Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 04 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter seven, Tick Running and a heart break. The harder
- 0:07Speaker 1: Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the
- 0:09Speaker 1: more his ideas wandered. So at last, with a sigh
- 0:13Speaker 1: and a yawn, he gave it up. It seemed to
- 0:16Speaker 1: him that the noon recess would never come. The air
- 0:19Speaker 1: was utterly dead. There was not a breath stirring. It
- 0:23Speaker 1: was the sleepiest of sleepy days. The drowsing murmur of
- 0:28Speaker 1: the five and twenty studying scholars soothed the soul, like
- 0:31Speaker 1: the spell that is in the murmur of bees away
- 0:35Speaker 1: off in the flaming sunshine, cart of hill lifted its
- 0:38Speaker 1: soft green sides through a shimmering veil of heat tinted
- 0:42Speaker 1: with the purple of distance. A few birds floated on
- 0:45Speaker 1: lazy wing high in the air. No other living thing
- 0:49Speaker 1: was visible but some cows, and they were asleep. Tom's
- 0:55Speaker 1: heart ached to be free, or else to have something
- 0:57Speaker 1: of interest to do to pass the dreary time. His
- 1:01Speaker 1: hand wandered into his pocket, and his face lit up
- 1:04Speaker 1: with a glow of gratitude That was prayer, though he
- 1:06Speaker 1: did not know it. Then furtively the percussion cat box
- 1:10Speaker 1: came out. He released the tick and put him on
- 1:13Speaker 1: the long flat desk. The creature probably glowed with a
- 1:17Speaker 1: gratitude that amounted to prayer too at this moment, but
- 1:20Speaker 1: it was premature, for when he started thankfully to travel off,
- 1:24Speaker 1: Tom turned him aside with a pin and made him
- 1:27Speaker 1: take a new direction. Tom's bosom friend sat next him,
- 1:31Speaker 1: suffering just as Tom had been, And now he was
- 1:34Speaker 1: deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in an instant.
- 1:38Speaker 1: This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were
- 1:41Speaker 1: sworn friends all the week and embattled enemies on Saturdays.
- 1:46Speaker 1: Joe took a pin out of his lapel and began
- 1:48Speaker 1: to assist in exercising the prisoner. The sport grew in
- 1:51Speaker 1: interest momently. Soon Tom said that they were interfering with
- 1:55Speaker 1: each other and neither getting the fullest benefit of the tick.
- 1:58Speaker 1: So he put Joe's late on the desk and drew
- 2:01Speaker 1: a line down the middle of it from top to bottom. Now,
- 2:04Speaker 1: said he, as long as he is on your side,
- 2:06Speaker 1: you can stir him up and I'll let him alone.
- 2:09Speaker 1: But if you let him get away and get on
- 2:11Speaker 1: my side, you're to leave him alone as long as
- 2:14Speaker 1: I can keep him from crossing over. All right, Go ahead,
- 2:17Speaker 1: start him up. The tick escaped from Tom presently and
- 2:21Speaker 1: crossed the equator. Joe harassed him awhile, and then he
- 2:24Speaker 1: got away and crossed back again. This change of bass
- 2:27Speaker 1: occurred often. While one boy was worrying the tick with
- 2:30Speaker 1: absorbing interest, the other would look on with interest as strong.
- 2:34Speaker 1: The two heads bowed together over the slate, and the
- 2:36Speaker 1: two souls dead to all things else. At last, luck
- 2:40Speaker 1: seemed to settle and abide with Joe. The tick tried this, that,
- 2:44Speaker 1: and the other course, and got as excited and as
- 2:46Speaker 1: anxious as the boys themselves. But time and again, just
- 2:49Speaker 1: as he would have victory in his very grasp, so
- 2:52Speaker 1: to speak, and Tom's fingers would be twitching to begin,
- 2:55Speaker 1: Joe's pin would deftly head him off and keep possession.
- 2:59Speaker 1: At last, Tom could stand it no longer. The temptation
- 3:02Speaker 1: was too strong, so he reached out and leant a
- 3:05Speaker 1: hand with his pin. Joe was angry in a moment,
- 3:07Speaker 1: said he Tom, you let him alone. I only just
- 3:11Speaker 1: want to stir him up a little. Joe, No, sir,
- 3:13Speaker 1: it ain't fair. You just let him alone. Blame it.
- 3:17Speaker 1: I ain't goin to stir him much. Let him alone
- 3:19Speaker 1: I tell you, well, I won't, you shall He's on
- 3:23Speaker 1: my side of the line. Look here, Joe Harper, whose
- 3:25Speaker 1: is that tick? I don't care whose tick he is.
- 3:28Speaker 1: He's on my side of the line, and you shan't
- 3:30Speaker 1: touch him. Well, I'll just bet I will though he's
- 3:33Speaker 1: my tick, and I'll do what I blame. Please with
- 3:35Speaker 1: him or die. A tremendous whack came down on Tom's shoulders,
- 3:39Speaker 1: and it's duplicate on Joe's, and for the space of
- 3:42Speaker 1: two minutes, the dust continued to fly from the two jackets,
- 3:45Speaker 1: and the whole school to enjoy it. The boys had
- 3:47Speaker 1: been too absorbed to notice the hush that had stolen
- 3:50Speaker 1: upon the school a while before. When the master came
- 3:53Speaker 1: tiptoeing down the room and stood over them, he had
- 3:56Speaker 1: contemplated a good part of the performance before he contributed
- 3:59Speaker 1: his bit of variety to it. When school broke up
- 4:02Speaker 1: at noon, Tom flew to Becky Thatcher and whispered in
- 4:06Speaker 1: her ear, put on your bonnet and let on your
- 4:09Speaker 1: going home. And when you get to the corner, give
- 4:11Speaker 1: the rest of em the slip and turn down through
- 4:14Speaker 1: the lane and come back. I'll go the other way
- 4:16Speaker 1: and come it over them the same way. So the
- 4:19Speaker 1: one went off with one group of scholars and the
- 4:22Speaker 1: other with another. In a little while, the two met
- 4:24Speaker 1: at the bottom of the lane, and when they reached
- 4:26Speaker 1: the school they had it all to themselves. Then they
- 4:29Speaker 1: sat together with a slate before them, and Tom gave
- 4:33Speaker 1: Becky the pencil and held her hand in his guiding it,
- 4:36Speaker 1: and so created another surprising house. When the interest in
- 4:40Speaker 1: art began to wane, the two fell to talking. Tom
- 4:43Speaker 1: was swimming in bliss. He said, do you love rats? No?
- 4:47Speaker 1: I hate them? Well, I do too, live ones, but
- 4:51Speaker 1: I mean dead ones to swing round your head with
- 4:53Speaker 1: a string. No, I don't care for rats much anyway.
- 4:57Speaker 1: What I like is chewing gum. Oh, I should say, so,
- 5:01Speaker 1: I wish I had some, Now do you? I've got some.
- 5:05Speaker 1: I'll let you chew it awhile, but you must give
- 5:07Speaker 1: it back to me. That was agreeable. So they chewed it,
- 5:11Speaker 1: turn about and dangled their legs against the bench in
- 5:13Speaker 1: excess of contentment. Was you ever at a circus? Said Tom? Yes,
- 5:18Speaker 1: And my paw is going to take me again sometime
- 5:21Speaker 1: if I'm good. I've been to the circus three or
- 5:24Speaker 1: four times, lots of times. Church ain't shucks to a circus.
- 5:28Speaker 1: There's things going on at circus all the time. I'm
- 5:31Speaker 1: going to be a clown in a circus when I
- 5:32Speaker 1: grow up. Oh are you? That will be nice. They're
- 5:36Speaker 1: so lovely, all spotted up. Yes, that's so. And they
- 5:40Speaker 1: get slathers of money, most a dollar a day. Ben
- 5:43Speaker 1: Rogers says, say, Becky, was you ever engaged? What's that? Why?
- 5:49Speaker 1: Engaged to be married? No? Would you like to? I reckon? So?
- 5:55Speaker 1: I don't know what is it like like? Why it
- 5:59Speaker 1: ain't like anything? You only just tell a boy you
- 6:01Speaker 1: won't ever have anybody but him, ever, ever, ever? And
- 6:05Speaker 1: then you kiss, and that's all anybody can do it? Kiss?
- 6:09Speaker 1: What do you kiss for? Why? That you know? Is
- 6:12Speaker 1: to well? They always do that, everybody? Why, yes, everybody
- 6:17Speaker 1: that's in love with each other? Do you remember what
- 6:20Speaker 1: I wrote on the slate? Yes? What was it? I
- 6:25Speaker 1: shan't tell you? Shall I tell you? Yes? But some
- 6:30Speaker 1: other time? No? Now? No, not now tomorrow? Oh no, now, please, Becky,
- 6:38Speaker 1: I'll whisper it. I'll whisper it ever so easy, Becky, hesitating,
- 6:42Speaker 1: Tom took silence for consent and passed his arm about
- 6:46Speaker 1: her waist and whispered the tail ever so softly, with
- 6:49Speaker 1: his mouth close to her ear. And then he added,
- 6:52Speaker 1: now you whisper it to me just the same. She
- 6:56Speaker 1: resisted for a while and then said, you turn your
- 6:59Speaker 1: face away so you can't see, and and then I will.
- 7:02Speaker 1: But you mustn't ever tell anybody, will you, Tom? Now
- 7:05Speaker 1: you won't, will you? No? Indeed, indeed I won't. Now, Becky,
- 7:09Speaker 1: He turned his face away, and she bent timidly around
- 7:12Speaker 1: till her breath stirred his curls, and whispered, I love you.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Then she sprang away and ran around and around the
- 7:21Speaker 1: desks and benches, with Tom after her, and took refuge
- 7:24Speaker 1: in a corner. At last, with her little white apron
- 7:26Speaker 1: to her face, Tom clasped her about her neck and pleaded, now, Becky,
- 7:31Speaker 1: it's all done, all over, but the kiss. Don't you
- 7:33Speaker 1: be afraid of that? It ain't anything at all, please Becky,
- 7:37Speaker 1: And he tugged at her apron in the hands, by
- 7:40Speaker 1: and by she gave up and let her hands drop,
- 7:43Speaker 1: Her face, all glowing with a struggle, came up and submitted.
- 7:46Speaker 1: Tom kissed the red lips and said, now it's all done, Becky,
- 7:51Speaker 1: and all was after this. You know, you ain't ever
- 7:53Speaker 1: to love anybody but me, and you ain't ever to
- 7:56Speaker 1: marry anybody but me, never, never and forever will you. No,
- 8:00Speaker 1: I'll never love anybody but you, Tom, And I'll never
- 8:03Speaker 1: marry anybody but you, And you ain't to ever marry
- 8:07Speaker 1: anybody but me either, certainly. Of course, that's part of it.
- 8:11Speaker 1: And all was coming to school or when we're going home.
- 8:14Speaker 1: You're to walk with me when there ain't anybody looking,
- 8:18Speaker 1: and you choose me, and I choose you at parties
- 8:21Speaker 1: because that's the way you do when you're engaged. It's
- 8:24Speaker 1: so nice. I never heard of it before. Oh it's
- 8:27Speaker 1: ever so gay? Why me and Amy? Lawrence the big
- 8:31Speaker 1: eyes told Tom his blunder, and he stopped confused. Oh, Tom,
- 8:35Speaker 1: then I ain't the first you've ever been engaged to.
- 8:38Speaker 1: The child began to cry, and Tom said, oh, don't cry, Becky.
- 8:42Speaker 1: I don't care for her any more. Yes you do, Tom,
- 8:46Speaker 1: you know you do. Tom tried to put his arm
- 8:48Speaker 1: about her neck, but she pushed him away and turned
- 8:50Speaker 1: her face to the wall and went on crying. Tom
- 8:53Speaker 1: tried again, with soothing words in his mouth, and was repulsed. Again.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Then his pride was up, and he strode away and
- 8:59Speaker 1: went out. He stood about, restless and uneasy for a while,
- 9:03Speaker 1: glancing at the door every now and then, hoping she
- 9:06Speaker 1: would repent and come to find him. But she did not.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Then he began to feel badly and fear that he
- 9:12Speaker 1: was in the wrong. It was a hard struggle with
- 9:14Speaker 1: him to make new advances now, but he nerved himself
- 9:17Speaker 1: to it and entered. She was still standing back there
- 9:21Speaker 1: in the corner, sobbing, with her face to the wall.
- 9:24Speaker 1: Tom's heart smote him. He went to her and stood
- 9:27Speaker 1: a moment, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Then he said, hesitatingly, Becky,
- 9:32Speaker 1: I I don't care for anybody but you. No reply,
- 9:38Speaker 1: but sobs Becky. Pleadingly, Becky, won't you say something more? Sobs?
- 9:45Speaker 1: Tom got out his chiefest jewel, a brass knob from
- 9:49Speaker 1: the top of an andiron, and passed it around her
- 9:52Speaker 1: so that she could see it, and said, please, Becky,
- 9:54Speaker 1: won't you take it? She struck it to the floor.
- 9:58Speaker 1: Then Tom marched out of the house and over the
- 10:00Speaker 1: hills and far away to return to school no more
- 10:02Speaker 1: that day. Presently, Becky began to suspect. She ran to
- 10:07Speaker 1: the door, he was not in sight. She flew around
- 10:10Speaker 1: the playyard, he was not there. Then she called Tom,
- 10:14Speaker 1: come back. Tom. She listened intently, but there was no answer.
- 10:19Speaker 1: She had no companions but silence and loneliness. So she
- 10:23Speaker 1: sat down to cry again and upbraid herself. And by
- 10:25Speaker 1: this time the scholars began to gather again, and she
- 10:28Speaker 1: had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart,
- 10:31Speaker 1: and take up the cross of a long, dreary, aching afternoon,
- 10:35Speaker 1: with none among the strangers about her to exchange sorrows with.
- 10:39Speaker 1: End of chapter seven, Chapter eight, a pirate bold to
- 10:45Speaker 1: be Tom dodged hither and thither through lanes until he
- 10:50Speaker 1: was well out of the track of returning scholars, and
- 10:52Speaker 1: then fell into a moody jog. He crossed a small
- 10:56Speaker 1: branch two or three times because of a prevailing juvenile
- 10:59Speaker 1: superstition that to cross water baffleds pursuit. Half an hour
- 11:04Speaker 1: later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the
- 11:06Speaker 1: summit of Cardiff Hill, and the schoolhouse was hardly distinguishable
- 11:10Speaker 1: away off in the valley behind him. He entered a
- 11:13Speaker 1: dense wood picked his pathless way to the center of
- 11:17Speaker 1: it and sat down on a mossy spot under a
- 11:19Speaker 1: spreading oak. There was not even a zephyr stirring. The
- 11:23Speaker 1: dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of the birds.
- 11:27Speaker 1: Nature lay in a trance that was broken by no
- 11:30Speaker 1: sound but the occasional, far off hammering of a woodpecker,
- 11:33Speaker 1: and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense
- 11:36Speaker 1: of loneliness the more profound. The boy's soul was steeped
- 11:40Speaker 1: and melancholy. His feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings.
- 11:45Speaker 1: He sat long, with his elbows on his knees and
- 11:48Speaker 1: his chin in his hands, meditating. It seemed to him
- 11:52Speaker 1: that life was but a trouble at best, and he
- 11:55Speaker 1: more than half envied Jimmy Hodges so lately released. It
- 11:59Speaker 1: must be very peaceful, he thought, to lie and slumber
- 12:02Speaker 1: and dream forever and ever, with the wind whispering through
- 12:05Speaker 1: the trees and caressing the grass and the flowers over
- 12:08Speaker 1: the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve about ever
- 12:11Speaker 1: any more. If he only had a clean Sunday school record,
- 12:15Speaker 1: he could be willing to go and be done with
- 12:18Speaker 1: it all. Now, as to this girl, what had he
- 12:22Speaker 1: done nothing, He had meant the best in the world,
- 12:25Speaker 1: and been treated like a dog, like a very dog.
- 12:29Speaker 1: She would be sorry some day, maybe when it was
- 12:31Speaker 1: too late. Ah if he could only die temporarily. But
- 12:36Speaker 1: the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one
- 12:39Speaker 1: constrained shape long at any time. Tom presently began to
- 12:43Speaker 1: drift insensibly back into the concerns of this life again.
- 12:47Speaker 1: What if he turned his back now and disappeared mysteriously?
- 12:51Speaker 1: What if he went away ever so far away, into
- 12:55Speaker 1: unknown countries, beyond the seas, and never came back any more?
- 12:59Speaker 1: How would she feel? Then? The idea of being a
- 13:02Speaker 1: clown recurred to him now, only to fill him with disgust,
- 13:07Speaker 1: for frivolity and jokes and spotted tights were an offense
- 13:10Speaker 1: when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted
- 13:13Speaker 1: into the vague, august realm of the romantic. No, he
- 13:18Speaker 1: would be a soldier and return after long years, all
- 13:21Speaker 1: war worn and illustrious. No better still, he would join
- 13:26Speaker 1: the Indians and hunt buffaloes, and go on the war
- 13:29Speaker 1: path in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains
- 13:32Speaker 1: of the far West, and away in the future come
- 13:34Speaker 1: back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint,
- 13:39Speaker 1: and prance into Sunday school some drowsy summer morning with
- 13:43Speaker 1: a blood curling war whoop, and sear the eyeballs of
- 13:46Speaker 1: all his companions with unappeaceable envy. But no, there was
- 13:52Speaker 1: something gaudier even than this. He would be a pirate,
- 13:57Speaker 1: that was it. Now his future lay plain before him
- 14:01Speaker 1: and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would fill
- 14:06Speaker 1: the world and make people shudder. How gloriously he would
- 14:09Speaker 1: go plowing the dancing seas in his long, low, black
- 14:13Speaker 1: hulled racer, the spirit of the storm, with his grisly
- 14:17Speaker 1: flag flying at the fore and at the zenith of
- 14:20Speaker 1: his fame. How he would suddenly appear at the old
- 14:23Speaker 1: village and stalk into church, brown and weather beaten, in
- 14:26Speaker 1: his black velvet doublet and trunks, his great jack boots,
- 14:30Speaker 1: his crimson sash, his belt bristling with horse pistols, his
- 14:35Speaker 1: crime rusted cutlass at his side, his slouch hat with
- 14:39Speaker 1: waving plumes, his black flag unfurled with the skull and
- 14:43Speaker 1: crossbones on it, And here, with swelling ecstasy, the whisperings.
- 14:47Speaker 1: It's Tom Sawyer, the pirate, the black avenger of the
- 14:51Speaker 1: Spanish main. Yes, it was settled. His career was determined.
- 14:56Speaker 1: He would run away from home and enter upon it.
- 14:58Speaker 1: He would start the very next morning. Therefore, he must
- 15:02Speaker 1: now begin to get ready. He would collect his resources together.
- 15:06Speaker 1: He went to a rotten log near at hand, and
- 15:08Speaker 1: began to dig under one end of it with his
- 15:10Speaker 1: barlow knife. He soon struck wood that sounded hollow. He
- 15:14Speaker 1: put his hand there and uttered this incantation impressively, what
- 15:18Speaker 1: hasn't come here? Come? What's here? Stay here? Then he
- 15:25Speaker 1: scraped away the dirt and exposed a pine shingle. He
- 15:29Speaker 1: took it up and disclosed a shapely little treasure house,
- 15:31Speaker 1: whose bottom and sides were of shingles. In it lay
- 15:35Speaker 1: a marble. Tom's astonishment was boundless. He scratched his head
- 15:40Speaker 1: with perplexed air, and said, well, that beats anything. Then
- 15:45Speaker 1: he tossed the marble away pettishly and stood cogitating. The
- 15:49Speaker 1: truth was that a superstition of his had failed here,
- 15:52Speaker 1: which he and all his comrades had always looked upon
- 15:55Speaker 1: as infallible. If you buried a marble with certain necessary
- 15:59Speaker 1: incantation and left it alone a fortnight, and then opened
- 16:02Speaker 1: the place with the incantation he had just used. You
- 16:05Speaker 1: would find that all the marbles you had ever lost
- 16:07Speaker 1: had gathered themselves together there meantime, no matter how widely
- 16:11Speaker 1: they had been separated. But now this thing had actually
- 16:15Speaker 1: and unquestionably failed. Tom's whole structure of faith was shaken
- 16:20Speaker 1: to its foundations. He had many a time heard of
- 16:23Speaker 1: this thing succeeding, but never of its failing Before. It
- 16:26Speaker 1: did not occur to him that he had tried it
- 16:28Speaker 1: several times before himself, but could never find the hiding places. Afterward,
- 16:33Speaker 1: he puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided
- 16:37Speaker 1: that some witch had interfered and broken the charm. He
- 16:40Speaker 1: thought he would satisfy himself on that point, so he
- 16:42Speaker 1: searched around till he found a small sandy spot with
- 16:45Speaker 1: a little funnel shaped depression in it. He laid himself
- 16:48Speaker 1: down and put his mouth close to this depression, and called,
- 16:52Speaker 1: doodle bug, doodle bug, tell me what I want to know,
- 16:55Speaker 1: doodle bug, doodle bug, tell me what I want to know.
- 16:59Speaker 1: The sand began to work, and presently a small black
- 17:02Speaker 1: bug appeared. For a second, and then darted under again
- 17:05Speaker 1: in a fright. He doesn't tell, so it was a
- 17:08Speaker 1: witch that'd done it, I just noted. He well knew
- 17:12Speaker 1: the futility of trying to contend against witches, so he
- 17:15Speaker 1: gave up, discouraged. But it occurred to him that he
- 17:18Speaker 1: might as well have the marble he had just thrown away,
- 17:21Speaker 1: And therefore he went and made a patient search for it.
- 17:24Speaker 1: But he could not find it. Now he went back
- 17:27Speaker 1: to his treasure house and carefully placed himself just as
- 17:29Speaker 1: he had been standing when he tossed the marble away.
- 17:33Speaker 1: Then he took another marble from his pocket and tossed
- 17:35Speaker 1: it in the same way, saying, brother, go find your brother.
- 17:39Speaker 1: He watched where it stopped, and went there and looked,
- 17:42Speaker 1: But it must have fallen short or gone too far,
- 17:44Speaker 1: so he tried twice more. The last repetition was successful.
- 17:48Speaker 1: The two marbles lay within a foot of each other.
- 17:51Speaker 1: Just here, the blast of a toy tin trumpet came
- 17:54Speaker 1: faintly down the green aisles of the forest. Tom flung
- 17:57Speaker 1: off his jacket and trousers turned to suspend into a belt,
- 18:01Speaker 1: raked away some brush behind the rotten log, disclosing a
- 18:04Speaker 1: rude bow and arrow, a lath sword, and a tin trumpet,
- 18:08Speaker 1: and in a moment had seized these things and bounded
- 18:10Speaker 1: away bare legged with fluttering shirt. He presently halted under
- 18:14Speaker 1: a great elm blew an answering blast, and then began
- 18:18Speaker 1: to tiptoe and look wearily out this way and that.
- 18:21Speaker 1: He said cautiously to an imaginary company, Hold my merry men,
- 18:26Speaker 1: keep hid till I blow. Now appeared Joe Harper, as
- 18:29Speaker 1: airily clad and elaborately armed as Tom. Tom called, hold,
- 18:34Speaker 1: who comes into sherwood forest without my pass? Guy of
- 18:38Speaker 1: Geeseborne wants no man's pass? Who art thou that that
- 18:41Speaker 1: dares to hold such language? Said Tom, prompting, for they
- 18:45Speaker 1: talked by the book from memory. Who art thou that
- 18:48Speaker 1: darest to hold such language? Ay? Indeed I am Robin Hood,
- 18:53Speaker 1: as thy caitiff carcass soon shall know. Then art thou
- 18:56Speaker 1: indeed that famous outlaw? Right gladly will I dispute with
- 19:00Speaker 1: thee the passes of the merrywood have at thee. They
- 19:03Speaker 1: took their lath swords, dumped their other traps on the ground,
- 19:06Speaker 1: and struck a fencing attitude foot to foot, and began
- 19:10Speaker 1: a grave, careful combat. Two up and two down. Presently,
- 19:13Speaker 1: Tom said, now, if you've got the hang, go it lively.
- 19:17Speaker 1: So they went it lively, panting and perspiring with the work.
- 19:21Speaker 1: By and by Tom shouted, fall fall, Why don't you fall?
- 19:25Speaker 1: I shan't. Why don't you fall yourself? You're getting the
- 19:29Speaker 1: worst of it. Why that ain't anything? I can't fall?
- 19:33Speaker 1: That ain't the way it is in the book. The
- 19:35Speaker 1: book says. Then, with one black handed stroke, he slew,
- 19:39Speaker 1: poor guy of Gesbourne, you're to turn round and let
- 19:42Speaker 1: me hit you in the back. There was no getting
- 19:44Speaker 1: around the authorities. So Joe turned, received the whack and fell.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Now said Joe, getting up, you got to let me
- 19:51Speaker 1: kill you. That's fair. Why I can't do that? It
- 19:54Speaker 1: ain't in the book. Well it's blamed mean, that's all. Well,
- 19:58Speaker 1: say Joe. You can be fre Tuck or or much
- 20:01Speaker 1: the miller's son and lamm me with a quarter staff,
- 20:05Speaker 1: or I'll be the Sheriff of Nottingham and you be
- 20:07Speaker 1: Robin Hood a little while and kill me. This was satisfactory,
- 20:11Speaker 1: and so these adventures were carried out. Then Tom became
- 20:15Speaker 1: Robin Hood again and was allowed by the treacherous nun
- 20:17Speaker 1: to bleed his strength away through his neglected wound, and
- 20:21Speaker 1: at last Joe, representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws,
- 20:24Speaker 1: dragged him sadly forth, gave his bow into his feeble hands,
- 20:29Speaker 1: and Tom said, where this arrow falls, there very poor
- 20:34Speaker 1: robin hood under the greenwood tree. Then he shot the
- 20:37Speaker 1: arrow and fell back, and would have died, but he
- 20:40Speaker 1: lit on a nettle and sprang up too gaily for
- 20:42Speaker 1: a corpse. The boys dressed themselves, hid their accouterments, and
- 20:47Speaker 1: went off, grieving that there were no outlaws any more,
- 20:51Speaker 1: and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done
- 20:54Speaker 1: to compensate for their loss. They said they would rather
- 20:57Speaker 1: be outlaws a year in sherwood forest the President of
- 21:00Speaker 1: the United States forever. End of Chapter eight