up
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: and hump yourself. Jim, there ain't an't it to lose.
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: They're after us. Jim never asked no questions, He never
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: said a word, but the way he worked for the
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: next half an hour showed about how he was scared.
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: By that time, everything we had in the world was
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: on our raft, and she was ready to be shoved
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: up from the willow cove where she was hid. We
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 1: put out the camp fire at the cavern the first thing,
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: and didn't show a candle outside. After that, I took
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: the canoe out from the shore a little piece and
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: took a look. But if there was a boat around,
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see it, for stars and shadows ain't good
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: to see. By then we got out the raft and
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 1: slipped along down in the shade past the foot of
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: the island, dead, still, never saying a word. End of
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: chapter eleven, Chapter twelve. It must have been close on
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: to one o'clock when we got below the island at last,
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: and the raft did seem to go mighty slow. If
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 1: a boat was to come along we was goin to
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: take to the canoe and break for the Illinois shore,
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: and it was well a boat didn't come. For we
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: had never thought to put the gun in the canoe,
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: or a fishing line or anything to eat. We was
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: a brother too much of a sweat to think of
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: so many things. It warn't good judgment to put everything
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: on the raft. If the men went to the island,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: I just expect they found the campfire eye built and
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: watched it all night for Jim to come. Anyways, they
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: stayed away from us, and if my building the fire
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: never fooled them, it warn't no fault to mine. I
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 1: played it as low down on them as I could.
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: When the first streak a day began to show, we
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: tied up to a towhead and a big bend on
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: the Illinois side and hacked off cottonwood branches with the
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: hatchet and covered up the raft with them, so she
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: looked like there had been a cave in and the
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: bank there. A towhead is a sandbar that has cottonwoods
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: on it as thick as harrow teeth. We had mountains
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: on the Missouri shore and heavy timber on the Illinois side,
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: and the channel was down the Missouri shore at that place,
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 1: so we warn't afraid of anybody running across us. We
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: laid there all day and watched the rafts and steamboats
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: bend down the Missouri shore and upbound steamboats fight the
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: big river in the middle. I told Jim all about
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: the time I had jabberin with that woman, and Jim
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: said she was a smart one, and if she was
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: to start after us herself, she wouldn't sit down and
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: watch camp fire, No, sir, she'd fetch a dog. Well,
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: then I said, why couldn't she tell her husband to
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: fetch a dog. Jim said he'd bet she did think
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 1: of it by the time the men was ready to start,
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: and he believed they must have gone uptown to get
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: a dog. And so they lost all that time, or
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: else we wouldn't be here on a towhead sixteen or
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: seventeen mile below the village. No, indeedy we would be
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: in that same old town again. So I said, I
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: didn't care what the reason was they didn't get us,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: as long as they didn't get us. When it was
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: beginning to come on dark, we've poked our heads out
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: of the cottonwood thicket and looked up and down and
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: across nothing in sight. So Jim took up some of
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: the top planks of the raft and built a snug
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: wigwam to get under in blazon weather and rainy and
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: to keep the thing. Jim made a floor for the
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: wigwam and raised it a foot or more above the
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: level of the raft. So now the blankets and all
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: the traps was out to reach a steamboat waves right
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the wigwam. We made a layer
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: of dirt about five or six inches deep, with a
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: frame around it for to hold it to its place.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 1: This was to build a fire on in sloppy weather
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: or chili. The wigwam would keep it from being seen.
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: We made an extra steering or two because one of
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: the others might get broke on a snag or something.
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 1: We fixed up a short forked stick to keep the
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: old lantern on, because we must always light the lantern
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: whenever we see a steamboat coming down stream to keep
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: from getting run over. But we wouldn't have to light
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: it for upstream boats unless we was in what they'd
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: call a crossing, for the river was pretty high yet
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: very low banks being still a little under water, so upbound.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: Boats didn't always run the channel, but hunted easy water.
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: The second night we run between seven and eight hours
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: with a current that was making over four or mile
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: an hour. We catched fish and talked, and we took
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: was kind of solemn drifting down the big still river,
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: laying on our backs, looking up at the stars. And
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: we didn't never feel like talking loud, and it warn't
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: often that we laughed, only a little kind of a
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing,
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: and nothing ever happened to us at all that night,
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: nor the next, nor the next. Every night we passed towns,
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: some of them away up on black hillsides, nothing but
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: just a shining bed of lights. Not a house, could
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: you see. The fifth night we passed Saint Louis, and
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: it was like the whole world lit up in Saint Petersburg.
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: They used to say there was twenty or thirty thousand
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: people in Saint Louis, but I never believed it till
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: I see that wonderful spread of lights at two o'clock
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: that still night. There weren't a sound there. Everybody was asleep.
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 1: Every night. Now, I used to slip ashore towards ten
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: o'clock some little village and buy ten or fifteen cents
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: worth of meal or bacon or other stuff to eat.
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: And sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn't roosting comfortable
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: and took him along. Pap always said, take a chicken
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: when you get a chance, because if you don't want
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: em yourself, you can easy find somebody that does an
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: a good deed. Ain't ever forgot. I never see Pap
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: when he didn't want the chicken himself, but that is
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: what he used to say. Anyway, mornin's before daylight, I
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: slipped into corn fields and borrowed a watermelon or a mushmelon,
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: or a pumpkin, or some new corn, or things of
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 1: that kind. Pap always said it warn't no harm to
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: borrow things if you was meanin to pay them back sometime.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: But the widow said it warn't anything but a soft
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: name for stealin', and no decent body would do it.
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: Jim said he reckoned. The widow was partly right, and
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: Pap was partly right. So the best way would be
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: for us to pick out two or three things from
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: the list and say we wouldn't borrow them any more.
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: Then he reckoned it wouldn't be no harm to borrow
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: the others. So we talked over all one night, driftin
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: along down the river, trying to make up our minds
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 1: whether to drop the watermelons or the cantelopes, or the
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 1: mushmelons or what. But towards daylight we got it all
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: settled satisfactory and concluded to drop crab apples and percimmons.
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: We warn't feelin just right before that, but it was
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: all comfortable now. I was glad the way it come out, too,
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: because crab apples ain't ever good, an the precimons wouldn't
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: be right for two or three months. Yet we shot
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: a water fowl now, an then he got up too
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: early in the mornin' or didn't go to bed early
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: enough in the evenin'. Take it all around. We lived
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: pretty high. The fifth night below Saint Louis, we had
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: a big storm after midnight, with a power of thunder
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: and lightnin, and the rain poured down in a solid sheet.
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: We stayed in the wigwam and let the raft take
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: care of itself. When the lightnin glared out, we could
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: see a big straight river ahead and high rocky bluffs
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: on both sides. By and By says I have hello, Jim,
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: looky yonder. It was a steamboat that had killed herself
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: on a rock. We was driftin' straight down for her.
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: The lightnin' showed her very distinct. She was leanin over
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: with part o her upper deck above water. An you
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: could see every little chimbly guy clean an clear an
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: a chair by the big bell with an old slouch
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: hat hangin on the back of it. When the flashes come. Well,
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: it beIN away in the night and stormy, an all
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: so mysterious. Like I felt just the way any other
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: boy would a felt when I see that wreck layin there,
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: so mournful an lonesome in the middle of the river.
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get a board of her, an slink
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: around a little, an see what there was there. So
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: I says, let's land on her, Jim. But Jim was
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: dead against it at first. He says, I dun't wanna
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: go foolin long or no rack. We's don blame well an,
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: we'd better let blame Well alone, as the Good Book says,
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: like as not Day's watchman on that rack, watch mun
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: Yer grandmother, I says, there ain't nothin to watch but
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: the Texas and the pilot house. An do you reckon
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 1: anybody's goin to resk his life for a Texas in
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: a pilot house such a night as this, when it's
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: likely to break up an wash off down the river
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: any minute. Jim couldn't say nothin to that, so he
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: didn't try. An Besides, I says we might borrow somethin
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 1: worth havin out of the captain's state room. Ceegars, I
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: bet you an cost five cents apiece, solid cash steamboat
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: captain's is always rich, and get sixty dollars a month.
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: An they don't care a cent of what a thing costs,
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: you know, long as they wanted stick a candle in
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: your pocket. I can't rest him till we give her
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: a rummagein? Do you reckon to him? Sawyer? Would ever
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: go buy this thing? Not for pie? He wouldn't. He'd
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: call it an adventure, That's what he'd call it. An
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 1: he'd land on that wreck if it was his last act,
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: And wouldn't he throw style into it? Wouldn't he spread himself?
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: Nor nothin' Why you'd think it was Christopher Columbus discovering Kingdom. Come.
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: I wish Tom Sawyer was here. Jim, he grumbled a little,
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: but give in. He said we mustn't talk any more
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: than we could help, and then talk mighty low lightnin
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: showed us the wreck again just in time, and we
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: fetched the stobbard derreck and made fast there. The deck
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 1: was high. Out here we went sneaking down the slope
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: of to the labbard in the dark, towards the Texas,
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: feeling our way slow with our feet and spreading our
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 1: hands out to fend off the guys, for it was
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: so dark we couldn't see no sign of them. Pretty
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 1: soon we struck the forward end of the skylight and
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: clumb on to it, and the next step fetched us
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: in front of the captain's door, which was open, and
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: by Jim and he away down through the Texas hall.
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: We see a light, and all in the same second
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: we seemed to hear low voices in yonder. Jim whispered
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: and said he was feelin powerful sick, and told me
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: to come along. I says all right, and was going
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: to start for the raft. But just then I heard
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 1: a voice wail out and say, oh, please, don't, boys.
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: I swear I won't ever tell. Another voice said, pretty loud,
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 1: it's a lie, Jim Turner. You've acted this way before.
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: You always want more'n your share of the truck, and
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: you've always got it too, because you've swore if you didn't,
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 1: you'd tell. But this time you've said it just one
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: time too many. You're the meanest, treacherousest town in this country.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: By this time, Jim was gone for the raft. I
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: was just a violin with curiosity, and I says to myself,
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer wouldn't back out now, and so I won't either.
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: I'm a goin to see what's going on here. So
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: I dropped on my hands and knees in the little
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: passage and crept aft in the dark till there warn't
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: but one stateroom betwixt me and the cross hall of
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: the Texas. Then and there I see a man stretched
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: on the floor and tied hand and foot, and two
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: men standing over him, and one of them had a
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: dim lantern in his hand, and the other one had
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: a pistol. This one kept pointing the pistol at the
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: man's head on the floor and saying I'd like to,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: and I ordered to a mean skunk. The man on
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: the floor would shrivel up and say, oh please, don't, Bill,
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: I ain't ever goin to tell. And every time he
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: said that, the man with the lantern would laugh and say, deed,
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: you ain't. You never said no truer thing an that
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: you bet you? And once he said hear him beg an.
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: Yet if we hadn't got the best of him an
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: tied him, he'd a killed us both. And what for?
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: Jist for nothin' jest because we stood on our rights,
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: That's what for. But I lay you ain't a goin
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: to threaten nobody anymore. Jim Turner put up that pistol Bill.
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: Bill says, I don't want you Jack Packard. I'm for
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: killin him. And didn't he kill Old Hatfield just the
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: same way? And don't you deserve it? But I don't
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: want him killed, and I've got my reasons for it.
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: Bless your heart for them words, Jake Packard. I'll never
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: forget you long I live, says the man on the floor,
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: sort of blubberin'. Packer didn't take no notice o that,
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: but hung up his lantern on a nail An started
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: towards where I was there in the dark, An motioned
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: Bill to come. I crawfished as fast as I could
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: about two yards, but the boat slanted so that I
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: couldn't make very good time. So to keep from gettin
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: run over An catched, I crawled into a stateroom on
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: the upper side. The man came a pawn along in
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: the dark, and when Packer got to my stateroom, he says, here,
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: come in here, and then he come an Bill after him.
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: But before they got in, I was up in the
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: upper berth, cornered An, sorry, I come. Then they stood
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: there with their hands on the ledge of the berth,
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 1: An talked. I couldn't see them, but I could tell
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: where they was by the whisky they'd been havin. I
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: was glad I didn't drink whisky, but it wouldn't made
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: much difference anyway, because most of the time they couldn't
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: a treated me because I didn't breathe. I was too scared.
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: An besides, body couldn't breathe an to hear such talk.
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: They talked low and earnest. Bill wanted to kill Turner.
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: He says, he's said, I'll tell, and he will if
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: we was to give both our shares to him. Now
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: it would make no difference after the row an the
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: way we've served him. Sure as you're born, her'll turn
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: state evidence. Now you hear me, I'm fer puttin him
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: out of his troubles, So am, I says Packard, very quiet,
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: blamin I'd sort of begun to think you wasn't. Well,
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: then that's all right, let's go an do it. Hold
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: on a minna, I ain't had my say yet. You
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: listen to me. Shootin's good, but there's quieter ways if
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: the thing has got to be done. But what I
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: say is this, it ain't good sense to go courtin
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: around after a halter. If you can get it what
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: you're up to in some way, it's just as good.
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: An at the same time, don't bring you into no resks.
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: Ain't that so you bet? It is by how you
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: goin to manage it this time? Well, my idea is this.
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: We'll rustle around an gather up whatever pickin's we've overlooked
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: in the state rooms, an shove for shore an hide
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: the truck. Then we'll wait. Now, I say it ain't
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: a goin to be morn two hours before this rack
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: breaks up an washes off down the river. See, he'll
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: be drowned and won't have nobody to blame for it
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: but his own self. I reckon, it's a considerable sight
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: better a killin of him. I'm unfavorable to killin a man,
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: as long as you can git around it. But ain't
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: good sense? But ain't good morals? Ain't I right? Yes?
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: I reckon you are? But s'pose she don't break up
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: an wash off? Well, we can wait the two hours anyway, an, See,
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 1: can't we all right? Then? Come along? So they started
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: and I lit out all in a cold sweat. An
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: scrambled forward. It was darkest pitch there. But I said,
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: in a kind of a hoarse whisper, jim, an He
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: answered up right at my elbow with a sort of
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: a moan an, I says, quick, jim, it ain't no
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: time for fooling around a moanin'. There's a gang of
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: murderers in yonder. And if we don't hunt up their
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: boat and sent her driftin down the river, so these
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: fellows can't get away from the wreck, there's one of
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: em goin to be in a bad fix. But if
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: we find their boat, we can put all of them
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: in a bad fix for the sheriff'll get 'em quick, hurry.
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: I'll hunt the labbard side. You hunt the stobboard. You
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: started the raft, and oh, my lord, a lord e raf,
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: they ain't no raft no more. She done broke loose
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: and gone, and here we is. End of chapter twelve,
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen. Well, I catch my breath and most fainted,
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: shut up on a wreck with such a gang as that.
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: But it warn't no time to be sentimentarin'. We'd got
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: to find that boat now, had to have it for ourselves.
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: So we went a quakin an shaking down the stabbard
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: side and slow work. It was too seemed a week
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: before we got to then no sign of a boat.
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: Jim said he didn't believe he could go any further,
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 1: so scared he hadn't hardly any strength left, he said,
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: But I said, come on, if we get left on
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 1: this wreck, we are in a fixed shore. So on
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: we prowled again. We struck for the stern at the
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: Texas and found it, and then scrabbled along forwards on
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: the skylight, hanging on from shutter to shutter, for the
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: edge of the skylight was in the water. When we
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: got pretty close to the cross hall door, there was
• 2:22:30
  Speaker 1: the skiff. Sure enough I could just barely see her.
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: I felt ever so thankful. An another second I would
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: have been aboard of her. But just then the door opened.
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: One of the men stuck his head out, only about
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: a couple of foot from me, and I thought I
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: was gone, but he dercked it in again and says
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: he've that blame lantern out of sight. Bill. He flung
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 1: a bag of something into the boat and then got
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: in himself an set down. It was Packard. Then Bill,
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: he come out an got in. Packard says in a
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: low voice, all ready shove off. I couldn't hardly hang
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: on to the shutters. I was so weak. But Bill says,
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: hold on. Do you go through him? No? Didn't you? No,
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: so he's got his share of the cash yet, Well,
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: then come along. No use to take truck an leave money.
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: See won't he be suspicious what we're up to? Maybe
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: he won't, but we got to have it anyway. Come along.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: So they got out and went in the door slammed
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: too because it was on the Kareem's side, And in
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: a half second I was in the boat an, Jim
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: come tumblin after me. I out with my knife, An
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: cut the rope, and away we went. We didn't touch
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 1: nor an, We didn't speak, nor whisper, nor hardly even breathe.
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: We went glide and swift along, dead silent, past the
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: tip of the paddle box and past the stern. Then
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: in a second or two more we was a hundred
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: yards below the wreck, and the darkness soaked her up,
• 2:24:05
  Speaker 1: every last sight of her, and we was safe and
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: knowed it. When we was three or four hundred yards downstream,
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: we see the lantern show like a little spark at
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: the Texas Dore for a second, and we know by
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: that that the rascals had missed their boat, and was
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: beginnin to understand that they was in just as much
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 1: trouble now as Jim Turner was. Then Jim manned the
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: oars and we took out after our raft. Now it
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 1: was the first time that I'd begun to worry about
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: the men I reckon. I hadn't had time to before
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 1: I begun to think how dreadful it was, even for
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: murderers to be in such a fix. I says to myself,
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 1: there ain't no tellin but I might come to be
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 1: a murderer myself yet, and then how would I like it?
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: So I says to Jim. The first light we see,
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 1: we'll land a hundred yards below it or above it,
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 1: in a place where it's a good hidin' place for
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: you and the skiff, And then I'll go and fix
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: up some kind of a yarn rning' get somebody to
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: go for that gang an get them out of their
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: scrape so they can be hung when their time comes.
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: But that idea was a failure, for pretty soon it
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: begun to storm again, an this time worse than ever.
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: The rain poured down, and never a light showed. Everybody
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: in bed I reckon. We boomed along down the river,
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: watching for lights and watching for our raft. After a
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: long time the rain led up, but the clouds stayed
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: and the lightning kept whimpering. And by and by a
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 1: flash showed us a black thing ahead floating, and we
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: made for it. It was the raft, and mighty glad
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: was we to get aboard of it again. We seen
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: a light now away down to the right on shore,
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: so I said, I will go for it. The skiff
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: was half full of plunder, which that gang had stole
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: there on the wreck. We hustled it on to the
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: raft in a pile, and I told Jim to float
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 1: along down and show a light when he judged she
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: had gone about two mile, and keep it burning till
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 1: I come. Then I manned my oars an shoved for
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: the light. As I got down towards it, three or
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: four more showed up on a hillside. It was a village.
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: I closed in above the shore light and laid on
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: my oars and floated. As I went by, I see
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 1: it was a lantern hanging off the jackstaff of a
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: double hull ferry boat. I skimmed around for the watchman,
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: or wonderin whereabouts he slept, And by and by I
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: found him roostin on the bits forward, with his head
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: down between his knees. I gave his shoulder two or
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: three little shoves and begun to cry. He stirred up
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: in a kind of a startlish way, but when he
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: see it was only me, he took a good gap
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: and stretch an. Then he says, hullo, what's up? Don't
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: cry bub? What's the trouble? I says, pap an ma'am
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: insists an. Then I broke down, he says, Oh, dang it, now,
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: don't take on. So we all ask to have our
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: troubles an this aun'll come out, all right. What's the
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: matter with them there? There? Are you the watchman of
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: the boat, yes, he says, kind of pretty well satisfied.
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 1: Like I'm the captain and the owner, and the mate
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: and the pilot and watchman and head deckhand, and sometimes
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: I'm the freighting passengers. I ain't as rich as old
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame generous and
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: good to Tom Dick. And Harry is what he is
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 1: and slam around money the way he does. But I've
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: told him many a time that I wouldn't trade places
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: with him, for says I. A sailor's life's the life
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 1: for me. And I'm durned if I'd live two miles
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: out of town where there ain't nothing ever going on
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: now for all his spondylicks, and as much more on
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: top of it, says I, I broke in and says
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 1: they're in an awful peck of trouble. And who is why?
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: Pap an ma'am insists, and miss hook her And if
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: you take your ferry boat and go up there, up.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 1: Where where are they on? What wreck? Why? There ain't
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: but one? What you don't mean the Walter Scott, Yes,
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: good land? What are they doing there? For gracious sakes? Well,
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: they didn't go there a purpose? I bet they didn't. Why,
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: great goodness, there ain't no chance for 'em if they
• 2:28:18
  Speaker 1: don't get off mighty quick. Why how in the nation
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 1: did they ever get into such a scrape? Easy enough?
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 1: Miss Hooker was a visitin' up there to the town, Yes,
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: Booth's landon go on, she was a visitin there at
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: Booth's landin', And just in the edge of the evening
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: she started over with her nigger woman and the horse
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 1: ferry to stay all night at her friend's house. Miss
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: what you may call her, I just remember her name.
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 1: And they lost their steering oar and swung around and
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: went to floating down stern first about two mile an
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: saddle bags on the wreck, and the ferrymen and the
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: nigger woman and the horses was all lost. But miss
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: Hooker she made a grab and got aboard the wreck. Well,
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: about an hour after dark we come along down in
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: our trading skow an. It was so dark we didn't
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 1: notice the wreck till we was right on it. An
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: so we saddle bags it. But all of us was saved.
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: But Bill Whipple an, oh, he was the best creetur.
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 1: I most wish it had been me. I do, my George,
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: it's the beatin'est thing I ever struck. An then what
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: did you all do? Well? We hollered an took on,
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: But it's so wide there that we couldn't make nobody hear.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: So Pahaps said, somebody got to get ashore, an get
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: help somehow. I was the only one that could swim,
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 1: so I made a dash for it. An Miss Hooker,
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: she said, if I didn't strike help sooner, come here
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: an hunt up her uncle, an he'd fix a thing.
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: I made the land about a mile below an been
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: foolin along ever since, tryin to get people to do something,
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: But they said, why an such a night, an such
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 1: a current, There ain't no sense in it. Go for
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: the steam fairy, now, if you'll go an buy Jackson.
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: I'd like to an blame it. I don't know, but
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: I will. But who in the ding nations O goin
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: to pay for it? Do you reckon? Yer? Pap? Why
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: that's all right? Miss Hooker? She told me particular that
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: her uncle Hornback great guns is he her uncle? Lookye, here,
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: you break for that light over yonder way, an turn
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: out west when you get there, an about a quarter
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: of a mile out, you'll come to the tavern. Tell
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 1: him to dart you out to Jim Hornback's an he'll
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: foot the bill. An, don't you fool around, Anny, because
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: he'll want to know the news. Tell him I'll have
• 2:30:32
  Speaker 1: his niece all safe before he can get to town.
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: Hump yourself now, I'm a goin up around the corner
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: here to roust out my engineer. I struck for the light,
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: but as soon as he turned the corner, I went
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: back and got into my skiff an bailed her out.
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: An then pulled up shore in the easy water about
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: six hundred yards. An tucked myself in among some wood boats,
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 1: for I couldn't rest easy till I could see the
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: ferry boat start. But take it all around, I was
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: feelin ruther comfortable on account of taken all this trouble
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: for that gang, for not many would a done it.
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: I wish the widow knowed about it. I judge she
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 1: would be proud o me for helping those rapscallions, cause rapscallions.
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: An dead beats is the kind the widow an good
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: people takes the most interestin'. Well before long, here comes
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: the wreck dim an dusky slidin' along down. A kind
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: o cold shiver went through me. An then I struck
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: out for her. She was very deep, an I see
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 1: in a minute there warn't much chance for anybody beIN
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: alive in her. I pulled all around her and hollered
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: a little, but there wasn't any answer. All dead still.
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 1: I felt a little bit heavy hearted about the gang,
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: but not much for I reckoned if they could stand it,
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: I could. Then here comes the ferry boat. So I
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: shoved for the middle of the river on a long
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 1: down stream slant. An when I judged I was out
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 1: of eye reach, I laid on my oars an looked
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: back an see her go an smell around the wreck
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: for Miss Hooker's remainders, because the captain would know her
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: uncle Hornback would want them. And then pretty soon the
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: ferryboat give it up and went for the shore, and
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: I laid into my work and went to booming down
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: the river. It did seem a powerful long time before
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 1: Jim's light showed up. When it did show, it looked
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: like it was a thousand mile off. By the time
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: I got there, the sky was beginning to get a
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 1: little gray in the east. So we struck for an
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: island and hid the raft and sunk the skiff and
• 2:32:27
  Speaker 1: turned in and slept like dead people. End of chapter thirteen,
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, by and bye. When we got up, we
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: turned over the truck the gang had stole off o
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: the wreck, and found boots and blankets and clothes and
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 1: all sorts of other things, and a lot of books,
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: and a spyglass and three boxes of cigars. We had
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: never been this rich before in neither of our lives.
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: The cigars was prime. We laid off all the afternoon
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: in the woods, talkin' an me readin' the books, an
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: havin a general good time. I told Jim all about
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: what happened inside the wreck an at the ferry boat,
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: and I said, these kinds o things was adventures. But
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 1: he said he didn't want no more adventures. He said
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: that when I went in the texas An he crawled
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: back to get on the raft and found her gone.
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: He nearly died because he judged it was all up
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: for him anyway it could be fixed, for if he
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: didn't get saved, he would get drownded. And if he
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 1: did get saved, whoever saved him would send him back
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 1: home so as to get the reward an, then Miss
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: Watson would sell him south shore. Well, he was right,
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: He was most always right. He had an uncommon level
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: head for a nigger. I read considerable to Jim about
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: kings and dukes and earls and such, and how gaudy
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: they dressed, and how much style they put on. An
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: called each other your majesty and your grace and your lordship,
• 2:33:58
  Speaker 1: and so onstead of Miss ter An. Jim's eyes bugged out,
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: and he was interested. He says, I didn't know they
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: was so many of 'em. I hain't heard about none
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: of 'em. Scarcely but old King Solomon, unless you count
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: stem kings that's in a packer yards. How much do
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: a king get? Gin? I says, why they get a
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a month? If they want it, they can
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: have just as much as they want. Everything belongs to them.
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: Ain't that gay an? What they got to do? Huck?
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: They don't do nothin'. Why how you talk? They just
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: set around. No, is that so? Of course it is?
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: They just set around, except maybe when there's a war,
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: then they go to the war. But other times they
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 1: just lazy around or go hawkin' jes hawkin'. An s
• 2:34:51
  Speaker 1: sh Do you hear a noise? We skipped out? An looked,
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 1: but it warn't nothin but the flutter of a steamboat's wheel.
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: Weigh down comin round the point, so we come back, yes,
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: says I. An. Other times, when things is dull, they
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: fuss with the parliament. An if everybody don't go jest,
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: so he whacks their heads off. But mostly they hang
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: round the harem, round a witch harem? What's the harem?
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: The place where he keeps his wives? Don't you know
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: about the harem? Solomon had one, He had about a
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: million wives. Why, yes, that's so I I had done
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: forgot it. A harem's a boardin' house. I reckon. Most
• 2:35:36
  Speaker 1: likely day has rackety times into nursery. I reckon to wives.
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: Quarrels considerable. An that creased a rackety day, Say Solomon,
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: the wisest man did ever live. I don't take no
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: stockin' that be case. Why would a wise man wants
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: to live in the midst such a blim blamin' all
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: the time. No deed, he wouldn't a wise man had
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 1: taken bill a biler factory, an then he could shut
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: down to builer factory when he want to rest well.
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: But he was the wisest man anyway, because the widow
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: she told me so her own self. I don't care
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 1: what the widow say. He warn't no wise man another
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: he had some of the dad fetched his ways. I
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: ever see, does you know about that child that he
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 1: has gwine to choppin' too? Yes, the widow told me
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 1: all about it. Well, then warn't that the beatin' notion
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: in the world. You jest. Take a look at it
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 1: a minute. That's the stump there. That's one of the women.
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: He is you, that's the other one. I Solomon an
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: dis yer dollar bills to child. Both of you claims it.
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 1: What does I do? Does I shin around amongst the
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 1: neighbors an find out which un you de bill do
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: belong to? An hand it over to the right one,
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 1: all safe and sound, the way that anybody that had
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: any gumption would No. I take an whack the bill
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 1: in two and give half an it to you. An
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: the other half to the other woman. That's the way
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 1: Solomon was gwine to do wi the child. Now, I
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 1: want to ask you, what's de use O dat half
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: a bill can't buy nothin wi it an? What use
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: is half a child? I wouldn't give a dern fer
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: a million a um. But hang it, Jim, you've clean
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: miss the point. Blame it, you've missed it a thousand
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: mile Who me golong? Don't talk to me about your points.
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: I reckon, I know sense when I sees it. An dey,
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: ain't no sense in such doin's as that dispute. Warn't
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 1: bout half a child. Dispute was about a whole child.
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: An demand to think he can settle a speit by
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 1: a whole child. Witt a half a child? Dunn know
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 1: enough to come in out an de rain. Don't talk
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 1: to me bout Solomon huck. I knows him boy to back.
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: But I tell you you don't get the point. Blame
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 1: the point. I reckon, I knows what I knows an
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 1: mind you the real points down further. It's down deeper.
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: It lays into wayte Solomon was raised. You take a
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: man that's got only one o two chillin'. Is dat
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: man gwin' to be wasteful O chillin', No he ain't.
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: He can't afford it. He know how to value him.
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: But you take a man, this guy about five million,
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: chillin' run a round house. An, it's different. He as
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: soon chopped childin too as a cat. Day's plenty more
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 1: a child or two more or less. Warn't no consequence
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 1: of Solomon, Dad Fetchum. I never see such a nigger.
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: If he got a notion in his head once, there
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: warn't no gettin it out again. He was the most
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: down on Solomon of any nigger I ever see. So
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: I went to talkin about other kings. An let Solomon slide.
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: I told about Louis sixteenth an got his head cut
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: off in France long time ago. An about his little
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: boy the dolphin, that would have been a king, but
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: they took a shut him up in jail. An. Some
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: say he died there, poor little chap, But some says
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: he got out an got away. An come to America.
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 1: Dat's good, but he'll be booty lonesome. They ain't no
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: kings here, is day huck. No, then he can't git
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: no situation. What he gwin to do well. I don't know.
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: Some of em gets on the police, and some of
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: them learns people how to talk French. Why huk doin'
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: to French? People talk the same way we does? No, Jim,
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: you cann't understand a word? They said, not a single word. Well,
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 1: now I be ding busted. How did that come? I
• 2:39:35
  Speaker 1: don't know, but it's so I got some of their
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: jabber out of a book. Suppose a man was to
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: come to you and say, pollyvoo phrenzy, what would you think.
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't think nothin. I'd take a bust'm over to
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: head dad is if he warn't white, I wouldn't lie.
• 2:39:51
  Speaker 1: No nigger to call me dad shucks. It ain't calling
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: you anything. It's only saying do you know how to
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: talk French? Well? Then why couldn't he say it? Why
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: he is a saying it? That's a Frenchman's way of
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: saying it. Well, it's a blame ridiculous way. An I
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: don't wanna hear no more about it. There ain't no
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: sense in it looking here, Jim, does a cat talk
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: like we do? No? A cat don't? Well? Does a cow? No? Cow?
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 1: Don't nuther does a cat talk like a cow or
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 1: a cow talk like a cat? No, they don't. It's
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: natural and right for him to talk different from each other,
• 2:40:32
  Speaker 1: ain't it course? And ain't it natural and right for
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: a cat and a cat to talk different from us? Why?
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: Most surely it is? Well, then why ain't it natural
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us?
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 1: You answer me? That is a cat a man? Hook? No, well,
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: then there ain't no sense in a cat talkin like
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 1: a man. Is a cow a man? Or is a
• 2:40:58
  Speaker 1: cow a cat? No? She ain't either of them? Well, Dan,
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: she ain't got no business to talk like either one
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: or the other of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man? Yes? Well,
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: then dad blame it? Why don't he talk like a man?
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: You answer me, dat, I see it. Warn't no use
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: wasting words. You can't learn a nigger to argue, So
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: I quit. End of chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen. We judged it.
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: Three nights more would fetch us to Kroe, at the
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 1: bottom of Illinois where the Ohio River comes in, And
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: that was what we was after. We would sell the
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: raft and get on a steamboat an go away up
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: the Ohio amongst the free states and then be out
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: of trouble. Well, the second night, a fog begun to
• 2:41:50
  Speaker 1: come on, and we made for a tow head to
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: tye too, for it wouldn't do to try to run
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: in a fog. But when I paddled ahead in the
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: canoe with a line to make fast, there weren't anything
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 1: but little Saplin's to tie too. I passed a line
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 1: around one of them, right on the edge of the
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 1: cup bank, but there was a stiff current an the
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: raft come booming down so lively she tore it out
• 2:42:11
  Speaker 1: by the roots and away she went. I see the
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: fog closin down an it made me so sick and scared.
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: I couldn't budge for most a half a minute, it
• 2:42:18
  Speaker 1: seemed to me an then there warn't no raft in sight.
• 2:42:22
  Speaker 1: You couldn't see twenty yards. I jumped into the canoe
• 2:42:26
  Speaker 1: and run back to the stern and grabbed the paddle
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 1: and set her back stroke. But she didn't come. I
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: was in such a hurry I hadn't untied her. I
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: got up and tried to untie her, but I was
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: so excited my hands struck, so I couldn't hardly do
• 2:42:40
  Speaker 1: anything with them. As soon as I got started, I
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: took out after the raft, hot an heavy right down
• 2:42:45
  Speaker 1: the toe head. That was all right as far as
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: it went. But the tow head warn't sixty yards long.
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: An the minute I flew by the foot of it,
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: I shot out into the solid white fog, and hadn't
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 1: no more idea which way I was going than a
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: dead man thinks. I it won't do it to paddle first.
• 2:43:02
  Speaker 1: I know I'll runnin into the bank, or a toe
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 1: hat or somethin. I got to set still and float
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: an Yet it's mighty fidgety business to have to hold
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 1: your hands still at such a time. I whooped and
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 1: listened away down there somewheres, I hears a small whoop,
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: an up comes my spirits. I went tearin after it,
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: listening sharp to hear it again. The next time it come,
• 2:43:24
  Speaker 1: I see, I warn't headin for it, but headin' away
• 2:43:27
  Speaker 1: to the right of it. And the next time I
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 1: was heading away to the left of it, and not
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 1: gainin on it much either, for I was flyin around
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 1: this way, an that, an the other, but it was
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: going straight ahead all the time. I did wish the
• 2:43:40
  Speaker 1: fool would think to beat a tin pan an beat
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 1: it all the time, but he never did. An. It
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: was the still places between the whoops that was makin
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: the trouble for me. Well, I fought along and directly,
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: I hears the whoop behind me. I was tangled. Good
• 2:43:55
  Speaker 1: Now that was somebody else's whoop or else I was
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 1: turned around. I throwed the paddle down. I hear the
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 1: whoop again. He was behind me yet, but in a
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 1: different place. It kept comin, an kept changing its place.
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: An I kept answerin till by and by it was
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 1: in front o me again. An I know the current
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 1: had swung the canoe's head down stream. An I was
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 1: all right if that was Jim An not some other
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: raftsmen hollerin'. I couldn't tell nothin about voices in a fog,
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 1: for nothin don't look natural, ner sound natural in a fog.
• 2:44:29
  Speaker 1: The whoopin went on an inn about a minute. I
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 1: come a boomin down on a cut bank with smoky
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 1: ghosts of big trees on it. An the current throw
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: me off to the left. An shot by amongst a
• 2:44:40
  Speaker 1: lot of snacks that fairly roared. The current was tearin
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: by them so swift. An another second or two it
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: was solid white an still again. I sat perfectly still,
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 1: then listenin to my heart thump an, I reckon. I
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 1: didn't draw a breath while at thumped a hundred. I
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 1: jest give up. Then I knowed what the matter was.
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 1: That cut Bank was an island, and Jim had gone
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: down the other side of it. It warn't no Toehad
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 1: that you could float by in ten minutes. It had
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 1: the big timber of a regular island. It might be
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 1: five or six miles long and more than half a
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 1: mile wide. I kept quiet with my ears cocked. About
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, I reckoned. I was floating along, of course,
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 1: four or five miles an hour. But you don't ever
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 1: think o that. No, you feel like you were layin
• 2:45:27
  Speaker 1: dead still on the water. And if a little glimpse
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: of a snag slips by, you don't think to yourself
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: how fast you're goin', But you catch your breath, an
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: think my, how that snag's tearin along? If you think
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 1: it ain't dismal and lonesome out an a fog that
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 1: way by yourself in the night, you try it once.
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: You'll see next for about a half an hour, I whoops,
• 2:45:49
  Speaker 1: now an. Then at last I hears the answer a
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 1: long ways off and tries to follow it. But I
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't do it, And directly I judged I'd got into
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 1: a nest of toe heads. Ere I had little dim
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 1: glimpses of them on both sides of me, sometimes just
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: a narrow channel between, and some that I couldn't see.
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: I knowed was there, because i'd hear the wash of
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 1: the current against the old dead brush and trash that
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 1: hung over the banks. Well, I warn't long losing the
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: whoops now amongst the towheads, and I only tried to
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: chase them a little while anyway, because it was worse
• 2:46:21
  Speaker 1: than chasin a jack o' lantern. You never noticed sound
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 1: dodge around so an, swap places so quick an so much.
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: I had to claw away from the bank pretty lively,
• 2:46:31
  Speaker 1: four or five times to keep from knockin the islands
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 1: out of the river. And so I judge the raft
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 1: must be button into the bank every now and then,
• 2:46:39
  Speaker 1: or else it would get further ahead an clear out
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: of hearin. It was floatin' a little faster than what
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 1: I was. Well, I seemed to be in the open
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 1: river again by and by, but I couldn't hear no
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: sign of a whoop nowheres. I reckon Jim had fetched
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 1: up on a snag mayby an it was all up
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 1: with him. I was good an tired, so I laid
• 2:46:59
  Speaker 1: down in the I knew, and said I wouldn't bother
• 2:47:01
  Speaker 1: no more. I didn't want to go to sleep, of course,
• 2:47:05
  Speaker 1: but I was so sleepy I couldn't help it. So
• 2:47:07
  Speaker 1: I thought I would take just one little cat nap.
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 1: But I reckon it was more than a cat nap,
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: for when I waked up, the stars was shining bright,
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 1: the fog was all gone, and I was spinning down
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: a big bend stern. First first, I didn't know where
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: I was. I thought I was dreaming. When things began
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 1: to come back to me, they seemed to come up
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 1: dim out of last week. It was a monstrous, big
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 1: river here, with the tallest and the thickest kind of
• 2:47:33
  Speaker 1: timber on both banks, just a solid wall as well
• 2:47:36
  Speaker 1: as I could see by the stars. I looked away downstream,
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: and seeing a black speck on the water, I took
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 1: after it. But when I got to it, it warn't
• 2:47:46
  Speaker 1: nothing but a couple of saw logs made fast together.
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: Then I'd see another speck and chase that, then another,
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: and this time I was right. It was the raft.
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 1: When I got to it, Jim was sitting there with
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: his head down between his knees, sleep, with his right
• 2:48:01
  Speaker 1: arm hanging over the steerin oar. The other oar was
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 1: smashed off, and the raft was littered up with leaves
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: and branches and dirt, so she'd had a rough time.
• 2:48:11
  Speaker 1: I made fast and laid down under Jim's nose on
• 2:48:14
  Speaker 1: the raft and began to gasp and stretched my fists
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: out against Jim and says, hello, Jim, have I been asleep?
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 1: Why didn't you stir me up? Good? Gracious is that
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 1: you huck an? You ain't dead, You ain't drowned us
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: back again. It's too good for true, honey, it's too
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: good for true. Lemme look at you, child, Lemme feel you. No,
• 2:48:36
  Speaker 1: you ain't dead. He's back again, live a sound jest.
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: The same old huck, the same old huck. Thanks to goodness.
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: What's the matter with you, Jim? You been a drinkin? Drinkin?
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 1: Has I been a drinkin'? Has I had a chance
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 1: to be a drinkin? Well? Then, what makes you talk
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 1: so wild? How does I talk wild? How Why hain't
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: you been talkin about my comin back? An all that
• 2:49:03
  Speaker 1: as if i'd been gone away? Huck huck finn. You
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 1: look me in the eye, look me into eye. Hain't
• 2:49:11
  Speaker 1: you been gone away? Gone away? Why? What'n't the nation?
• 2:49:15
  Speaker 1: Do you mean? I hain't been gone anywheres? Where would
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 1: I go to? Well? Look, ye here, boss, day's somethin wrong?
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 1: They is? Is I me? Or who is I? Is
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 1: I here? Or where is I? Now? DA's what I
• 2:49:31
  Speaker 1: wants to know? Well, I think you're here plain enough,
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: But I think you're a tangle headed old fool Jim
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: I is is? I? Will you answer me this? Didn't
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 1: you toe out the line in the canoe for to
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: make fast to to toe head? Now? I didn't what towhead?
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: I ain't seen no toe head? You hain't seen no
• 2:49:51
  Speaker 1: toe head? Look ye here? Didn't the lion pull loosen
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 1: d' raft go at hummin down de river? An leave
• 2:49:56
  Speaker 1: you in the canoe behind? In to fog? What fog?
• 2:50:00
  Speaker 1: Why de fog? The fog that's been round all night? An?
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 1: Didn't you whoopin? Didn't I whoop till we got mixed
• 2:50:08
  Speaker 1: up into islands, but one of us got lost, an
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 1: t other one was jest as good as lost case
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: he didn't know where he was, an didn't I bust
• 2:50:15
  Speaker 1: up again? A lot o dam islands, an have a
• 2:50:17
  Speaker 1: troubled time, A most get drownded. Now, ain't that so? Boss?
• 2:50:21
  Speaker 1: Ain't it? So you answer me? Dat? Well, this is
• 2:50:25
  Speaker 1: too many for me, Jim, I ain't seen no fog,
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 1: nor no islands, nor no troubles nor nothin'. I've been
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 1: sittin here talkin with you all night till you went
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 1: to sleep about ten minutes ago. An, I reckon I
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 1: done the same. You couldn't a got drunk in that time,
• 2:50:40
  Speaker 1: So of course you've been dreamin', Dad, fetch it, how
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: was I gwine to dream all that an ten minutes? Well?
• 2:50:47
  Speaker 1: Hang it all you did dream it, because there didn't
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 1: any of it happen. But Huck, it's all jest as
• 2:50:52
  Speaker 1: plain to me as it don't make no difference how
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 1: plain it is. There ain't nothin in it. I know
• 2:50:58
  Speaker 1: because I've been here all the time. Jim didn't say
• 2:51:02
  Speaker 1: nothin for about five minutes, but set there, studyin over it.
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 1: Then he says, well, then I reckon I did dream it, huck.
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 1: But dog my cats, if it ain't the powerful at
• 2:51:13
  Speaker 1: dream I ever see, an I ain't ever had no
• 2:51:16
  Speaker 1: dream before. It's tie me like this one. Oh well,
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 1: that's all right, because the dream does tie a body
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: like everything sometimes. But this one was a stavin' dream.
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 1: Tell me all about it, Jim. So Jim went to
• 2:51:30
  Speaker 1: work and told me the whole thing right through, just
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 1: as it happened, only he painted it up considerable. Then
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 1: he said he must start in interpret it because it
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: was sent for a warnin'. He said. The first toehad
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 1: stood for a man that would try to do us
• 2:51:44
  Speaker 1: some good, but the current was another man that would
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 1: get us away from him. The whoops was warnin's that
• 2:51:50
  Speaker 1: would come to us every now and then, and if
• 2:51:52
  Speaker 1: we didn't try hard to make out to understand them,
• 2:51:55
  Speaker 1: they'd just take us into bad luck instead of keeping
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: us out of it. The light of toeheads was troubles
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 1: we was going to get into with quarrelsome people and
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 1: all kinds of mean folks. But if we minded our
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: business and didn't talk back and aggravate them, we would
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: pull through and get out of the fog and into
• 2:52:11
  Speaker 1: the big clear river which was the Free States, and
• 2:52:14
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have no more trouble. It had clattered up pretty
• 2:52:18
  Speaker 1: dark just after I got on to the raft, but
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 1: it was clearing up again. Now, oh, well, that's all
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: interpreted well enough as far as it goes, Jim, I says,
• 2:52:28
  Speaker 1: but what does these things stand for? It was the
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 1: leaves and rubbish on the raft, and the smashed or
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 1: you could see them first rate. Now Jim looked at
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 1: the trash, and then looked at me, and back at
• 2:52:41
  Speaker 1: the trash again. He had got the dream fixed so
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 1: strong in his head that he couldn't seem to shake
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: it loose and get the facts back into its place
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 1: again right away. But when he did get the things
• 2:52:51
  Speaker 1: straightened around, he looked at me steady, without ever smiling,
• 2:52:56
  Speaker 1: and says, what do days stand for? I was on
• 2:53:00
  Speaker 1: to tell you when I got all war out, would
• 2:53:03
  Speaker 1: work and would callin for you. An went to sleep.
• 2:53:06
  Speaker 1: My heart was most broke because you was lost, and
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't care no more. What become o me and
• 2:53:11
  Speaker 1: a raff? And when I wake up AN find you
• 2:53:14
  Speaker 1: back again, all safe and sound, the tears come an.
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 1: I could have got down on my knees and kiss
• 2:53:19
  Speaker 1: your foot. I was so thankful, and all you was
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 1: thinkin about was how you could make a fool of
• 2:53:24
  Speaker 1: old Jim with a lie that truck is trash. An
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 1: trash is what people is to puts dirt onto head
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 1: erder friends and makes him ashamed. Then he got up
• 2:53:35
  Speaker 1: and walked to the wigwam and went in there without
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 1: saying anything but that. But that was enough. It made
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: me feel so mean I could almost kiss his foot
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 1: to get him to take it back. It was fifteen
• 2:53:46
  Speaker 1: minutes before I could work myself up to go an
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 1: humble myself to a nigger. But I done it, and
• 2:53:52
  Speaker 1: I warn't ever sorry for it afterwards neither. I didn't
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 1: do him no more mean tricks. An I wouldn't have
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: done that one. If I dunn, it would make him
• 2:54:00
  Speaker 1: feel that way. End of chapter fifteen. Chapter sixteen. We
• 2:54:10
  Speaker 1: slept most all day and started out at night a
• 2:54:13
  Speaker 1: little ways behind a monstrous long raft that was as
• 2:54:16
  Speaker 1: long going by as a procession. She had four long
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: sweeps at each end, so we judge she carried as
• 2:54:22
  Speaker 1: many as thirty men. Likely she had five big wigwams
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 1: aboard wide apart, and an open camp fire in the
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 1: middle and a tall flagpole at each end. There was
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: a power of style about her. It amounted to something
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 1: being a raftsman on such a craft as that. We
• 2:54:41
  Speaker 1: went drifting down into a big bend, and the night
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 1: clouded up and got hot. The river was very wide
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 1: and was walled with solid timber on both sides. You
• 2:54:52
  Speaker 1: couldn't see a breakin it hardly ever, or a light.
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 1: We talked about k Row and wondered whether we would
• 2:54:58
  Speaker 1: know it when we got to it. I said likely
• 2:55:00
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't, because I had heard say there warn't but
• 2:55:03
  Speaker 1: about a dozen houses there, an if they didn't happen
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 1: to have them lit up, how was we goin to
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 1: know we was passin a town? Jim said if the
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: two big rivers joined together there that would show. But
• 2:55:15
  Speaker 1: I said, maybe we might think we was passing the
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 1: foot of an island an comin into the same old river. Again.
• 2:55:21
  Speaker 1: That disturbed Jim an me too. So the question was
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 1: what to do? I said, paddle ashore the first time
• 2:55:30
  Speaker 1: a light showed an tell them. Pap was behind comin
• 2:55:34
  Speaker 1: along with a tradin scow and was a green hand
• 2:55:36
  Speaker 1: at the business and wanted to know how far it
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 1: was to kro Jim thought it was a good idea,
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 1: so we took a smoke on it and waited. There
• 2:55:45
  Speaker 1: warn't nothing to do now but to look out sharp
• 2:55:48
  Speaker 1: for the town and not pass it without seeing it.
• 2:55:51
  Speaker 1: He said he'd be mighty sure to see it, because
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 1: he'd be a free man the minute he's seen it.
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: But if he missed it, he'd be in a slave
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 1: country again, and no more show for freedom. Every little
• 2:56:03
  Speaker 1: while he jumps up and says, desh she is, But
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 1: it warn't. It was Jack o'lantern's or lightnin' bugs. So
• 2:56:11
  Speaker 1: he sat down again and went to watch him, same
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 1: as before. Jim said it made him all over trembling
• 2:56:16
  Speaker 1: and feverish to be so close to freedom. Well, I
• 2:56:20
  Speaker 1: can tell you it made me all over trembling and
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: feverish too to hear him, because I'd begun to get
• 2:56:25
  Speaker 1: it through my head that he was most free, and
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 1: who was to blame for it? Why? Me? I couldn't
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: get that out of my conscience, No how, nor no way.
• 2:56:37
  Speaker 1: It got to trouble in me, so I couldn't rest.
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 1: I couldn't stay still in one place. It hadn't never
• 2:56:43
  Speaker 1: come to me before what this thing was that I
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: was doing. But now it did, and it stayed with
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 1: me and scorched me more and more. I tried to
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 1: make out to myself that I warn't to blame because
• 2:56:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't run Jim off from his rightful owner. But
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: it warn't no use. Huncheons up and says every time,
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 1: but you knowed he was running for his freedom. And
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 1: you could have paddled ashore and told somebody that was
• 2:57:08
  Speaker 1: so I couldn't get around that no way. That was
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 1: where it pinched. Conscience. Says to me, what a poor
• 2:57:15
  Speaker 1: miss Watson done to you? That you could see her
• 2:57:17
  Speaker 1: nigger go off right under your eyes and never say
• 2:57:19
  Speaker 1: one single word? What did that poor old woman do
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 1: to you that you could treat her so mean? Why
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 1: she tried to learn you your book, She tried to
• 2:57:28
  Speaker 1: learn you your manners. She tried to be good to
• 2:57:30
  Speaker 1: you every way she knowed how that's what she done.
• 2:57:35
  Speaker 1: I got to feelin so mean and so miserable I
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 1: most wished I was dead. I fidgeted up and down
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: the raft, abusing myself to myself, and Jim was fidgeting
• 2:57:46
  Speaker 1: up and down past me. We neither of us could
• 2:57:49
  Speaker 1: keep still. Every time he danced around and says das
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: Caro and went through me like a shot. And I thought,
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 1: if it was Caro, I reckon and I would die
• 2:58:00
  Speaker 1: of miserableness. Jim talked out loud all the time while
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 1: I was talking to myself. He was saying how the
• 2:58:07
  Speaker 1: first thing he would do when he got to a
• 2:58:09
  Speaker 1: free state he would go to saving up money and
• 2:58:12
  Speaker 1: never spend a single cent, and when he got enough,
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 1: he would buy his wife, which was owned on a
• 2:58:17
  Speaker 1: farm close to where miss Watson lived, and then they
• 2:58:20
  Speaker 1: would both work to buy the two children, and if
• 2:58:22
  Speaker 1: their master wouldn't sell them, they'd get an abolishnist to
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 1: go and steal them. It most froze me to hear
• 2:58:29
  Speaker 1: such talk. He wouldn't ever dare to talk such talk
• 2:58:32
  Speaker 1: in his life before. Just see what a difference it
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 1: made in him the minute he judged he was about free.
• 2:58:39
  Speaker 1: It was according to the old sayin' give a nigger
• 2:58:42
  Speaker 1: an inch an hold, take an ell, thenks I, this
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 1: is what comes of my not thinkin here was this
• 2:58:48
  Speaker 1: nigger which I had as good as help to run away,
• 2:58:51
  Speaker 1: coming right out flat footed and saying he would steal
• 2:58:54
  Speaker 1: his children, children that belonged to a man I didn't
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: even know, a man that hadn't never done me no harm.
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 1: I was sorry to hear Jim say that it was
• 2:59:03
  Speaker 1: such a lower end of him. My conscience got to
• 2:59:06
  Speaker 1: stir me up hotter than ever, until at last I says,
• 2:59:10
  Speaker 1: to it, let up on me. It ain't too late yet.
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 1: I'll paddle ashore at the first light and tell I
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 1: felt easy, an happy, and light as a feather. Right off,
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: all my troubles was gone. I went to lookin out
• 2:59:23
  Speaker 1: sharp for a light, a sort of singin to myself.
• 2:59:27
  Speaker 1: By an by one showed. Jim sings out, we's safe, Hook,
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 1: We's safe. Jump up and crack your heels. That's the
• 2:59:35
  Speaker 1: good old k row. At last, I jest knows it.
• 2:59:39
  Speaker 1: I says, I'll take the canoe an go and see
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 1: Jim an mightn't be you know. He jumped an, got
• 2:59:46
  Speaker 1: the canoe ready and put his old coat in the
• 2:59:48
  Speaker 1: bottom for me to set on. An give me the paddle,
• 2:59:51
  Speaker 1: and as I shoved off, he says, boot's sun. I'll
• 2:59:54
  Speaker 1: be as shotin fer joy an. I'll say it's all
• 2:59:58
  Speaker 1: on accounts of Hook as a freeman man, and I
• 3:00:00
  Speaker 1: couldn't never been free if it hadn't been for Huck
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: Huck done it. Jim won't ever forget you. Huck Us,
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: the best friend Jim's ever had and used, the only
• 3:00:11
  Speaker 1: friend Old Jim's got. Now. I was paddling off all
• 3:00:15
  Speaker 1: in a sweat to tell on him, But when he
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: says this, it seemed to kind of take the tuck
• 3:00:21
  Speaker 1: all out of me. I went along slow then, and
• 3:00:24
  Speaker 1: I warn't right down certain whether I was glad I
• 3:00:26
  Speaker 1: started or whether I warn't. When I was fifty yards off,
• 3:00:31
  Speaker 1: Jim says, dare you goes the old true huck, the
• 3:00:35
  Speaker 1: only white gentleman that ever kept his promised Old Jim. Well,
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 1: I just felt sick, but I says, I got to
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: do it. I can't get out of it right. Then
• 3:00:47
  Speaker 1: along comes the skiff with two men in it with guns,
• 3:00:50
  Speaker 1: and they stopped, and I stopped. One of them says,
• 3:00:54
  Speaker 1: what's that yonder? A piece of a raft? I says,
• 3:00:58
  Speaker 1: do you belong on it? Yes, sir, any men on it?
• 3:01:03
  Speaker 1: Only one? Sir? Well, there's five niggers run off tonight
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 1: up yonder above the head of the bend, as yr
• 3:01:11
  Speaker 1: man white or black. I didn't answer up prompt I
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: tried to, but the words wouldn't come. I tried for
• 3:01:19
  Speaker 1: a second or two to brace up An out with it,
• 3:01:22
  Speaker 1: but I warn't man enough, hadn't the spunk of a rabbit.
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 1: I see, I was weakenin', so I just give up
• 3:01:29
  Speaker 1: tryin' an up An says, he's white. I reckon, we'll
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 1: go an see for ourselves. I wish you would, says I,
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 1: because it's Pap that's there, An, maybe you'd help me
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: tow the raft ashore where the light is. He's sick, an,
• 3:01:45
  Speaker 1: so is mam An Mary Ann, Oh the devil. We're
• 3:01:50
  Speaker 1: in a hurry, boy, But I suppose we've got to come.
• 3:01:54
  Speaker 1: Buckle to your paddle, An, let's get along. I buckled
• 3:01:58
  Speaker 1: to my paddle. An. They laid to their oars when
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 1: we had made a stroke or two, I says, Pap
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 1: will be mighty obleeged to you. I can tell you
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 1: everybody goes away when I want them to help me
• 3:02:10
  Speaker 1: to the raft ashore, and I can't do it by myself.
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 1: Well that's infernal. Mean I too, say, boy, what's the
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 1: matter with your father? It's the uh, the well, it
• 3:02:26
  Speaker 1: ain't anything much. They stopped pulling. It warn't by the
• 3:02:30
  Speaker 1: mighty little waist to the raft. Now, one says, boy,
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: that's a lie. What is the matter with your pap?
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 1: Answer up square now and it'll be the better for you.
• 3:02:43
  Speaker 1: I will, sir, I will, honest, But don't leave us. Please,
• 3:02:47
  Speaker 1: it's the the gentleman. If you'll only pull ahead and
• 3:02:51
  Speaker 1: let me leave you the headline, you won't have to
• 3:02:53
  Speaker 1: come anear the raft. Please do set her back, John,
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 1: set her back, says one. They backed water. Keep away, boy,
• 3:03:03
  Speaker 1: keep the lard confounded, I jest expect the wind has
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 1: blowed it to us. You perhaps got the smallpox, and
• 3:03:09
  Speaker 1: you know it precious well? Why didn't you come out
• 3:03:12
  Speaker 1: and say so? Do you want to spread it all over? Well?
• 3:03:17
  Speaker 1: Says I a blubberin I've told everybody before. An they
• 3:03:20
  Speaker 1: jest went away an left us, poor devil. There's somethin
• 3:03:25
  Speaker 1: in that. We're right down, sorry fer you, but we
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 1: well hang it. We don't want the small POxy. See
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: look here, I'll tell you what to do. Don't you
• 3:03:35
  Speaker 1: try to land by yourself, or you'll smash everything to beeces.
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 1: You float along down about twenty miles an you'll come
• 3:03:42
  Speaker 1: to a town on the left hand side, of the
• 3:03:44
  Speaker 1: river will be long after sun up. Then when you
• 3:03:48
  Speaker 1: ask for help, you tell them your folks are all
• 3:03:50
  Speaker 1: down with chills and fever. Don't be a fool again.
• 3:03:54
  Speaker 1: Let people guess what is the matter. Now. We're tryin
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 1: to do you a kindness, So you jest put twenty
• 3:04:00
  Speaker 1: miles between us. That's a good boy. It wouldn't do
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 1: any good. Land yonder where the light is. It's only
• 3:04:06
  Speaker 1: a woodyard. Say I reckon your father's poor an, I'm
• 3:04:11
  Speaker 1: bound to say he's in pretty hard luck. Here. I'll
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: put a twenty dollar gold piece on this board, an
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 1: you get it when it floats by. I feel mighty
• 3:04:21
  Speaker 1: mean to leave you, but my kingdom, it won't do
• 3:04:23
  Speaker 1: to fool with small pox, don't you see. Hold On, Parker,
• 3:04:28
  Speaker 1: says the other man. Here's a twenty to put on
• 3:04:30
  Speaker 1: the board for me. Goodbye, boy. You do as mister
• 3:04:34
  Speaker 1: Parker told you, and you'll be all right. That's so,
• 3:04:38
  Speaker 1: my boy, Goodbye, goodbye. If you see any runaway niggers,
• 3:04:42
  Speaker 1: you can help and nab them, an you can make
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 1: some money by it. Goodbye, sir, says I. I won't
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 1: let no runaway niggers get by me. If I can
• 3:04:51
  Speaker 1: help it. They went off. An I got aboard the raft,
• 3:04:55
  Speaker 1: feelin bad an low, because I knowed very well I
• 3:04:59
  Speaker 1: had done wrong. An I see it, warn't no use
• 3:05:01
  Speaker 1: for me to try to learn to do right. An
• 3:05:03
  Speaker 1: body that don't get started right when he's little ain't
• 3:05:06
  Speaker 1: got no show. When the pinch comes, there ain't nothin
• 3:05:09
  Speaker 1: to back him up an keep him to his work.
• 3:05:12
  Speaker 1: An so he gets beat. Then I thought a minute
• 3:05:14
  Speaker 1: and says to myself, hold on, s'pose you'd a done right,
• 3:05:18
  Speaker 1: an give Jim up. Would you felt better than what
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 1: you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad. I'd
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: feel jest the same way I do now. Well, then
• 3:05:28
  Speaker 1: says I, what's the use you learnin to do right
• 3:05:31
  Speaker 1: when it's troublesome to do right? An ain't no trouble
• 3:05:34
  Speaker 1: to do wrong? An the wages is jest about the same.
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: I was stuck. I couldn't answer that, so I reckoned.
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't bother no more about it. But after this,
• 3:05:44
  Speaker 1: always do whichever come handiest. At the time I went
• 3:05:48
  Speaker 1: into the wigwam, Jim warn't there. I looked all around,
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 1: he warn't anywhere. I says, Jim, you right is huck
• 3:05:59
  Speaker 1: is day out of sight, yet don't talk loud. He
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 1: was in the river under the stern oar with just
• 3:06:06
  Speaker 1: his nose out. I told him they were out of sight,
• 3:06:09
  Speaker 1: so he'd come aboard. He says, I was a listen
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 1: to all to talk. An I slips into the river
• 3:06:15
  Speaker 1: and was gwine to shove for shore if they came aboard.
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: Then I was gwine to swim to the raft again
• 3:06:21
  Speaker 1: when day was gone. But lawsy, how you did fool
• 3:06:24
  Speaker 1: um huck tat was the smartest dodge I tell you, child,
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 1: I speckit. Save old Jim. Old Jim ain't goin to
• 3:06:32
  Speaker 1: forget you for that, honey. Then we talked about the money.
• 3:06:36
  Speaker 1: It was a pretty good raise, twenty dollars apiece. Jim
• 3:06:40
  Speaker 1: said we could take deck passage on a steamboat now,
• 3:06:43
  Speaker 1: an the money would last us as far as we
• 3:06:45
  Speaker 1: wanted to go in the Free States. He said twenty
• 3:06:48
  Speaker 1: mile more warn't far for the raft to go, but
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 1: he wished we was all ready there. Towards daybreak we
• 3:06:54
  Speaker 1: tied up, an Jim was mighty particular about hidin' the
• 3:06:58
  Speaker 1: raft good. Then he worked all day fixin things, a bundles,
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 1: an gettin all ready to quit raftin That night, about
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 1: ten we hovin' sight o the lights of a town
• 3:07:08
  Speaker 1: away down in the left hand bend. I went off
• 3:07:12
  Speaker 1: in the canoe to ask about it. Pretty soon I
• 3:07:15
  Speaker 1: found a man out in the river with a skiff
• 3:07:18
  Speaker 1: settin a trot line. I ranged up and says, mister,
• 3:07:22
  Speaker 1: is that town k Ro Kroe? No, you must be
• 3:07:26
  Speaker 1: a blame fool. What town is it? Mister? If you
• 3:07:30
  Speaker 1: want to know, go and find out. If you stay
• 3:07:33
  Speaker 1: here botherin me for about half a minute longer, you'll
• 3:07:35
  Speaker 1: get somethin you won't want. I've paddled to the raft.
• 3:07:39
  Speaker 1: Jim was awful disappointed, but I said, never mind. Kro
• 3:07:42
  Speaker 1: would be the next place I reckoned. We passed another
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 1: time before daylight an I was goin out again, but
• 3:07:49
  Speaker 1: it was high ground, so I didn't go no high
• 3:07:52
  Speaker 1: ground about Kro. Jim said I had forgot it. We
• 3:07:56
  Speaker 1: laid up for the day on a towhead tolerable close
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 1: to the left left hand bank. I began to suspicion something,
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 1: so did Jim. I says, maybe we went by Kro
• 3:08:09
  Speaker 1: and the fog that night. He says, don't, let's talk
• 3:08:13
  Speaker 1: about it. Huck poh niggas can't have no luck. I
• 3:08:17
  Speaker 1: always suspected that rattlesneak skin warn't done with its work.
• 3:08:22
  Speaker 1: I wish i'd never seen that snake skin, Jim, I
• 3:08:25
  Speaker 1: do wish I'd never laid eyes on it. It ain't
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 1: you old fault hook. You didn't know. Don't you blame
• 3:08:31
  Speaker 1: yourself about it? When it was daylight, here was the
• 3:08:35
  Speaker 1: clear Ohio water in shore sure enough, and outside was
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: the old regular muddy. So it was all up with
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 1: kro We talked it all over. It wouldn't do to
• 3:08:48
  Speaker 1: take to the shore. We couldn't take the raft up
• 3:08:50
  Speaker 1: the stream, of course. There warn't no way but to
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 1: wait for dark and start back in the canoe and
• 3:08:55
  Speaker 1: take the chances. So we slept all day amongst the
• 3:08:59
  Speaker 1: cottonwood thicket so as to be fresh for the work.
• 3:09:03
  Speaker 1: And when we went back to the raft about dark
• 3:09:05
  Speaker 1: the canoe was gone. We didn't say a word for
• 3:09:09
  Speaker 1: a good while. There warn't anything to say. We both
• 3:09:13
  Speaker 1: knowed well enough it was some more work of the
• 3:09:15
  Speaker 1: rattlesnake skin. So what was the use to talk about it?
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: It would only look like we was finding fault, and
• 3:09:22
  Speaker 1: that would be bound to fetch more bad luck, and
• 3:09:24
  Speaker 1: keep on fetching it too, till we knowed enough to
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 1: keep still. By and by, we talked about what we'd
• 3:09:30
  Speaker 1: better do, and find out there warn't no way but
• 3:09:33
  Speaker 1: to go along down with the raft till we got
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 1: a chance to buy a canoe to go back in.
• 3:09:38
  Speaker 1: We weren't going to borrow it when there warn't anybody
• 3:09:41
  Speaker 1: around the way pap would do, for that might set
• 3:09:44
  Speaker 1: people after us. So we shoved out after dark on
• 3:09:48
  Speaker 1: the raft. Anybody that don't believe yet that it's foolishness
• 3:09:52
  Speaker 1: to handle a snake skin, after all that that snake
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: skin done for us, we'll believe it now if they
• 3:09:57
  Speaker 1: read on and see what more it done for us.
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: The place to buy canoes is off of rafts layin'
• 3:10:03
  Speaker 1: up it shore. But we didn't see no rafts layin' up,
• 3:10:07
  Speaker 1: So we went along during three hours and more. Well,
• 3:10:10
  Speaker 1: the night got gray and ruther thick, which is the
• 3:10:13
  Speaker 1: next meanest thing to fog. You can't tell the shape
• 3:10:16
  Speaker 1: of the river an you can't see no distance. He
• 3:10:19
  Speaker 1: got to be very late and still an then along
• 3:10:22
  Speaker 1: comes a steamboat up the river. We lit the lantern
• 3:10:26
  Speaker 1: an judge she would see us. Of stream boats don't
• 3:10:29
  Speaker 1: generally come close to us. They go out an follow
• 3:10:32
  Speaker 1: the bars and hunt for easy water under the reefs.
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 1: But nights like this they bull right up the channel
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 1: against the whole river. We could hear her poundin along,
• 3:10:43
  Speaker 1: but we didn't see her good till she was close.
• 3:10:45
  Speaker 1: She aimed right for us. Often they do that and
• 3:10:49
  Speaker 1: try to see how close they can come without touching.
• 3:10:52
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the wheel bites off a sweep an then the
• 3:10:54
  Speaker 1: pilot sticks his head out and laughs an thinks he's
• 3:10:57
  Speaker 1: mighty smart. Well here's she come, ums, And we said
• 3:11:00
  Speaker 1: she was going to try and shave us, But she
• 3:11:03
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to be shearing off a bit. She was
• 3:11:06
  Speaker 1: a big one, and she was coming in a hurry too,
• 3:11:09
  Speaker 1: looking like a black cloud with rows of glowworms round it.
• 3:11:12
  Speaker 1: But all of a sudden she bulged out, big and scary,
• 3:11:16
  Speaker 1: with a long row of wide open furnace doors shining
• 3:11:19
  Speaker 1: like red hot teeth, and her monstrous boughs and guards
• 3:11:23
  Speaker 1: hanging right over us. There was a yell at us,
• 3:11:27
  Speaker 1: and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: pow wow of cussing and whistling esteam and as Jim
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: went overboard on one side and I on the other,
• 3:11:36
  Speaker 1: she come smashing straight through the raft. I dived and
• 3:11:42
  Speaker 1: aimed to find the bottom too, for a thirty foot
• 3:11:44
  Speaker 1: wheel had gotten to go over me, and I wanted
• 3:11:47
  Speaker 1: it to have plenty of room. I could always stay
• 3:11:50
  Speaker 1: underwater a minute. This time I recognized stayed under a
• 3:11:53
  Speaker 1: minute and a half. Then I bounced for the type
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 1: in a hurry, for I was nearly busting. I piped
• 3:11:59
  Speaker 1: out to my armpits and blowed the water out of
• 3:12:01
  Speaker 1: my nose and puffed a bit. Of course, there was
• 3:12:04
  Speaker 1: a booming current, and of course that boat started her
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: engines again ten seconds after she stopped them, for they
• 3:12:10
  Speaker 1: never cared much for raftsman, So now she was churning
• 3:12:14
  Speaker 1: along up the river, out of sight in the thick weather,
• 3:12:17
  Speaker 1: though I could hear her. I sung out for Jim
• 3:12:20
  Speaker 1: about a dozen times, but I didn't get any answer.
• 3:12:23
  Speaker 1: So I grabbed a plank that touched me while I
• 3:12:26
  Speaker 1: was treading water and struck out for shore, shoving it
• 3:12:29
  Speaker 1: ahead of me. But I made out to see that
• 3:12:32
  Speaker 1: the drift of the current was towards the left hand shore,
• 3:12:35
  Speaker 1: which meant that I was in a crossin', so I
• 3:12:37
  Speaker 1: changed off and went that way. It was one of
• 3:12:41
  Speaker 1: these long slantin' two mile crossings, so I was a
• 3:12:45
  Speaker 1: good long time in getting over. I made a safe
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 1: landin' an clumb up the bank. I couldn't see but
• 3:12:51
  Speaker 1: a little ways, but I went poking along over rough
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 1: ground for a quarter of a mile or more, and
• 3:12:57
  Speaker 1: then I run across a big old fashioned double log house.
• 3:13:00
  Speaker 1: Before I noticed it. I was goin to rush by
• 3:13:03
  Speaker 1: and get away, but a lot of dogs jumped out
• 3:13:06
  Speaker 1: and went to Howlin and barkin at me, and I
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 1: knowed better than to move another peg. End of chapter sixteen,
• 3:13:18
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen. In about a minute, somebody spoke out of
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: a window without putting his head out and says, be done, boys,
• 3:13:28
  Speaker 1: who's there? I says, it's me? Who's me? George Jackson? Sir?
• 3:13:37
  Speaker 1: What do you want? I don't want nothing, sir. I
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 1: only want to go along by, But the dogs won't
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: let me. What are you prowling around here this time
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: of night? For hey, I warn't prowling around, sir. I
• 3:13:52
  Speaker 1: fell overboard off of the steamboat. Oh you did? Did
• 3:13:56
  Speaker 1: you strike a light there? Somebody? What did you say?
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 1: Your name was George Jackson, Sir, I'm only a boy.
• 3:14:06
  Speaker 1: Look here. If you're telling the truth, you needn't be afraid.
• 3:14:10
  Speaker 1: Nobody'll hurt you. But don't try to budge. Stand right
• 3:14:14
  Speaker 1: where you are. Rouse out, Bob and Tom, some of you,
• 3:14:17
  Speaker 1: and fetch the guns. George Jackson. Is there anybody with you? No, sir, nobody.
• 3:14:25
  Speaker 1: I heard the people stiring around in the house. Now
• 3:14:27
  Speaker 1: and see a light, the man sung out, Snatch that
• 3:14:31
  Speaker 1: light away, Betsy, you old fool. Ain't you got any sense?
• 3:14:35
  Speaker 1: Put it on the floor behind the front door. Bob.
• 3:14:39
  Speaker 1: If you and Tom are ready, take your places, all
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: ready now, George Jackson, do you know the shepherd sins? No, sir,
• 3:14:48
  Speaker 1: I never heard of them. Well that may be so,
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 1: and it mayn't. Now all ready, step forward, George Jackson,
• 3:14:58
  Speaker 1: and mind, don't you you hurry? Come mighty slow. If
• 3:15:02
  Speaker 1: there's anybody with you, let him keep back. If he
• 3:15:06
  Speaker 1: shows himself, he'll be shot. Come along, now, come slow.
• 3:15:12
  Speaker 1: Push the door open yourself just enough to squeeze in.
• 3:15:16
  Speaker 1: Do you hear I didn't hurry. I couldn't if i'd
• 3:15:20
  Speaker 1: a wanted to. I took one slow step at a time,
• 3:15:24
  Speaker 1: and there warn't a sound. Only I thought I could
• 3:15:27
  Speaker 1: hear my heart. The dogs were as still as the humans,
• 3:15:31
  Speaker 1: but they followed a little behind me. When I got
• 3:15:34
  Speaker 1: to the three log doorsteps, I heard them unlocking and
• 3:15:37
  Speaker 1: unbarring and unboltin'. I put my hand on the door
• 3:15:41
  Speaker 1: and pushed it a little and a little more till
• 3:15:44
  Speaker 1: somebody said, there, that's enough, put your head in. I
• 3:15:49
  Speaker 1: done it, but I judged they would take it off.
• 3:15:53
  Speaker 1: The candle was on the floor, and there they all
• 3:15:56
  Speaker 1: was lookin at me, an me at them. For about
• 3:15:59
  Speaker 1: a quarter of a minute. Three big men with guns
• 3:16:02
  Speaker 1: pointed at me, which made me WinCE. I tell you,
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 1: the oldest gray and about sixty, the other two thirty
• 3:16:10
  Speaker 1: or more, all of them fine and handsome, and the
• 3:16:13
  Speaker 1: sweetest old gray headed lady an back of her two
• 3:16:17
  Speaker 1: young women, which I couldn't see right well, the old
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 1: gentleman says, there, I reckon, it's all right. Come in.
• 3:16:27
  Speaker 1: As soon as I was in, the old gentleman he
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 1: locked the door and barred it and bolted it, and
• 3:16:31
  Speaker 1: told the young men to come in with their guns.
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 1: And they all went in a big parlor that had
• 3:16:36
  Speaker 1: a new rag carpet on the floor and got together
• 3:16:39
  Speaker 1: in a corner that was out of the range of
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 1: the front windows. There warn't none on the side. They
• 3:16:45
  Speaker 1: held the candle and took a good look at me,
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 1: and all said, why he ain't a shepherdson. No, there
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: ain't any shepherdson about him. Then the old man said
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 1: he hoped I wouldn't mind being searched for arms, because
• 3:16:59
  Speaker 1: he didn't mean no harm by it. It was only
• 3:17:01
  Speaker 1: to make sure. So he didn't pry it into my pockets,
• 3:17:05
  Speaker 1: but only felt outside with his hands and said it
• 3:17:08
  Speaker 1: was all right. He told me to make myself easy
• 3:17:11
  Speaker 1: and at home and tell all about myself. But the
• 3:17:14
  Speaker 1: old lady says, why bliss, you saw the poor thing's
• 3:17:17
  Speaker 1: as wet as he can be, and don't you reckon it?
• 3:17:20
  Speaker 1: May be he's hungry, true for you, Rachel, I forgot
• 3:17:26
  Speaker 1: so the old lady says, Betsy, this was a nigger woman.
• 3:17:31
  Speaker 1: You fly around and get him something to eat as
• 3:17:33
  Speaker 1: quick as you can, poor thing. And one of you
• 3:17:36
  Speaker 1: girls goin to wake up buck An tell him, oh,
• 3:17:38
  Speaker 1: here he is himself. Buck take this little stranger and
• 3:17:42
  Speaker 1: get the wet clothes off from him and dress him
• 3:17:44
  Speaker 1: up in some of yours. That's dry. Buck looked about
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 1: as old as me, thirteen or fourteen or along there,
• 3:17:52
  Speaker 1: though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn't
• 3:17:55
  Speaker 1: done anything but a shirt, and he was very frowzy headed.
• 3:17:59
  Speaker 1: He came in apin' an diggin' one fist into his eye,
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 1: and he was dragging a gun along with the other one.
• 3:18:06
  Speaker 1: He says, ain't they no shepherdsons around? They said no,
• 3:18:11
  Speaker 1: twas a false alarm. Well, he says, if they'd a
• 3:18:15
  Speaker 1: been some, I reckon i'd a got one. They all laughed,
• 3:18:20
  Speaker 1: and Bob says, why Buck, they might have scalped us all.
• 3:18:24
  Speaker 1: You've been so slow in comin'. Well, nobody come after me. An,
• 3:18:28
  Speaker 1: it ain't right. I'm always kept down. I don't get
• 3:18:31
  Speaker 1: no show. Never mind, Buck, my boy, says the old man.
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: You'll have showy enough all in good time. Don't you
• 3:18:40
  Speaker 1: fret about that. Go along with you now, An, do
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 1: as your mother told you. When we got upstairs to
• 3:18:47
  Speaker 1: his room, he got me a coarse shirt, an a
• 3:18:50
  Speaker 1: round a bite, and pants of his. An I put
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: them on. Well I was at it. He asked me
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 1: what my name was, but before I could tell him,
• 3:18:58
  Speaker 1: he started to tell me about a blue jack and
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: a young rabbit he had catched in the woods day
• 3:19:02
  Speaker 1: before yesterday, and asked me where Moses was when the
• 3:19:06
  Speaker 1: candle went out? I said I didn't know. I hadn't
• 3:19:09
  Speaker 1: heard about it before. No way, Well guess, he says.
• 3:19:14
  Speaker 1: How am I going to guess? Says I when I
• 3:19:17
  Speaker 1: never heard tell of it before? But you can guess,
• 3:19:21
  Speaker 1: can't you. It's just as easy which candle? I says,
• 3:19:26
  Speaker 1: Why any candle? He says, I don't know where he was?
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: Says I? Where was he? Why he was in the dark,
• 3:19:36
  Speaker 1: that's where he was. Well, if you knowed where he was,
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: what did you ask me for? Why blame it? It's
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 1: a riddle, don't you see? Say? How long are you
• 3:19:47
  Speaker 1: going to stay here? You got to stay always? We
• 3:19:51
  Speaker 1: can just have booming times. They don't have no school.
• 3:19:54
  Speaker 1: Now do you own a dog? I've got a dog
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 1: and hunko in the river and bring out lips that
• 3:20:00
  Speaker 1: you throw in. Do you like to comb up Sundays
• 3:20:03
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of foolishness? You bet I don't.
• 3:20:07
  Speaker 1: But Ma, she makes me confound these old breeches, I reckon,
• 3:20:12
  Speaker 1: I'd better put em on, But I'd ruther not it's
• 3:20:14
  Speaker 1: so warm? Are you all ready all right? Come along,
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 1: old hoss, Cold corn pone, cold corn, beef, butter and buttermilk.
• 3:20:25
  Speaker 1: That is what they had for me down there. An
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: there ain't nothing better that ever I've come across yet,
• 3:20:31
  Speaker 1: Buck and his ma An all of them smoked cob pipes,
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 1: except the nigger woman, which was gone an. The two
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 1: young women, they all smoked an talked, and I eat
• 3:20:41
  Speaker 1: an talked. The young women had quilts around them, an
• 3:20:45
  Speaker 1: their hair down their backs. They all asked me questions,
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 1: an I told them how papin me and all the
• 3:20:50
  Speaker 1: family was livin on a little farm down at the
• 3:20:53
  Speaker 1: bottom of Arkansas. An my sister Mary Anne run off
• 3:20:56
  Speaker 1: An got married, an never was heard of no more.
• 3:20:59
  Speaker 1: And Bill went to hunt them, and he warn't hurt
• 3:21:02
  Speaker 1: of no more, and time and mort died, and then
• 3:21:05
  Speaker 1: there warn't nobody but just me and Pap left, and
• 3:21:08
  Speaker 1: he was just trimmed down to nothing on account of
• 3:21:10
  Speaker 1: his troubles. So when he died, I took what there
• 3:21:13
  Speaker 1: was left because the farm didn't belong to us, and
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: started up the river deck passage and fell overboard. And
• 3:21:20
  Speaker 1: that was how I come to be here, so they
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: said I could have a home there as long as
• 3:21:25
  Speaker 1: I wanted it. Then it was most staylight, and everybody
• 3:21:29
  Speaker 1: went to bed, and I went to bed with Buck.
• 3:21:32
  Speaker 1: And when I waked up in the morning, drat it all.
• 3:21:35
  Speaker 1: I had forgot what my name was, so I laid
• 3:21:38
  Speaker 1: there about an hour trying to think. When Buck waked up,
• 3:21:41
  Speaker 1: I says, can you spell Buck? Yes, he says, I
• 3:21:46
  Speaker 1: bet you can't spell my name? Says I, I bet
• 3:21:50
  Speaker 1: you what you dare I can, says he. All right,
• 3:21:54
  Speaker 1: says I'd go ahead. G E O R G E
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 1: j A x O N there now he says, Well,
• 3:22:06
  Speaker 1: says I you done it, But I didn't think you could.
• 3:22:10
  Speaker 1: It ain't no slouch of a name to spell right
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: off without studyin I set it down private because somebody
• 3:22:18
  Speaker 1: might want me to spell it next an, so I
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 1: wanted to be handy with it, an rattle it off
• 3:22:23
  Speaker 1: like I was used to it. It was a mighty
• 3:22:26
  Speaker 1: nice family, an a mighty nice house too. I hadn't
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 1: seen no house out in the country before that was
• 3:22:32
  Speaker 1: so nice. An had so much style. It didn't have
• 3:22:35
  Speaker 1: an iron latch on the front door, nor a wood
• 3:22:38
  Speaker 1: an one with a buckskin string, but a brass knob
• 3:22:41
  Speaker 1: to turn, the same as houses in town. There warn't
• 3:22:45
  Speaker 1: no bed in the parlor, nor a sign of a bed,
• 3:22:48
  Speaker 1: but heaps of parlors in towns has beds in them.
• 3:22:52
  Speaker 1: There was a big fireplace that was bricked on the
• 3:22:55
  Speaker 1: bottom an the bricks was kept clean an red by
• 3:22:58
  Speaker 1: pourin water on them, an scrub them with another brick.
• 3:23:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they washed them over with red water paint they
• 3:23:05
  Speaker 1: call Spanish brown seem as they do in town. They
• 3:23:09
  Speaker 1: had big brass dog irons that could hold up a
• 3:23:12
  Speaker 1: saw log. There was a clock on the middle of
• 3:23:14
  Speaker 1: the mantelpiece with a picture of a town painted on
• 3:23:17
  Speaker 1: the bottom half of the glass front, and a round
• 3:23:20
  Speaker 1: place in the middle of it for the sun, and
• 3:23:22
  Speaker 1: you could see the pendulum swinging behind it. It was
• 3:23:26
  Speaker 1: beautiful to hear that clock tick. And sometimes when one
• 3:23:30
  Speaker 1: of these peddlers had bent along and scoured her up
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 1: and got her in good shape, she would start in
• 3:23:35
  Speaker 1: and strike a hundred and fifty before she got tuckered out.
• 3:23:39
  Speaker 1: They wouldn't take any money for her. Well. There was
• 3:23:43
  Speaker 1: a big outlandish parrot on each side of the clock,
• 3:23:46
  Speaker 1: made out of something like chalk, and painted up gaudy
• 3:23:51
  Speaker 1: by one of the parrots was a cat made of crockery,
• 3:23:53
  Speaker 1: and a crockery dog by the other. When you pressed
• 3:23:57
  Speaker 1: down on them, they squeaked, but didn't open their nor
• 3:24:00
  Speaker 1: looked different nor interested. They squeaked through. Underneath there was
• 3:24:05
  Speaker 1: a couple of big wild turkey wing fans spread out
• 3:24:08
  Speaker 1: behind those things. On the table in the middle of
• 3:24:12
  Speaker 1: the room was kind of a lovely crockery basket that
• 3:24:16
  Speaker 1: had apples and oranges and peaches and grapes piled up
• 3:24:19
  Speaker 1: in it, which was much redder and yellower and prettier
• 3:24:22
  Speaker 1: than real ones is. But they weren't real because you
• 3:24:25
  Speaker 1: could see where pieces had got chipped off and showed
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: the white chalk or whatever it was. Underneath this table
• 3:24:33
  Speaker 1: had a cover made out of beautiful oilcloth with a
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 1: red and blue spread eagle painted on it and a
• 3:24:39
  Speaker 1: painted border all round it. Come all the way from Philadelphia,
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 1: they said. There were some books too, piled up perfectly
• 3:24:48
  Speaker 1: exact on each corner of the table. One was a
• 3:24:51
  Speaker 1: big family bible full of pictures. One was Pilgrim's Progress,
• 3:24:56
  Speaker 1: about a man that left his family. It didn't say why.
• 3:25:00
  Speaker 1: I read considerable in it now and then. The statements
• 3:25:04
  Speaker 1: was interesting but tough. Another was Friendship's Offering, full of
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 1: beautiful stuff and poetry, but I didn't read the poetry.
• 3:25:14
  Speaker 1: Another was Henry Clay's Speeches, and another was Doctor Gunn's
• 3:25:18
  Speaker 1: Family Medicine, which told you all about what to do
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 1: if a body was sick or dead. There was a
• 3:25:24
  Speaker 1: hymn book and a lot of other books, and there
• 3:25:27
  Speaker 1: was nice split bottom chairs and perfectly sound too, not
• 3:25:31
  Speaker 1: bag down in the middle and busted like an old basket.
• 3:25:34
  Speaker 1: They had pictures hung on the walls, mainly Washington's and
• 3:25:38
  Speaker 1: Lafayettes and battles and Highland Mary's, and one called Singing
• 3:25:43
  Speaker 1: the Declaration. There was some that they called crayons, which
• 3:25:47
  Speaker 1: one of the daughters, which was dead, made her own
• 3:25:50
  Speaker 1: self when she was only fifteen years old. They was
• 3:25:53
  Speaker 1: different from any pictures I ever see before, black or
• 3:25:57
  Speaker 1: mostly than is common. One was a woman in a
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 1: slim black dress belted small under the armpits, with bulges
• 3:26:05
  Speaker 1: like a cabbage in the middle of the sleeves, and
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 1: a large black scoop shovel bonnet with a black veil
• 3:26:12
  Speaker 1: and white slim ankles crossed about with black tape and
• 3:26:16
  Speaker 1: very wee black slippers like a chisel, and she was
• 3:26:19
  Speaker 1: leaning pensive on a tombstone on her right elbow under
• 3:26:23
  Speaker 1: a weeping willow, and her other hand hanging down her side,
• 3:26:26
  Speaker 1: holding a white handkerchief and a reticule, And underneath the
• 3:26:30
  Speaker 1: picture it said, shall I never see thee More? Alas
• 3:26:36
  Speaker 1: another was a young woman with her hair all combed
• 3:26:38
  Speaker 1: up straight to the top of her head and knotted
• 3:26:41
  Speaker 1: there in front of a comb like a chair back,
• 3:26:44
  Speaker 1: and she was crying into a handkerchief, and had a
• 3:26:47
  Speaker 1: dead bird laying on its back in her other hand,
• 3:26:50
  Speaker 1: with its heels up, and underneath the picture it said
• 3:26:53
  Speaker 1: I shall never hear thy sweet chirrup. More Alas, there
• 3:26:59
  Speaker 1: was one more where a young lady was at a
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: window looking up at the moon, and tears running down
• 3:27:04
  Speaker 1: her cheeks, and she had an open litter in one
• 3:27:06
  Speaker 1: hand with black sealin' wax showing on one edge of it,
• 3:27:10
  Speaker 1: and she was mashing a locket with a chain to
• 3:27:12
  Speaker 1: it against her mouth, and underneath the picture it said,
• 3:27:16
  Speaker 1: an art thou gone, Yes, thou art gone? Alas, these
• 3:27:21
  Speaker 1: was all nice pictures I reckon, but I didn't somehow
• 3:27:24
  Speaker 1: seem to take to them, because if ever I was
• 3:27:27
  Speaker 1: down a little, they always give me the fan tides.
• 3:27:31
  Speaker 1: Everybody was sorry she died because she had laid out
• 3:27:34
  Speaker 1: a lot more of these pictures to do, and a
• 3:27:36
  Speaker 1: body could see by what she had done what they
• 3:27:38
  Speaker 1: had lost. But I reckon with her disposition. She was
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 1: having a better time in the graveyard. She was at
• 3:27:45
  Speaker 1: work on what they said was her greatest picture when
• 3:27:47
  Speaker 1: she took sick, and every day and every night it
• 3:27:50
  Speaker 1: was her prayer to be allowed to live till she
• 3:27:52
  Speaker 1: got it done. But she never got the chance. It
• 3:27:56
  Speaker 1: was a picture of a young woman in a long
• 3:27:58
  Speaker 1: white gown, standing on the rail of a bridge, all
• 3:28:02
  Speaker 1: ready to jump off, with her hair all down her back,
• 3:28:06
  Speaker 1: and looking up to the moon, with the tears running
• 3:28:08
  Speaker 1: down her face. And she had two arms folded across
• 3:28:12
  Speaker 1: her breast and two arms stretched out in front, and
• 3:28:15
  Speaker 1: two more reaching up towards the moon. And the idea
• 3:28:19
  Speaker 1: was to see which pair would look best, and then
• 3:28:21
  Speaker 1: scratch out all the other arms. But as I was saying,
• 3:28:24
  Speaker 1: she died before she got her mind made up. And
• 3:28:27
  Speaker 1: now they kept this picture over the head of the
• 3:28:29
  Speaker 1: bed in her room, and every time her birthday come,
• 3:28:33
  Speaker 1: they hung flowers on it. Other times it was hid
• 3:28:36
  Speaker 1: with a little curtain. The young woman in the picture
• 3:28:39
  Speaker 1: had a kind of nice sweet face, but there were
• 3:28:42
  Speaker 1: so many arms it made her look too spidery, seemed
• 3:28:45
  Speaker 1: to me. This young girl kept a scrap book when
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: she was alive, and used to pace obituaries and accidents
• 3:28:52
  Speaker 1: in cases of patient suffering in it out of the
• 3:28:54
  Speaker 1: Presbyterian Observer, and write poetry after them, out of her
• 3:28:58
  Speaker 1: own head. It was very good poetry. This is what
• 3:29:02
  Speaker 1: she wrote about a boy by the name of Stephen
• 3:29:04
  Speaker 1: Dowland Bots that fell down a whale and was drowned.
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 1: Oh to Stephen Dowlan Bots deceased, And did young Stephen sicken?
• 3:29:15
  Speaker 1: And did young Stephen die? And did the sad hearts thicken?
• 3:29:20
  Speaker 1: And did the mourners cry? No, such was not the
• 3:29:24
  Speaker 1: fate of young Stephen Dowling Bots. Though sad hearts round
• 3:29:28
  Speaker 1: him thickened, twas not from sickness's shots. No whooping cough
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: did rack his frame, nor measles drear with spots. Not
• 3:29:38
  Speaker 1: these impaired the sacred name of Stephen Dowling Bots despised
• 3:29:44
  Speaker 1: love struck not with woe that head of curly knots
• 3:29:48
  Speaker 1: nor stomach troubles laid him low, young Stephen Dowling bots
• 3:29:53
  Speaker 1: Oh no, then list with tearful eye, whilst I his
• 3:29:57
  Speaker 1: fate do tell his soul did from this cold world
• 3:30:01
  Speaker 1: fly by falling down a well. They got him out
• 3:30:05
  Speaker 1: an emptied him alas it was too late. His spirit
• 3:30:10
  Speaker 1: was gone for too sport aloft in the realms of
• 3:30:13
  Speaker 1: the good and great. If Emmeline Grangerfield could make poetry
• 3:30:18
  Speaker 1: like that before she was fourteen, there ain't no tellin
• 3:30:21
  Speaker 1: what she could a done by an by Buck said
• 3:30:24
  Speaker 1: she could rattle off poetry like nothin. She didn't never
• 3:30:28
  Speaker 1: have to stop to think, he said. She would slap
• 3:30:31
  Speaker 1: down a line an if she couldn't find anything to
• 3:30:33
  Speaker 1: rhyme with it would just scratch it down and slap
• 3:30:35
  Speaker 1: down another one. An go ahead. She warn't particular. She
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: could write about anything you choose to give her to
• 3:30:41
  Speaker 1: write about, just so it was sad full. Every time
• 3:30:45
  Speaker 1: a man died, or a woman died, or a child died,
• 3:30:48
  Speaker 1: she would be on hand with her tribute. Before he
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 1: was cold, she called them tributes. The neighbor said it
• 3:30:55
  Speaker 1: was the doctor first. Then Emmeline, then the undertaker. The
• 3:31:00
  Speaker 1: undertaker never got in ahead of Emmeline, but once an
• 3:31:03
  Speaker 1: then she hung fire on a rhyme for the dead
• 3:31:06
  Speaker 1: person's name, which was a whistler. She warn't ever the
• 3:31:10
  Speaker 1: same After that. She never complained, but she kindd her
• 3:31:13
  Speaker 1: pined away. An did not live long, poor thing. Many's
• 3:31:17
  Speaker 1: the time I made myself go up to the little
• 3:31:19
  Speaker 1: room that used to be hers an get out her
• 3:31:22
  Speaker 1: poor old scrap book an read in it. When her
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 1: pictures had been aggravating me and I had soured on
• 3:31:27
  Speaker 1: her a little. I liked all that family dead ones
• 3:31:31
  Speaker 1: an all An warn't goin to let anything come between us.
• 3:31:35
  Speaker 1: Poor Emiline made poetry about all the dead people when
• 3:31:38
  Speaker 1: she was alive, and it didn't seem right that there
• 3:31:41
  Speaker 1: warn't nobody to make some about her now she was gone.
• 3:31:44
  Speaker 1: So I tried to sweat out a verse or two myself,
• 3:31:47
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't seem to make it go. Somehow, they
• 3:31:50
  Speaker 1: kept Emmeline's room trimin' nice, an all the things fixed
• 3:31:54
  Speaker 1: in it, just the way she liked to have them
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 1: when she was alive. An nobody ever slept there. The
• 3:32:00
  Speaker 1: old lady took care of the room herself, though there
• 3:32:03
  Speaker 1: was plenty of niggers. An she sewed there a good
• 3:32:05
  Speaker 1: deal and read her Bible there mostly well. As I
• 3:32:09
  Speaker 1: was saying about the parlor, there was beautiful curtains on
• 3:32:13
  Speaker 1: the windows, white with pictures painted on them of castles,
• 3:32:17
  Speaker 1: with vines all down the walls. An cattle comin down
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 1: to drink. There was a little old piano too, that
• 3:32:23
  Speaker 1: had tin pans in it, I reckon, an nothin was
• 3:32:26
  Speaker 1: ever so lovely as to hear the young lady sing
• 3:32:30
  Speaker 1: the last link is broken, an play the Battle of
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 1: Prague on it. The walls of all the rooms was
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 1: plastered and moss, had carpets on the floors, and the
• 3:32:40
  Speaker 1: whole house was whitewashed on the outside. It was a
• 3:32:44
  Speaker 1: double house, and the big open place betwixt them was
• 3:32:47
  Speaker 1: roofed and floored. An sometimes the table was set there
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the day. An it was a cool,
• 3:32:52
  Speaker 1: comfortable place. Nothin couldn't be better, An warn't the cookin good?
• 3:32:58
  Speaker 1: An jest bushels of it too. End of Chapter seventeen.
• 3:33:04
  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen. Colonel Grangerford was a gentleman, you see, he
• 3:33:11
  Speaker 1: was a gentleman all over, and so was his family.
• 3:33:16
  Speaker 1: He was well born, as the saying is, and that's
• 3:33:19
  Speaker 1: worth as much in a man as it is a
• 3:33:20
  Speaker 1: a horse. So the widow Douglas said, and nobody ever
• 3:33:24
  Speaker 1: denied that she was of the first aristocracy in our town.
• 3:33:29
  Speaker 1: An pahap He always said it too, though it warn't
• 3:33:32
  Speaker 1: no more quality than a mudcat himself. Colonel Grangerfford was
• 3:33:36
  Speaker 1: very tall, and very slim, and had a darkish paley complexion,
• 3:33:41
  Speaker 1: not a sign of red in it anywheres. He was
• 3:33:44
  Speaker 1: clean shaved every morning, all over his thin face, and
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 1: he had the thinnest kind of lips, and the thinnest
• 3:33:51
  Speaker 1: kind of nostrils, and a high nose, and heavy eyebrows,
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 1: and the blackest kind of eyes, sunk so deep back
• 3:33:58
  Speaker 1: that they seemed like they would looking out of caverns
• 3:34:01
  Speaker 1: at you, as you may say. His forehead was high,
• 3:34:05
  Speaker 1: and his hair was black and straight and hung to
• 3:34:08
  Speaker 1: his shoulders. His hands was long and thin, and every
• 3:34:12
  Speaker 1: day of his life he put on a clean shirt
• 3:34:15
  Speaker 1: and a full suit from head to foot, made out
• 3:34:18
  Speaker 1: a linen so white it hurt your eyes to look
• 3:34:21
  Speaker 1: at it. And on Sundays he wore a blue tail
• 3:34:24
  Speaker 1: coat with brass buttons on it. He carried a mahogany
• 3:34:28
  Speaker 1: cane with a silver head to it. There warn't no
• 3:34:31
  Speaker 1: frivolishnists about him, not a bit, and he warn't ever loud.
• 3:34:36
  Speaker 1: He was as kind as he could be. You could
• 3:34:39
  Speaker 1: feel that, you know, and so you had confidence. Sometimes
• 3:34:44
  Speaker 1: he smiled and it was good to see. But when
• 3:34:47
  Speaker 1: he straightened himself up like a liberty pole and the
• 3:34:50
  Speaker 1: lightning begun to flicker out from under his eyebrows, you
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: wanted to climb a tree first and find out what
• 3:34:56
  Speaker 1: the matter was. Afterwards. He didn't ever have still anybody
• 3:35:00
  Speaker 1: to mind their manners. Everybody was always good mannered where
• 3:35:04
  Speaker 1: he was. Everybody loved to have him around too. He
• 3:35:08
  Speaker 1: was sunshine most always. I mean, he made it seem
• 3:35:12
  Speaker 1: like good weather. When he turned into a cloud bank,
• 3:35:16
  Speaker 1: it was awful dark for half a minute, and that
• 3:35:19
  Speaker 1: was enough. There wouldn't nothing go wrong again for a week.
• 3:35:24
  Speaker 1: When him and the old lady come down in the morning,
• 3:35:26
  Speaker 1: all the family got up out of their chairs and
• 3:35:29
  Speaker 1: give them good day, and didn't set down again till
• 3:35:32
  Speaker 1: they had set down. Then Tom and Bob went to
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 1: the sideboard where the decanter was and mixed a glass
• 3:35:38
  Speaker 1: of bitters and handed it to him, and he held
• 3:35:41
  Speaker 1: it in his hand to waited till Tom's and Bob's
• 3:35:44
  Speaker 1: was mixed. And then they bowed and said our duty
• 3:35:47
  Speaker 1: to you, sir and madam, And they bowed the least
• 3:35:51
  Speaker 1: spit in the world, and said thank you. And so
• 3:35:54
  Speaker 1: they drank all three. And Bob and Tom poured a
• 3:35:57
  Speaker 1: spoonful of water and the sugar and the might of
• 3:35:59
  Speaker 1: waer apple brandy in the bottom of their tumblers, and
• 3:36:03
  Speaker 1: give it to me and Buck, and we drank to
• 3:36:05
  Speaker 1: the old people too. Bob was the oldest and Tom next,
• 3:36:10
  Speaker 1: tall beautiful men with very broad shoulders and brown faces
• 3:36:15
  Speaker 1: and long black hair and black eyes. They dressed in
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 1: white linen from head to foot like the old gentleman,
• 3:36:23
  Speaker 1: and wore broad panama hats. Then there was Miss Charlotte.
• 3:36:28
  Speaker 1: She was twenty five and tall and proud and grand,
• 3:36:31
  Speaker 1: but as good as she could be when she warn't
• 3:36:33
  Speaker 1: stirred up. But when she was she had a look
• 3:36:37
  Speaker 1: that would make you wilt in your tracks. Like her father,
• 3:36:40
  Speaker 1: she was beautiful, so was her sister, Miss Sophia, but
• 3:36:46
  Speaker 1: it was a different kind. She was gentle and sweet
• 3:36:49
  Speaker 1: like a dove, and she was only twenty. Each person
• 3:36:53
  Speaker 1: had their own nigger to wait on them. Buck too,
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 1: my nigger, had a monstrous easy time because, as I
• 3:37:00
  Speaker 1: warn't used to having anybody to do anything for me.
• 3:37:03
  Speaker 1: But Bucks was on the jump most of the time.
• 3:37:06
  Speaker 1: This was all there was of the family now, but
• 3:37:09
  Speaker 1: there used to be more. Three sons they got killed,
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 1: and Emmeline that died. The old gentleman owned a lot
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 1: of farms and over a hundred niggers. Sometimes a stack
• 3:37:21
  Speaker 1: of people would come there horseback from ten or fifteen
• 3:37:24
  Speaker 1: mile round and stay five or six days and have
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 1: such junketings round about and on the river, and dances
• 3:37:32
  Speaker 1: and picnics in the woods daytimes, and balls at the
• 3:37:35
  Speaker 1: house nights. These people was mostly kinfolks of the family.
• 3:37:40
  Speaker 1: The men brought their guns with them. It was a
• 3:37:43
  Speaker 1: handsome lot of quality, I tell you. There was another
• 3:37:47
  Speaker 1: plan of aristocracy around there, five or six families, mostly
• 3:37:52
  Speaker 1: of the same name of Shepherdson. They was as high
• 3:37:55
  Speaker 1: toned and well born and rich and grand as the
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 1: tribe of Bringrefford's. The Shepherdsons and Grangerford's used the same
• 3:38:03
  Speaker 1: steamboat landin' which was about two miles above our house.
• 3:38:07
  Speaker 1: So sometimes when I went up there with a lot
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 1: of our folks, I used to see a lot o
• 3:38:12
  Speaker 1: the Shepherdsons there on their fine horses. One day, buckin
• 3:38:16
  Speaker 1: me was away out in the woods huntin' an heard
• 3:38:19
  Speaker 1: a horse comin'. We was crossing the road. Buck says, quick,
• 3:38:24
  Speaker 1: jump for the woods. We done it, and then peeped
• 3:38:27
  Speaker 1: down the woods through the leaves. Pretty soon a splendid
• 3:38:31
  Speaker 1: young man come gallopin down the road, settin his horse
• 3:38:35
  Speaker 1: easy and lookin like a soldier. He had a gun
• 3:38:38
  Speaker 1: across his pommel. I had seen him before. It was
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 1: young Harney Shepherdson. I heard Buck's gun go off of
• 3:38:46
  Speaker 1: my ear, and Harny's hat tumbled off from his head.
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 1: He grabbed his gun and rode straight to the place
• 3:38:52
  Speaker 1: where we was hid. But we didn't wait. We started
• 3:38:56
  Speaker 1: through the woods on a run. The woods warn't thick,
• 3:38:58
  Speaker 1: so I looked over my shoulders to dodge a bullet.
• 3:39:01
  Speaker 1: An twice I see Harney covered Buck with his gun,
• 3:39:04
  Speaker 1: and then he rode away the way he'd come to
• 3:39:06
  Speaker 1: get his hat. I reckon, but I couldn't see. We
• 3:39:10
  Speaker 1: never stopped running till we got home. The old gentleman's
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 1: eyes blazed a minute twas pleasure, mainly, I judged. Then
• 3:39:18
  Speaker 1: his face sort of smoothed down, and he says, kind o, gentle,
• 3:39:23
  Speaker 1: I don't like shooting from behind a bush. Why didn't
• 3:39:26
  Speaker 1: you step into the road, my boy? The shepherds and
• 3:39:30
  Speaker 1: stoned father, they always take advantage. Miss Charlotte, she held
• 3:39:36
  Speaker 1: her head up like a queen while Buck was telling
• 3:39:38
  Speaker 1: his tale, and her nostrils spread and her eyes snapped.
• 3:39:43
  Speaker 1: The two young men looked dark, but never said nothin'.
• 3:39:47
  Speaker 1: Miss Sophia, she turned pale, but the color come back
• 3:39:50
  Speaker 1: when she found the man. Warn't hurt soon as I
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 1: could get bucked down by the corn cribs under the tree,
• 3:39:56
  Speaker 1: by ourselves, I says, Did you want to kill him? Buck? Well,
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: I bet I did. What did he do to you him?
• 3:40:06
  Speaker 1: He never done nothing to me. Well, then, what did
• 3:40:09
  Speaker 1: you want to kill him for? Why? Nothin'. Only it's
• 3:40:14
  Speaker 1: on account of the feud. What's a feud? Why where
• 3:40:18
  Speaker 1: was you raised? Don't you know what a feud is?
• 3:40:22
  Speaker 1: Never heard of it before? Tell me about it, well,
• 3:40:26
  Speaker 1: says Buck. A feud is this way a man has
• 3:40:30
  Speaker 1: a quarrel with another man and kills him. Then that
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 1: other man's brother kills him. Then the other brothers on
• 3:40:37
  Speaker 1: both sides goes for one another. Then the cousin's chip in,
• 3:40:42
  Speaker 1: and by and by everybody's killed off. An there ain't
• 3:40:45
  Speaker 1: no more feud. But it's kind of slow and takes
• 3:40:48
  Speaker 1: a long time. Has this one been going on long?
• 3:40:52
  Speaker 1: Buck Well? I should reckon it'd started thirty years ago.
• 3:40:57
  Speaker 1: Her summer's along there there is true about somethin', An
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 1: then a law suit to settle it, and the suit
• 3:41:03
  Speaker 1: went again one of the men, so he up an
• 3:41:06
  Speaker 1: shot the man that won the suit, which he wouldn't
• 3:41:09
  Speaker 1: naturally do, of course anybody would. What was the trouble about?
• 3:41:13
  Speaker 1: Buck Land? I reckon? Maybe I don't know well who
• 3:41:19
  Speaker 1: done the shootin'? Was it a Grangerford or a shepherd'sn laws?
• 3:41:24
  Speaker 1: How do I know? It was so long ago? Don't
• 3:41:28
  Speaker 1: anybody know? Oh? Yes, Pa knows, I reckon an some
• 3:41:32
  Speaker 1: of the other old people, but they don't know now
• 3:41:35
  Speaker 1: what the row was about in the first place. Has
• 3:41:38
  Speaker 1: there been many killed buck Yes, rat's smart chance of funerals,
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 1: but they don't always kill. PA's got a few buckshot
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: in him, but he don't mind it because he don't
• 3:41:49
  Speaker 1: weigh much anyway. Bob's been carved up some with a bowie,
• 3:41:53
  Speaker 1: an Tom's been hurt once or twice. Has anybody been
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: killed this year? Buck? Yes, we got one, an they
• 3:42:01
  Speaker 1: got one. About three months ago. My cousin Bud, fourteen
• 3:42:06
  Speaker 1: year old, was riding through the woods on the other
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 1: side of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him,
• 3:42:11
  Speaker 1: which was blame foolishness. And in a lonesome place, he
• 3:42:14
  Speaker 1: hears a horse a comin behind him and sees old
• 3:42:17
  Speaker 1: baldy shepherdson a linkin after him with his gun in
• 3:42:20
  Speaker 1: his hand and his white hair of flyin' in the wind.
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 1: Instead of jumping off and taking to the bush, Bud
• 3:42:26
  Speaker 1: loud he could outrun him, so they had a nippin'
• 3:42:30
  Speaker 1: tuck for five mile or more. The old man againin
• 3:42:33
  Speaker 1: all the time, so at last Bud seen it warn't
• 3:42:36
  Speaker 1: any use, so he stopped and faced around so as
• 3:42:39
  Speaker 1: to have the bullet holes in front, you know. An
• 3:42:41
  Speaker 1: the old man he rode up and shot him down,
• 3:42:45
  Speaker 1: but he didn't get much chance to enjoy his luck.
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 1: For inside of a week, our folks laid him out.
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 1: I reckon that old man was a coward. Buck, I
• 3:42:55
  Speaker 1: reckon he warn't a coward, not by a blame sight.
• 3:42:59
  Speaker 1: There ain't a cow amongst them shepherdsons, not a one.
• 3:43:02
  Speaker 1: And there ain't no cowards amongst the Grangerfords either. Why
• 3:43:07
  Speaker 1: that old man kept up his end in a fight
• 3:43:09
  Speaker 1: one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and
• 3:43:12
  Speaker 1: come out winter that was all a horseback. He lit
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 1: off his horse and got behind a little woodpile and
• 3:43:19
  Speaker 1: kept his horse before him to stop the bullets. But
• 3:43:22
  Speaker 1: the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around the
• 3:43:25
  Speaker 1: old man and peppered away at him, and he peppered
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 1: away at them. Him and his horse both went home
• 3:43:32
  Speaker 1: pretty leaky and crippled. But the Grangerfords had to be
• 3:43:35
  Speaker 1: fetched home, and one of em was dead, and another
• 3:43:38
  Speaker 1: died the next day. No, sir, if a body's out
• 3:43:42
  Speaker 1: hunting for cowards, he didn't want to fool away any
• 3:43:45
  Speaker 1: time amongst them shepherdsons, because they don't breed any of
• 3:43:48
  Speaker 1: that kind. Next Sunday we all went to church about
• 3:43:54
  Speaker 1: three mile, everybody a horseback. The men took their guns
• 3:43:58
  Speaker 1: along and so did buck An kept them between their
• 3:44:01
  Speaker 1: knees or stood them hand against the wall. The Shepherdson's
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 1: done the same. It was pretty ornery preachin all about
• 3:44:10
  Speaker 1: brotherly love and such like tiresomeness. But everybody said it
• 3:44:14
  Speaker 1: was a good sermon. An they all talked it over
• 3:44:17
  Speaker 1: goin home. An had such a powerful lot to say
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 1: about faith and good works and free grace and pre
• 3:44:23
  Speaker 1: foreordin destination. An, I dunno what all that. It did
• 3:44:28
  Speaker 1: seem to me to be one of the roughest sundays
• 3:44:30
  Speaker 1: I had run across. Yet about an hour after dinner,
• 3:44:34
  Speaker 1: everybody was dozing around, summin' their chairs, an some in
• 3:44:37
  Speaker 1: their rooms. An it got to be pretty dull, buck
• 3:44:41
  Speaker 1: and a dog was stretched out on the grass in
• 3:44:44
  Speaker 1: the sun, signed asleep. I went up to our room
• 3:44:47
  Speaker 1: and judged I would take a nap myself. I found
• 3:44:51
  Speaker 1: that sweet miss Sophia standin in her door, which was
• 3:44:54
  Speaker 1: next ours, and she took me in her room and
• 3:44:57
  Speaker 1: shut the door very soft, and asked me if if
• 3:45:00
  Speaker 1: I liked her, and I said I did. And she
• 3:45:03
  Speaker 1: asked me if I would do something for her and
• 3:45:05
  Speaker 1: not tell anybody, and I said I would. Then she
• 3:45:09
  Speaker 1: said she'd forgot her Testament and left it in the
• 3:45:12
  Speaker 1: sea at church between two other books. And would I
• 3:45:15
  Speaker 1: slip out quiet an go there and fetch it to her?
• 3:45:17
  Speaker 1: An not say nothin to nobody, I said I would,
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 1: So I slid out an slipped off up the road.
• 3:45:24
  Speaker 1: And there warn't anybody at the church except maybe a
• 3:45:27
  Speaker 1: hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door,
• 3:45:29
  Speaker 1: and hogs likes a punching floor in summer time because
• 3:45:32
  Speaker 1: it's cool. If you notice, most folks don't go to
• 3:45:36
  Speaker 1: church only when they've got to. But a hog is different,
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 1: says I to myself, Somethin's up. That ain't natural for
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: a girl to be in such a sweat about a testament,
• 3:45:48
  Speaker 1: So I give it a shake, an out drops a
• 3:45:50
  Speaker 1: little piece of paper with half past two rode on
• 3:45:54
  Speaker 1: it with a pencil. I ransacked it, but couldn't find
• 3:45:58
  Speaker 1: anything else. I couldn't make anything out of that, so
• 3:46:01
  Speaker 1: I put the paper in the book again. And when
• 3:46:03
  Speaker 1: I got home and upstairs, there was Miss Sophia in
• 3:46:06
  Speaker 1: her door waitin for me. She pulled me in and
• 3:46:09
  Speaker 1: shut the door. Then she looked in the testament till
• 3:46:12
  Speaker 1: she found the paper and as soon as she read it,
• 3:46:15
  Speaker 1: she looked glad, and before a body could think, she'd
• 3:46:19
  Speaker 1: grabbed me and give me a squeeze and said I
• 3:46:21
  Speaker 1: was the best boy in the world, and not to
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 1: tell anybody. She was mighty read in the face for
• 3:46:28
  Speaker 1: a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it made
• 3:46:31
  Speaker 1: her powerful pretty. I was a good deal astonished. But
• 3:46:35
  Speaker 1: when I got my breath, I asked her what the
• 3:46:37
  Speaker 1: paper was about, and she asked me if I had
• 3:46:39
  Speaker 1: read it, and I said no. And she asked me
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 1: if I could read writin' and I told her no,
• 3:46:45
  Speaker 1: only coarse hand. And then she said the paper warn't
• 3:46:48
  Speaker 1: anything but a bookmark to keep her a place, and
• 3:46:51
  Speaker 1: I might go and play now. I went off down
• 3:46:54
  Speaker 1: to the river, studying over this thing, and pretty soon
• 3:46:58
  Speaker 1: I noticed that my nigger was following along behind. When
• 3:47:01
  Speaker 1: we was out of side of the house, he looked
• 3:47:03
  Speaker 1: back and around a second an then comes a runnin
• 3:47:06
  Speaker 1: and says, Mars George, if you'll come down into to swamp,
• 3:47:11
  Speaker 1: I'll show you a whole stack of water moccasins. Thinks
• 3:47:15
  Speaker 1: I that's mighty curious, he said they yesterday, he ought
• 3:47:19
  Speaker 1: ter nobody don't love water moccasins enough to go round
• 3:47:22
  Speaker 1: huntin for them. What is he up to you anyway?
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 1: So I says, all right, try ahead. I followed a
• 3:47:30
  Speaker 1: half mile. Then he struck out over the swamp an
• 3:47:33
  Speaker 1: waited ankle deep as much as another half mile. We
• 3:47:37
  Speaker 1: come to a little flat piece of land which was dry,
• 3:47:40
  Speaker 1: an very thick with trees, an bushes, an vines. An.
• 3:47:43
  Speaker 1: He says, you shove right in dere jest a few
• 3:47:46
  Speaker 1: steps mars George, Dad's where day is? I seed him before,
• 3:47:51
  Speaker 1: I don't care to see him no more. Then he
• 3:47:54
  Speaker 1: slopped right along and went away, and pretty soon the
• 3:47:57
  Speaker 1: trees hid him. I poked in to the place of
• 3:48:00
  Speaker 1: ways an come to a little open patch as big
• 3:48:02
  Speaker 1: as a bedroom, all hung around with vines. An found
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 1: a man layin' there asleep, an by James. It was
• 3:48:10
  Speaker 1: my old Jim. I waked him up, and I reckoned
• 3:48:13
  Speaker 1: it was goin to be a grand surprise to him
• 3:48:15
  Speaker 1: to see me again, but it warn't. He nearly cried,
• 3:48:19
  Speaker 1: he was so glad, but he warn't surprised. Said he
• 3:48:23
  Speaker 1: swum along behind me that night and heard me yell
• 3:48:26
  Speaker 1: every time, but doesn't answer because he didn't want nobody
• 3:48:29
  Speaker 1: to pick him up an take him into slavery again,
• 3:48:33
  Speaker 1: says he. I got hurt a little, an couldn't swim fast,
• 3:48:37
  Speaker 1: so I was considerable ways behind you towards lass. When
• 3:48:41
  Speaker 1: you landed, I reckoned. I could git chup with you
• 3:48:44
  Speaker 1: on to land, doubt having a shot at you. But
• 3:48:46
  Speaker 1: when I see that house, I begin to go slow.
• 3:48:49
  Speaker 1: I was off too fur to hear what they say
• 3:48:52
  Speaker 1: to you. I was afraid of the dog's But when
• 3:48:55
  Speaker 1: it was all quiet again, I knowed you was in
• 3:48:58
  Speaker 1: the house. So I struck out for the woods to
• 3:49:00
  Speaker 1: wait for day. Early in the morning, some of the
• 3:49:03
  Speaker 1: niggers come along, goin to the fields. An they took me.
• 3:49:07
  Speaker 1: An showed me this place where the dogs can't track
• 3:49:09
  Speaker 1: me on accounts o de water. An day brings me
• 3:49:12
  Speaker 1: truck to eat every night. An tells me how us
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 1: a gettin' along? Why didn't she tell my jack to
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: fetch me here sooner? Jim, Well, twarn't no use to
• 3:49:22
  Speaker 1: disturb you, huck till we could do something. But we's
• 3:49:26
  Speaker 1: all right now. I've been a buyin pots an pans
• 3:49:29
  Speaker 1: an victuals an I got a chance an a patchin'
• 3:49:32
  Speaker 1: up t raft nights went. What raft, Jim, I'll roll raff.
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: You mean to say our old raft warn't smashed all
• 3:49:40
  Speaker 1: to flinders? No, she warn't. She was tore up a
• 3:49:45
  Speaker 1: good deal one ann o her was, but they warn't
• 3:49:48
  Speaker 1: no great harm done, Only our traps was most all
• 3:49:51
  Speaker 1: lost if we hadn't dived so deep and swum so
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 1: far under water an to night hadn't been so dark,
• 3:49:57
  Speaker 1: and we warn't so skeered an been such punk heads
• 3:50:00
  Speaker 1: as to saying is we deceed the raft? But it's
• 3:50:04
  Speaker 1: just as well we didn't, cause now she's all fixed
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 1: up again, most as good as new, and we's got
• 3:50:09
  Speaker 1: a new lot of stuff in the place of what
• 3:50:11
  Speaker 1: is lost. Why how did you get hold of the
• 3:50:14
  Speaker 1: raft again? Jim? Did you catch her? How? I goin
• 3:50:19
  Speaker 1: to catcher and I out in the woods. No, some
• 3:50:22
  Speaker 1: of the niggers find her kitched on a snag along
• 3:50:24
  Speaker 1: here in the bend, and they hit her in a
• 3:50:26
  Speaker 1: crick amongst to willis an they was so much john
• 3:50:29
  Speaker 1: about which of 'em she belonged to the most? Did
• 3:50:32
  Speaker 1: I come to hear about it? Pitty soon? So I
• 3:50:35
  Speaker 1: ups and settles to trouble by telling them she don't
• 3:50:37
  Speaker 1: belong to none of 'em, but to you and me.
• 3:50:40
  Speaker 1: And I asked them if they's goin to grab a
• 3:50:42
  Speaker 1: young white gentleman's property and get a heightin for it,
• 3:50:45
  Speaker 1: then I get 'em ten cents apiece. An they is
• 3:50:48
  Speaker 1: mighty well satisfied, and wished some more rafts to come
• 3:50:51
  Speaker 1: along and make 'em rich again. They's mighty good to me,
• 3:50:55
  Speaker 1: these niggers, is an. Whatever I wants them to do
• 3:50:58
  Speaker 1: for me, I don't have to ask twice, honey, Dad,
• 3:51:01
  Speaker 1: Jack's a good nigger. An pretty smart, yes he is.
• 3:51:06
  Speaker 1: He ain't ever told me you was here, told me
• 3:51:09
  Speaker 1: to come, an he'd show me a lot o water moccasins.
• 3:51:12
  Speaker 1: If anything happens, he ain't mixed up in it. He
• 3:51:16
  Speaker 1: can say he ain't never seen us together, An it'll
• 3:51:18
  Speaker 1: be the truth. I'd a wanna talk much about the
• 3:51:22
  Speaker 1: next day, I reckon I'll cut it pretty short. I
• 3:51:26
  Speaker 1: waked up about dawn, an was a goin to turn over,
• 3:51:28
  Speaker 1: an go to sleep again. When I noticed how still
• 3:51:31
  Speaker 1: it was, didn't seem to be anybody stirring. That warn't usual.
• 3:51:37
  Speaker 1: Next I noticed that Buck was up an gone, well,
• 3:51:41
  Speaker 1: I gets up a wonderin. An goes downstairs, nobody round
• 3:51:45
  Speaker 1: everything it still as a mouse. Jes the same outside,
• 3:51:49
  Speaker 1: thinks I what does it mean down by the woodpile.
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 1: I comes across my jack and says, what's it all about?
• 3:51:58
  Speaker 1: Says he? Don't you know, Mars George, No, says I
• 3:52:03
  Speaker 1: I don't. Well, then Miss Sophia's run off, deed, she
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: has she run off in tonight sometime nobody don't know
• 3:52:13
  Speaker 1: just when, run off to get married to that young
• 3:52:16
  Speaker 1: harny shepherdson, you know, least away so they speck. The
• 3:52:20
  Speaker 1: family found it ied about half hour ago, maybe a
• 3:52:23
  Speaker 1: little more. An I tell you they want no time lost.
• 3:52:26
  Speaker 1: Such another hurryin' up guns an horses, you never see
• 3:52:30
  Speaker 1: the women folks has gone for to strip their relations
• 3:52:33
  Speaker 1: an on Mars Saul and the boys tucked. They guns
• 3:52:36
  Speaker 1: an rode up the river road for to try to
• 3:52:37
  Speaker 1: catch that young man an kill him, for he can
• 3:52:39
  Speaker 1: get across the river with Miss Sophia. I reckon, they's
• 3:52:43
  Speaker 1: gwin' to be mighty rough times. Buck went off that
• 3:52:47
  Speaker 1: waken me up, Well, I reckon he did. They warn't
• 3:52:51
  Speaker 1: gwine to mix you up in it, Mars Buck, he
• 3:52:54
  Speaker 1: loaded up his gun an loud. He's gwine to fetch
• 3:52:57
  Speaker 1: home a shepherdson or bust. Well, there'll be plenty of
• 3:53:01
  Speaker 1: em there, I reckon, and you bet you he'll fetch
• 3:53:04
  Speaker 1: one if he gets a chance. I took up the
• 3:53:08
  Speaker 1: river road as hard as I could put by and
• 3:53:11
  Speaker 1: by I begin to hear guns a good ways off.
• 3:53:14
  Speaker 1: When I came inside of the log store in the
• 3:53:16
  Speaker 1: woodpile where the steamboats land, I worked along under the
• 3:53:20
  Speaker 1: trees and brushed till I got to a good place.
• 3:53:23
  Speaker 1: And then I clumb up into the forks of a
• 3:53:25
  Speaker 1: capt'n wood that was out of reach, and watched. There
• 3:53:28
  Speaker 1: was a wood rank four foot high a little ways
• 3:53:31
  Speaker 1: in front of the tree, and first I was going
• 3:53:33
  Speaker 1: to hide behind that, but maybe it was luckier I didn't.
• 3:53:37
  Speaker 1: There was four or five men cavorting around on their
• 3:53:40
  Speaker 1: horses in the open place before the log store, cussing
• 3:53:44
  Speaker 1: and yelling and trying to get out a couple of
• 3:53:46
  Speaker 1: young chaps that was behind the wood rank alongside of
• 3:53:49
  Speaker 1: the steamboat landing, but they couldn't come it. Every time
• 3:53:53
  Speaker 1: one of them showed himself on the river side of
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 1: the woodpile, he got shot at. The two boys was
• 3:53:58
  Speaker 1: squatting back to back behind the pile so they could
• 3:54:01
  Speaker 1: watch both ways. By and by, the men stopped cavorting
• 3:54:05
  Speaker 1: around and yelling. They started riding towards the store. Then
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 1: up gets one of the boys, draws a steady beat
• 3:54:12
  Speaker 1: over the wood rank and drops one of them out
• 3:54:15
  Speaker 1: of his saddle. All the men jumped off of their
• 3:54:18
  Speaker 1: horses and grabbed the hurt one and started to carry
• 3:54:21
  Speaker 1: him to the store. And that minute the two boys
• 3:54:24
  Speaker 1: started on the run. They got half way to the
• 3:54:27
  Speaker 1: tree I was in before the men noticed. Then the
• 3:54:30
  Speaker 1: men see them and jumped on their horses and took
• 3:54:33
  Speaker 1: out after them. They gained on the boys, but it
• 3:54:36
  Speaker 1: didn't do no good. The boys had too good a start.
• 3:54:40
  Speaker 1: They got to the woodpile that was in front of
• 3:54:42
  Speaker 1: my tree and slipped him behind it, and so they
• 3:54:45
  Speaker 1: had the bulge on the men again. One of the
• 3:54:47
  Speaker 1: boys was Buck and the other was a slim young
• 3:54:50
  Speaker 1: chap about nineteen years old. The men ripped around awhile
• 3:54:55
  Speaker 1: and then rode away. As soon as they was out
• 3:54:57
  Speaker 1: of sight. I sung out to Buck an told him
• 3:55:01
  Speaker 1: he didn't know what to make of my voice comin
• 3:55:03
  Speaker 1: out o the tree. First he was awful surprised. He
• 3:55:07
  Speaker 1: told me to watch out sharp an let him know
• 3:55:09
  Speaker 1: when the men come in sight again, and said they
• 3:55:11
  Speaker 1: was up to some devilment. Rother wouldn't be gone long.
• 3:55:16
  Speaker 1: I wished I was out o that tree, but I
• 3:55:17
  Speaker 1: dasn't come down. Buck begun to cry and rip An
• 3:55:21
  Speaker 1: lied to him and his cousin Joe, that was the
• 3:55:24
  Speaker 1: other young chap would make up for this day. Yet,
• 3:55:27
  Speaker 1: he said his father an his two brothers was killed
• 3:55:31
  Speaker 1: an two or three of the enemy, said the Shepherdsons
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 1: laid for them in ambush. Buck said his father an
• 3:55:37
  Speaker 1: brothers ought to wait for their relations. Shepherdson's was too
• 3:55:41
  Speaker 1: strong for them. I asked him what was become a
• 3:55:45
  Speaker 1: young Harney a miss Sophia. He said they got across
• 3:55:48
  Speaker 1: the river and was safe. I was glad of that.
• 3:55:52
  Speaker 1: But the way Buck did take on because he didn't
• 3:55:54
  Speaker 1: manage to kill Harny that day, he shot at him.
• 3:55:57
  Speaker 1: I hain't ever heard anything like it. All of a sudden,
• 3:56:01
  Speaker 1: bang bang, bang, goes three or four guns. The men
• 3:56:05
  Speaker 1: had slipped around through the woods an come in from
• 3:56:08
  Speaker 1: behind without their horses. The boys jumped for the river,
• 3:56:11
  Speaker 1: both of them hurt an as they swum down the current,
• 3:56:14
  Speaker 1: the men run along the bank, shootin at them, a
• 3:56:17
  Speaker 1: singing out, kill them, kill them. It made me so
• 3:56:22
  Speaker 1: sick I must fell out o the tree. I ain't
• 3:56:25
  Speaker 1: a goin to tell all that happened. It would make
• 3:56:28
  Speaker 1: me sick again if I was to do that. I
• 3:56:31
  Speaker 1: wished I hadn't ever come ashore that night to see
• 3:56:33
  Speaker 1: such things. I ain't ever goin to get shut o them.
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 1: Lots of times I dream about them. I stayed in
• 3:56:41
  Speaker 1: the tree till it begun to get dark, afraid to
• 3:56:43
  Speaker 1: come down. Sometimes I heard guns away off in the woods.
• 3:56:48
  Speaker 1: An twice I seen little gangs of men gallop past
• 3:56:51
  Speaker 1: the log store with guns. So I reckon the trouble
• 3:56:54
  Speaker 1: was still a goin on. I was mighty downhearted. So
• 3:56:59
  Speaker 1: I made up my mind I wouldn't ever go a
• 3:57:01
  Speaker 1: near that house again. Because I reckoned I was to
• 3:57:04
  Speaker 1: blame somehow. I judged that that piece of paper meant
• 3:57:07
  Speaker 1: that Miss Sophia was to meet Harney somewheres at half
• 3:57:11
  Speaker 1: past two and run off. And I judged I ought
• 3:57:14
  Speaker 1: to told her father about that paper and the curious
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 1: way she acted, and then maybe he would have locked
• 3:57:20
  Speaker 1: her up and this awful mess wouldn't never happened. When
• 3:57:23
  Speaker 1: I got down out of the tree, I crept along
• 3:57:26
  Speaker 1: down the river bank a piece and found the two
• 3:57:29
  Speaker 1: bodies laying in the edge of the water, and tugged
• 3:57:32
  Speaker 1: at them till I get them ashore. Then I covered
• 3:57:35
  Speaker 1: up their faces and got away as quick as I could.
• 3:57:40
  Speaker 1: I cried a little when I was covering up Buck's face,
• 3:57:43
  Speaker 1: for he was mighty good to me. It was just
• 3:57:48
  Speaker 1: dark now. I never went near the house, but struck
• 3:57:51
  Speaker 1: through the woods and made for the swamp. Jim warn't
• 3:57:55
  Speaker 1: on his island, so I tramped off in a hurry
• 3:57:57
  Speaker 1: for the crook and crowded through the willows, read to
• 3:58:00
  Speaker 1: jump aboard an get out o that awful country. The
• 3:58:03
  Speaker 1: raft was gone my soul's, but I was scared. I
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 1: couldn't get my breath for most a minute. Then I
• 3:58:11
  Speaker 1: raised a yell. A voice not twenty five foot from
• 3:58:15
  Speaker 1: me says, good land is that you, honey? Don't make
• 3:58:19
  Speaker 1: no noise. It was Jim's voice. Nothin ever sounded so good.
• 3:58:24
  Speaker 1: Before I run along the bank apiece an got aboard
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 1: an Jim. He grabbed me, an hugged me. He was
• 3:58:31
  Speaker 1: so glad to see me, He says, Law's bless you, child,
• 3:58:36
  Speaker 1: I was right down shore. You's dead again. Jack's been here,
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 1: he said. He reckons you's been shot cause you didn't
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 1: come home no more. So why it's jest this minute
• 3:58:45
  Speaker 1: O startin to raft down towards Moutfort de Crook. So's
• 3:58:49
  Speaker 1: to be all ready for to shove out an leave
• 3:58:51
  Speaker 1: soon as Jack comes again. An tells me for certain
• 3:58:53
  Speaker 1: you is dead, Lawsy, I's mighty glad to get you
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 1: back again, honey, I says, all right, that's mighty good.
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 1: They won't find me an, they'll think I've been killed
• 3:59:06
  Speaker 1: and floated down the river. There's somethin up there that'll
• 3:59:09
  Speaker 1: help them think so. So don't you lose no time, Jim.
• 3:59:12
  Speaker 1: But jest, shove off for the big water as fast
• 3:59:14
  Speaker 1: as ever you can. I never felt easy till the
• 3:59:18
  Speaker 1: raft was two mile below there an out in the
• 3:59:21
  Speaker 1: middle of the Mississippi. Then we hung up our signal
• 3:59:24
  Speaker 1: lantern an judged that we was free a safe once more.
• 3:59:29
  Speaker 1: I hadn't had a bite to eat since yesterday, so
• 3:59:32
  Speaker 1: Jim he got out some corn dodgers and buttermilk, an pork,
• 3:59:35
  Speaker 1: an cabbage and greens. There ain't nothin in the world
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: so good when it's cooked right. An, Whilst I eat
• 3:59:42
  Speaker 1: my supper, we talked, an had a good time. I
• 3:59:45
  Speaker 1: was powerful glad to get away from the feuds. An
• 3:59:48
  Speaker 1: so is Jim, to get away from the swamp. We said,
• 3:59:51
  Speaker 1: there warn't no home like a raft. After all, other
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 1: places do seem so cramped up an smothery. But a raft.
• 3:59:58
  Speaker 1: Don't you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on
• 4:00:04
  Speaker 1: a raft? End of Chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, two or
• 4:00:13
  Speaker 1: three days and nights went by, I reckon, I might
• 4:00:16
  Speaker 1: say they swum by. They slid along so quiet and
• 4:00:20
  Speaker 1: smooth and lovely. Here's the way we put in the time.
• 4:00:24
  Speaker 1: It was a monstrous big river down there, sometimes a
• 4:00:28
  Speaker 1: mile and a half wide. We run nights and laid
• 4:00:31
  Speaker 1: up and hid daytimes. Soon as night was most gone,
• 4:00:35
  Speaker 1: we stopped navigating and tied up nearly always in the
• 4:00:38
  Speaker 1: dead water under a towhead, and then cut young cottonwoods
• 4:00:42
  Speaker 1: and willows and hid the raft with them. Then we
• 4:00:46
  Speaker 1: set out the lines. Next we slid into the river
• 4:00:49
  Speaker 1: and had a swim so as to freshen up and
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 1: cool off. Then we sit down on the sandy bottom
• 4:00:56
  Speaker 1: where the water was about knee deep, and watched the daylight.
• 4:01:01
  Speaker 1: Not a sound anywher's perfectly still, just like the whole
• 4:01:06
  Speaker 1: world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a clutter. And
• 4:01:10
  Speaker 1: maybe the first thing to see looking away over the
• 4:01:14
  Speaker 1: water was a kind of dull line. That was the
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: woods on the other side. You couldn't make nothing else out.
• 4:01:22
  Speaker 1: Then a pale place in the sky. Then more paleness
• 4:01:27
  Speaker 1: spreading around. Then the river softened up, away off and
• 4:01:31
  Speaker 1: warn't black anymore but gray. You could see little dark
• 4:01:36
  Speaker 1: spots drifting along ever so far away, trading sky was
• 4:01:40
  Speaker 1: and such things, and long black streaks, rafts. Sometimes you
• 4:01:46
  Speaker 1: could hear a sweep screaking or jumbled up voices. It
• 4:01:50
  Speaker 1: was so still, and sounds come so far, and by
• 4:01:54
  Speaker 1: and by you could see a streak on the water,
• 4:01:57
  Speaker 1: which you know by the look of the streak that
• 4:01:59
  Speaker 1: there's a snag. They're in the swift current which breaks
• 4:02:02
  Speaker 1: on it and makes that streak look that way. And
• 4:02:05
  Speaker 1: you see the mist curl up off of the water,
• 4:02:09
  Speaker 1: and the east reddens up, and the river and you
• 4:02:12
  Speaker 1: make out a log cabin in the edge of the
• 4:02:14
  Speaker 1: woods away on the bank on the other side of
• 4:02:17
  Speaker 1: the river, be in a woodyard likely and piled by
• 4:02:21
  Speaker 1: them cheats, so you can throw a dog through it anywheres.
• 4:02:25
  Speaker 1: Then the nice breeze springs up and comes fanning you
• 4:02:28
  Speaker 1: from over there, so cool and fresh and sweet smell
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 1: on account of the woods and the flowers. But sometimes
• 4:02:37
  Speaker 1: not that way, because they've left dead fish laying around
• 4:02:40
  Speaker 1: guards and such, and they do get pretty rank. And
• 4:02:44
  Speaker 1: next thing you got the full day and everything smiling
• 4:02:48
  Speaker 1: in the sun, and the songbirds just going it. A
• 4:02:53
  Speaker 1: little smoke couldn't be noticed. Now Sweet would take some
• 4:02:56
  Speaker 1: fish off of the lines and cook up a hot breakfast,
• 4:02:59
  Speaker 1: and after afterwards we would watch the lonesomeness of the river,
• 4:03:03
  Speaker 1: a kind of lazy along and buy and buy lazy
• 4:03:07
  Speaker 1: off to sleep, wake up by and by and look
• 4:03:10
  Speaker 1: to see what done it, and maybe see a steamboat
• 4:03:13
  Speaker 1: coughin along upstream so far off towards the other side.
• 4:03:17
  Speaker 1: You couldn't tell nothing about her, only whether she was
• 4:03:20
  Speaker 1: a stern wheeler side wheel. Then for about an hour
• 4:03:24
  Speaker 1: there wouldn't be nothing to hear nor nothing to see,
• 4:03:27
  Speaker 1: just a solid lonesomeness. Next you'd see a raft sliding
• 4:03:32
  Speaker 1: by away off yonder and maybe a glot on it choppin',
• 4:03:37
  Speaker 1: because they're most always doing it. On a raft. You'd
• 4:03:40
  Speaker 1: see the axe flash an come down. You don't hear nothing.
• 4:03:44
  Speaker 1: You see that axe go up again, and by the
• 4:03:47
  Speaker 1: time it's above the man's head, then you hear the
• 4:03:50
  Speaker 1: k chunk. It had took all that time to come
• 4:03:53
  Speaker 1: over the water, so we would put in the day
• 4:03:57
  Speaker 1: lazy and around listening to the still. Once there was
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: a thick fog and the rafts an things that went
• 4:04:04
  Speaker 1: by was beaten tin pans, so the steamboats wouldn't run
• 4:04:08
  Speaker 1: over them. A sky or a raft went by so
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 1: close we could hear them talking and cussin and laughin,
• 4:04:15
  Speaker 1: heard them plain, but we couldn't see no sign of them.
• 4:04:19
  Speaker 1: It made you feel Crawley. It was like spirits carryin
• 4:04:23
  Speaker 1: on that way in the air. Jim said he believed
• 4:04:27
  Speaker 1: it was spirits, but I says no. Spirits wouldn't say
• 4:04:32
  Speaker 1: durn the durned fog. Soon as it was night out,
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 1: we shoved. When we got her out to about the middle,
• 4:04:40
  Speaker 1: we'd let her alone and let her float wherever the
• 4:04:42
  Speaker 1: current wanted her to. Then we lit the pipes an
• 4:04:46
  Speaker 1: dangled our legs in the water and talked about all
• 4:04:49
  Speaker 1: kinds of things. We was always naked a day and
• 4:04:52
  Speaker 1: night whenever the mosquitoes would let us. The new clothes
• 4:04:56
  Speaker 1: bucks folks made for me was too good to be comfortable.
• 4:05:00
  Speaker 1: An besides, I didn't go much on clothes, nohow. Sometimes
• 4:05:04
  Speaker 1: we'd have that whole river all to ourselves for the
• 4:05:07
  Speaker 1: longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands across
• 4:05:12
  Speaker 1: the water. An maybe a spark, which was a candle
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 1: in a cabin window, And sometimes on the water you
• 4:05:19
  Speaker 1: could see a spark or two on a raft or
• 4:05:21
  Speaker 1: a scow, you know, and maybe you could hear a
• 4:05:24
  Speaker 1: fiddle or a song comin over from one of them crafts.
• 4:05:28
  Speaker 1: It's lovely to live on a raft. We had the
• 4:05:32
  Speaker 1: sky up there, all speckle with stars, and we used
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 1: to lay on our backs and look up at them
• 4:05:38
  Speaker 1: and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim,
• 4:05:43
  Speaker 1: he loud they was made, but I lowed they happened.
• 4:05:47
  Speaker 1: I judged it would have took so long to make
• 4:05:50
  Speaker 1: so many. Jim said the moon could allaid them. Well,
• 4:05:55
  Speaker 1: that looked kind of reasonable. Spidin's say nothin against it
• 4:06:00
  Speaker 1: because I've seen a frog lay most as many, so
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: of course it could be done. We used to watch
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 1: the stars that fell too, and see them streak down.
• 4:06:11
  Speaker 1: Jim alowed they'd got spoiled, and was hove out of
• 4:06:14
  Speaker 1: the nest. Once or twice of a night we could
• 4:06:18
  Speaker 1: see a steamboat slipping along in the dark, and now
• 4:06:21
  Speaker 1: and then she would belch a whole world of sparks
• 4:06:24
  Speaker 1: up out of her chimbleys, and they would rain down
• 4:06:27
  Speaker 1: in the river and look awful pretty. Then she would
• 4:06:31
  Speaker 1: turn a corner and her lights would wink out, and
• 4:06:34
  Speaker 1: her pilewow shut off, and leave the river still again,
• 4:06:38
  Speaker 1: and by and by her waves would get to us
• 4:06:41
  Speaker 1: a long time after she was gone, and joggle the
• 4:06:44
  Speaker 1: raft a bit. And after that you wouldn't hear nothing,
• 4:06:47
  Speaker 1: for you couldn't tell how long, except maybe frogs or something.
• 4:06:52
  Speaker 1: After midnight, the people on shore went to bed, and
• 4:06:56
  Speaker 1: then for two or three hours the shores was black.
• 4:06:59
  Speaker 1: More sparks in the cabin windows. These sparks was our clock.
• 4:07:05
  Speaker 1: The first one that showed again meant morning was coming.
• 4:07:08
  Speaker 1: So we hunted a place to hide and tie up
• 4:07:11
  Speaker 1: right away. One morning, about daybreak, I found a canoe
• 4:07:16
  Speaker 1: and crossed over a chute to the main shore. It
• 4:07:20
  Speaker 1: was only two hundred yards, and paddled about a mile
• 4:07:23
  Speaker 1: up a crook amongst the cypress woods to see if
• 4:07:26
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get some berries. Just as I was passing
• 4:07:29
  Speaker 1: a place where a kind of a cow path crossed
• 4:07:31
  Speaker 1: the creek, here comes a couple of men tearing up
• 4:07:34
  Speaker 1: the path as tight as they could foot it. I
• 4:07:38
  Speaker 1: thought I was a goner, for whenever anybody was after anybody,
• 4:07:42
  Speaker 1: I judged it as me or maybe Jim. I was
• 4:07:46
  Speaker 1: about to dig out from there in a hurry, but
• 4:07:49
  Speaker 1: they was pretty close to me then and sung out
• 4:07:52
  Speaker 1: and begged me to save their lives. Said they hadn't
• 4:07:55
  Speaker 1: been doing nothing and was being chased for it, and
• 4:07:58
  Speaker 1: there was men and dogs a come n They wanted
• 4:08:01
  Speaker 1: to jump right in, but I says, don't you do it.
• 4:08:05
  Speaker 1: I don't hear the dogs an horses yet. You've got
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 1: time to crowd through the brush an get up the
• 4:08:10
  Speaker 1: crick a little ways. Then you take to the water
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: and wait down to me, an get in. Bat'll throw
• 4:08:16
  Speaker 1: the dogs off the scent. They done it. An soon
• 4:08:20
  Speaker 1: as they was aboard, ILL lit out for our toe
• 4:08:23
  Speaker 1: head an. In about five or ten minutes, we heard
• 4:08:26
  Speaker 1: the dogs. An the men away off shoutin. We heard
• 4:08:29
  Speaker 1: them come along towards Crick couldn't see them. They seemed
• 4:08:33
  Speaker 1: to stop an fool around awhile. Then as we got
• 4:08:36
  Speaker 1: further and further away, all the time we couldn't hardly
• 4:08:39
  Speaker 1: hear them at all. And by the time we had
• 4:08:42
  Speaker 1: left a mile of woods behind us, An struck the river.
• 4:08:46
  Speaker 1: Everything was quiet, and we paddled over to the towhead.
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 1: An hid in the cottonwoods and was safe. One of
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: these fellows was about seventy or upwards. An had a
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 1: bald head and very gray whiskers. He had an old,
• 4:09:01
  Speaker 1: battered up slouch hat on and a greasy blue woolen
• 4:09:05
  Speaker 1: shirt and ragged old blue jeans, breeches stuffed into his
• 4:09:09
  Speaker 1: boot tops. An home nick glasses, No, he only had one.
• 4:09:14
  Speaker 1: He had an old, long tailed blue jean's coat with
• 4:09:18
  Speaker 1: slick brass buttons flung over his arm. An. Both of
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: them had big, fat, ratty looking carpet bags. The other
• 4:09:27
  Speaker 1: fellow was about thirty, An dressed about his ornery. After breakfast,
• 4:09:32
  Speaker 1: we all laid off and talked, and the first thing
• 4:09:34
  Speaker 1: to come out was that these chaps didn't know one another.
• 4:09:38
  Speaker 1: What got you into trouble, says the bald head to
• 4:09:42
  Speaker 1: the other chap. Well, i'd been sellin an article to
• 4:09:46
  Speaker 1: take the tartar off the teeth, and it does take
• 4:09:49
  Speaker 1: it off too, an generally the enamel along with it.
• 4:09:54
  Speaker 1: But I stayed about one night longer than I ought to,
• 4:09:58
  Speaker 1: and was just in the act slidin out when I
• 4:10:01
  Speaker 1: ran across you on the trail this side of town,
• 4:10:05
  Speaker 1: and you told me they were comin. An begged me
• 4:10:08
  Speaker 1: to help you to get off. So I told you
• 4:10:11
  Speaker 1: I was expectin' trouble myself, An was scattered out with you.
• 4:10:17
  Speaker 1: That's the whole yarn. What's yorn? Well, i'd been a
• 4:10:23
  Speaker 1: runnin a little temperance revival there about a week. An
• 4:10:26
  Speaker 1: was the pet of the women folks, big an little,
• 4:10:29
  Speaker 1: for I was makin it mighty warm for the rummies,
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 1: I tell you, an takin' as much as five or
• 4:10:34
  Speaker 1: six dollars a night, ten cents a head, children, and
• 4:10:37
  Speaker 1: nigger's free, an business of growing all the time. When
• 4:10:41
  Speaker 1: somehow or another, a little report got around last night
• 4:10:43
  Speaker 1: that I had a way of putting in my time
• 4:10:45
  Speaker 1: with a private jug on the slide, and Niggar rassed
• 4:10:48
  Speaker 1: me out this mornin and told me the people was
• 4:10:50
  Speaker 1: gathering on the quiet with their dogs an horses. An
• 4:10:53
  Speaker 1: then be long pretty soon and give me about half
• 4:10:55
  Speaker 1: an hour's start, An then run me down if they could.
• 4:10:58
  Speaker 1: An if they got me, they'd tarn feathered me and
• 4:11:01
  Speaker 1: ride me on a rail shore. I didn't wait for
• 4:11:03
  Speaker 1: no breakfast. I warn't hungry, old man, said the young one.
• 4:11:09
  Speaker 1: I reckon we might double team it together. What do
• 4:11:13
  Speaker 1: you think? I ain't undisposed. What's you lying? Mainly? Jeweler
• 4:11:19
  Speaker 1: printer by trade, do a little an patent, medicines, theater, actor, tragedy,
• 4:11:27
  Speaker 1: you know, take a turn to mesmerism and phrenology when
• 4:11:31
  Speaker 1: there's a chance. Teach singin geography school for a change,
• 4:11:36
  Speaker 1: sling a lecture sometimes. Oh, I do lots of things,
• 4:11:42
  Speaker 1: most anything that comes handy, so it ain't work. What's
• 4:11:47
  Speaker 1: your lay? I've done considerable in the doctrine, laying my time,
• 4:11:52
  Speaker 1: laying on hands is my best hope for cancer and
• 4:11:55
  Speaker 1: prolysis and such things. And I can tell a fortune
• 4:11:58
  Speaker 1: pretty good when I've got somebody long. If I out
• 4:12:00
  Speaker 1: facts for me preachings my line too, and working camp
• 4:12:04
  Speaker 1: meetings and missionarying around. Nobody never said anything for a while.
• 4:12:10
  Speaker 1: When the young man hove aside and says, oh, laugh,
• 4:12:16
  Speaker 1: what are you laughing about? Says the bald head, to
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 1: think I should have lived to be leading such a
• 4:12:23
  Speaker 1: life and be degraded down into such company? And he
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 1: had begun to wipe the corner of his eye with
• 4:12:30
  Speaker 1: a rag durn your skin. Ain't the company good enough
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 1: for you? Says the bald head, pretty perch and uppish. Yes,
• 4:12:41
  Speaker 1: it is good enough for me. It's as good as
• 4:12:44
  Speaker 1: I deserve. For who fetched me so low when I
• 4:12:47
  Speaker 1: was so high? I did myself. I don't blame you, gentlemen,
• 4:12:54
  Speaker 1: far from it. I don't blame anybody. I deserve it all.
• 4:13:01
  Speaker 1: Let the cold world do its worst. One thing. I
• 4:13:05
  Speaker 1: know there's a grave somewhere for me. The world may
• 4:13:10
  Speaker 1: go on just as it's always done. An take everything
• 4:13:15
  Speaker 1: from me, loved ones, property, everything, But it can't take that.
• 4:13:23
  Speaker 1: Someday I'll lie down in it an forget it all,
• 4:13:27
  Speaker 1: and my poor broken heart will be at rest. He
• 4:13:32
  Speaker 1: went on a wipin' Try your poor broken heart, says
• 4:13:36
  Speaker 1: the bald head, what do you given your poor broken
• 4:13:39
  Speaker 1: hearted us, For we ain't done nothing. No, I know
• 4:13:44
  Speaker 1: you haven't. I ain't blamin you, gentlemen. I brought myself down. Yes,
• 4:13:50
  Speaker 1: I did it myself. It's right I should suffer perfectly, right.
• 4:13:56
  Speaker 1: I don't make any moan. She's down from war? Where
• 4:14:01
  Speaker 1: was she brought down from? Uh? You would not believe me.
• 4:14:06
  Speaker 1: The world never believes. Let it pass tis no matter.
• 4:14:12
  Speaker 1: The secret of my birth, the secret her birth? Do
• 4:14:16
  Speaker 1: you mean to say, gentlemen? Says the young man, very solemn.
• 4:14:22
  Speaker 1: I will reveal it to you, for I feel I
• 4:14:26
  Speaker 1: may have confidence in you. By rights, I am a duke.
• 4:14:33
  Speaker 1: Jim's eyes bugged out when he heard that, and I
• 4:14:36
  Speaker 1: reckon mind it too. Then the bald head says, no,
• 4:14:41
  Speaker 1: you can't mean it. Yes, my great grandfather, eldest son
• 4:14:47
  Speaker 1: of the Duke of Bridgewater, fled to this country by
• 4:14:51
  Speaker 1: the end of the last century to breathe the pure
• 4:14:54
  Speaker 1: air of freedom, married here and died, leaving a son
• 4:14:59
  Speaker 1: his own father dying about the same time. The second
• 4:15:03
  Speaker 1: son of the late duke seized the titles and the states.
• 4:15:08
  Speaker 1: The infant's real duke was ignored. I am the lineal
• 4:15:13
  Speaker 1: descendant of that infant. I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater,
• 4:15:19
  Speaker 1: and here am I forlorn, torn from my high estate,
• 4:15:25
  Speaker 1: hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged worn, heartbroken,
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 1: and degraded to the companionship of felons on a raft.
• 4:15:38
  Speaker 1: Jim pitied him ever so much, and so to die.
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: We tried to comfort him, but he said it warn't
• 4:15:44
  Speaker 1: much use. He couldn't be much comforted, and if we
• 4:15:48
  Speaker 1: was a mind to acknowledge him, that would do him
• 4:15:50
  Speaker 1: more good than most anything else. So we said we
• 4:15:53
  Speaker 1: would if he would tell us how he said. We
• 4:15:57
  Speaker 1: ought to buy when we spoke to him, and say
• 4:16:00
  Speaker 1: your grace, or my lord or your lordship, and he
• 4:16:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind if we called him Plain Bridgewater, which he
• 4:16:10
  Speaker 1: said was a title anyway, and not a name. And
• 4:16:13
  Speaker 1: one of us ought to wait on him at dinner
• 4:16:15
  Speaker 1: and do any little thing for him he wanted done. Well,
• 4:16:19
  Speaker 1: that was all easy, so we done it all through dinner.
• 4:16:23
  Speaker 1: Jim stood around and waited on him and says, will
• 4:16:27
  Speaker 1: your grace have some meduse or some ma dad, and
• 4:16:31
  Speaker 1: so on? An a body could see it was mighty
• 4:16:33
  Speaker 1: pleasing to him. But the old man got pretty silent
• 4:16:38
  Speaker 1: by and by, didn't have much to say and didn't
• 4:16:41
  Speaker 1: look pretty comfortable over all that petting that was going
• 4:16:44
  Speaker 1: on around that duke. He seemed to have something on
• 4:16:47
  Speaker 1: his mind. So along in the afternoon he says, look
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 1: at yer Bill Twater. He says, I'm nation sorry for you,
• 4:16:57
  Speaker 1: But you ain't the only person that's had troubles like that. No, no,
• 4:17:02
  Speaker 1: you ain't. You ain't the only person that's been snaked
• 4:17:05
  Speaker 1: down wrongfully out in a high place. Alas, No, you
• 4:17:10
  Speaker 1: ain't the only person that's had a secret of his birth.
• 4:17:13
  Speaker 1: And by jings he begins to cry, Hold what do
• 4:17:19
  Speaker 1: you mean, bilge Water, Can I trust you? Says the
• 4:17:23
  Speaker 1: old man, still sort of sobbing to the bitter death.
• 4:17:29
  Speaker 1: He took the old man by the hand and squeezed
• 4:17:31
  Speaker 1: it and says that secret of your being speak, Bilchwater,
• 4:17:39
  Speaker 1: I am the late Dauphin. You bet you, Jim and
• 4:17:43
  Speaker 1: me stare this time. Then the duke says, you are
• 4:17:48
  Speaker 1: what Yes, my friend, it is too true. Your eyes
• 4:17:53
  Speaker 1: is looking at this very moment on the poor disappeared
• 4:17:56
  Speaker 1: Dauphin Louis the seventeen son of the sixteen and mare Antinette.
• 4:18:03
  Speaker 1: You at your age? No, you mean you're the late Charlemagne.
• 4:18:10
  Speaker 1: You must be six or seven hundred years old at
• 4:18:13
  Speaker 1: the very least. Trouble has done it, Bills, what a
• 4:18:17
  Speaker 1: trouble has done it? Trouble has brung these gray hairs
• 4:18:20
  Speaker 1: and this premature bultitude. Yes, gentlemen, you see before you,
• 4:18:25
  Speaker 1: in blue jeans and misery, the wandering exiled, tramped on
• 4:18:29
  Speaker 1: and suffering, rightful King of France. Well, he cried and
• 4:18:35
  Speaker 1: took on so that me and Jim didn't know hardly
• 4:18:38
  Speaker 1: what to do. We was so sorry and so glad
• 4:18:41
  Speaker 1: and proud we'd got him with us too. So we
• 4:18:44
  Speaker 1: set in like we've done before with the Duke, and
• 4:18:47
  Speaker 1: tried to comfort him. But he said it warn't no use,
• 4:18:51
  Speaker 1: nothing but to be dead and done with it. All
• 4:18:53
  Speaker 1: could do him any good, though, he said, it off
• 4:18:56
  Speaker 1: and made him feel easier and better for a while
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 1: if people treated him according to his rights and got
• 4:19:02
  Speaker 1: down on one knee to speak to him, and always
• 4:19:04
  Speaker 1: called him your majesty, and waited on him first at meals,
• 4:19:09
  Speaker 1: and didn't set down in his presence till he asked them.
• 4:19:13
  Speaker 1: So Jim and me set to majesty in him, and
• 4:19:16
  Speaker 1: doing this and that and the other for him, and
• 4:19:18
  Speaker 1: standing up till he told us we might sit down.
• 4:19:21
  Speaker 1: This done him heaps good, and so he got cheerful
• 4:19:24
  Speaker 1: and comfortable. But the Duke kind of soured on him
• 4:19:28
  Speaker 1: and didn't look a bit satisfied with the way things
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 1: was going. Still, the King acted real friendly towards him,
• 4:19:35
  Speaker 1: and said the duke's great grandfather and all the other
• 4:19:39
  Speaker 1: dukes of Billgewater was a good deal thought of by
• 4:19:41
  Speaker 1: his father, and was allowed to come to the palace considerable.
• 4:19:46
  Speaker 1: But the Duke stayed huffy a good while till by
• 4:19:49
  Speaker 1: and by the King says, like as night we got
• 4:19:52
  Speaker 1: to be together a blamed long time on this here
• 4:19:55
  Speaker 1: raft Billgewater. And so what's these? So you'll being sour?
• 4:19:58
  Speaker 1: It'll only make things uncomfortable. It ain't my fault. I
• 4:20:02
  Speaker 1: warn't born a duke. It ain't your fault. You warn't
• 4:20:05
  Speaker 1: born a king. So what's see used to worry? Make
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 1: the best of things the way you find em, says I.
• 4:20:10
  Speaker 1: That's my motto. This ain't no bad thing that was
• 4:20:13
  Speaker 1: struck here plenty grubbin an easy life. Come give a
• 4:20:17
  Speaker 1: shra hand of Duke and let's all be friends. The
• 4:20:20
  Speaker 1: Duke done it an Jimmy me was pretty glad to
• 4:20:22
  Speaker 1: see it. It took away all the uncomfortableness, and we
• 4:20:26
  Speaker 1: felt mighty good over it, because it would have been
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 1: a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the raft.
• 4:20:33
  Speaker 1: For what you want, above all things on a raft
• 4:20:37
  Speaker 1: is for everybody to be satisfied and feel right and
• 4:20:41
  Speaker 1: kind towards the others. It didn't take me long to
• 4:20:44
  Speaker 1: make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings
• 4:20:47
  Speaker 1: nor duke's at all, but just low down humbugs and frauds.
• 4:20:51
  Speaker 1: But I never said nothing, never let on, kept it
• 4:20:55
  Speaker 1: to myself. It's the best way. Then you don't have
• 4:20:58
  Speaker 1: no quarrels and don't care into no trouble. If they
• 4:21:02
  Speaker 1: wanted us to call them kings and dukes, I hadn't
• 4:21:04
  Speaker 1: no objections as long as they would keep peace in
• 4:21:07
  Speaker 1: the family. And it weren't no use to tell Jim,
• 4:21:10
  Speaker 1: so I didn't tell him. If I never learned nothing
• 4:21:13
  Speaker 1: else out of Pap, I learned that the best way
• 4:21:16
  Speaker 1: to get along with his kind of people is to
• 4:21:19
  Speaker 1: let them have their own way. End of chapter nineteen,
• 4:21:27
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty, they asked us considerable many questions. Wanted to
• 4:21:33
  Speaker 1: know what we covered up the raft that way for
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 1: and laid by in the daytime instead of running? Was
• 4:21:39
  Speaker 1: Jim a runaway nigger? Says I, goodness sakes, would a
• 4:21:45
  Speaker 1: runaway nigger run south? No, they allowed he wouldn't. I
• 4:21:51
  Speaker 1: had to account for things someway, so I says. My
• 4:21:55
  Speaker 1: folks was living in Pike County in Missouri when I
• 4:21:58
  Speaker 1: was born, and they all died off, but me and
• 4:22:02
  Speaker 1: Pau and my brother Ike Paw he loud he'd break
• 4:22:06
  Speaker 1: up and go down and live with Uncle Ben, who's
• 4:22:08
  Speaker 1: got a little one horse place on the river forty
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 1: four mile below Orleans. Pa was pretty poor and had
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 1: some debts, so when he'd square it up, there warn't
• 4:22:18
  Speaker 1: nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger Jim. That
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 1: warn't enough to take us fourteen hundred mile duck passed,
• 4:22:26
  Speaker 1: nor no other way. Well, when the river rose, Paw
• 4:22:30
  Speaker 1: had a streak of luck. One day he catched this
• 4:22:33
  Speaker 1: piece of a raft, so we reckon, we go down
• 4:22:35
  Speaker 1: to Orleans on it. Pau's luck didn't hold out. The
• 4:22:39
  Speaker 1: steamboat run over the four corner of the raft one night,
• 4:22:43
  Speaker 1: and we all went overboard and dove under the wheel.
• 4:22:47
  Speaker 1: Jim and me come up all right, but Paul was
• 4:22:49
  Speaker 1: drunk and Ike was only four years old, so they
• 4:22:53
  Speaker 1: never come up no more. Well. For the next day
• 4:22:57
  Speaker 1: or two we had considerable trouble because people was always
• 4:23:00
  Speaker 1: coming out in skiffs and trying to take Jim away
• 4:23:03
  Speaker 1: from me, saying they believed he was a runaway nigger.
• 4:23:07
  Speaker 1: We don't run daytimes no more. Now nights they don't
• 4:23:11
  Speaker 1: bother us. The Duke says, leave me alone to cipher
• 4:23:16
  Speaker 1: out away, so we can run in the daytime if
• 4:23:19
  Speaker 1: we want to. I'll think the thing over, I'll invent
• 4:23:24
  Speaker 1: a plan that'll fix it. We'll let it alone for today,
• 4:23:29
  Speaker 1: because of course, we don't want to go by that
• 4:23:32
  Speaker 1: town Yonder in daylight. It mightn't be healthy. Towards night,
• 4:23:39
  Speaker 1: it begun to darken up and look like rain. The
• 4:23:42
  Speaker 1: heat lightning was squirting around low down in the sky,
• 4:23:45
  Speaker 1: and the leaves was beginning to shiver. It was going
• 4:23:49
  Speaker 1: to be pretty ugly. It was easy to see that.
• 4:23:52
  Speaker 1: So the Duke and the King went to overhauling our
• 4:23:55
  Speaker 1: wigwam to see what the beds was like. My bed
• 4:23:59
  Speaker 1: was a straw tip better than Jem's, which was a
• 4:24:02
  Speaker 1: cornshuck tick. There's always cobs around in a shuck tick,
• 4:24:06
  Speaker 1: and they poke into you and hurt, and when you
• 4:24:09
  Speaker 1: roll over the dry shuck sounded like you was rolling
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 1: over in a pile of dead leaves, and make such
• 4:24:15
  Speaker 1: a rustling that you wake up well. The Duke allowed
• 4:24:19
  Speaker 1: he would take my bed, but the King allowed he wouldn't.
• 4:24:23
  Speaker 1: He says, I should have reckoned the difference in rank,
• 4:24:26
  Speaker 1: would have suggested to Hugh that a cornshuck bed weren't
• 4:24:29
  Speaker 1: just fitting for me to sleep on. Your grace, will
• 4:24:31
  Speaker 1: take the shuck bed yourself. Jim and me was in
• 4:24:35
  Speaker 1: a sweat again for a minute, being afraid there was
• 4:24:38
  Speaker 1: going to be some more trouble amongst them. So we
• 4:24:41
  Speaker 1: was pretty glad when the Duke says, tis my fate
• 4:24:45
  Speaker 1: to be always ground into the mire under the iron
• 4:24:49
  Speaker 1: heel of oppression. Misfortune has broken my once hottest spirit.
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 1: I yield, I submit tis my fate. Eight I am
• 4:25:01
  Speaker 1: alone in the world. Let me suffer, can bear it.
• 4:25:07
  Speaker 1: We got away as soon as it was good and dark.
• 4:25:10
  Speaker 1: The King told us to stand well out towards the
• 4:25:12
  Speaker 1: middle of the river and not show a light till
• 4:25:15
  Speaker 1: we had got a long ways below the town. We
• 4:25:18
  Speaker 1: come inside of the little bunch of lights by, and
• 4:25:21
  Speaker 1: by that was the town, you know, an slid by
• 4:25:24
  Speaker 1: about a half mile out all right. When we was
• 4:25:28
  Speaker 1: three quarters of a mile below, we hoisted up our
• 4:25:31
  Speaker 1: signal lantern. An about ten o'clock it come on to rain,
• 4:25:35
  Speaker 1: an blow, an thunder and lightin like everything. So the
• 4:25:39
  Speaker 1: king told us both to stay on watch till the
• 4:25:42
  Speaker 1: weather got better. Then him and the Duke crawled into
• 4:25:45
  Speaker 1: the wigwam and turned in for the night. It was
• 4:25:48
  Speaker 1: my watch below till twelve. But I wouldn't a turned
• 4:25:52
  Speaker 1: in anyway if i'd had a bed, cause a body
• 4:25:54
  Speaker 1: don't see such a storm as that every day in
• 4:25:57
  Speaker 1: the week, not by a long sight, my soul's how
• 4:26:02
  Speaker 1: the wind did scream along an ever second or two,
• 4:26:05
  Speaker 1: there'd come a glare that lit up the white caps
• 4:26:08
  Speaker 1: for a mile around, and you'd see the islands lookin
• 4:26:11
  Speaker 1: dusty through the rain, an the trees thrashing around in
• 4:26:15
  Speaker 1: the wind. Then comes a whack bum bum bumblumblum bum
• 4:26:20
  Speaker 1: bum bum bum, and the thunder would go rumblin an
• 4:26:24
  Speaker 1: grumblin away an quit an then rip comes another flash
• 4:26:29
  Speaker 1: and another shock. Dollager. The waves must wash me off
• 4:26:33
  Speaker 1: the raft sometimes, but I hadn't any clothes on and
• 4:26:36
  Speaker 1: didn't mind. We didn't have no trouble about snags. The
• 4:26:40
  Speaker 1: lightning was glarin an flutterin around, so constant that we
• 4:26:45
  Speaker 1: could see them plenty, soon enough to throw her head
• 4:26:47
  Speaker 1: this way or that, an miss them. I had the
• 4:26:50
  Speaker 1: middle watch, you know, but I was pretty sleepy by
• 4:26:53
  Speaker 1: that time. So Jim, he said he would stand the
• 4:26:57
  Speaker 1: first half of it for me. He was always mighty
• 4:27:00
  Speaker 1: good that way, Jim was. I crawled into the wigwam,
• 4:27:05
  Speaker 1: but the King and the Duke had their legs sprawled around,
• 4:27:08
  Speaker 1: so there warn't no show for me. So I laid outside.
• 4:27:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't mind the rain because it was warm and
• 4:27:15
  Speaker 1: the waves warn't runnin so high. Now about two they
• 4:27:18
  Speaker 1: come up again, though an Jim was goin to call me,
• 4:27:21
  Speaker 1: but he changed his mind because he reckoned they warn't
• 4:27:24
  Speaker 1: high enough yet to do any harm. But he was
• 4:27:27
  Speaker 1: mistaken about that, for pretty soon, all of a sudden
• 4:27:30
  Speaker 1: along comes a regular ripper an washed me overboard. They
• 4:27:34
  Speaker 1: most killed Jim a laughin'. He was the easiest nigger
• 4:27:38
  Speaker 1: to laugh that ever. Was anyway. I took the watch
• 4:27:43
  Speaker 1: an jim, he lay down and snored away, and by
• 4:27:46
  Speaker 1: and by the storm lit up for good and all
• 4:27:48
  Speaker 1: an the first cap'n light that showed, I rafted him out,
• 4:27:52
  Speaker 1: an we slid the raft into hiding quarters for the day.
• 4:27:57
  Speaker 1: The King got out an old ratty duck of cards,
• 4:27:59
  Speaker 1: left breakfast, and him and the Duke played seven up
• 4:28:02
  Speaker 1: a while five cents a game. Then they got tired
• 4:28:06
  Speaker 1: of it and allowed they would lay out a campaign,
• 4:28:09
  Speaker 1: as they called it. The Duke went down into his
• 4:28:12
  Speaker 1: carpet bag and fetched up a lot of little printed
• 4:28:15
  Speaker 1: bills and read them out loud. One bill said the
• 4:28:19
  Speaker 1: celebrated doctor Rmondge de Maltaban of Paris would lecture on
• 4:28:25
  Speaker 1: the science of phrenology at such and such a place
• 4:28:29
  Speaker 1: on the blank day of blank, at ten cents a mission,
• 4:28:32
  Speaker 1: and furnished charts of character at twenty five cents apiece.
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 1: The Duke said that was him. In another bill he
• 4:28:42
  Speaker 1: was the world renowned Shakespearean tragedian to Carrick the Younger
• 4:28:48
  Speaker 1: of Drury Lane, London. In other bills he had a
• 4:28:53
  Speaker 1: lot of other names and done other wonderful things like
• 4:28:57
  Speaker 1: finding water and gold, with a divine in ride, dissipating
• 4:29:01
  Speaker 1: which spells, and so on, By and bye, he says.
• 4:29:07
  Speaker 1: But the histrionic muse is the darling. Have you ever
• 4:29:12
  Speaker 1: tried the board's royalty? No, says the King. You shall,
• 4:29:18
  Speaker 1: then before you're three days older, fallin grandeur, says the Duke.
• 4:29:25
  Speaker 1: The first good town we come to, we'll hire a
• 4:29:29
  Speaker 1: haul and do the sword fightin Richard third and the
• 4:29:33
  Speaker 1: balcony scene and brome Yo and Juliet. How does that
• 4:29:37
  Speaker 1: strike you? I'm in up to the hub for anything
• 4:29:42
  Speaker 1: that will pay Bilgewater. But you see, I don't know
• 4:29:45
  Speaker 1: nothing about play actin and hain't ever seen much of it.
• 4:29:49
  Speaker 1: I was too small when Pap used to have him
• 4:29:51
  Speaker 1: at the palace. Do you reckon? You can learn me easy?
• 4:29:56
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm just freezing for something fresh anyway, commands
• 4:30:00
  Speaker 1: right away. So the Duke he told him all about
• 4:30:04
  Speaker 1: who Romeo was and who Juliet was, and said he
• 4:30:08
  Speaker 1: was used to be in Romeo, so the King could
• 4:30:10
  Speaker 1: be Juliet. But if Juliet's such a young gale, Duke,
• 4:30:15
  Speaker 1: my pealed head and my white whiskers is going to
• 4:30:17
  Speaker 1: look uncommon eyed on her. Maybe, No, don't you worry.
• 4:30:22
  Speaker 1: These country jigs won't ever think of that. Besides, you
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 1: know you'll be in costume, and that makes all the
• 4:30:30
  Speaker 1: difference in the world. Juliet's in a balcony, enjoy the
• 4:30:36
  Speaker 1: moonlight before she goes to bed, and she's got on
• 4:30:39
  Speaker 1: her nightgown and her ruffled nightcap. Here are the costumes
• 4:30:45
  Speaker 1: for the parts. He got out two or three curtain
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 1: calico suits, which he says was many evil armor for
• 4:30:53
  Speaker 1: Richard third and the other chap and a long white
• 4:30:57
  Speaker 1: cotton night shirt and a ruffled nightcap to match. The
• 4:31:00
  Speaker 1: King was satisfied, said the Duke got out his book
• 4:31:03
  Speaker 1: and read the parts over an the most splendid spread
• 4:31:07
  Speaker 1: eagle way, prancin around and acting at the same time
• 4:31:11
  Speaker 1: to show how it had to be done. Then he
• 4:31:13
  Speaker 1: give the book to the King and told him to
• 4:31:16
  Speaker 1: get his part by heart. There was a little one
• 4:31:19
  Speaker 1: horse town about three mile down the bend. An After dinner,
• 4:31:23
  Speaker 1: the duke said he had ciphered out his idea about
• 4:31:26
  Speaker 1: how to run in daylight without it beIN dangersome for Jim,
• 4:31:29
  Speaker 1: so he allowed he would go down to the town
• 4:31:31
  Speaker 1: and fix that thing. The King allowed he would go too,
• 4:31:35
  Speaker 1: and see if he couldn't strike somethin'. We was out
• 4:31:38
  Speaker 1: o coffee, so Jim said I'd better go along with
• 4:31:41
  Speaker 1: them in the canoe and get some. When we got there,
• 4:31:44
  Speaker 1: there warn't nobody stirring. Streets empty and perfectly dead and
• 4:31:48
  Speaker 1: still like sunday. We found a sick nigger sunning himself
• 4:31:52
  Speaker 1: in a back yard an he said, everybody that warn't
• 4:31:55
  Speaker 1: too young or too sick or too old was gone
• 4:31:59
  Speaker 1: to camp meetin' about two mile back in the woods.
• 4:32:02
  Speaker 1: The King got the directions and allowed he'd go an
• 4:32:05
  Speaker 1: work that camp meetin for all it was worth an
• 4:32:08
  Speaker 1: I might go too. The Duke said what he was
• 4:32:11
  Speaker 1: after was a printing office. We found it a little
• 4:32:15
  Speaker 1: bit of a concern up over a carpenter shop. Carpenters
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 1: and printers all gone to the meeting, and no old
• 4:32:21
  Speaker 1: doors locked. It was a dirty, littered up place, and
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 1: had ink marks and handbills with pictures of horses and
• 4:32:28
  Speaker 1: runaway niggers on 'em all over the walls. The Duke
• 4:32:33
  Speaker 1: shed his coat and said he was all right now,
• 4:32:35
  Speaker 1: So me an, the King lit out for the camp meetin'.
• 4:32:39
  Speaker 1: We got there in about a half an hour, fairly drippin',
• 4:32:42
  Speaker 1: for it was a most awful hot day. There was
• 4:32:46
  Speaker 1: as much as a thousand people there from twenty mile round.
• 4:32:50
  Speaker 1: The woods was full of teams and wagons hitched everywheres,
• 4:32:54
  Speaker 1: feedin' out of the wagon troughs, and stompin' to keep
• 4:32:56
  Speaker 1: off the flies. There was sheds and ate out of
• 4:33:00
  Speaker 1: poles and roofed over with branches, for they had lemonade
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 1: and gingerbread to sell, and piles of watermelons and green
• 4:33:08
  Speaker 1: corn and such like. Truck The preaching was going on
• 4:33:12
  Speaker 1: under the same kinds of sheds, only they was bigger
• 4:33:15
  Speaker 1: and held crowds of people. The benches was made out
• 4:33:19
  Speaker 1: of outside slabs of logs with holes bored in the
• 4:33:22
  Speaker 1: round side to drive sticks into for legs. They didn't
• 4:33:27
  Speaker 1: have no backs. The preachers had high platforms to stand
• 4:33:30
  Speaker 1: on at one end of the sheds. The women had
• 4:33:33
  Speaker 1: on sunbonnets, and some had linsey woolsey frocks, some gingham ones,
• 4:33:39
  Speaker 1: and a few of the young ones had on calico.
• 4:33:42
  Speaker 1: Some of the young men was barefooted, and some of
• 4:33:45
  Speaker 1: the children didn't have on any clothes but just a
• 4:33:47
  Speaker 1: toe linen shirt. Some of the old women was knitting
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 1: and some of the young folks was courting on the sly.
• 4:33:55
  Speaker 1: The first shed we come to. The preacher was lying
• 4:33:58
  Speaker 1: out of him. He lined out two lines. Everybody sung it,
• 4:34:03
  Speaker 1: and it was kind of grand to hear it. There
• 4:34:06
  Speaker 1: were so many of them, and they'd done it in
• 4:34:08
  Speaker 1: such a rousing way. Then he lined out too more
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: for them to sing, and so on. The people woke
• 4:34:15
  Speaker 1: up more and more and sung louder and louder, and
• 4:34:18
  Speaker 1: towards the end some begun to groan, and some begun
• 4:34:21
  Speaker 1: to shout. Then the preacher begun to preach, and begun
• 4:34:25
  Speaker 1: in earnest too, And when weaving first to one side
• 4:34:29
  Speaker 1: of the platform and then the other, and then a
• 4:34:32
  Speaker 1: leaning down over the front of it, with his arms
• 4:34:34
  Speaker 1: and his body going all the time and shouting his
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: words out with all his mind, and every now and
• 4:34:40
  Speaker 1: then he would hold up his bible and spread it
• 4:34:42
  Speaker 1: open and kind of pass it around this way and that,
• 4:34:45
  Speaker 1: shouting it's the brazen serpent in the wilderness, look upon
• 4:34:50
  Speaker 1: it and live, And people would shout out glory, He ainmen.
• 4:34:56
  Speaker 1: And so he went on, and the people groaning and
• 4:34:59
  Speaker 1: crying and saying, amen, Oh, come to the mourner's bench.
• 4:35:05
  Speaker 1: Come black with sin. Amen, Come sick and sore, Amen,
• 4:35:12
  Speaker 1: Come lame and halt and blind. Amen, Come poor and needy,
• 4:35:19
  Speaker 1: sunk in shame a amen. Come all that's worn and
• 4:35:24
  Speaker 1: soiled and suffering. Come with a broken spirit, Come with
• 4:35:28
  Speaker 1: a contrite heart. Come in your rags and sin and dirt.
• 4:35:33
  Speaker 1: The waters that cleanse us free. The door of heaven
• 4:35:35
  Speaker 1: stands open. Oh, enter in it, be at rest, Amen, Glory, glory, hallelujah,
• 4:35:43
  Speaker 1: and so on. You can make out what the preacher
• 4:35:46
  Speaker 1: said anymore. On account of the shouting and crying. Folks
• 4:35:50
  Speaker 1: got up everywhere in the crowd and work their way
• 4:35:53
  Speaker 1: just by main strength to the mourner's bench, with the
• 4:35:57
  Speaker 1: tears running down their faces. When all the mourner she
• 4:36:00
  Speaker 1: got up there to the front benches in a crowd,
• 4:36:03
  Speaker 1: they sung and shouted and flung themselves down on the straw,
• 4:36:07
  Speaker 1: just crazy and wild. Well, the first thing I knowed,
• 4:36:11
  Speaker 1: the king got a goin and you could hear him
• 4:36:14
  Speaker 1: over everybody. And next he went to charging up onto
• 4:36:17
  Speaker 1: the platform, and the preacher he begged him to speak
• 4:36:21
  Speaker 1: to the people, and he done it. He told them
• 4:36:24
  Speaker 1: he was a pirate, been a pirate for thirty years
• 4:36:27
  Speaker 1: out in the Indian Ocean, and his crew was thinned
• 4:36:30
  Speaker 1: out considerable left spring in a fight, and he was
• 4:36:34
  Speaker 1: home now to take out some fresh men. And thanks
• 4:36:37
  Speaker 1: to goodness, he'd been ribbed last night and put ashore
• 4:36:39
  Speaker 1: off of a steamboat without a cent, and he was
• 4:36:42
  Speaker 1: glad of it. It was the blessedest thing that ever
• 4:36:45
  Speaker 1: happened to him, because he was a changed man now
• 4:36:49
  Speaker 1: and happy for the first time in his life, and
• 4:36:52
  Speaker 1: poor as he was, he was going to start right
• 4:36:54
  Speaker 1: off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean
• 4:36:57
  Speaker 1: and put in the rest of his life trying to
• 4:37:00
  Speaker 1: turn the pirates into the true path, for he could
• 4:37:03
  Speaker 1: do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all
• 4:37:06
  Speaker 1: pirate crews in that ocean. And though it would take
• 4:37:09
  Speaker 1: him a long time to get there without money, he
• 4:37:12
  Speaker 1: would get there anyway. And every time he convinced a pirate,
• 4:37:16
  Speaker 1: he would say to him, don't you think me, Don't
• 4:37:19
  Speaker 1: you give me no credit? It all belongs to them
• 4:37:22
  Speaker 1: dear people in Polkville camp, meetin' natural brothers and benefactors
• 4:37:26
  Speaker 1: of the race. And that dear preacher there the truest
• 4:37:30
  Speaker 1: friend a pirate ever had, and then he busted into tears,
• 4:37:34
  Speaker 1: and so did everybody, and somebody sings out, take up
• 4:37:39
  Speaker 1: a collection for him, take up a collection. Well a
• 4:37:43
  Speaker 1: half a dozen made a jump to do it, but
• 4:37:46
  Speaker 1: somebody sings out, let him pass the hat around. Then
• 4:37:50
  Speaker 1: everybody said it the preacher too. So the king went
• 4:37:54
  Speaker 1: all through the crowd with his hat, swapping his eyes
• 4:37:58
  Speaker 1: and blessing the people and praising them em an thanking
• 4:38:01
  Speaker 1: them for being so good to the poor pirates away
• 4:38:03
  Speaker 1: off there and never little while the prettiest kind of
• 4:38:07
  Speaker 1: girls with the tears running down their cheeks would up
• 4:38:10
  Speaker 1: and ask him would he let them kiss him for
• 4:38:13
  Speaker 1: to remember him by an He always done it. An
• 4:38:16
  Speaker 1: some of them he hugged and kissed as many as
• 4:38:18
  Speaker 1: five or six times. And he was invited to stay
• 4:38:21
  Speaker 1: a week, And everybody wanted him to live in their houses,
• 4:38:24
  Speaker 1: and said they'd think it wasn't honor, But he said,
• 4:38:28
  Speaker 1: as this was the last day of the camp meetin',
• 4:38:30
  Speaker 1: he couldn't do no good. An besides, he was in
• 4:38:33
  Speaker 1: a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off
• 4:38:36
  Speaker 1: an go to work on the pirates. When we got
• 4:38:39
  Speaker 1: back to the raft, he come to count up he
• 4:38:41
  Speaker 1: found he had neglected eighty seven dollars an seventy five
• 4:38:44
  Speaker 1: cents an. Then he had fetched away a three gallon
• 4:38:47
  Speaker 1: jrug of whiskey too, that he found under a wagon
• 4:38:50
  Speaker 1: when he was startin home through the woods. The King said,
• 4:38:54
  Speaker 1: take it all around. It laid over any day he'd
• 4:38:56
  Speaker 1: ever put in in The missionary in line, he said,
• 4:39:00
  Speaker 1: it warn't no use talking heathen stone amount to shucks
• 4:39:03
  Speaker 1: alongside of pirates to work a camp meetin with. The
• 4:39:07
  Speaker 1: Duke was thinking he'd been doing pretty well till the
• 4:39:10
  Speaker 1: king come to show up, but after that he didn't
• 4:39:13
  Speaker 1: think so so much. He had set up and printed
• 4:39:16
  Speaker 1: off two little jobs for farmers in that printing office
• 4:39:19
  Speaker 1: horse bills, and took the money four dollars, and he
• 4:39:23
  Speaker 1: had gotten ten dollars worth of advertisements for the paper,
• 4:39:27
  Speaker 1: which he said would put in for four dollars if
• 4:39:29
  Speaker 1: they would pay in advance. So they'd done it. The
• 4:39:32
  Speaker 1: price of the paper was two dollars a year, but
• 4:39:35
  Speaker 1: he took in three subscriptions for a dollar piece on
• 4:39:38
  Speaker 1: condition of them paying in advance. They were going to
• 4:39:41
  Speaker 1: pay in cord wood and onions as usual, But he
• 4:39:44
  Speaker 1: said he had just bought the concern and knocked down
• 4:39:47
  Speaker 1: the price as low as he could afford it, and
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 1: was going to run it for cash. He set up
• 4:39:52
  Speaker 1: a little piece of poetry which he made himself out
• 4:39:54
  Speaker 1: of his own head. Three verses, kind of sweet and saddish.
• 4:40:00
  Speaker 1: Aim of it was Yes, crush cold world, this breakin
• 4:40:04
  Speaker 1: heart an. He left that all set up and ready
• 4:40:07
  Speaker 1: to print in the paper, and didn't charge nothin for it. Well,
• 4:40:11
  Speaker 1: he took in nine dollars and a half and said
• 4:40:13
  Speaker 1: he'd done a pretty square day's work for it. Then
• 4:40:16
  Speaker 1: he showed us another little job he'd printed and hadn't
• 4:40:19
  Speaker 1: charged for because it was for us, and had a
• 4:40:22
  Speaker 1: picture of a runaway nigger with a bundle on a
• 4:40:25
  Speaker 1: stick over his shoulder and two hundred dollar reward under it.
• 4:40:30
  Speaker 1: The reading was all about Jim and just described him
• 4:40:33
  Speaker 1: to a dot. It said he'd run away from Saint
• 4:40:36
  Speaker 1: Jock's plantation forty mile below New Orleans last winter and
• 4:40:41
  Speaker 1: likely went north, and whoever would catch him and send
• 4:40:44
  Speaker 1: him back he could have the reward and expenses. Now,
• 4:40:50
  Speaker 1: says the Duke, after to night, we can run in
• 4:40:53
  Speaker 1: the daytime if we want to, Whenever we see anybody
• 4:40:57
  Speaker 1: comin' we can tie Jim hand and foot with a
• 4:41:01
  Speaker 1: rope and lay him in the wigwam and show this
• 4:41:05
  Speaker 1: handbill and say we captured him up the river and
• 4:41:09
  Speaker 1: were too poor to travel on a steamboat, so we
• 4:41:12
  Speaker 1: got this little raft on credit from our friends and
• 4:41:16
  Speaker 1: are going down to get the reward. Handcuffs and chains
• 4:41:20
  Speaker 1: would look better on Jim, but it wouldn't go well
• 4:41:24
  Speaker 1: with the story of us being so poor. Too much
• 4:41:27
  Speaker 1: like jewelry, ropes are the correct thing. We must preserve
• 4:41:33
  Speaker 1: the unities, as we say on the boards. We all
• 4:41:37
  Speaker 1: said the duke was pretty smart and there couldn't be
• 4:41:40
  Speaker 1: no trouble about running day times. We judged we could
• 4:41:44
  Speaker 1: make miles enough that night to get out of the
• 4:41:46
  Speaker 1: reach of the pow wow. We reckoned the Duke's work
• 4:41:48
  Speaker 1: and the printing office was going to make in that
• 4:41:50
  Speaker 1: little town. Then we could boom right along if we
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: wanted to. We laid low and kept still and never
• 4:41:58
  Speaker 1: shoved out till nearly ten o'clock. Then we slid by
• 4:42:02
  Speaker 1: pretty wide away from the town and didn't hoist our
• 4:42:05
  Speaker 1: lantern till we was clear out of sight of it.
• 4:42:08
  Speaker 1: When Jim called me to take the watch at four
• 4:42:10
  Speaker 1: in the morning, he says, Huk, do you reckon? We
• 4:42:14
  Speaker 1: want to run across Deny mule kings on this trip. No,
• 4:42:19
  Speaker 1: I says I reckon, Not Will says he. That's all right,
• 4:42:24
  Speaker 1: then I don't mind one or two kings. But that's enough.
• 4:42:29
  Speaker 1: This one's powerful. Drunk and the de came much better.
• 4:42:34
  Speaker 1: I found. Jim had been trying to get him to
• 4:42:36
  Speaker 1: talk French so he could hear what it was like,
• 4:42:39
  Speaker 1: but he said he had been in this country so
• 4:42:41
  Speaker 1: long and had so much trouble he'd forgot it. End
• 4:42:48
  Speaker 1: of chapter twenty Chapter twenty one. It was after sun up.
• 4:42:55
  Speaker 1: Now we went right on and didn't tie up. The
• 4:42:59
  Speaker 1: King and the Duke turned out by and by looking
• 4:43:01
  Speaker 1: pretty rusty, But after they jumped overboard and took a swim,
• 4:43:04
  Speaker 1: it chipping them up a good deal. After breakfast, the
• 4:43:08
  Speaker 1: king he took a seat on the corner of the
• 4:43:10
  Speaker 1: raft and pulled off his boots and rolled up his breeches,
• 4:43:14
  Speaker 1: and let his legs dangle in the water so as
• 4:43:17
  Speaker 1: to be comfortable, and lit his pipe and went to
• 4:43:20
  Speaker 1: gettin his Romeo and Juliet by heart. When he had
• 4:43:24
  Speaker 1: got it pretty good, him and the duke begun to
• 4:43:26
  Speaker 1: practice it together. The Duke had to learn him over
• 4:43:29
  Speaker 1: and over again how to say every speech, and he
• 4:43:33
  Speaker 1: made him sigh and put his hand on his heart,
• 4:43:36
  Speaker 1: and after a while he said he'd done it pretty well.
• 4:43:40
  Speaker 1: Only he says, you mustn't bellow out Romeo that way
• 4:43:46
  Speaker 1: like a bull. You must say it soft and sick
• 4:43:50
  Speaker 1: and languishy. So rollmeo. That is the idea for Juliet's dear,
• 4:44:00
  Speaker 1: sweet mere child of a girl, you know, and she
• 4:44:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't bray like a jack ass. Well. Next they got
• 4:44:09
  Speaker 1: out a couple of long swords that the Duke made
• 4:44:11
  Speaker 1: out of oak laths, and begun to practice a sword fight.
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 1: The Duke called himself Richard Third, and the way they
• 4:44:18
  Speaker 1: laid on and pranced around the raft was grand to see.
• 4:44:22
  Speaker 1: But by and by the king tripped and fell overboard.
• 4:44:25
  Speaker 1: And after that they took a rest and had to
• 4:44:28
  Speaker 1: talk about all kinds of adventures they'd had in other
• 4:44:30
  Speaker 1: times along the river. After dinner, the Duke says, well,
• 4:44:36
  Speaker 1: cap it, we'll want to make this a first class show,
• 4:44:40
  Speaker 1: you know, so I guess we'll add a little more
• 4:44:43
  Speaker 1: to it. We want a little somethin to answer encores
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 1: with anyway, what's Encore's bill trotter, the Duke told him,
• 4:44:53
  Speaker 1: and then says, all, answer by doing the Highland fling
• 4:44:58
  Speaker 1: or the sailor's horn pipe. And you well, let me see.
• 4:45:05
  Speaker 1: Oh I've got it. You can do hamlets soliloquy, hamlets
• 4:45:10
  Speaker 1: witch Hamlet's soliloquy. You know the most celebrated thing in Shakespeare. Ah,
• 4:45:17
  Speaker 1: it's sublime. Sublime always fetches the house. I haven't got
• 4:45:24
  Speaker 1: it in the book. I've only got one volume. But
• 4:45:28
  Speaker 1: I reckon I can piece it out for memory. I'll
• 4:45:31
  Speaker 1: just walk up and down a minute and see if
• 4:45:34
  Speaker 1: I can call it back from recollection's vaults. So he
• 4:45:39
  Speaker 1: went to marching up and down, thinking and frowning horrible.
• 4:45:42
  Speaker 1: Every now and then then he would hoist up his eyebrows.
• 4:45:46
  Speaker 1: Next he would squeeze his hand on his forehead and
• 4:45:49
  Speaker 1: stagger back and kind of moan. Next he would sigh,
• 4:45:53
  Speaker 1: and next he'd let on to drop a tear. It
• 4:45:56
  Speaker 1: was beautiful to see him by, and bye he go.
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 1: He told us to give attention. Then he strikes a
• 4:46:04
  Speaker 1: most noble attitude, with one leg shoved forwards and his
• 4:46:08
  Speaker 1: arm stretched away up and his head tilt back, lookin
• 4:46:12
  Speaker 1: up at the sky, and then he begins to rip
• 4:46:15
  Speaker 1: and rave and grit his teeth. And after that, all
• 4:46:19
  Speaker 1: through his speech he howled and spread around, and swelled
• 4:46:23
  Speaker 1: up his chest, and just knocked the spots out of
• 4:46:26
  Speaker 1: any act an ever I see before this is a speech.
• 4:46:31
  Speaker 1: I learned it easy enough while he was learning it
• 4:46:34
  Speaker 1: to the king to be or not to be? That
• 4:46:39
  Speaker 1: is the bear bodkin, that mixed calamity of so long life.
• 4:46:46
  Speaker 1: For who would fardles bear till burnham wood do come
• 4:46:50
  Speaker 1: to dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death
• 4:46:55
  Speaker 1: murders the innocent sleep great nature's second course, and makes
• 4:47:00
  Speaker 1: us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune than fly
• 4:47:05
  Speaker 1: to others that we know not of theirs. The respect
• 4:47:09
  Speaker 1: must give us pause. Wake Duncan, with thy knockin, I
• 4:47:14
  Speaker 1: would thou couldst For who would bear the whips and
• 4:47:17
  Speaker 1: scorns of time? The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
• 4:47:24
  Speaker 1: the laws, delay, and the quietness which its pangs might
• 4:47:28
  Speaker 1: take in the dead, waste and middle of the night,
• 4:47:31
  Speaker 1: when churchyards yawn in customary suits of solemn black. But
• 4:47:37
  Speaker 1: that the undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns,
• 4:47:42
  Speaker 1: breathes forth contagion on the world, and thus the native
• 4:47:46
  Speaker 1: hue of resolution, like the poor cat in the adage,
• 4:47:51
  Speaker 1: is sickly o'er with care, and all the clouds that
• 4:47:55
  Speaker 1: lowered o'er our housetops with this regard their currents turn
• 4:48:00
  Speaker 1: or rye and lose. The name of action tis a consummation,
• 4:48:06
  Speaker 1: devoutly to be wished. But soft you, the fair Ophelia,
• 4:48:12
  Speaker 1: hope not thy ponderous and marble jaws, but get thee
• 4:48:17
  Speaker 1: to a nunnery. Go well. The old man he liked
• 4:48:22
  Speaker 1: that speech, and he might as soon got it so
• 4:48:25
  Speaker 1: he could do it first rate. It seemed like he
• 4:48:28
  Speaker 1: was just born for it. When he had his hand
• 4:48:30
  Speaker 1: then and was excited. It was perfectly lovely, the way
• 4:48:34
  Speaker 1: he would rip and tear and rear up behind when
• 4:48:36
  Speaker 1: he was getting it off. The first chance we got
• 4:48:40
  Speaker 1: the Duke he had some showbills printed, and after that,
• 4:48:43
  Speaker 1: for two or three days as we floated along the
• 4:48:46
  Speaker 1: raft was a most uncommon lively place, for there warn't
• 4:48:50
  Speaker 1: nothing but sword fighting and rehearsing, as the Duke called it,
• 4:48:54
  Speaker 1: going on all the time. One morning, when we was
• 4:48:58
  Speaker 1: pretty well down the state of Arkansas. Saw we come
• 4:49:01
  Speaker 1: inside of a little one horse town in a big bend,
• 4:49:05
  Speaker 1: So we tied up about three quarters of a mile
• 4:49:07
  Speaker 1: above it and the mouth of a creek which was
• 4:49:09
  Speaker 1: shut in like a tunnel by the cypress trees and
• 4:49:12
  Speaker 1: all of us. But Jim took the canoe and went
• 4:49:15
  Speaker 1: down there to see if there was any chance in
• 4:49:17
  Speaker 1: that place for our show. We struck it mighty lucky.
• 4:49:21
  Speaker 1: There was going to be a circus there that afternoon,
• 4:49:24
  Speaker 1: and the country people was already beginning to come in
• 4:49:27
  Speaker 1: in all kinds of old shackly wagons and on horses.
• 4:49:31
  Speaker 1: The circus would leave before night, so our show would
• 4:49:34
  Speaker 1: have a pretty good chance. The Duke he hired the courthouse,
• 4:49:38
  Speaker 1: and we went around and stuck up our bills. They
• 4:49:42
  Speaker 1: read like this Shakespearean Revival exclamation. Exclamation, Exclamation, wonderful attraction,
• 4:49:51
  Speaker 1: exclamation for one night only exclamation. The world renowned tragedians
• 4:49:59
  Speaker 1: David Garrett, the younger of Drury Lane Theater, London, and
• 4:50:05
  Speaker 1: Edmund Keane, the elder of the Royal Haymarket Theater, Whitechapel,
• 4:50:10
  Speaker 1: Pudding Lane, Piccadilly, London and the Royal Continental theaters and
• 4:50:16
  Speaker 1: their sublime Shakespearean spectacle entitled the Balcony Scene. And Romeo
• 4:50:22
  Speaker 1: and Juliet Exclamation, Exclamation Exclamation Romeo, mister Garrick, Juliet, Mister Keene,
• 4:50:35
  Speaker 1: assisted by the whole strength of the company. Exclamation, new costumes,
• 4:50:41
  Speaker 1: new scenery, new appointments Exclamation. Also the Thrilling Masterly and
• 4:50:50
  Speaker 1: blood curtainlind Broadsword Conflict and Richard Third Exclamation Exclamation Exclamation
• 4:51:00
  Speaker 1: Richard Third, Mister Garrick, Richmond, mister Keene. Also by special
• 4:51:09
  Speaker 1: request Hamlets in mortal soliloquy Exclamation Exclamation by the illustrious Keene.
• 4:51:17
  Speaker 1: Exclamation done by him three hundred consecutive Knights in Paris.
• 4:51:23
  Speaker 1: Exclamation for one night only on account of imperative European engagements.
• 4:51:31
  Speaker 1: Exclamation Admission twenty five cents, Children and servants ten cents.
• 4:51:41
  Speaker 1: Then we went loofing around the town. The stores and
• 4:51:44
  Speaker 1: houses was most all old, shackly, dried up frame concerns
• 4:51:48
  Speaker 1: that had never been painted. They were set up three
• 4:51:51
  Speaker 1: or four foot above ground on stilts so as to
• 4:51:54
  Speaker 1: be out of reach of the water when the river
• 4:51:56
  Speaker 1: was overflowed. The houses had little gardens or around them,
• 4:52:00
  Speaker 1: but They didn't seem to raise hardly anything in them
• 4:52:03
  Speaker 1: but gems and weeds and some flowers, and ash piles
• 4:52:07
  Speaker 1: and old curled up boots and shoes, and pieces of
• 4:52:10
  Speaker 1: bottles and rags and played out tinware. The fences was
• 4:52:14
  Speaker 1: made of different kinds of boards, nailed on at different times,
• 4:52:17
  Speaker 1: and they leaned every which way, and had gates that
• 4:52:20
  Speaker 1: didn't generally have but one hinge a leather one. Some
• 4:52:25
  Speaker 1: of the fences had been whitewashed sometime or another, but
• 4:52:28
  Speaker 1: the Duke said it was in Columbus's time. Like enough,
• 4:52:32
  Speaker 1: there was generally hogs in the garden and people driving
• 4:52:35
  Speaker 1: them out. All the stores was along one street. They
• 4:52:40
  Speaker 1: had white domestic awnings in front, and the country people
• 4:52:44
  Speaker 1: hitched their horses to the awning posts. There was empty
• 4:52:48
  Speaker 1: dry goods boxes under the awnings, and loafers roosting on
• 4:52:52
  Speaker 1: them all day long, woodlin' them with their barlow knives
• 4:52:56
  Speaker 1: and chawing tobacca and gaping and yawning and s diretchin'
• 4:53:01
  Speaker 1: a mighty ornery lot. They generally had on yellow straw hats,
• 4:53:06
  Speaker 1: most as white as ant umbrella, but didn't wear no
• 4:53:09
  Speaker 1: coats nor waistcoats. They called one another Bill and Buck
• 4:53:13
  Speaker 1: and Hank, and Joe and Andy, and talked to lazy
• 4:53:18
  Speaker 1: and drawly, and used considerable many cusswords. There was as
• 4:53:23
  Speaker 1: many as one loafer leanin up against every autumn post,
• 4:53:26
  Speaker 1: and he most always had his hands in his breeches pockets,
• 4:53:29
  Speaker 1: except when he fetched them out to flend a chaw
• 4:53:31
  Speaker 1: of tobacco or scratch. What a body was hearin amongst
• 4:53:36
  Speaker 1: them all the time was gimme a chaw for tobacco.
• 4:53:39
  Speaker 1: Hank tain't I hain't got but one chaw left, asked Bill.
• 4:53:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe Bill, he gives him a jaw. Maybe he lies
• 4:53:49
  Speaker 1: and says he ain't got none. Some of them kinds
• 4:53:52
  Speaker 1: of loafers never has a cent in the world, nor
• 4:53:55
  Speaker 1: a chaw of tobacco of their own. But they get
• 4:53:58
  Speaker 1: all their chawn by borrowin'. They say to a fellow,
• 4:54:02
  Speaker 1: I wisht you'd lend me a chaw. Jack, I jest
• 4:54:04
  Speaker 1: this minute gave Ben Thompson last taw I had, which
• 4:54:08
  Speaker 1: is a lie pretty much every time. It don't fool
• 4:54:11
  Speaker 1: nobody but a stranger. But Jack ain't no stranger, so
• 4:54:15
  Speaker 1: he says, you give him a chaw. Did you so
• 4:54:19
  Speaker 1: did your sister's kat's grandmother. You pay me back the
• 4:54:22
  Speaker 1: taws you've already borrowed off o me leaf Buckner, Then
• 4:54:26
  Speaker 1: I'll loan you one a two ton of it, an
• 4:54:28
  Speaker 1: won't charge you no back interest. N' well I did
• 4:54:32
  Speaker 1: pay you back some of it, wanst, Yes, you did
• 4:54:35
  Speaker 1: bout six chaws you borrowed. Store tobaccer an paid back, niggerhead.
• 4:54:41
  Speaker 1: Store tobacco is flat black plug. But these fellows mostly chaws,
• 4:54:45
  Speaker 1: then natural leaf twisted. When they borrow a chaw, they
• 4:54:49
  Speaker 1: don't generally cut it off with a knife, but set
• 4:54:52
  Speaker 1: the plug in between their teeth and gnaw with their teeth,
• 4:54:55
  Speaker 1: an tug at the plug with their hands till they
• 4:54:58
  Speaker 1: get it in two an. Sometimes the one that owns
• 4:55:01
  Speaker 1: a tobacco looks mournfully at it when it's handed back,
• 4:55:05
  Speaker 1: and says, sarcastic, Here gimme the jaw, and you take
• 4:55:09
  Speaker 1: the plug. All the streets and lanes was jes mud.
• 4:55:14
  Speaker 1: There warn't nothin else but mud, mud as black as tar,
• 4:55:18
  Speaker 1: an nigh by a foot deep in some places, an
• 4:55:22
  Speaker 1: two or three inches deep in all the places. The
• 4:55:25
  Speaker 1: hogs loafed and grunted around everywheres you'd see a muddy
• 4:55:29
  Speaker 1: sow an a litter of pigs come lazy in along
• 4:55:32
  Speaker 1: the street an wallop herself right down in the way
• 4:55:35
  Speaker 1: where folks had to walk around her. An she'd stretch
• 4:55:39
  Speaker 1: out an shut her eyes, an wave her ears whilst
• 4:55:41
  Speaker 1: the pigs was milkin her an look as happy as
• 4:55:44
  Speaker 1: if she was on salary. An. Pretty soon you'd hear
• 4:55:47
  Speaker 1: a loafer sing out, Hi, so boy, sickin tig an
• 4:55:53
  Speaker 1: away the sow will go squealin most horrible with a
• 4:55:57
  Speaker 1: dog or two swingin' to each ear an three or
• 4:55:59
  Speaker 1: four or dozen more coming. Then you would see all
• 4:56:02
  Speaker 1: the loafers get up and watch the thing out of sight,
• 4:56:05
  Speaker 1: and laugh at the fun and look grateful for the noise.
• 4:56:08
  Speaker 1: Then they'd settle back again till there was a dog fight.
• 4:56:12
  Speaker 1: There couldn't anything wake them up all over and make
• 4:56:15
  Speaker 1: them happy all over like a dog fight, unless it
• 4:56:19
  Speaker 1: might be putting turpentine on a stray dog and setting
• 4:56:22
  Speaker 1: fire to him, or tying a tin pan to his
• 4:56:25
  Speaker 1: tail and see him run himself to death. On the
• 4:56:29
  Speaker 1: river front, some of the houses was sticking out over
• 4:56:31
  Speaker 1: the bank, and they was bowed and bent and about
• 4:56:35
  Speaker 1: ready to tumble in, and people had moved out of them.
• 4:56:38
  Speaker 1: The bank was caved away under one corner of some others,
• 4:56:42
  Speaker 1: and that corner was hanging over. People lived in them yet,
• 4:56:46
  Speaker 1: but it was dangersome, because sometimes a strip of land
• 4:56:49
  Speaker 1: as wide as a house caves in at a time.
• 4:56:52
  Speaker 1: Sometimes a belt of land a quarter of a mile
• 4:56:54
  Speaker 1: deep will start in and cave along and cave along
• 4:56:57
  Speaker 1: till it all caves into the river. And one summer,
• 4:57:00
  Speaker 1: such a town as that has to be always movin
• 4:57:03
  Speaker 1: back an back, an back, because the river's always gnawing
• 4:57:07
  Speaker 1: at it. The nearer it got to noon that day,
• 4:57:10
  Speaker 1: the thicker and thicker was the wagons, an horses in
• 4:57:13
  Speaker 1: the streets, an more comin all the time. Families fetch
• 4:57:18
  Speaker 1: their dinners with them from the country an eat them
• 4:57:21
  Speaker 1: in the wagons. There was considerable whiskey drinkin goin on
• 4:57:25
  Speaker 1: an I seen three fights by and by. Somebody sings out,
• 4:57:30
  Speaker 1: here comes old Bogs in from the country for his
• 4:57:33
  Speaker 1: little old month of drunk. Here comes boys. All the
• 4:57:38
  Speaker 1: loafers looked glad. I reckon they was used to having
• 4:57:41
  Speaker 1: fun out of bogs. One of them says, wonder who
• 4:57:45
  Speaker 1: he's a gwine to chaw up this time. If he'd
• 4:57:48
  Speaker 1: to chart up all the men he's been a gwin
• 4:57:50
  Speaker 1: to chaw up in the last twenty year, he'd have
• 4:57:53
  Speaker 1: considerable reputation. Now. Another one says, I wished old Bogs
• 4:57:58
  Speaker 1: had threaten me, because an i'd know I warn't gwine
• 4:58:01
  Speaker 1: to die for a thousand year. Boggs come a tearin
• 4:58:05
  Speaker 1: along on his horse, whoopin and yellin' like an injun,
• 4:58:08
  Speaker 1: a singin out clear of the truck. There, I'm on
• 4:58:11
  Speaker 1: the water path. An, the price of coffins is a
• 4:58:13
  Speaker 1: gander rise. He was drunk, an weaving about in his saddle.
• 4:58:19
  Speaker 1: He was over fifty year old, an had a very
• 4:58:21
  Speaker 1: red face. Everybody yelled at him, an laughed at him,
• 4:58:25
  Speaker 1: an sashed him, and he sashed back and said he'd
• 4:58:28
  Speaker 1: attend to them, an lay them out in their regular turns.
• 4:58:32
  Speaker 1: But he couldn't wait now, because he'd come to town
• 4:58:34
  Speaker 1: to kill old Colonel sherburn. An. His moda was meet
• 4:58:38
  Speaker 1: first an spoon victuals to top off on. He see
• 4:58:43
  Speaker 1: me and rode up and says, wor'd you come from? Boy?
• 4:58:47
  Speaker 1: You prepared to die? Then? He rode on. I was scared,
• 4:58:52
  Speaker 1: but a man says, he don't mean nothin'. He's always
• 4:58:56
  Speaker 1: a carryin on like that when he's drunk. He's the
• 4:58:59
  Speaker 1: best naturedest old fool in Arkansas, never hurt nobody drunk
• 4:59:04
  Speaker 1: nor sober. Boggs rode up before the biggest store in
• 4:59:08
  Speaker 1: town and bent his head down so he could see
• 4:59:11
  Speaker 1: under the curtain of the awning and yells, come out here, Sherburn,
• 4:59:15
  Speaker 1: come out, meet the man you've swindled. You're the how,
• 4:59:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm after and I'm a goin to have you too.
• 4:59:22
  Speaker 1: And so he went on, calling Sherburn everything he could
• 4:59:25
  Speaker 1: lay his tongue to, and the whole street packed with
• 4:59:29
  Speaker 1: people listening and laughing and going on by and bye.
• 4:59:33
  Speaker 1: A proud looking man about fifty five, and he was
• 4:59:36
  Speaker 1: a heap, the best dressed man in that town too.
• 4:59:39
  Speaker 1: Steps out of the store, and the crowd drops back
• 4:59:42
  Speaker 1: on each side to let him come. He says to Boggs,
• 4:59:47
  Speaker 1: mighty calm and slow. He says, I'm tired of this,
• 4:59:51
  Speaker 1: but I'll endure it till one o'clock. Till one o'clock
• 4:59:55
  Speaker 1: mined no longer. If you open your mouth against me
• 4:59:59
  Speaker 1: only one after that time. You can't trouble so far,
• 5:00:03
  Speaker 1: but I will find you. Then he turns and goes
• 5:00:07
  Speaker 1: in the crowd looked mighty sober. Nobody stirred, and there
• 5:00:12
  Speaker 1: warn't no more laughin. Boggs rode off, blackguard and Sherburn
• 5:00:17
  Speaker 1: as loud as he could, yell all down the street,
• 5:00:20
  Speaker 1: and pretty soon back he comes and stops for the store,
• 5:00:24
  Speaker 1: still keeping it up. Some men cried it around him
• 5:00:27
  Speaker 1: and tried to get him to shut up, but he wouldn't.
• 5:00:31
  Speaker 1: They told him it would be one o'clock in about
• 5:00:33
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, so he must go home, he must go
• 5:00:36
  Speaker 1: right away, but it didn't do no good. He cussed
• 5:00:40
  Speaker 1: away with all his might and throwed his hat down
• 5:00:43
  Speaker 1: in the mud and rode over it, and pretty soon
• 5:00:46
  Speaker 1: away he went to ragin down the street again, with
• 5:00:50
  Speaker 1: his gray hair a flyin'. Everybody that could get a
• 5:00:54
  Speaker 1: chance at him tried their best to coax him off
• 5:00:56
  Speaker 1: of his horse so they could lock him up and
• 5:00:58
  Speaker 1: get him sober. Warn't no use up the street he
• 5:01:02
  Speaker 1: would tear again an give sherburn another cussin. By and
• 5:01:07
  Speaker 1: by somebody says, go for his daughter, quick, go for
• 5:01:11
  Speaker 1: his daughter. Sometimes we'll listen to her. If anybody can
• 5:01:15
  Speaker 1: persuade him, she can. So somebody started on a run.
• 5:01:20
  Speaker 1: I walked down street aways an stopped. In about five
• 5:01:23
  Speaker 1: or ten minutes. Here comes Boggs again, but not on
• 5:01:27
  Speaker 1: his horse. He was a reelin across the street towards me,
• 5:01:31
  Speaker 1: bare headed, with a friend on both sides of him,
• 5:01:34
  Speaker 1: a hold of his arms, an hurrying him along. He
• 5:01:38
  Speaker 1: was quiet and looked uneasy, and he warn't hanging back
• 5:01:42
  Speaker 1: any but was doing some of the hurryin himself. Somebody
• 5:01:46
  Speaker 1: sings out Bogs. I looked over there to see who
• 5:01:50
  Speaker 1: said it, An it was that Colonel Sherburn. He was
• 5:01:54
  Speaker 1: standing perfectly still in the street and had a pistol
• 5:01:57
  Speaker 1: raised in his right hand, aimin' it but holding it
• 5:02:02
  Speaker 1: out with the barrel tilted up towards the sky. The
• 5:02:05
  Speaker 1: same second I see a young girl coming on the
• 5:02:07
  Speaker 1: run and two men with her. Boggs and the men
• 5:02:11
  Speaker 1: turned round to see who called him. But when they
• 5:02:14
  Speaker 1: see the pistol, the men jumped to one side, and
• 5:02:17
  Speaker 1: the pistol bearl come down, slow and steady to a level,
• 5:02:21
  Speaker 1: both barrels cocked. Boggs throws up both of his hands
• 5:02:25
  Speaker 1: and says, oh, Lord, donor shoot. Bang goes the first shot,
• 5:02:31
  Speaker 1: and he staggers back, clawing at the air. Bang goes
• 5:02:36
  Speaker 1: the second one, and he tumbles backward on to the ground,
• 5:02:39
  Speaker 1: heavy and solid, with his arms spread out. That young
• 5:02:43
  Speaker 1: girl screamed out and comes rushing and down. She throws
• 5:02:47
  Speaker 1: herself on her father, crying and saying, oh, he's killed him,
• 5:02:53
  Speaker 1: He's killed him. The crowd closed up around them and
• 5:02:57
  Speaker 1: shouldered and jammed one another with their stretched tryin to see,
• 5:03:02
  Speaker 1: and people on the inside trying to shove them back
• 5:03:06
  Speaker 1: and shouting back back, give 'em mare, give 'em mare,
• 5:03:11
  Speaker 1: Colonel Sherburn. He tossed his pistol on to the ground
• 5:03:15
  Speaker 1: and turned around on his heels and walked off. They
• 5:03:18
  Speaker 1: took bogs to a little drug store, the crowd pressing
• 5:03:21
  Speaker 1: around just the same, an the whole town following, and
• 5:03:25
  Speaker 1: I rushed an got a good place at the window
• 5:03:28
  Speaker 1: where I was close to him and could see in.
• 5:03:31
  Speaker 1: They laid him on the floor and put one large
• 5:03:34
  Speaker 1: bible under his head, and opened another one and spread
• 5:03:37
  Speaker 1: it on his breast. But they tore open his shirt first,
• 5:03:41
  Speaker 1: and I seen where one of the bullets went in.
• 5:03:44
  Speaker 1: He made about a dozen long gasps his breast, lifting
• 5:03:47
  Speaker 1: the bible up when he drawed in his breath, and
• 5:03:50
  Speaker 1: letting it down again when he breathed it out, And
• 5:03:53
  Speaker 1: after that he laid still. He was dead. Then they
• 5:03:59
  Speaker 1: pulled his daughter away from him, screaming and crying, and
• 5:04:02
  Speaker 1: took her off. She was about sixteen and very sweet
• 5:04:07
  Speaker 1: and gentle looking, but awful, pale and scared. Well. Pretty
• 5:04:12
  Speaker 1: soon the whole town was there, squirming and scrouching and
• 5:04:15
  Speaker 1: pushing and shoving to get at the window and have
• 5:04:17
  Speaker 1: a look. But people that had the places wouldn't give
• 5:04:20
  Speaker 1: them up, and folks behind them was saying all the time,
• 5:04:24
  Speaker 1: see now you've looked enough, you fellers. Tain't brighten, Tain't
• 5:04:27
  Speaker 1: fair for you to stay there all the time. Never
• 5:04:29
  Speaker 1: give nobody chance. Other folks has their rights as well
• 5:04:32
  Speaker 1: as you. There was considerable jawing back, so I slid out,
• 5:04:38
  Speaker 1: thinkin maybe there was goin to be trouble. The streets
• 5:04:41
  Speaker 1: was full and everybody was excited. Everybody that's seen the
• 5:04:44
  Speaker 1: shootin was telling how it happened, and there was a
• 5:04:47
  Speaker 1: big crowd packed around each one of these fellas, stretching
• 5:04:50
  Speaker 1: their necks and listening. One long, lanky man with long
• 5:04:55
  Speaker 1: hair and a big white fur stove pipe hat on
• 5:04:58
  Speaker 1: the back of his head, and a crooked handled cane
• 5:05:01
  Speaker 1: marked out the places on the ground where Bogs stood
• 5:05:04
  Speaker 1: and where Sherburn stood, and the people following him around
• 5:05:08
  Speaker 1: from one place to the other, and watching everything he'd done,
• 5:05:11
  Speaker 1: and bobbing their heads to show they understood, and stooping
• 5:05:15
  Speaker 1: a little and resting their hands on their thighs to
• 5:05:18
  Speaker 1: watch him mark the places on the ground with his cane.
• 5:05:21
  Speaker 1: And then he stood up straight and stiff where Shrburn
• 5:05:23
  Speaker 1: had stood, frowning and halving, his hat brim down over
• 5:05:27
  Speaker 1: his eyes, and sung out bogs, and then fetched his
• 5:05:31
  Speaker 1: cane down, slowed to a level and says bang, staggered backwards,
• 5:05:37
  Speaker 1: says bang again, and fell down flat on his back.
• 5:05:42
  Speaker 1: The people that had seen the thing said he done
• 5:05:44
  Speaker 1: it perfect, said it was just exactly the way it
• 5:05:47
  Speaker 1: all happened. Then as much as a dozen people got
• 5:05:50
  Speaker 1: out their bottles and treated him well by and by,
• 5:05:55
  Speaker 1: somebody said Sherburn ought to be lynched. In about a minute,
• 5:05:58
  Speaker 1: everybody was saying it so away they went mad and
• 5:06:02
  Speaker 1: yelling and snatching down every clothesline they come to to
• 5:06:06
  Speaker 1: do the hanging with end of chapter twenty one. Chapter
• 5:06:12
  Speaker 1: twenty two, they swarmed up towards Sherburn's house, but whooping
• 5:06:18
  Speaker 1: and raging like engines, and everything had to clear the
• 5:06:21
  Speaker 1: way or get run over and tromp to mush, and
• 5:06:25
  Speaker 1: it was awful to see. Children was healing it ahead
• 5:06:28
  Speaker 1: of the mob, screaming and trying to get out of
• 5:06:31
  Speaker 1: the way. And every window along the road was full
• 5:06:34
  Speaker 1: of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every tree,
• 5:06:38
  Speaker 1: and bucks and wenches looking over every fence, And as
• 5:06:42
  Speaker 1: soon as the mob would get nearly to them, they
• 5:06:44
  Speaker 1: would break and scattle back out of reach. Lots of
• 5:06:48
  Speaker 1: the women and girls was crying and taking on, scared,
• 5:06:52
  Speaker 1: most to death. They swarmed up in front of Sherburn's
• 5:06:56
  Speaker 1: palings as thick as they could, jam together, and you
• 5:07:00
  Speaker 1: can hear yourself think for the noise. It was a
• 5:07:03
  Speaker 1: little twenty foot yard. Some sung out, tear down the fence,
• 5:07:07
  Speaker 1: tear down the fence. Then there was a racket of
• 5:07:11
  Speaker 1: ripping and tearing and smashing, and down she goes, and
• 5:07:15
  Speaker 1: the front wall of the crowd begins to roll in
• 5:07:18
  Speaker 1: like a wave. Just then Sherburn steps out on to
• 5:07:22
  Speaker 1: the roof of his little front porch with a double
• 5:07:25
  Speaker 1: barrel gun in his hand, and takes his stand perfectly,
• 5:07:30
  Speaker 1: calm and deliberate, not saying a word. The racket stopped
• 5:07:35
  Speaker 1: and the waves sucked back. Sherburn never said a word,
• 5:07:40
  Speaker 1: just stood there looking down. The stillness was awful, creepy,
• 5:07:45
  Speaker 1: and uncomfortable. Sherburn run his eyes slow along the crowd
• 5:07:50
  Speaker 1: and wherever it struck. The people tried a little to
• 5:07:53
  Speaker 1: outgaze him, but they couldn't. They dropped their eyes and
• 5:07:58
  Speaker 1: looked sneaky. Then pretty soon Sherburn's sort of laughed, not
• 5:08:04
  Speaker 1: the pleasant kind, but the kind that makes you feel
• 5:08:07
  Speaker 1: like when you are eating bread that's got sand in it.
• 5:08:11
  Speaker 1: Then he says, slow and scornful. The idea of you
• 5:08:17
  Speaker 1: lynching anybody, it's amusing. The idea of you thinking you
• 5:08:24
  Speaker 1: had pluck enough to lynch a man because you're brave
• 5:08:28
  Speaker 1: enough to tar and feather poor, friendless, cast out women
• 5:08:32
  Speaker 1: that come along here. Did that make you think you
• 5:08:36
  Speaker 1: had grit enough to lay your hands on a man.
• 5:08:40
  Speaker 1: Why a man's safe in the hands of ten thousand
• 5:08:44
  Speaker 1: of your kind, as long as it's daytime, and you're
• 5:08:48
  Speaker 1: not behind him. Do I know you? I know you
• 5:08:53
  Speaker 1: clear through. Was born and raised in the South, and
• 5:08:58
  Speaker 1: I've lived in the North, so I know the average
• 5:09:02
  Speaker 1: all around. The average man's a coward. In the North,
• 5:09:08
  Speaker 1: he lets anybody walk over him that wants to, and
• 5:09:12
  Speaker 1: goes home and prays for a humble spirit to bear it.
• 5:09:16
  Speaker 1: In the South, one man all by himself has stopped
• 5:09:20
  Speaker 1: a stage full of men in the daytime and robbed
• 5:09:23
  Speaker 1: the lot. Your newspapers call you a brave people, so
• 5:09:29
  Speaker 1: much that you think you are braver than any other people,
• 5:09:33
  Speaker 1: whereas you're just as brave and no braver. Why don't
• 5:09:39
  Speaker 1: your juries hang murderers because they're afraid the man's friends
• 5:09:44
  Speaker 1: will shoot them in the back in the dark, and
• 5:09:48
  Speaker 1: it's just what they would do, so they always acquit.
• 5:09:53
  Speaker 1: And then a man goes in the night with a
• 5:09:55
  Speaker 1: hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.
• 5:10:00
  Speaker 1: Your mistake is that you didn't bring a man with you.
• 5:10:04
  Speaker 1: That's one mistake, and the other is that you didn't
• 5:10:08
  Speaker 1: come in the dark and fetch your masks. You brought
• 5:10:11
  Speaker 1: part of a man buck harkness there. And if you
• 5:10:15
  Speaker 1: hadn't had him to start you, you'd a taken it
• 5:10:18
  Speaker 1: out in blowing. You didn't want to come. The average
• 5:10:24
  Speaker 1: man don't like trouble and danger. You don't like trouble
• 5:10:29
  Speaker 1: and danger. But if only half a man like buck
• 5:10:33
  Speaker 1: Harkness there shouts lynch him, lynch him. You're afraid to
• 5:10:38
  Speaker 1: back down, afraid you'll be found out to be what
• 5:10:42
  Speaker 1: you are, cowards. And so you raise a yell and
• 5:10:47
  Speaker 1: hang yourselves on to that half a man's coat tail
• 5:10:51
  Speaker 1: and come raging up here, swearing what big things you're
• 5:10:54
  Speaker 1: going to do. The pitifulest thing out is a mob.
• 5:10:59
  Speaker 1: That's what an army is. A mob. They don't fight
• 5:11:02
  Speaker 1: with courage that's born in them, but with courage that's
• 5:11:06
  Speaker 1: borrowed from their masts and from their officers. But a
• 5:11:11
  Speaker 1: mob without any man at the head of it is
• 5:11:14
  Speaker 1: beneath pitifulness. Now the thing for you to do is
• 5:11:19
  Speaker 1: droop your tails and go home and crawl in a hole.
• 5:11:22
  Speaker 1: If any real lynching's going to be done, it'll be
• 5:11:25
  Speaker 1: done in the dark southern fashion. And when they come,
• 5:11:30
  Speaker 1: they'll bring their masks and fetch a man along. Now
• 5:11:34
  Speaker 1: leave and take your half a man with you. Tossing
• 5:11:39
  Speaker 1: his gun up across his left arm and cocking it.
• 5:11:41
  Speaker 1: When he says this, the crowd washed back sudden, and
• 5:11:45
  Speaker 1: then broke all apart and went tearing off every which way,
• 5:11:50
  Speaker 1: and buck Harkness. He heeled it after them, looking tolerable cheap.
• 5:11:55
  Speaker 1: I could have stayed if I wanted to, but I
• 5:11:57
  Speaker 1: didn't want to. I went to the circus and loafed
• 5:12:01
  Speaker 1: around the backside till the watchman went by, and then
• 5:12:04
  Speaker 1: dived in under the tent. I have my twenty dollar
• 5:12:08
  Speaker 1: gold piece and some other money, but I reckoned. I'd
• 5:12:11
  Speaker 1: better save it, cause there ain't no telling how soon
• 5:12:13
  Speaker 1: you're gonna need it. Away from home and amongst strangers
• 5:12:17
  Speaker 1: that way, ye can't be too ca