From f8b85d98bce57ceb039b00297c0258c050afb094 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kateu Herbert <hkateu@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:17:39 +0300
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Adding Channel to documentation

---
 site/concurrency-primitives.md |   19 +
 testdata/tom_sawyer.txt        | 5981 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 6000 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 testdata/tom_sawyer.txt

diff --git a/site/concurrency-primitives.md b/site/concurrency-primitives.md
index 2193ff468a..87bfd3ea49 100644
--- a/site/concurrency-primitives.md
+++ b/site/concurrency-primitives.md
@@ -3,12 +3,31 @@
 In the [`fs2.concurrent` package](https://github.com/functional-streams-for-scala/fs2/blob/series/1.0/core/shared/src/main/scala/fs2/concurrent/) you'll find a bunch of useful concurrency primitives built on the concurrency primitives defined in `cats-effect`. For example:
 
 - `Topic[F, A]`
+- `Channel[F, A]`
 - `Signal[F, A]`
 
 In addition, `Stream` provides functions to interact with cats-effect's `Queue`. 
 
 ## Simple Examples
 
+### Channel
+`Channel` implements a publish-subscribe pattern and is particularly useful where we have multiple `publishers` and a single `subscriber`. In the following example, we have two streams, `pub1` and `pub2` publishing the strings `"Hello"` and `"World"` every `1` and `2` seconds respectively. Additionally, we have `sub`, a subscriber that consumes and prints each element. The three streams are then run in parallel and interrupted after `6` seconds.
+
+```scala mdoc:silent
+import cats.effect._
+import fs2.Stream
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+import cats.effect.unsafe.implicits.global
+import fs2.concurrent.Channel
+
+Channel.unbounded[IO, String].flatMap{channel =>
+  val pub1 = Stream.repeatEval(IO("Hello")).evalMap(channel.send).metered(1.second)
+  val pub2 = Stream.repeatEval(IO("World")).evalMap(channel.send).metered(2.seconds)
+  val sub = channel.stream.evalMap(IO.println)
+  Stream(pub1, pub2, sub).parJoinUnbounded.interruptAfter(6.seconds).compile.drain
+}.unsafeRunSync()
+```
+
 ### Topic
 
 (based on [Pera Villega](https://perevillega.com/)'s example [here](https://underscore.io/blog/posts/2018/03/20/fs2.html))
diff --git a/testdata/tom_sawyer.txt b/testdata/tom_sawyer.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84aa5c1474
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/tom_sawyer.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5981 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 1.
+    
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
+at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
+you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 1.
+
+Author: Mark Twain
+
+Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7193]
+                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Produced by David Widger
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 1. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+                   THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 1
+
+
+                           P R E F A C E
+
+MOST of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or
+two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were
+schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but
+not from an individual--he is a combination of the characteristics of
+three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of
+architecture.
+
+The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children
+and slaves in the West at the period of this story--that is to say,
+thirty or forty years ago.
+
+Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and
+girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,
+for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what
+they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked,
+and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
+
+                                                            THE AUTHOR.
+
+HARTFORD, 1876.
+
+
+
+                          T O M   S A W Y E R
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"What's gone with that boy,  I wonder? You TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the
+room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or
+never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her
+state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not
+service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.
+She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but
+still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
+
+"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll--"
+
+She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching
+under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the
+punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
+
+"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
+
+She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the
+tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom.
+So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and
+shouted:
+
+"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
+
+There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to
+seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
+
+"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in
+there?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that
+truck?"
+
+"I don't know, aunt."
+
+"Well, I know. It's jam--that's what it is. Forty times I've said if
+you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."
+
+The switch hovered in the air--the peril was desperate--
+
+"My! Look behind you, aunt!"
+
+The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The
+lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and
+disappeared over it.
+
+His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle
+laugh.
+
+"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks
+enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old
+fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks,
+as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days,
+and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how
+long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he
+can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down
+again and I can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy,
+and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile
+the child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for
+us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my
+own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash
+him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so,
+and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man
+that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the
+Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, *
+and [* Southwestern for "afternoon"] I'll just be obleeged to make him
+work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work
+Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more
+than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my duty by him,
+or I'll be the ruination of the child."
+
+Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home
+barely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's
+wood and split the kindlings before supper--at least he was there in
+time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the
+work. Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already
+through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a
+quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
+
+While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity
+offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and
+very deep--for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
+many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she
+was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she
+loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low
+cunning. Said she:
+
+"Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn't it?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Powerful warm, warn't it?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Didn't you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?"
+
+A bit of a scare shot through Tom--a touch of uncomfortable suspicion.
+He searched Aunt Polly's face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
+
+"No'm--well, not very much."
+
+The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's shirt, and said:
+
+"But you ain't too warm now, though." And it flattered her to reflect
+that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing
+that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew
+where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
+
+"Some of us pumped on our heads--mine's damp yet. See?"
+
+Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of
+circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new
+inspiration:
+
+"Tom, you didn't have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to
+pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!"
+
+The trouble vanished out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket. His
+shirt collar was securely sewed.
+
+"Bother! Well, go 'long with you. I'd made sure you'd played hookey
+and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you're a kind of a
+singed cat, as the saying is--better'n you look. THIS time."
+
+She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom
+had stumbled into obedient conduct for once.
+
+But Sidney said:
+
+"Well, now, if I didn't think you sewed his collar with white thread,
+but it's black."
+
+"Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!"
+
+But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
+
+"Siddy, I'll lick you for that."
+
+In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into
+the lapels of his jacket, and had thread bound about them--one needle
+carried white thread and the other black. He said:
+
+"She'd never noticed if it hadn't been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes
+she sews it with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to
+geeminy she'd stick to one or t'other--I can't keep the run of 'em. But
+I bet you I'll lam Sid for that. I'll learn him!"
+
+He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very
+well though--and loathed him.
+
+Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles.
+Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him
+than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore
+them down and drove them out of his mind for the time--just as men's
+misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises. This
+new interest was a valued novelty in whistling, which he had just
+acquired from a negro, and he was suffering to practise it undisturbed.
+It consisted in a peculiar bird-like turn, a sort of liquid warble,
+produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short
+intervals in the midst of the music--the reader probably remembers how
+to do it, if he has ever been a boy. Diligence and attention soon gave
+him the knack of it, and he strode down the street with his mouth full
+of harmony and his soul full of gratitude. He felt much as an
+astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet--no doubt, as far as
+strong, deep, unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with
+the boy, not the astronomer.
+
+The summer evenings were long. It was not dark, yet. Presently Tom
+checked his whistle. A stranger was before him--a boy a shade larger
+than himself. A new-comer of any age or either sex was an impressive
+curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg. This boy
+was well dressed, too--well dressed on a week-day. This was simply
+astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth
+roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes
+on--and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bit of
+ribbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The
+more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he turned up his
+nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed
+to him to grow. Neither boy spoke. If one moved, the other moved--but
+only sidewise, in a circle; they kept face to face and eye to eye all
+the time. Finally Tom said:
+
+"I can lick you!"
+
+"I'd like to see you try it."
+
+"Well, I can do it."
+
+"No you can't, either."
+
+"Yes I can."
+
+"No you can't."
+
+"I can."
+
+"You can't."
+
+"Can!"
+
+"Can't!"
+
+An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"'Tisn't any of your business, maybe."
+
+"Well I 'low I'll MAKE it my business."
+
+"Well why don't you?"
+
+"If you say much, I will."
+
+"Much--much--MUCH. There now."
+
+"Oh, you think you're mighty smart, DON'T you? I could lick you with
+one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to."
+
+"Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it."
+
+"Well I WILL, if you fool with me."
+
+"Oh yes--I've seen whole families in the same fix."
+
+"Smarty! You think you're SOME, now, DON'T you? Oh, what a hat!"
+
+"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it
+off--and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."
+
+"You're a liar!"
+
+"You're another."
+
+"You're a fighting liar and dasn't take it up."
+
+"Aw--take a walk!"
+
+"Say--if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a
+rock off'n your head."
+
+"Oh, of COURSE you will."
+
+"Well I WILL."
+
+"Well why don't you DO it then? What do you keep SAYING you will for?
+Why don't you DO it? It's because you're afraid."
+
+"I AIN'T afraid."
+
+"You are."
+
+"I ain't."
+
+"You are."
+
+Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other. Presently
+they were shoulder to shoulder. Tom said:
+
+"Get away from here!"
+
+"Go away yourself!"
+
+"I won't."
+
+"I won't either."
+
+So they stood, each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace, and
+both shoving with might and main, and glowering at each other with
+hate. But neither could get an advantage. After struggling till both
+were hot and flushed, each relaxed his strain with watchful caution,
+and Tom said:
+
+"You're a coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he
+can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make him do it, too."
+
+"What do I care for your big brother? I've got a brother that's bigger
+than he is--and what's more, he can throw him over that fence, too."
+[Both brothers were imaginary.]
+
+"That's a lie."
+
+"YOUR saying so don't make it so."
+
+Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe, and said:
+
+"I dare you to step over that, and I'll lick you till you can't stand
+up. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep."
+
+The new boy stepped over promptly, and said:
+
+"Now you said you'd do it, now let's see you do it."
+
+"Don't you crowd me now; you better look out."
+
+"Well, you SAID you'd do it--why don't you do it?"
+
+"By jingo! for two cents I WILL do it."
+
+The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out
+with derision. Tom struck them to the ground. In an instant both boys
+were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats; and
+for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each other's hair and
+clothes, punched and scratched each other's nose, and covered
+themselves with dust and glory. Presently the confusion took form, and
+through the fog of battle Tom appeared, seated astride the new boy, and
+pounding him with his fists. "Holler 'nuff!" said he.
+
+The boy only struggled to free himself. He was crying--mainly from rage.
+
+"Holler 'nuff!"--and the pounding went on.
+
+At last the stranger got out a smothered "'Nuff!" and Tom let him up
+and said:
+
+"Now that'll learn you. Better look out who you're fooling with next
+time."
+
+The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, sobbing,
+snuffling, and occasionally looking back and shaking his head and
+threatening what he would do to Tom the "next time he caught him out."
+To which Tom responded with jeers, and started off in high feather, and
+as soon as his back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone, threw
+it and hit him between the shoulders and then turned tail and ran like
+an antelope. Tom chased the traitor home, and thus found out where he
+lived. He then held a position at the gate for some time, daring the
+enemy to come outside, but the enemy only made faces at him through the
+window and declined. At last the enemy's mother appeared, and called
+Tom a bad, vicious, vulgar child, and ordered him away. So he went
+away; but he said he "'lowed" to "lay" for that boy.
+
+He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in
+at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt;
+and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn
+his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in
+its firmness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SATURDAY morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and
+fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if
+the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in
+every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom
+and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond
+the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far
+enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.
+
+Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a
+long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and
+a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board
+fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a
+burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost
+plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant
+whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed
+fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at
+the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from
+the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but
+now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at
+the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there
+waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling,
+fighting, skylarking. And he remembered that although the pump was only
+a hundred and fifty yards off, Jim never got back with a bucket of
+water under an hour--and even then somebody generally had to go after
+him. Tom said:
+
+"Say, Jim, I'll fetch the water if you'll whitewash some."
+
+Jim shook his head and said:
+
+"Can't, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an' git dis
+water an' not stop foolin' roun' wid anybody. She say she spec' Mars
+Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an' so she tole me go 'long an' 'tend
+to my own business--she 'lowed SHE'D 'tend to de whitewashin'."
+
+"Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That's the way she always
+talks. Gimme the bucket--I won't be gone only a a minute. SHE won't
+ever know."
+
+"Oh, I dasn't, Mars Tom. Ole missis she'd take an' tar de head off'n
+me. 'Deed she would."
+
+"SHE! She never licks anybody--whacks 'em over the head with her
+thimble--and who cares for that, I'd like to know. She talks awful, but
+talk don't hurt--anyways it don't if she don't cry. Jim, I'll give you
+a marvel. I'll give you a white alley!"
+
+Jim began to waver.
+
+"White alley, Jim! And it's a bully taw."
+
+"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I's powerful
+'fraid ole missis--"
+
+"And besides, if you will I'll show you my sore toe."
+
+Jim was only human--this attraction was too much for him. He put down
+his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing
+interest while the bandage was being unwound. In another moment he was
+flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was
+whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field
+with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye.
+
+But Tom's energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had
+planned for this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys
+would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and
+they would make a world of fun of him for having to work--the very
+thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and
+examined it--bits of toys, marbles, and trash; enough to buy an
+exchange of WORK, maybe, but not half enough to buy so much as half an
+hour of pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his
+pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At this dark
+and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a
+great, magnificent inspiration.
+
+He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in
+sight presently--the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been
+dreading. Ben's gait was the hop-skip-and-jump--proof enough that his
+heart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and
+giving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned
+ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. As
+he drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned
+far over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious
+pomp and circumstance--for he was personating the Big Missouri, and
+considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat and
+captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself
+standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:
+
+"Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!" The headway ran almost out, and he
+drew up slowly toward the sidewalk.
+
+"Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!" His arms straightened and
+stiffened down his sides.
+
+"Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow!
+Chow!" His right hand, meantime, describing stately circles--for it was
+representing a forty-foot wheel.
+
+"Let her go back on the labboard! Ting-a-lingling! Chow-ch-chow-chow!"
+The left hand began to describe circles.
+
+"Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead
+on the stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow!
+Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! LIVELY now!
+Come--out with your spring-line--what're you about there! Take a turn
+round that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now--let her
+go! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! SH'T! S'H'T! SH'T!"
+(trying the gauge-cocks).
+
+Tom went on whitewashing--paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben
+stared a moment and then said: "Hi-YI! YOU'RE up a stump, ain't you!"
+
+No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then
+he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as
+before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the
+apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:
+
+"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
+
+Tom wheeled suddenly and said:
+
+"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
+
+"Say--I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
+course you'd druther WORK--wouldn't you? Course you would!"
+
+Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
+
+"What do you call work?"
+
+"Why, ain't THAT work?"
+
+Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
+
+"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom
+Sawyer."
+
+"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you LIKE it?"
+
+The brush continued to move.
+
+"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get
+a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
+
+That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
+swept his brush daintily back and forth--stepped back to note the
+effect--added a touch here and there--criticised the effect again--Ben
+watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
+absorbed. Presently he said:
+
+"Say, Tom, let ME whitewash a little."
+
+Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:
+
+"No--no--I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's
+awful particular about this fence--right here on the street, you know
+--but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and SHE wouldn't. Yes,
+she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very
+careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two
+thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."
+
+"No--is that so? Oh come, now--lemme just try. Only just a little--I'd
+let YOU, if you was me, Tom."
+
+"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to
+do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't
+let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this
+fence and anything was to happen to it--"
+
+"Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give
+you the core of my apple."
+
+"Well, here--No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard--"
+
+"I'll give you ALL of it!"
+
+Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his
+heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in
+the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by,
+dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more
+innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every
+little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time
+Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for
+a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in
+for a dead rat and a string to swing it with--and so on, and so on,
+hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being
+a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling
+in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles,
+part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a
+spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk,
+a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six
+fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a
+dog-collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife, four pieces of
+orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.
+
+He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while--plenty of company
+--and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out
+of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.
+
+Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He
+had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely,
+that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only
+necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great
+and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have
+comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do,
+and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And
+this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers
+or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or
+climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in
+England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles
+on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them
+considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service,
+that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
+
+The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place
+in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to
+report.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TOM presented himself before Aunt Polly, who was sitting by an open
+window in a pleasant rearward apartment, which was bedroom,
+breakfast-room, dining-room, and library, combined. The balmy summer
+air, the restful quiet, the odor of the flowers, and the drowsing murmur
+of the bees had had their effect, and she was nodding over her knitting
+--for she had no company but the cat, and it was asleep in her lap. Her
+spectacles were propped up on her gray head for safety. She had thought
+that of course Tom had deserted long ago, and she wondered at seeing him
+place himself in her power again in this intrepid way. He said: "Mayn't
+I go and play now, aunt?"
+
+"What, a'ready? How much have you done?"
+
+"It's all done, aunt."
+
+"Tom, don't lie to me--I can't bear it."
+
+"I ain't, aunt; it IS all done."
+
+Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see
+for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent.
+of Tom's statement true. When she found the entire fence whitewashed,
+and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even
+a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.
+She said:
+
+"Well, I never! There's no getting round it, you can work when you're
+a mind to, Tom." And then she diluted the compliment by adding, "But
+it's powerful seldom you're a mind to, I'm bound to say. Well, go 'long
+and play; but mind you get back some time in a week, or I'll tan you."
+
+She was so overcome by the splendor of his achievement that she took
+him into the closet and selected a choice apple and delivered it to
+him, along with an improving lecture upon the added value and flavor a
+treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort.
+And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, he "hooked" a
+doughnut.
+
+Then he skipped out, and saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway
+that led to the back rooms on the second floor. Clods were handy and
+the air was full of them in a twinkling. They raged around Sid like a
+hail-storm; and before Aunt Polly could collect her surprised faculties
+and sally to the rescue, six or seven clods had taken personal effect,
+and Tom was over the fence and gone. There was a gate, but as a general
+thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it. His soul was at
+peace, now that he had settled with Sid for calling attention to his
+black thread and getting him into trouble.
+
+Tom skirted the block, and came round into a muddy alley that led by
+the back of his aunt's cow-stable. He presently got safely beyond the
+reach of capture and punishment, and hastened toward the public square
+of the village, where two "military" companies of boys had met for
+conflict, according to previous appointment. Tom was General of one of
+these armies, Joe Harper (a bosom friend) General of the other. These
+two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person--that being
+better suited to the still smaller fry--but sat together on an eminence
+and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through
+aides-de-camp. Tom's army won a great victory, after a long and
+hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged,
+the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the
+necessary battle appointed; after which the armies fell into line and
+marched away, and Tom turned homeward alone.
+
+As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new
+girl in the garden--a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair
+plaited into two long-tails, white summer frock and embroidered
+pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot. A
+certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a
+memory of herself behind. He had thought he loved her to distraction;
+he had regarded his passion as adoration; and behold it was only a poor
+little evanescent partiality. He had been months winning her; she had
+confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest
+boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant of time
+she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is
+done.
+
+He worshipped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she
+had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present,
+and began to "show off" in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to
+win her admiration. He kept up this grotesque foolishness for some
+time; but by-and-by, while he was in the midst of some dangerous
+gymnastic performances, he glanced aside and saw that the little girl
+was wending her way toward the house. Tom came up to the fence and
+leaned on it, grieving, and hoping she would tarry yet awhile longer.
+She halted a moment on the steps and then moved toward the door. Tom
+heaved a great sigh as she put her foot on the threshold. But his face
+lit up, right away, for she tossed a pansy over the fence a moment
+before she disappeared.
+
+The boy ran around and stopped within a foot or two of the flower, and
+then shaded his eyes with his hand and began to look down street as if
+he had discovered something of interest going on in that direction.
+Presently he picked up a straw and began trying to balance it on his
+nose, with his head tilted far back; and as he moved from side to side,
+in his efforts, he edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy; finally
+his bare foot rested upon it, his pliant toes closed upon it, and he
+hopped away with the treasure and disappeared round the corner. But
+only for a minute--only while he could button the flower inside his
+jacket, next his heart--or next his stomach, possibly, for he was not
+much posted in anatomy, and not hypercritical, anyway.
+
+He returned, now, and hung about the fence till nightfall, "showing
+off," as before; but the girl never exhibited herself again, though Tom
+comforted himself a little with the hope that she had been near some
+window, meantime, and been aware of his attentions. Finally he strode
+home reluctantly, with his poor head full of visions.
+
+All through supper his spirits were so high that his aunt wondered
+"what had got into the child." He took a good scolding about clodding
+Sid, and did not seem to mind it in the least. He tried to steal sugar
+under his aunt's very nose, and got his knuckles rapped for it. He said:
+
+"Aunt, you don't whack Sid when he takes it."
+
+"Well, Sid don't torment a body the way you do. You'd be always into
+that sugar if I warn't watching you."
+
+Presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his
+immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl--a sort of glorying over Tom which
+was wellnigh unbearable. But Sid's fingers slipped and the bowl dropped
+and broke. Tom was in ecstasies. In such ecstasies that he even
+controlled his tongue and was silent. He said to himself that he would
+not speak a word, even when his aunt came in, but would sit perfectly
+still till she asked who did the mischief; and then he would tell, and
+there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model
+"catch it." He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold
+himself when the old lady came back and stood above the wreck
+discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles. He said to
+himself, "Now it's coming!" And the next instant he was sprawling on
+the floor! The potent palm was uplifted to strike again when Tom cried
+out:
+
+"Hold on, now, what 'er you belting ME for?--Sid broke it!"
+
+Aunt Polly paused, perplexed, and Tom looked for healing pity. But
+when she got her tongue again, she only said:
+
+"Umf! Well, you didn't get a lick amiss, I reckon. You been into some
+other audacious mischief when I wasn't around, like enough."
+
+Then her conscience reproached her, and she yearned to say something
+kind and loving; but she judged that this would be construed into a
+confession that she had been in the wrong, and discipline forbade that.
+So she kept silence, and went about her affairs with a troubled heart.
+Tom sulked in a corner and exalted his woes. He knew that in her heart
+his aunt was on her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the
+consciousness of it. He would hang out no signals, he would take notice
+of none. He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him, now and then,
+through a film of tears, but he refused recognition of it. He pictured
+himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him beseeching
+one little forgiving word, but he would turn his face to the wall, and
+die with that word unsaid. Ah, how would she feel then? And he pictured
+himself brought home from the river, dead, with his curls all wet, and
+his sore heart at rest. How she would throw herself upon him, and how
+her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back
+her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more! But he would lie
+there cold and white and make no sign--a poor little sufferer, whose
+griefs were at an end. He so worked upon his feelings with the pathos
+of these dreams, that he had to keep swallowing, he was so like to
+choke; and his eyes swam in a blur of water, which overflowed when he
+winked, and ran down and trickled from the end of his nose. And such a
+luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows, that he could not bear
+to have any worldly cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it;
+it was too sacred for such contact; and so, presently, when his cousin
+Mary danced in, all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an
+age-long visit of one week to the country, he got up and moved in
+clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in
+at the other.
+
+He wandered far from the accustomed haunts of boys, and sought
+desolate places that were in harmony with his spirit. A log raft in the
+river invited him, and he seated himself on its outer edge and
+contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream, wishing, the while,
+that he could only be drowned, all at once and unconsciously, without
+undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by nature. Then he thought
+of his flower. He got it out, rumpled and wilted, and it mightily
+increased his dismal felicity. He wondered if she would pity him if she
+knew? Would she cry, and wish that she had a right to put her arms
+around his neck and comfort him? Or would she turn coldly away like all
+the hollow world? This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable
+suffering that he worked it over and over again in his mind and set it
+up in new and varied lights, till he wore it threadbare. At last he
+rose up sighing and departed in the darkness.
+
+About half-past nine or ten o'clock he came along the deserted street
+to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; no sound fell
+upon his listening ear; a candle was casting a dull glow upon the
+curtain of a second-story window. Was the sacred presence there? He
+climbed the fence, threaded his stealthy way through the plants, till
+he stood under that window; he looked up at it long, and with emotion;
+then he laid him down on the ground under it, disposing himself upon
+his back, with his hands clasped upon his breast and holding his poor
+wilted flower. And thus he would die--out in the cold world, with no
+shelter over his homeless head, no friendly hand to wipe the
+death-damps from his brow, no loving face to bend pityingly over him
+when the great agony came. And thus SHE would see him when she looked
+out upon the glad morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon
+his poor, lifeless form, would she heave one little sigh to see a bright
+young life so rudely blighted, so untimely cut down?
+
+The window went up, a maid-servant's discordant voice profaned the
+holy calm, and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyr's remains!
+
+The strangling hero sprang up with a relieving snort. There was a whiz
+as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, a sound
+as of shivering glass followed, and a small, vague form went over the
+fence and shot away in the gloom.
+
+Not long after, as Tom, all undressed for bed, was surveying his
+drenched garments by the light of a tallow dip, Sid woke up; but if he
+had any dim idea of making any "references to allusions," he thought
+better of it and held his peace, for there was danger in Tom's eye.
+
+Tom turned in without the added vexation of prayers, and Sid made
+mental note of the omission.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 1. ***
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+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 2.
+    
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
+at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
+you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 2.
+
+Author: Mark Twain
+
+Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7194]
+                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Produced by David Widger
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 2. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 2
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE sun rose upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the peaceful
+village like a benediction. Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had family
+worship: it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid
+courses of Scriptural quotations, welded together with a thin mortar of
+originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter
+of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai.
+
+Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to "get
+his verses." Sid had learned his lesson days before. Tom bent all his
+energies to the memorizing of five verses, and he chose part of the
+Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were shorter.
+At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson,
+but no more, for his mind was traversing the whole field of human
+thought, and his hands were busy with distracting recreations. Mary
+took his book to hear him recite, and he tried to find his way through
+the fog:
+
+"Blessed are the--a--a--"
+
+"Poor"--
+
+"Yes--poor; blessed are the poor--a--a--"
+
+"In spirit--"
+
+"In spirit; blessed are the poor in spirit, for they--they--"
+
+"THEIRS--"
+
+"For THEIRS. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
+of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they--they--"
+
+"Sh--"
+
+"For they--a--"
+
+"S, H, A--"
+
+"For they S, H--Oh, I don't know what it is!"
+
+"SHALL!"
+
+"Oh, SHALL! for they shall--for they shall--a--a--shall mourn--a--a--
+blessed are they that shall--they that--a--they that shall mourn, for
+they shall--a--shall WHAT? Why don't you tell me, Mary?--what do you
+want to be so mean for?"
+
+"Oh, Tom, you poor thick-headed thing, I'm not teasing you. I wouldn't
+do that. You must go and learn it again. Don't you be discouraged, Tom,
+you'll manage it--and if you do, I'll give you something ever so nice.
+There, now, that's a good boy."
+
+"All right! What is it, Mary, tell me what it is."
+
+"Never you mind, Tom. You know if I say it's nice, it is nice."
+
+"You bet you that's so, Mary. All right, I'll tackle it again."
+
+And he did "tackle it again"--and under the double pressure of
+curiosity and prospective gain he did it with such spirit that he
+accomplished a shining success. Mary gave him a brand-new "Barlow"
+knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that
+swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would
+not cut anything, but it was a "sure-enough" Barlow, and there was
+inconceivable grandeur in that--though where the Western boys ever got
+the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its
+injury is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps. Tom
+contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin
+on the bureau, when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school.
+
+Mary gave him a tin basin of water and a piece of soap, and he went
+outside the door and set the basin on a little bench there; then he
+dipped the soap in the water and laid it down; turned up his sleeves;
+poured out the water on the ground, gently, and then entered the
+kitchen and began to wipe his face diligently on the towel behind the
+door. But Mary removed the towel and said:
+
+"Now ain't you ashamed, Tom. You mustn't be so bad. Water won't hurt
+you."
+
+Tom was a trifle disconcerted. The basin was refilled, and this time
+he stood over it a little while, gathering resolution; took in a big
+breath and began. When he entered the kitchen presently, with both eyes
+shut and groping for the towel with his hands, an honorable testimony
+of suds and water was dripping from his face. But when he emerged from
+the towel, he was not yet satisfactory, for the clean territory stopped
+short at his chin and his jaws, like a mask; below and beyond this line
+there was a dark expanse of unirrigated soil that spread downward in
+front and backward around his neck. Mary took him in hand, and when she
+was done with him he was a man and a brother, without distinction of
+color, and his saturated hair was neatly brushed, and its short curls
+wrought into a dainty and symmetrical general effect. [He privately
+smoothed out the curls, with labor and difficulty, and plastered his
+hair close down to his head; for he held curls to be effeminate, and
+his own filled his life with bitterness.] Then Mary got out a suit of
+his clothing that had been used only on Sundays during two years--they
+were simply called his "other clothes"--and so by that we know the
+size of his wardrobe. The girl "put him to rights" after he had dressed
+himself; she buttoned his neat roundabout up to his chin, turned his
+vast shirt collar down over his shoulders, brushed him off and crowned
+him with his speckled straw hat. He now looked exceedingly improved and
+uncomfortable. He was fully as uncomfortable as he looked; for there
+was a restraint about whole clothes and cleanliness that galled him. He
+hoped that Mary would forget his shoes, but the hope was blighted; she
+coated them thoroughly with tallow, as was the custom, and brought them
+out. He lost his temper and said he was always being made to do
+everything he didn't want to do. But Mary said, persuasively:
+
+"Please, Tom--that's a good boy."
+
+So he got into the shoes snarling. Mary was soon ready, and the three
+children set out for Sunday-school--a place that Tom hated with his
+whole heart; but Sid and Mary were fond of it.
+
+Sabbath-school hours were from nine to half-past ten; and then church
+service. Two of the children always remained for the sermon
+voluntarily, and the other always remained too--for stronger reasons.
+The church's high-backed, uncushioned pews would seat about three
+hundred persons; the edifice was but a small, plain affair, with a sort
+of pine board tree-box on top of it for a steeple. At the door Tom
+dropped back a step and accosted a Sunday-dressed comrade:
+
+"Say, Billy, got a yaller ticket?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What'll you take for her?"
+
+"What'll you give?"
+
+"Piece of lickrish and a fish-hook."
+
+"Less see 'em."
+
+Tom exhibited. They were satisfactory, and the property changed hands.
+Then Tom traded a couple of white alleys for three red tickets, and
+some small trifle or other for a couple of blue ones. He waylaid other
+boys as they came, and went on buying tickets of various colors ten or
+fifteen minutes longer. He entered the church, now, with a swarm of
+clean and noisy boys and girls, proceeded to his seat and started a
+quarrel with the first boy that came handy. The teacher, a grave,
+elderly man, interfered; then turned his back a moment and Tom pulled a
+boy's hair in the next bench, and was absorbed in his book when the boy
+turned around; stuck a pin in another boy, presently, in order to hear
+him say "Ouch!" and got a new reprimand from his teacher. Tom's whole
+class were of a pattern--restless, noisy, and troublesome. When they
+came to recite their lessons, not one of them knew his verses
+perfectly, but had to be prompted all along. However, they worried
+through, and each got his reward--in small blue tickets, each with a
+passage of Scripture on it; each blue ticket was pay for two verses of
+the recitation. Ten blue tickets equalled a red one, and could be
+exchanged for it; ten red tickets equalled a yellow one; for ten yellow
+tickets the superintendent gave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty
+cents in those easy times) to the pupil. How many of my readers would
+have the industry and application to memorize two thousand verses, even
+for a Dore Bible? And yet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way--it
+was the patient work of two years--and a boy of German parentage had
+won four or five. He once recited three thousand verses without
+stopping; but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great, and
+he was little better than an idiot from that day forth--a grievous
+misfortune for the school, for on great occasions, before company, the
+superintendent (as Tom expressed it) had always made this boy come out
+and "spread himself." Only the older pupils managed to keep their
+tickets and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a Bible, and
+so the delivery of one of these prizes was a rare and noteworthy
+circumstance; the successful pupil was so great and conspicuous for
+that day that on the spot every scholar's heart was fired with a fresh
+ambition that often lasted a couple of weeks. It is possible that Tom's
+mental stomach had never really hungered for one of those prizes, but
+unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory
+and the eclat that came with it.
+
+In due course the superintendent stood up in front of the pulpit, with
+a closed hymn-book in his hand and his forefinger inserted between its
+leaves, and commanded attention. When a Sunday-school superintendent
+makes his customary little speech, a hymn-book in the hand is as
+necessary as is the inevitable sheet of music in the hand of a singer
+who stands forward on the platform and sings a solo at a concert
+--though why, is a mystery: for neither the hymn-book nor the sheet of
+music is ever referred to by the sufferer. This superintendent was a
+slim creature of thirty-five, with a sandy goatee and short sandy hair;
+he wore a stiff standing-collar whose upper edge almost reached his
+ears and whose sharp points curved forward abreast the corners of his
+mouth--a fence that compelled a straight lookout ahead, and a turning
+of the whole body when a side view was required; his chin was propped
+on a spreading cravat which was as broad and as long as a bank-note,
+and had fringed ends; his boot toes were turned sharply up, in the
+fashion of the day, like sleigh-runners--an effect patiently and
+laboriously produced by the young men by sitting with their toes
+pressed against a wall for hours together. Mr. Walters was very earnest
+of mien, and very sincere and honest at heart; and he held sacred
+things and places in such reverence, and so separated them from worldly
+matters, that unconsciously to himself his Sunday-school voice had
+acquired a peculiar intonation which was wholly absent on week-days. He
+began after this fashion:
+
+"Now, children, I want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty
+as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two. There
+--that is it. That is the way good little boys and girls should do. I see
+one little girl who is looking out of the window--I am afraid she
+thinks I am out there somewhere--perhaps up in one of the trees making
+a speech to the little birds. [Applausive titter.] I want to tell you
+how good it makes me feel to see so many bright, clean little faces
+assembled in a place like this, learning to do right and be good." And
+so forth and so on. It is not necessary to set down the rest of the
+oration. It was of a pattern which does not vary, and so it is familiar
+to us all.
+
+The latter third of the speech was marred by the resumption of fights
+and other recreations among certain of the bad boys, and by fidgetings
+and whisperings that extended far and wide, washing even to the bases
+of isolated and incorruptible rocks like Sid and Mary. But now every
+sound ceased suddenly, with the subsidence of Mr. Walters' voice, and
+the conclusion of the speech was received with a burst of silent
+gratitude.
+
+A good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which
+was more or less rare--the entrance of visitors: lawyer Thatcher,
+accompanied by a very feeble and aged man; a fine, portly, middle-aged
+gentleman with iron-gray hair; and a dignified lady who was doubtless
+the latter's wife. The lady was leading a child. Tom had been restless
+and full of chafings and repinings; conscience-smitten, too--he could
+not meet Amy Lawrence's eye, he could not brook her loving gaze. But
+when he saw this small new-comer his soul was all ablaze with bliss in
+a moment. The next moment he was "showing off" with all his might
+--cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces--in a word, using every art
+that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause. His
+exaltation had but one alloy--the memory of his humiliation in this
+angel's garden--and that record in sand was fast washing out, under
+the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now.
+
+The visitors were given the highest seat of honor, and as soon as Mr.
+Walters' speech was finished, he introduced them to the school. The
+middle-aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage--no less a one
+than the county judge--altogether the most august creation these
+children had ever looked upon--and they wondered what kind of material
+he was made of--and they half wanted to hear him roar, and were half
+afraid he might, too. He was from Constantinople, twelve miles away--so
+he had travelled, and seen the world--these very eyes had looked upon
+the county court-house--which was said to have a tin roof. The awe
+which these reflections inspired was attested by the impressive silence
+and the ranks of staring eyes. This was the great Judge Thatcher,
+brother of their own lawyer. Jeff Thatcher immediately went forward, to
+be familiar with the great man and be envied by the school. It would
+have been music to his soul to hear the whisperings:
+
+"Look at him, Jim! He's a going up there. Say--look! he's a going to
+shake hands with him--he IS shaking hands with him! By jings, don't you
+wish you was Jeff?"
+
+Mr. Walters fell to "showing off," with all sorts of official
+bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments,
+discharging directions here, there, everywhere that he could find a
+target. The librarian "showed off"--running hither and thither with his
+arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss that
+insect authority delights in. The young lady teachers "showed off"
+--bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed, lifting
+pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting good ones
+lovingly. The young gentlemen teachers "showed off" with small
+scoldings and other little displays of authority and fine attention to
+discipline--and most of the teachers, of both sexes, found business up
+at the library, by the pulpit; and it was business that frequently had
+to be done over again two or three times (with much seeming vexation).
+The little girls "showed off" in various ways, and the little boys
+"showed off" with such diligence that the air was thick with paper wads
+and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the great man sat and
+beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house, and warmed himself
+in the sun of his own grandeur--for he was "showing off," too.
+
+There was only one thing wanting to make Mr. Walters' ecstasy
+complete, and that was a chance to deliver a Bible-prize and exhibit a
+prodigy. Several pupils had a few yellow tickets, but none had enough
+--he had been around among the star pupils inquiring. He would have given
+worlds, now, to have that German lad back again with a sound mind.
+
+And now at this moment, when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward
+with nine yellow tickets, nine red tickets, and ten blue ones, and
+demanded a Bible. This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Walters
+was not expecting an application from this source for the next ten
+years. But there was no getting around it--here were the certified
+checks, and they were good for their face. Tom was therefore elevated
+to a place with the Judge and the other elect, and the great news was
+announced from headquarters. It was the most stunning surprise of the
+decade, and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new hero
+up to the judicial one's altitude, and the school had two marvels to
+gaze upon in place of one. The boys were all eaten up with envy--but
+those that suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too
+late that they themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by
+trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in selling
+whitewashing privileges. These despised themselves, as being the dupes
+of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.
+
+The prize was delivered to Tom with as much effusion as the
+superintendent could pump up under the circumstances; but it lacked
+somewhat of the true gush, for the poor fellow's instinct taught him
+that there was a mystery here that could not well bear the light,
+perhaps; it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two
+thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises--a dozen would
+strain his capacity, without a doubt.
+
+Amy Lawrence was proud and glad, and she tried to make Tom see it in
+her face--but he wouldn't look. She wondered; then she was just a grain
+troubled; next a dim suspicion came and went--came again; she watched;
+a furtive glance told her worlds--and then her heart broke, and she was
+jealous, and angry, and the tears came and she hated everybody. Tom
+most of all (she thought).
+
+Tom was introduced to the Judge; but his tongue was tied, his breath
+would hardly come, his heart quaked--partly because of the awful
+greatness of the man, but mainly because he was her parent. He would
+have liked to fall down and worship him, if it were in the dark. The
+Judge put his hand on Tom's head and called him a fine little man, and
+asked him what his name was. The boy stammered, gasped, and got it out:
+
+"Tom."
+
+"Oh, no, not Tom--it is--"
+
+"Thomas."
+
+"Ah, that's it. I thought there was more to it, maybe. That's very
+well. But you've another one I daresay, and you'll tell it to me, won't
+you?"
+
+"Tell the gentleman your other name, Thomas," said Walters, "and say
+sir. You mustn't forget your manners."
+
+"Thomas Sawyer--sir."
+
+"That's it! That's a good boy. Fine boy. Fine, manly little fellow.
+Two thousand verses is a great many--very, very great many. And you
+never can be sorry for the trouble you took to learn them; for
+knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it's what
+makes great men and good men; you'll be a great man and a good man
+yourself, some day, Thomas, and then you'll look back and say, It's all
+owing to the precious Sunday-school privileges of my boyhood--it's all
+owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn--it's all owing to
+the good superintendent, who encouraged me, and watched over me, and
+gave me a beautiful Bible--a splendid elegant Bible--to keep and have
+it all for my own, always--it's all owing to right bringing up! That is
+what you will say, Thomas--and you wouldn't take any money for those
+two thousand verses--no indeed you wouldn't. And now you wouldn't mind
+telling me and this lady some of the things you've learned--no, I know
+you wouldn't--for we are proud of little boys that learn. Now, no
+doubt you know the names of all the twelve disciples. Won't you tell us
+the names of the first two that were appointed?"
+
+Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. He blushed,
+now, and his eyes fell. Mr. Walters' heart sank within him. He said to
+himself, it is not possible that the boy can answer the simplest
+question--why DID the Judge ask him? Yet he felt obliged to speak up
+and say:
+
+"Answer the gentleman, Thomas--don't be afraid."
+
+Tom still hung fire.
+
+"Now I know you'll tell me," said the lady. "The names of the first
+two disciples were--"
+
+"DAVID AND GOLIAH!"
+
+Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ABOUT half-past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to
+ring, and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon.
+The Sunday-school children distributed themselves about the house and
+occupied pews with their parents, so as to be under supervision. Aunt
+Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her--Tom being placed
+next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open
+window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible. The crowd
+filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better
+days; the mayor and his wife--for they had a mayor there, among other
+unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair,
+smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her
+hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and
+much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St. Petersburg
+could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward; lawyer
+Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the
+village, followed by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young
+heart-breakers; then all the young clerks in town in a body--for they
+had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a circling wall of
+oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet;
+and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful
+care of his mother as if she were cut glass. He always brought his
+mother to church, and was the pride of all the matrons. The boys all
+hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown up to them"
+so much. His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind, as
+usual on Sundays--accidentally. Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked
+upon boys who had as snobs.
+
+The congregation being fully assembled, now, the bell rang once more,
+to warn laggards and stragglers, and then a solemn hush fell upon the
+church which was only broken by the tittering and whispering of the
+choir in the gallery. The choir always tittered and whispered all
+through service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred,
+but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago,
+and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in
+some foreign country.
+
+The minister gave out the hymn, and read it through with a relish, in
+a peculiar style which was much admired in that part of the country.
+His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily up till it reached
+a certain point, where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost
+word and then plunged down as if from a spring-board:
+
+  Shall I be car-ri-ed toe the skies, on flow'ry BEDS of ease,
+
+  Whilst others fight to win the prize, and sail thro' BLOODY seas?
+
+He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was
+always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies
+would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps,
+and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words
+cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal
+earth."
+
+After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into
+a bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and
+things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of
+doom--a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities,
+away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is
+to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
+
+And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went
+into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little children of the
+church; for the other churches of the village; for the village itself;
+for the county; for the State; for the State officers; for the United
+States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for the
+President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed
+by stormy seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of
+European monarchies and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light
+and the good tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear
+withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with
+a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace
+and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a
+grateful harvest of good. Amen.
+
+There was a rustling of dresses, and the standing congregation sat
+down. The boy whose history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer,
+he only endured it--if he even did that much. He was restive all
+through it; he kept tally of the details of the prayer, unconsciously
+--for he was not listening, but he knew the ground of old, and the
+clergyman's regular route over it--and when a little trifle of new
+matter was interlarded, his ear detected it and his whole nature
+resented it; he considered additions unfair, and scoundrelly. In the
+midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of
+him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together,
+embracing its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that
+it seemed to almost part company with the body, and the slender thread
+of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its wings with its hind legs
+and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails; going
+through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly
+safe. As indeed it was; for as sorely as Tom's hands itched to grab for
+it they did not dare--he believed his soul would be instantly destroyed
+if he did such a thing while the prayer was going on. But with the
+closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward; and the
+instant the "Amen" was out the fly was a prisoner of war. His aunt
+detected the act and made him let it go.
+
+The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through
+an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod
+--and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless fire and brimstone
+and thinned the predestined elect down to a company so small as to be
+hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after
+church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew
+anything else about the discourse. However, this time he was really
+interested for a little while. The minister made a grand and moving
+picture of the assembling together of the world's hosts at the
+millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a
+little child should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of
+the great spectacle were lost upon the boy; he only thought of the
+conspicuousness of the principal character before the on-looking
+nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that he
+wished he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.
+
+Now he lapsed into suffering again, as the dry argument was resumed.
+Presently he bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out. It was
+a large black beetle with formidable jaws--a "pinchbug," he called it.
+It was in a percussion-cap box. The first thing the beetle did was to
+take him by the finger. A natural fillip followed, the beetle went
+floundering into the aisle and lit on its back, and the hurt finger
+went into the boy's mouth. The beetle lay there working its helpless
+legs, unable to turn over. Tom eyed it, and longed for it; but it was
+safe out of his reach. Other people uninterested in the sermon found
+relief in the beetle, and they eyed it too. Presently a vagrant poodle
+dog came idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the summer softness and
+the quiet, weary of captivity, sighing for change. He spied the beetle;
+the drooping tail lifted and wagged. He surveyed the prize; walked
+around it; smelt at it from a safe distance; walked around it again;
+grew bolder, and took a closer smell; then lifted his lip and made a
+gingerly snatch at it, just missing it; made another, and another;
+began to enjoy the diversion; subsided to his stomach with the beetle
+between his paws, and continued his experiments; grew weary at last,
+and then indifferent and absent-minded. His head nodded, and little by
+little his chin descended and touched the enemy, who seized it. There
+was a sharp yelp, a flirt of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell a
+couple of yards away, and lit on its back once more. The neighboring
+spectators shook with a gentle inward joy, several faces went behind
+fans and handkerchiefs, and Tom was entirely happy. The dog looked
+foolish, and probably felt so; but there was resentment in his heart,
+too, and a craving for revenge. So he went to the beetle and began a
+wary attack on it again; jumping at it from every point of a circle,
+lighting with his fore-paws within an inch of the creature, making even
+closer snatches at it with his teeth, and jerking his head till his
+ears flapped again. But he grew tired once more, after a while; tried
+to amuse himself with a fly but found no relief; followed an ant
+around, with his nose close to the floor, and quickly wearied of that;
+yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely, and sat down on it. Then
+there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the
+aisle; the yelps continued, and so did the dog; he crossed the house in
+front of the altar; he flew down the other aisle; he crossed before the
+doors; he clamored up the home-stretch; his anguish grew with his
+progress, till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its orbit
+with the gleam and the speed of light. At last the frantic sufferer
+sheered from its course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it
+out of the window, and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and
+died in the distance.
+
+By this time the whole church was red-faced and suffocating with
+suppressed laughter, and the sermon had come to a dead standstill. The
+discourse was resumed presently, but it went lame and halting, all
+possibility of impressiveness being at an end; for even the gravest
+sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of
+unholy mirth, under cover of some remote pew-back, as if the poor
+parson had said a rarely facetious thing. It was a genuine relief to
+the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the benediction
+pronounced.
+
+Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful, thinking to himself that there
+was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of
+variety in it. He had but one marring thought; he was willing that the
+dog should play with his pinchbug, but he did not think it was upright
+in him to carry it off.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MONDAY morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found
+him so--because it began another week's slow suffering in school. He
+generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening
+holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much
+more odious.
+
+Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was
+sick; then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague
+possibility. He canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he
+investigated again. This time he thought he could detect colicky
+symptoms, and he began to encourage them with considerable hope. But
+they soon grew feeble, and presently died wholly away. He reflected
+further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of his upper front teeth
+was loose. This was lucky; he was about to begin to groan, as a
+"starter," as he called it, when it occurred to him that if he came
+into court with that argument, his aunt would pull it out, and that
+would hurt. So he thought he would hold the tooth in reserve for the
+present, and seek further. Nothing offered for some little time, and
+then he remembered hearing the doctor tell about a certain thing that
+laid up a patient for two or three weeks and threatened to make him
+lose a finger. So the boy eagerly drew his sore toe from under the
+sheet and held it up for inspection. But now he did not know the
+necessary symptoms. However, it seemed well worth while to chance it,
+so he fell to groaning with considerable spirit.
+
+But Sid slept on unconscious.
+
+Tom groaned louder, and fancied that he began to feel pain in the toe.
+
+No result from Sid.
+
+Tom was panting with his exertions by this time. He took a rest and
+then swelled himself up and fetched a succession of admirable groans.
+
+Sid snored on.
+
+Tom was aggravated. He said, "Sid, Sid!" and shook him. This course
+worked well, and Tom began to groan again. Sid yawned, stretched, then
+brought himself up on his elbow with a snort, and began to stare at
+Tom. Tom went on groaning. Sid said:
+
+"Tom! Say, Tom!" [No response.] "Here, Tom! TOM! What is the matter,
+Tom?" And he shook him and looked in his face anxiously.
+
+Tom moaned out:
+
+"Oh, don't, Sid. Don't joggle me."
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Tom? I must call auntie."
+
+"No--never mind. It'll be over by and by, maybe. Don't call anybody."
+
+"But I must! DON'T groan so, Tom, it's awful. How long you been this
+way?"
+
+"Hours. Ouch! Oh, don't stir so, Sid, you'll kill me."
+
+"Tom, why didn't you wake me sooner? Oh, Tom, DON'T! It makes my
+flesh crawl to hear you. Tom, what is the matter?"
+
+"I forgive you everything, Sid. [Groan.] Everything you've ever done
+to me. When I'm gone--"
+
+"Oh, Tom, you ain't dying, are you? Don't, Tom--oh, don't. Maybe--"
+
+"I forgive everybody, Sid. [Groan.] Tell 'em so, Sid. And Sid, you
+give my window-sash and my cat with one eye to that new girl that's
+come to town, and tell her--"
+
+But Sid had snatched his clothes and gone. Tom was suffering in
+reality, now, so handsomely was his imagination working, and so his
+groans had gathered quite a genuine tone.
+
+Sid flew down-stairs and said:
+
+"Oh, Aunt Polly, come! Tom's dying!"
+
+"Dying!"
+
+"Yes'm. Don't wait--come quick!"
+
+"Rubbage! I don't believe it!"
+
+But she fled up-stairs, nevertheless, with Sid and Mary at her heels.
+And her face grew white, too, and her lip trembled. When she reached
+the bedside she gasped out:
+
+"You, Tom! Tom, what's the matter with you?"
+
+"Oh, auntie, I'm--"
+
+"What's the matter with you--what is the matter with you, child?"
+
+"Oh, auntie, my sore toe's mortified!"
+
+The old lady sank down into a chair and laughed a little, then cried a
+little, then did both together. This restored her and she said:
+
+"Tom, what a turn you did give me. Now you shut up that nonsense and
+climb out of this."
+
+The groans ceased and the pain vanished from the toe. The boy felt a
+little foolish, and he said:
+
+"Aunt Polly, it SEEMED mortified, and it hurt so I never minded my
+tooth at all."
+
+"Your tooth, indeed! What's the matter with your tooth?"
+
+"One of them's loose, and it aches perfectly awful."
+
+"There, there, now, don't begin that groaning again. Open your mouth.
+Well--your tooth IS loose, but you're not going to die about that.
+Mary, get me a silk thread, and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen."
+
+Tom said:
+
+"Oh, please, auntie, don't pull it out. It don't hurt any more. I wish
+I may never stir if it does. Please don't, auntie. I don't want to stay
+home from school."
+
+"Oh, you don't, don't you? So all this row was because you thought
+you'd get to stay home from school and go a-fishing? Tom, Tom, I love
+you so, and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart
+with your outrageousness." By this time the dental instruments were
+ready. The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Tom's tooth
+with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost. Then she seized the
+chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boy's face. The
+tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now.
+
+But all trials bring their compensations. As Tom wended to school
+after breakfast, he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in
+his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and
+admirable way. He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the
+exhibition; and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of
+fascination and homage up to this time, now found himself suddenly
+without an adherent, and shorn of his glory. His heart was heavy, and
+he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasn't anything to
+spit like Tom Sawyer; but another boy said, "Sour grapes!" and he
+wandered away a dismantled hero.
+
+Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry
+Finn, son of the town drunkard. Huckleberry was cordially hated and
+dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless
+and vulgar and bad--and because all their children admired him so, and
+delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like
+him. Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied
+Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders
+not to play with him. So he played with him every time he got a chance.
+Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown
+men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags. His hat
+was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat,
+when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons
+far down the back; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat
+of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing, the fringed legs
+dragged in the dirt when not rolled up.
+
+Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps
+in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to
+school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could
+go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it
+suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he
+pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring
+and the last to resume leather in the fall; he never had to wash, nor
+put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully. In a word, everything
+that goes to make life precious that boy had. So thought every
+harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg.
+
+Tom hailed the romantic outcast:
+
+"Hello, Huckleberry!"
+
+"Hello yourself, and see how you like it."
+
+"What's that you got?"
+
+"Dead cat."
+
+"Lemme see him, Huck. My, he's pretty stiff. Where'd you get him ?"
+
+"Bought him off'n a boy."
+
+"What did you give?"
+
+"I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter-house."
+
+"Where'd you get the blue ticket?"
+
+"Bought it off'n Ben Rogers two weeks ago for a hoop-stick."
+
+"Say--what is dead cats good for, Huck?"
+
+"Good for? Cure warts with."
+
+"No! Is that so? I know something that's better."
+
+"I bet you don't. What is it?"
+
+"Why, spunk-water."
+
+"Spunk-water! I wouldn't give a dern for spunk-water."
+
+"You wouldn't, wouldn't you? D'you ever try it?"
+
+"No, I hain't. But Bob Tanner did."
+
+"Who told you so!"
+
+"Why, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny
+told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Rogers, and Ben told a nigger, and
+the nigger told me. There now!"
+
+"Well, what of it? They'll all lie. Leastways all but the nigger. I
+don't know HIM. But I never see a nigger that WOULDN'T lie. Shucks! Now
+you tell me how Bob Tanner done it, Huck."
+
+"Why, he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the
+rain-water was."
+
+"In the daytime?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"With his face to the stump?"
+
+"Yes. Least I reckon so."
+
+"Did he say anything?"
+
+"I don't reckon he did. I don't know."
+
+"Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame
+fool way as that! Why, that ain't a-going to do any good. You got to go
+all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a
+spunk-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the
+stump and jam your hand in and say:
+
+  'Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
+   Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,'
+
+and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then
+turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody.
+Because if you speak the charm's busted."
+
+"Well, that sounds like a good way; but that ain't the way Bob Tanner
+done."
+
+"No, sir, you can bet he didn't, becuz he's the wartiest boy in this
+town; and he wouldn't have a wart on him if he'd knowed how to work
+spunk-water. I've took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way,
+Huck. I play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable many
+warts. Sometimes I take 'em off with a bean."
+
+"Yes, bean's good. I've done that."
+
+"Have you? What's your way?"
+
+"You take and split the bean, and cut the wart so as to get some
+blood, and then you put the blood on one piece of the bean and take and
+dig a hole and bury it 'bout midnight at the crossroads in the dark of
+the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean. You see that piece
+that's got the blood on it will keep drawing and drawing, trying to
+fetch the other piece to it, and so that helps the blood to draw the
+wart, and pretty soon off she comes."
+
+"Yes, that's it, Huck--that's it; though when you're burying it if you
+say 'Down bean; off wart; come no more to bother me!' it's better.
+That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to Coonville and
+most everywheres. But say--how do you cure 'em with dead cats?"
+
+"Why, you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard 'long about
+midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's
+midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see
+'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk;
+and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after 'em
+and say, 'Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm
+done with ye!' That'll fetch ANY wart."
+
+"Sounds right. D'you ever try it, Huck?"
+
+"No, but old Mother Hopkins told me."
+
+"Well, I reckon it's so, then. Becuz they say she's a witch."
+
+"Say! Why, Tom, I KNOW she is. She witched pap. Pap says so his own
+self. He come along one day, and he see she was a-witching him, so he
+took up a rock, and if she hadn't dodged, he'd a got her. Well, that
+very night he rolled off'n a shed wher' he was a layin drunk, and broke
+his arm."
+
+"Why, that's awful. How did he know she was a-witching him?"
+
+"Lord, pap can tell, easy. Pap says when they keep looking at you
+right stiddy, they're a-witching you. Specially if they mumble. Becuz
+when they mumble they're saying the Lord's Prayer backards."
+
+"Say, Hucky, when you going to try the cat?"
+
+"To-night. I reckon they'll come after old Hoss Williams to-night."
+
+"But they buried him Saturday. Didn't they get him Saturday night?"
+
+"Why, how you talk! How could their charms work till midnight?--and
+THEN it's Sunday. Devils don't slosh around much of a Sunday, I don't
+reckon."
+
+"I never thought of that. That's so. Lemme go with you?"
+
+"Of course--if you ain't afeard."
+
+"Afeard! 'Tain't likely. Will you meow?"
+
+"Yes--and you meow back, if you get a chance. Last time, you kep' me
+a-meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says
+'Dern that cat!' and so I hove a brick through his window--but don't
+you tell."
+
+"I won't. I couldn't meow that night, becuz auntie was watching me,
+but I'll meow this time. Say--what's that?"
+
+"Nothing but a tick."
+
+"Where'd you get him?"
+
+"Out in the woods."
+
+"What'll you take for him?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't want to sell him."
+
+"All right. It's a mighty small tick, anyway."
+
+"Oh, anybody can run a tick down that don't belong to them. I'm
+satisfied with it. It's a good enough tick for me."
+
+"Sho, there's ticks a plenty. I could have a thousand of 'em if I
+wanted to."
+
+"Well, why don't you? Becuz you know mighty well you can't. This is a
+pretty early tick, I reckon. It's the first one I've seen this year."
+
+"Say, Huck--I'll give you my tooth for him."
+
+"Less see it."
+
+Tom got out a bit of paper and carefully unrolled it. Huckleberry
+viewed it wistfully. The temptation was very strong. At last he said:
+
+"Is it genuwyne?"
+
+Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy.
+
+"Well, all right," said Huckleberry, "it's a trade."
+
+Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion-cap box that had lately been
+the pinchbug's prison, and the boys separated, each feeling wealthier
+than before.
+
+When Tom reached the little isolated frame schoolhouse, he strode in
+briskly, with the manner of one who had come with all honest speed.
+He hung his hat on a peg and flung himself into his seat with
+business-like alacrity. The master, throned on high in his great
+splint-bottom arm-chair, was dozing, lulled by the drowsy hum of study.
+The interruption roused him.
+
+"Thomas Sawyer!"
+
+Tom knew that when his name was pronounced in full, it meant trouble.
+
+"Sir!"
+
+"Come up here. Now, sir, why are you late again, as usual?"
+
+Tom was about to take refuge in a lie, when he saw two long tails of
+yellow hair hanging down a back that he recognized by the electric
+sympathy of love; and by that form was THE ONLY VACANT PLACE on the
+girls' side of the schoolhouse. He instantly said:
+
+"I STOPPED TO TALK WITH HUCKLEBERRY FINN!"
+
+The master's pulse stood still, and he stared helplessly. The buzz of
+study ceased. The pupils wondered if this foolhardy boy had lost his
+mind. The master said:
+
+"You--you did what?"
+
+"Stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn."
+
+There was no mistaking the words.
+
+"Thomas Sawyer, this is the most astounding confession I have ever
+listened to. No mere ferule will answer for this offence. Take off your
+jacket."
+
+The master's arm performed until it was tired and the stock of
+switches notably diminished. Then the order followed:
+
+"Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this be a warning to you."
+
+The titter that rippled around the room appeared to abash the boy, but
+in reality that result was caused rather more by his worshipful awe of
+his unknown idol and the dread pleasure that lay in his high good
+fortune. He sat down upon the end of the pine bench and the girl
+hitched herself away from him with a toss of her head. Nudges and winks
+and whispers traversed the room, but Tom sat still, with his arms upon
+the long, low desk before him, and seemed to study his book.
+
+By and by attention ceased from him, and the accustomed school murmur
+rose upon the dull air once more. Presently the boy began to steal
+furtive glances at the girl. She observed it, "made a mouth" at him and
+gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute. When she
+cautiously faced around again, a peach lay before her. She thrust it
+away. Tom gently put it back. She thrust it away again, but with less
+animosity. Tom patiently returned it to its place. Then she let it
+remain. Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it--I got more." The
+girl glanced at the words, but made no sign. Now the boy began to draw
+something on the slate, hiding his work with his left hand. For a time
+the girl refused to notice; but her human curiosity presently began to
+manifest itself by hardly perceptible signs. The boy worked on,
+apparently unconscious. The girl made a sort of noncommittal attempt to
+see, but the boy did not betray that he was aware of it. At last she
+gave in and hesitatingly whispered:
+
+"Let me see it."
+
+Tom partly uncovered a dismal caricature of a house with two gable
+ends to it and a corkscrew of smoke issuing from the chimney. Then the
+girl's interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot
+everything else. When it was finished, she gazed a moment, then
+whispered:
+
+"It's nice--make a man."
+
+The artist erected a man in the front yard, that resembled a derrick.
+He could have stepped over the house; but the girl was not
+hypercritical; she was satisfied with the monster, and whispered:
+
+"It's a beautiful man--now make me coming along."
+
+Tom drew an hour-glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and
+armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan. The girl said:
+
+"It's ever so nice--I wish I could draw."
+
+"It's easy," whispered Tom, "I'll learn you."
+
+"Oh, will you? When?"
+
+"At noon. Do you go home to dinner?"
+
+"I'll stay if you will."
+
+"Good--that's a whack. What's your name?"
+
+"Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer."
+
+"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me
+Tom, will you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Now Tom began to scrawl something on the slate, hiding the words from
+the girl. But she was not backward this time. She begged to see. Tom
+said:
+
+"Oh, it ain't anything."
+
+"Yes it is."
+
+"No it ain't. You don't want to see."
+
+"Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me."
+
+"You'll tell."
+
+"No I won't--deed and deed and double deed won't."
+
+"You won't tell anybody at all? Ever, as long as you live?"
+
+"No, I won't ever tell ANYbody. Now let me."
+
+"Oh, YOU don't want to see!"
+
+"Now that you treat me so, I WILL see." And she put her small hand
+upon his and a little scuffle ensued, Tom pretending to resist in
+earnest but letting his hand slip by degrees till these words were
+revealed: "I LOVE YOU."
+
+"Oh, you bad thing!" And she hit his hand a smart rap, but reddened
+and looked pleased, nevertheless.
+
+Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing on his
+ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that vise he was borne across the
+house and deposited in his own seat, under a peppering fire of giggles
+from the whole school. Then the master stood over him during a few
+awful moments, and finally moved away to his throne without saying a
+word. But although Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
+
+As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but the
+turmoil within him was too great. In turn he took his place in the
+reading class and made a botch of it; then in the geography class and
+turned lakes into mountains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into
+continents, till chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and
+got "turned down," by a succession of mere baby words, till he brought
+up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with
+ostentation for months.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his
+ideas wandered. So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up. It
+seemed to him that the noon recess would never come. The air was
+utterly dead. There was not a breath stirring. It was the sleepiest of
+sleepy days. The drowsing murmur of the five and twenty studying
+scholars soothed the soul like the spell that is in the murmur of bees.
+Away off in the flaming sunshine, Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green
+sides through a shimmering veil of heat, tinted with the purple of
+distance; a few birds floated on lazy wing high in the air; no other
+living thing was visible but some cows, and they were asleep. Tom's
+heart ached to be free, or else to have something of interest to do to
+pass the dreary time. His hand wandered into his pocket and his face
+lit up with a glow of gratitude that was prayer, though he did not know
+it. Then furtively the percussion-cap box came out. He released the
+tick and put him on the long flat desk. The creature probably glowed
+with a gratitude that amounted to prayer, too, at this moment, but it
+was premature: for when he started thankfully to travel off, Tom turned
+him aside with a pin and made him take a new direction.
+
+Tom's bosom friend sat next him, suffering just as Tom had been, and
+now he was deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in an
+instant. This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn
+friends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays. Joe took a
+pin out of his lapel and began to assist in exercising the prisoner.
+The sport grew in interest momently. Soon Tom said that they were
+interfering with each other, and neither getting the fullest benefit of
+the tick. So he put Joe's slate on the desk and drew a line down the
+middle of it from top to bottom.
+
+"Now," said he, "as long as he is on your side you can stir him up and
+I'll let him alone; but if you let him get away and get on my side,
+you're to leave him alone as long as I can keep him from crossing over."
+
+"All right, go ahead; start him up."
+
+The tick escaped from Tom, presently, and crossed the equator. Joe
+harassed him awhile, and then he got away and crossed back again. This
+change of base occurred often. While one boy was worrying the tick with
+absorbing interest, the other would look on with interest as strong,
+the two heads bowed together over the slate, and the two souls dead to
+all things else. At last luck seemed to settle and abide with Joe. The
+tick tried this, that, and the other course, and got as excited and as
+anxious as the boys themselves, but time and again just as he would
+have victory in his very grasp, so to speak, and Tom's fingers would be
+twitching to begin, Joe's pin would deftly head him off, and keep
+possession. At last Tom could stand it no longer. The temptation was
+too strong. So he reached out and lent a hand with his pin. Joe was
+angry in a moment. Said he:
+
+"Tom, you let him alone."
+
+"I only just want to stir him up a little, Joe."
+
+"No, sir, it ain't fair; you just let him alone."
+
+"Blame it, I ain't going to stir him much."
+
+"Let him alone, I tell you."
+
+"I won't!"
+
+"You shall--he's on my side of the line."
+
+"Look here, Joe Harper, whose is that tick?"
+
+"I don't care whose tick he is--he's on my side of the line, and you
+sha'n't touch him."
+
+"Well, I'll just bet I will, though. He's my tick and I'll do what I
+blame please with him, or die!"
+
+A tremendous whack came down on Tom's shoulders, and its duplicate on
+Joe's; and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to fly from
+the two jackets and the whole school to enjoy it. The boys had been too
+absorbed to notice the hush that had stolen upon the school awhile
+before when the master came tiptoeing down the room and stood over
+them. He had contemplated a good part of the performance before he
+contributed his bit of variety to it.
+
+When school broke up at noon, Tom flew to Becky Thatcher, and
+whispered in her ear:
+
+"Put on your bonnet and let on you're going home; and when you get to
+the corner, give the rest of 'em the slip, and turn down through the
+lane and come back. I'll go the other way and come it over 'em the same
+way."
+
+So the one went off with one group of scholars, and the other with
+another. In a little while the two met at the bottom of the lane, and
+when they reached the school they had it all to themselves. Then they
+sat together, with a slate before them, and Tom gave Becky the pencil
+and held her hand in his, guiding it, and so created another surprising
+house. When the interest in art began to wane, the two fell to talking.
+Tom was swimming in bliss. He said:
+
+"Do you love rats?"
+
+"No! I hate them!"
+
+"Well, I do, too--LIVE ones. But I mean dead ones, to swing round your
+head with a string."
+
+"No, I don't care for rats much, anyway. What I like is chewing-gum."
+
+"Oh, I should say so! I wish I had some now."
+
+"Do you? I've got some. I'll let you chew it awhile, but you must give
+it back to me."
+
+That was agreeable, so they chewed it turn about, and dangled their
+legs against the bench in excess of contentment.
+
+"Was you ever at a circus?" said Tom.
+
+"Yes, and my pa's going to take me again some time, if I'm good."
+
+"I been to the circus three or four times--lots of times. Church ain't
+shucks to a circus. There's things going on at a circus all the time.
+I'm going to be a clown in a circus when I grow up."
+
+"Oh, are you! That will be nice. They're so lovely, all spotted up."
+
+"Yes, that's so. And they get slathers of money--most a dollar a day,
+Ben Rogers says. Say, Becky, was you ever engaged?"
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Why, engaged to be married."
+
+"No."
+
+"Would you like to?"
+
+"I reckon so. I don't know. What is it like?"
+
+"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't
+ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's
+all. Anybody can do it."
+
+"Kiss? What do you kiss for?"
+
+"Why, that, you know, is to--well, they always do that."
+
+"Everybody?"
+
+"Why, yes, everybody that's in love with each other. Do you remember
+what I wrote on the slate?"
+
+"Ye--yes."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"I sha'n't tell you."
+
+"Shall I tell YOU?"
+
+"Ye--yes--but some other time."
+
+"No, now."
+
+"No, not now--to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, no, NOW. Please, Becky--I'll whisper it, I'll whisper it ever so
+easy."
+
+Becky hesitating, Tom took silence for consent, and passed his arm
+about her waist and whispered the tale ever so softly, with his mouth
+close to her ear. And then he added:
+
+"Now you whisper it to me--just the same."
+
+She resisted, for a while, and then said:
+
+"You turn your face away so you can't see, and then I will. But you
+mustn't ever tell anybody--WILL you, Tom? Now you won't, WILL you?"
+
+"No, indeed, indeed I won't. Now, Becky."
+
+He turned his face away. She bent timidly around till her breath
+stirred his curls and whispered, "I--love--you!"
+
+Then she sprang away and ran around and around the desks and benches,
+with Tom after her, and took refuge in a corner at last, with her
+little white apron to her face. Tom clasped her about her neck and
+pleaded:
+
+"Now, Becky, it's all done--all over but the kiss. Don't you be afraid
+of that--it ain't anything at all. Please, Becky." And he tugged at her
+apron and the hands.
+
+By and by she gave up, and let her hands drop; her face, all glowing
+with the struggle, came up and submitted. Tom kissed the red lips and
+said:
+
+"Now it's all done, Becky. And always after this, you know, you ain't
+ever to love anybody but me, and you ain't ever to marry anybody but
+me, ever never and forever. Will you?"
+
+"No, I'll never love anybody but you, Tom, and I'll never marry
+anybody but you--and you ain't to ever marry anybody but me, either."
+
+"Certainly. Of course. That's PART of it. And always coming to school
+or when we're going home, you're to walk with me, when there ain't
+anybody looking--and you choose me and I choose you at parties, because
+that's the way you do when you're engaged."
+
+"It's so nice. I never heard of it before."
+
+"Oh, it's ever so gay! Why, me and Amy Lawrence--"
+
+The big eyes told Tom his blunder and he stopped, confused.
+
+"Oh, Tom! Then I ain't the first you've ever been engaged to!"
+
+The child began to cry. Tom said:
+
+"Oh, don't cry, Becky, I don't care for her any more."
+
+"Yes, you do, Tom--you know you do."
+
+Tom tried to put his arm about her neck, but she pushed him away and
+turned her face to the wall, and went on crying. Tom tried again, with
+soothing words in his mouth, and was repulsed again. Then his pride was
+up, and he strode away and went outside. He stood about, restless and
+uneasy, for a while, glancing at the door, every now and then, hoping
+she would repent and come to find him. But she did not. Then he began
+to feel badly and fear that he was in the wrong. It was a hard struggle
+with him to make new advances, now, but he nerved himself to it and
+entered. She was still standing back there in the corner, sobbing, with
+her face to the wall. Tom's heart smote him. He went to her and stood a
+moment, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Then he said hesitatingly:
+
+"Becky, I--I don't care for anybody but you."
+
+No reply--but sobs.
+
+"Becky"--pleadingly. "Becky, won't you say something?"
+
+More sobs.
+
+Tom got out his chiefest jewel, a brass knob from the top of an
+andiron, and passed it around her so that she could see it, and said:
+
+"Please, Becky, won't you take it?"
+
+She struck it to the floor. Then Tom marched out of the house and over
+the hills and far away, to return to school no more that day. Presently
+Becky began to suspect. She ran to the door; he was not in sight; she
+flew around to the play-yard; he was not there. Then she called:
+
+"Tom! Come back, Tom!"
+
+She listened intently, but there was no answer. She had no companions
+but silence and loneliness. So she sat down to cry again and upbraid
+herself; and by this time the scholars began to gather again, and she
+had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart and take up the cross
+of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none among the strangers
+about her to exchange sorrows with.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 2. ***
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 3.
+    
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
+at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
+you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 3.
+
+Author: Mark Twain
+
+Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7195]
+                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Produced by David Widger
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 3. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 3
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TOM dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of
+the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. He
+crossed a small "branch" two or three times, because of a prevailing
+juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit. Half an hour
+later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the summit of
+Cardiff Hill, and the schoolhouse was hardly distinguishable away off
+in the valley behind him. He entered a dense wood, picked his pathless
+way to the centre of it, and sat down on a mossy spot under a spreading
+oak. There was not even a zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had
+even stilled the songs of the birds; nature lay in a trance that was
+broken by no sound but the occasional far-off hammering of a
+woodpecker, and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense
+of loneliness the more profound. The boy's soul was steeped in
+melancholy; his feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings. He
+sat long with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands,
+meditating. It seemed to him that life was but a trouble, at best, and
+he more than half envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately released; it must be
+very peaceful, he thought, to lie and slumber and dream forever and
+ever, with the wind whispering through the trees and caressing the
+grass and the flowers over the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve
+about, ever any more. If he only had a clean Sunday-school record he
+could be willing to go, and be done with it all. Now as to this girl.
+What had he done? Nothing. He had meant the best in the world, and been
+treated like a dog--like a very dog. She would be sorry some day--maybe
+when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die TEMPORARILY!
+
+But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one
+constrained shape long at a time. Tom presently began to drift
+insensibly back into the concerns of this life again. What if he turned
+his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? What if he went away--ever
+so far away, into unknown countries beyond the seas--and never came
+back any more! How would she feel then! The idea of being a clown
+recurred to him now, only to fill him with disgust. For frivolity and
+jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves
+upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the
+romantic. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all
+war-worn and illustrious. No--better still, he would join the Indians,
+and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the
+trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come
+back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and
+prance into Sunday-school, some drowsy summer morning, with a
+bloodcurdling war-whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions
+with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than
+this. He would be a pirate! That was it! NOW his future lay plain
+before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would
+fill the world, and make people shudder! How gloriously he would go
+plowing the dancing seas, in his long, low, black-hulled racer, the
+Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore! And at
+the zenith of his fame, how he would suddenly appear at the old village
+and stalk into church, brown and weather-beaten, in his black velvet
+doublet and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his belt
+bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cutlass at his side, his
+slouch hat with waving plumes, his black flag unfurled, with the skull
+and crossbones on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings,
+"It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!--the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!"
+
+Yes, it was settled; his career was determined. He would run away from
+home and enter upon it. He would start the very next morning. Therefore
+he must now begin to get ready. He would collect his resources
+together. He went to a rotten log near at hand and began to dig under
+one end of it with his Barlow knife. He soon struck wood that sounded
+hollow. He put his hand there and uttered this incantation impressively:
+
+"What hasn't come here, come! What's here, stay here!"
+
+Then he scraped away the dirt, and exposed a pine shingle. He took it
+up and disclosed a shapely little treasure-house whose bottom and sides
+were of shingles. In it lay a marble. Tom's astonishment was boundless!
+He scratched his head with a perplexed air, and said:
+
+"Well, that beats anything!"
+
+Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood cogitating. The
+truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and
+all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. If you buried a
+marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a
+fortnight, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just
+used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had
+gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they
+had been separated. But now, this thing had actually and unquestionably
+failed. Tom's whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations.
+He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding but never of its
+failing before. It did not occur to him that he had tried it several
+times before, himself, but could never find the hiding-places
+afterward. He puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided
+that some witch had interfered and broken the charm. He thought he
+would satisfy himself on that point; so he searched around till he
+found a small sandy spot with a little funnel-shaped depression in it.
+He laid himself down and put his mouth close to this depression and
+called--
+
+"Doodle-bug, doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know! Doodle-bug,
+doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know!"
+
+The sand began to work, and presently a small black bug appeared for a
+second and then darted under again in a fright.
+
+"He dasn't tell! So it WAS a witch that done it. I just knowed it."
+
+He well knew the futility of trying to contend against witches, so he
+gave up discouraged. But it occurred to him that he might as well have
+the marble he had just thrown away, and therefore he went and made a
+patient search for it. But he could not find it. Now he went back to
+his treasure-house and carefully placed himself just as he had been
+standing when he tossed the marble away; then he took another marble
+from his pocket and tossed it in the same way, saying:
+
+"Brother, go find your brother!"
+
+He watched where it stopped, and went there and looked. But it must
+have fallen short or gone too far; so he tried twice more. The last
+repetition was successful. The two marbles lay within a foot of each
+other.
+
+Just here the blast of a toy tin trumpet came faintly down the green
+aisles of the forest. Tom flung off his jacket and trousers, turned a
+suspender into a belt, raked away some brush behind the rotten log,
+disclosing a rude bow and arrow, a lath sword and a tin trumpet, and in
+a moment had seized these things and bounded away, barelegged, with
+fluttering shirt. He presently halted under a great elm, blew an
+answering blast, and then began to tiptoe and look warily out, this way
+and that. He said cautiously--to an imaginary company:
+
+"Hold, my merry men! Keep hid till I blow."
+
+Now appeared Joe Harper, as airily clad and elaborately armed as Tom.
+Tom called:
+
+"Hold! Who comes here into Sherwood Forest without my pass?"
+
+"Guy of Guisborne wants no man's pass. Who art thou that--that--"
+
+"Dares to hold such language," said Tom, prompting--for they talked
+"by the book," from memory.
+
+"Who art thou that dares to hold such language?"
+
+"I, indeed! I am Robin Hood, as thy caitiff carcase soon shall know."
+
+"Then art thou indeed that famous outlaw? Right gladly will I dispute
+with thee the passes of the merry wood. Have at thee!"
+
+They took their lath swords, dumped their other traps on the ground,
+struck a fencing attitude, foot to foot, and began a grave, careful
+combat, "two up and two down." Presently Tom said:
+
+"Now, if you've got the hang, go it lively!"
+
+So they "went it lively," panting and perspiring with the work. By and
+by Tom shouted:
+
+"Fall! fall! Why don't you fall?"
+
+"I sha'n't! Why don't you fall yourself? You're getting the worst of
+it."
+
+"Why, that ain't anything. I can't fall; that ain't the way it is in
+the book. The book says, 'Then with one back-handed stroke he slew poor
+Guy of Guisborne.' You're to turn around and let me hit you in the
+back."
+
+There was no getting around the authorities, so Joe turned, received
+the whack and fell.
+
+"Now," said Joe, getting up, "you got to let me kill YOU. That's fair."
+
+"Why, I can't do that, it ain't in the book."
+
+"Well, it's blamed mean--that's all."
+
+"Well, say, Joe, you can be Friar Tuck or Much the miller's son, and
+lam me with a quarter-staff; or I'll be the Sheriff of Nottingham and
+you be Robin Hood a little while and kill me."
+
+This was satisfactory, and so these adventures were carried out. Then
+Tom became Robin Hood again, and was allowed by the treacherous nun to
+bleed his strength away through his neglected wound. And at last Joe,
+representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly forth,
+gave his bow into his feeble hands, and Tom said, "Where this arrow
+falls, there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree." Then he
+shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a
+nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.
+
+The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off
+grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern
+civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss.
+They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than
+President of the United States forever.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AT half-past nine, that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual.
+They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep. Tom lay awake and
+waited, in restless impatience. When it seemed to him that it must be
+nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten! This was despair. He
+would have tossed and fidgeted, as his nerves demanded, but he was
+afraid he might wake Sid. So he lay still, and stared up into the dark.
+Everything was dismally still. By and by, out of the stillness, little,
+scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves. The ticking
+of the clock began to bring itself into notice. Old beams began to
+crack mysteriously. The stairs creaked faintly. Evidently spirits were
+abroad. A measured, muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber. And
+now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could
+locate, began. Next the ghastly ticking of a deathwatch in the wall at
+the bed's head made Tom shudder--it meant that somebody's days were
+numbered. Then the howl of a far-off dog rose on the night air, and was
+answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance. Tom was in an
+agony. At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and eternity
+begun; he began to doze, in spite of himself; the clock chimed eleven,
+but he did not hear it. And then there came, mingling with his
+half-formed dreams, a most melancholy caterwauling. The raising of a
+neighboring window disturbed him. A cry of "Scat! you devil!" and the
+crash of an empty bottle against the back of his aunt's woodshed
+brought him wide awake, and a single minute later he was dressed and
+out of the window and creeping along the roof of the "ell" on all
+fours. He "meow'd" with caution once or twice, as he went; then jumped
+to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground. Huckleberry Finn
+was there, with his dead cat. The boys moved off and disappeared in the
+gloom. At the end of half an hour they were wading through the tall
+grass of the graveyard.
+
+It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a
+hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board
+fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of
+the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew rank over the
+whole cemetery. All the old graves were sunken in, there was not a
+tombstone on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over
+the graves, leaning for support and finding none. "Sacred to the memory
+of" So-and-So had been painted on them once, but it could no longer
+have been read, on the most of them, now, even if there had been light.
+
+A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the
+spirits of the dead, complaining at being disturbed. The boys talked
+little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the
+pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits. They found the
+sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the
+protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet
+of the grave.
+
+Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time. The hooting
+of a distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness.
+Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk. So he said
+in a whisper:
+
+"Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?"
+
+Huckleberry whispered:
+
+"I wisht I knowed. It's awful solemn like, AIN'T it?"
+
+"I bet it is."
+
+There was a considerable pause, while the boys canvassed this matter
+inwardly. Then Tom whispered:
+
+"Say, Hucky--do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?"
+
+"O' course he does. Least his sperrit does."
+
+Tom, after a pause:
+
+"I wish I'd said Mister Williams. But I never meant any harm.
+Everybody calls him Hoss."
+
+"A body can't be too partic'lar how they talk 'bout these-yer dead
+people, Tom."
+
+This was a damper, and conversation died again.
+
+Presently Tom seized his comrade's arm and said:
+
+"Sh!"
+
+"What is it, Tom?" And the two clung together with beating hearts.
+
+"Sh! There 'tis again! Didn't you hear it?"
+
+"I--"
+
+"There! Now you hear it."
+
+"Lord, Tom, they're coming! They're coming, sure. What'll we do?"
+
+"I dono. Think they'll see us?"
+
+"Oh, Tom, they can see in the dark, same as cats. I wisht I hadn't
+come."
+
+"Oh, don't be afeard. I don't believe they'll bother us. We ain't
+doing any harm. If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us
+at all."
+
+"I'll try to, Tom, but, Lord, I'm all of a shiver."
+
+"Listen!"
+
+The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed. A muffled
+sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.
+
+"Look! See there!" whispered Tom. "What is it?"
+
+"It's devil-fire. Oh, Tom, this is awful."
+
+Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an
+old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable
+little spangles of light. Presently Huckleberry whispered with a
+shudder:
+
+"It's the devils sure enough. Three of 'em! Lordy, Tom, we're goners!
+Can you pray?"
+
+"I'll try, but don't you be afeard. They ain't going to hurt us. 'Now
+I lay me down to sleep, I--'"
+
+"Sh!"
+
+"What is it, Huck?"
+
+"They're HUMANS! One of 'em is, anyway. One of 'em's old Muff Potter's
+voice."
+
+"No--'tain't so, is it?"
+
+"I bet I know it. Don't you stir nor budge. He ain't sharp enough to
+notice us. Drunk, the same as usual, likely--blamed old rip!"
+
+"All right, I'll keep still. Now they're stuck. Can't find it. Here
+they come again. Now they're hot. Cold again. Hot again. Red hot!
+They're p'inted right, this time. Say, Huck, I know another o' them
+voices; it's Injun Joe."
+
+"That's so--that murderin' half-breed! I'd druther they was devils a
+dern sight. What kin they be up to?"
+
+The whisper died wholly out, now, for the three men had reached the
+grave and stood within a few feet of the boys' hiding-place.
+
+"Here it is," said the third voice; and the owner of it held the
+lantern up and revealed the face of young Doctor Robinson.
+
+Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a
+couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load and began to open
+the grave. The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came
+and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees. He was so
+close the boys could have touched him.
+
+"Hurry, men!" he said, in a low voice; "the moon might come out at any
+moment."
+
+They growled a response and went on digging. For some time there was
+no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight
+of mould and gravel. It was very monotonous. Finally a spade struck
+upon the coffin with a dull woody accent, and within another minute or
+two the men had hoisted it out on the ground. They pried off the lid
+with their shovels, got out the body and dumped it rudely on the
+ground. The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid
+face. The barrow was got ready and the corpse placed on it, covered
+with a blanket, and bound to its place with the rope. Potter took out a
+large spring-knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope and then
+said:
+
+"Now the cussed thing's ready, Sawbones, and you'll just out with
+another five, or here she stays."
+
+"That's the talk!" said Injun Joe.
+
+"Look here, what does this mean?" said the doctor. "You required your
+pay in advance, and I've paid you."
+
+"Yes, and you done more than that," said Injun Joe, approaching the
+doctor, who was now standing. "Five years ago you drove me away from
+your father's kitchen one night, when I come to ask for something to
+eat, and you said I warn't there for any good; and when I swore I'd get
+even with you if it took a hundred years, your father had me jailed for
+a vagrant. Did you think I'd forget? The Injun blood ain't in me for
+nothing. And now I've GOT you, and you got to SETTLE, you know!"
+
+He was threatening the doctor, with his fist in his face, by this
+time. The doctor struck out suddenly and stretched the ruffian on the
+ground. Potter dropped his knife, and exclaimed:
+
+"Here, now, don't you hit my pard!" and the next moment he had
+grappled with the doctor and the two were struggling with might and
+main, trampling the grass and tearing the ground with their heels.
+Injun Joe sprang to his feet, his eyes flaming with passion, snatched
+up Potter's knife, and went creeping, catlike and stooping, round and
+round about the combatants, seeking an opportunity. All at once the
+doctor flung himself free, seized the heavy headboard of Williams'
+grave and felled Potter to the earth with it--and in the same instant
+the half-breed saw his chance and drove the knife to the hilt in the
+young man's breast. He reeled and fell partly upon Potter, flooding him
+with his blood, and in the same moment the clouds blotted out the
+dreadful spectacle and the two frightened boys went speeding away in
+the dark.
+
+Presently, when the moon emerged again, Injun Joe was standing over
+the two forms, contemplating them. The doctor murmured inarticulately,
+gave a long gasp or two and was still. The half-breed muttered:
+
+"THAT score is settled--damn you."
+
+Then he robbed the body. After which he put the fatal knife in
+Potter's open right hand, and sat down on the dismantled coffin. Three
+--four--five minutes passed, and then Potter began to stir and moan. His
+hand closed upon the knife; he raised it, glanced at it, and let it
+fall, with a shudder. Then he sat up, pushing the body from him, and
+gazed at it, and then around him, confusedly. His eyes met Joe's.
+
+"Lord, how is this, Joe?" he said.
+
+"It's a dirty business," said Joe, without moving.
+
+"What did you do it for?"
+
+"I! I never done it!"
+
+"Look here! That kind of talk won't wash."
+
+Potter trembled and grew white.
+
+"I thought I'd got sober. I'd no business to drink to-night. But it's
+in my head yet--worse'n when we started here. I'm all in a muddle;
+can't recollect anything of it, hardly. Tell me, Joe--HONEST, now, old
+feller--did I do it? Joe, I never meant to--'pon my soul and honor, I
+never meant to, Joe. Tell me how it was, Joe. Oh, it's awful--and him
+so young and promising."
+
+"Why, you two was scuffling, and he fetched you one with the headboard
+and you fell flat; and then up you come, all reeling and staggering
+like, and snatched the knife and jammed it into him, just as he fetched
+you another awful clip--and here you've laid, as dead as a wedge til
+now."
+
+"Oh, I didn't know what I was a-doing. I wish I may die this minute if
+I did. It was all on account of the whiskey and the excitement, I
+reckon. I never used a weepon in my life before, Joe. I've fought, but
+never with weepons. They'll all say that. Joe, don't tell! Say you
+won't tell, Joe--that's a good feller. I always liked you, Joe, and
+stood up for you, too. Don't you remember? You WON'T tell, WILL you,
+Joe?" And the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid
+murderer, and clasped his appealing hands.
+
+"No, you've always been fair and square with me, Muff Potter, and I
+won't go back on you. There, now, that's as fair as a man can say."
+
+"Oh, Joe, you're an angel. I'll bless you for this the longest day I
+live." And Potter began to cry.
+
+"Come, now, that's enough of that. This ain't any time for blubbering.
+You be off yonder way and I'll go this. Move, now, and don't leave any
+tracks behind you."
+
+Potter started on a trot that quickly increased to a run. The
+half-breed stood looking after him. He muttered:
+
+"If he's as much stunned with the lick and fuddled with the rum as he
+had the look of being, he won't think of the knife till he's gone so
+far he'll be afraid to come back after it to such a place by himself
+--chicken-heart!"
+
+Two or three minutes later the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the
+lidless coffin, and the open grave were under no inspection but the
+moon's. The stillness was complete again, too.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE two boys flew on and on, toward the village, speechless with
+horror. They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time,
+apprehensively, as if they feared they might be followed. Every stump
+that started up in their path seemed a man and an enemy, and made them
+catch their breath; and as they sped by some outlying cottages that lay
+near the village, the barking of the aroused watch-dogs seemed to give
+wings to their feet.
+
+"If we can only get to the old tannery before we break down!"
+whispered Tom, in short catches between breaths. "I can't stand it much
+longer."
+
+Huckleberry's hard pantings were his only reply, and the boys fixed
+their eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to their work to win it.
+They gained steadily on it, and at last, breast to breast, they burst
+through the open door and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering
+shadows beyond. By and by their pulses slowed down, and Tom whispered:
+
+"Huckleberry, what do you reckon'll come of this?"
+
+"If Doctor Robinson dies, I reckon hanging'll come of it."
+
+"Do you though?"
+
+"Why, I KNOW it, Tom."
+
+Tom thought a while, then he said:
+
+"Who'll tell? We?"
+
+"What are you talking about? S'pose something happened and Injun Joe
+DIDN'T hang? Why, he'd kill us some time or other, just as dead sure as
+we're a laying here."
+
+"That's just what I was thinking to myself, Huck."
+
+"If anybody tells, let Muff Potter do it, if he's fool enough. He's
+generally drunk enough."
+
+Tom said nothing--went on thinking. Presently he whispered:
+
+"Huck, Muff Potter don't know it. How can he tell?"
+
+"What's the reason he don't know it?"
+
+"Because he'd just got that whack when Injun Joe done it. D'you reckon
+he could see anything? D'you reckon he knowed anything?"
+
+"By hokey, that's so, Tom!"
+
+"And besides, look-a-here--maybe that whack done for HIM!"
+
+"No, 'taint likely, Tom. He had liquor in him; I could see that; and
+besides, he always has. Well, when pap's full, you might take and belt
+him over the head with a church and you couldn't phase him. He says so,
+his own self. So it's the same with Muff Potter, of course. But if a
+man was dead sober, I reckon maybe that whack might fetch him; I dono."
+
+After another reflective silence, Tom said:
+
+"Hucky, you sure you can keep mum?"
+
+"Tom, we GOT to keep mum. You know that. That Injun devil wouldn't
+make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats, if we was to
+squeak 'bout this and they didn't hang him. Now, look-a-here, Tom, less
+take and swear to one another--that's what we got to do--swear to keep
+mum."
+
+"I'm agreed. It's the best thing. Would you just hold hands and swear
+that we--"
+
+"Oh no, that wouldn't do for this. That's good enough for little
+rubbishy common things--specially with gals, cuz THEY go back on you
+anyway, and blab if they get in a huff--but there orter be writing
+'bout a big thing like this. And blood."
+
+Tom's whole being applauded this idea. It was deep, and dark, and
+awful; the hour, the circumstances, the surroundings, were in keeping
+with it. He picked up a clean pine shingle that lay in the moonlight,
+took a little fragment of "red keel" out of his pocket, got the moon on
+his work, and painfully scrawled these lines, emphasizing each slow
+down-stroke by clamping his tongue between his teeth, and letting up
+the pressure on the up-strokes. [See next page.]
+
+   "Huck Finn and
+    Tom Sawyer swears
+    they will keep mum
+    about This and They
+    wish They may Drop
+    down dead in Their
+    Tracks if They ever
+    Tell and Rot."
+
+Huckleberry was filled with admiration of Tom's facility in writing,
+and the sublimity of his language. He at once took a pin from his lapel
+and was going to prick his flesh, but Tom said:
+
+"Hold on! Don't do that. A pin's brass. It might have verdigrease on
+it."
+
+"What's verdigrease?"
+
+"It's p'ison. That's what it is. You just swaller some of it once
+--you'll see."
+
+So Tom unwound the thread from one of his needles, and each boy
+pricked the ball of his thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood. In
+time, after many squeezes, Tom managed to sign his initials, using the
+ball of his little finger for a pen. Then he showed Huckleberry how to
+make an H and an F, and the oath was complete. They buried the shingle
+close to the wall, with some dismal ceremonies and incantations, and
+the fetters that bound their tongues were considered to be locked and
+the key thrown away.
+
+A figure crept stealthily through a break in the other end of the
+ruined building, now, but they did not notice it.
+
+"Tom," whispered Huckleberry, "does this keep us from EVER telling
+--ALWAYS?"
+
+"Of course it does. It don't make any difference WHAT happens, we got
+to keep mum. We'd drop down dead--don't YOU know that?"
+
+"Yes, I reckon that's so."
+
+They continued to whisper for some little time. Presently a dog set up
+a long, lugubrious howl just outside--within ten feet of them. The boys
+clasped each other suddenly, in an agony of fright.
+
+"Which of us does he mean?" gasped Huckleberry.
+
+"I dono--peep through the crack. Quick!"
+
+"No, YOU, Tom!"
+
+"I can't--I can't DO it, Huck!"
+
+"Please, Tom. There 'tis again!"
+
+"Oh, lordy, I'm thankful!" whispered Tom. "I know his voice. It's Bull
+Harbison." *
+
+[* If Mr. Harbison owned a slave named Bull, Tom would have spoken of
+him as "Harbison's Bull," but a son or a dog of that name was "Bull
+Harbison."]
+
+"Oh, that's good--I tell you, Tom, I was most scared to death; I'd a
+bet anything it was a STRAY dog."
+
+The dog howled again. The boys' hearts sank once more.
+
+"Oh, my! that ain't no Bull Harbison!" whispered Huckleberry. "DO, Tom!"
+
+Tom, quaking with fear, yielded, and put his eye to the crack. His
+whisper was hardly audible when he said:
+
+"Oh, Huck, IT S A STRAY DOG!"
+
+"Quick, Tom, quick! Who does he mean?"
+
+"Huck, he must mean us both--we're right together."
+
+"Oh, Tom, I reckon we're goners. I reckon there ain't no mistake 'bout
+where I'LL go to. I been so wicked."
+
+"Dad fetch it! This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a
+feller's told NOT to do. I might a been good, like Sid, if I'd a tried
+--but no, I wouldn't, of course. But if ever I get off this time, I lay
+I'll just WALLER in Sunday-schools!" And Tom began to snuffle a little.
+
+"YOU bad!" and Huckleberry began to snuffle too. "Consound it, Tom
+Sawyer, you're just old pie, 'longside o' what I am. Oh, LORDY, lordy,
+lordy, I wisht I only had half your chance."
+
+Tom choked off and whispered:
+
+"Look, Hucky, look! He's got his BACK to us!"
+
+Hucky looked, with joy in his heart.
+
+"Well, he has, by jingoes! Did he before?"
+
+"Yes, he did. But I, like a fool, never thought. Oh, this is bully,
+you know. NOW who can he mean?"
+
+The howling stopped. Tom pricked up his ears.
+
+"Sh! What's that?" he whispered.
+
+"Sounds like--like hogs grunting. No--it's somebody snoring, Tom."
+
+"That IS it! Where 'bouts is it, Huck?"
+
+"I bleeve it's down at 'tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to
+sleep there, sometimes, 'long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he
+just lifts things when HE snores. Besides, I reckon he ain't ever
+coming back to this town any more."
+
+The spirit of adventure rose in the boys' souls once more.
+
+"Hucky, do you das't to go if I lead?"
+
+"I don't like to, much. Tom, s'pose it's Injun Joe!"
+
+Tom quailed. But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the
+boys agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take to
+their heels if the snoring stopped. So they went tiptoeing stealthily
+down, the one behind the other. When they had got to within five steps
+of the snorer, Tom stepped on a stick, and it broke with a sharp snap.
+The man moaned, writhed a little, and his face came into the moonlight.
+It was Muff Potter. The boys' hearts had stood still, and their hopes
+too, when the man moved, but their fears passed away now. They tiptoed
+out, through the broken weather-boarding, and stopped at a little
+distance to exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose on
+the night air again! They turned and saw the strange dog standing
+within a few feet of where Potter was lying, and FACING Potter, with
+his nose pointing heavenward.
+
+"Oh, geeminy, it's HIM!" exclaimed both boys, in a breath.
+
+"Say, Tom--they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller's
+house, 'bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill
+come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and
+there ain't anybody dead there yet."
+
+"Well, I know that. And suppose there ain't. Didn't Gracie Miller fall
+in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?"
+
+"Yes, but she ain't DEAD. And what's more, she's getting better, too."
+
+"All right, you wait and see. She's a goner, just as dead sure as Muff
+Potter's a goner. That's what the niggers say, and they know all about
+these kind of things, Huck."
+
+Then they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his bedroom
+window the night was almost spent. He undressed with excessive caution,
+and fell asleep congratulating himself that nobody knew of his
+escapade. He was not aware that the gently-snoring Sid was awake, and
+had been so for an hour.
+
+When Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was a late look in the
+light, a late sense in the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not
+been called--persecuted till he was up, as usual? The thought filled
+him with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed and down-stairs,
+feeling sore and drowsy. The family were still at table, but they had
+finished breakfast. There was no voice of rebuke; but there were
+averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a
+chill to the culprit's heart. He sat down and tried to seem gay, but it
+was up-hill work; it roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into
+silence and let his heart sink down to the depths.
+
+After breakfast his aunt took him aside, and Tom almost brightened in
+the hope that he was going to be flogged; but it was not so. His aunt
+wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so;
+and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray
+hairs with sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any
+more. This was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom's heart was
+sorer now than his body. He cried, he pleaded for forgiveness, promised
+to reform over and over again, and then received his dismissal, feeling
+that he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a
+feeble confidence.
+
+He left the presence too miserable to even feel revengeful toward Sid;
+and so the latter's prompt retreat through the back gate was
+unnecessary. He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging,
+along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before, with the air
+of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to
+trifles. Then he betook himself to his seat, rested his elbows on his
+desk and his jaws in his hands, and stared at the wall with the stony
+stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can no further go.
+His elbow was pressing against some hard substance. After a long time
+he slowly and sadly changed his position, and took up this object with
+a sigh. It was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering, colossal
+sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his brass andiron knob!
+
+This final feather broke the camel's back.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CLOSE upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified
+with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph;
+the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to
+house, with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the
+schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon; the town would have
+thought strangely of him if he had not.
+
+A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had been
+recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter--so the story ran.
+And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing
+himself in the "branch" about one or two o'clock in the morning, and
+that Potter had at once sneaked off--suspicious circumstances,
+especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter. It was also
+said that the town had been ransacked for this "murderer" (the public
+are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a
+verdict), but that he could not be found. Horsemen had departed down
+all the roads in every direction, and the Sheriff "was confident" that
+he would be captured before night.
+
+All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom's heartbreak
+vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not a
+thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful,
+unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful place,
+he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal
+spectacle. It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody
+pinched his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry's. Then both
+looked elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed anything
+in their mutual glance. But everybody was talking, and intent upon the
+grisly spectacle before them.
+
+"Poor fellow!" "Poor young fellow!" "This ought to be a lesson to
+grave robbers!" "Muff Potter'll hang for this if they catch him!" This
+was the drift of remark; and the minister said, "It was a judgment; His
+hand is here."
+
+Now Tom shivered from head to heel; for his eye fell upon the stolid
+face of Injun Joe. At this moment the crowd began to sway and struggle,
+and voices shouted, "It's him! it's him! he's coming himself!"
+
+"Who? Who?" from twenty voices.
+
+"Muff Potter!"
+
+"Hallo, he's stopped!--Look out, he's turning! Don't let him get away!"
+
+People in the branches of the trees over Tom's head said he wasn't
+trying to get away--he only looked doubtful and perplexed.
+
+"Infernal impudence!" said a bystander; "wanted to come and take a
+quiet look at his work, I reckon--didn't expect any company."
+
+The crowd fell apart, now, and the Sheriff came through,
+ostentatiously leading Potter by the arm. The poor fellow's face was
+haggard, and his eyes showed the fear that was upon him. When he stood
+before the murdered man, he shook as with a palsy, and he put his face
+in his hands and burst into tears.
+
+"I didn't do it, friends," he sobbed; "'pon my word and honor I never
+done it."
+
+"Who's accused you?" shouted a voice.
+
+This shot seemed to carry home. Potter lifted his face and looked
+around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes. He saw Injun Joe,
+and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Injun Joe, you promised me you'd never--"
+
+"Is that your knife?" and it was thrust before him by the Sheriff.
+
+Potter would have fallen if they had not caught him and eased him to
+the ground. Then he said:
+
+"Something told me 't if I didn't come back and get--" He shuddered;
+then waved his nerveless hand with a vanquished gesture and said, "Tell
+'em, Joe, tell 'em--it ain't any use any more."
+
+Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring, and heard the
+stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, they expecting every
+moment that the clear sky would deliver God's lightnings upon his head,
+and wondering to see how long the stroke was delayed. And when he had
+finished and still stood alive and whole, their wavering impulse to
+break their oath and save the poor betrayed prisoner's life faded and
+vanished away, for plainly this miscreant had sold himself to Satan and
+it would be fatal to meddle with the property of such a power as that.
+
+"Why didn't you leave? What did you want to come here for?" somebody
+said.
+
+"I couldn't help it--I couldn't help it," Potter moaned. "I wanted to
+run away, but I couldn't seem to come anywhere but here." And he fell
+to sobbing again.
+
+Injun Joe repeated his statement, just as calmly, a few minutes
+afterward on the inquest, under oath; and the boys, seeing that the
+lightnings were still withheld, were confirmed in their belief that Joe
+had sold himself to the devil. He was now become, to them, the most
+balefully interesting object they had ever looked upon, and they could
+not take their fascinated eyes from his face.
+
+They inwardly resolved to watch him nights, when opportunity should
+offer, in the hope of getting a glimpse of his dread master.
+
+Injun Joe helped to raise the body of the murdered man and put it in a
+wagon for removal; and it was whispered through the shuddering crowd
+that the wound bled a little! The boys thought that this happy
+circumstance would turn suspicion in the right direction; but they were
+disappointed, for more than one villager remarked:
+
+"It was within three feet of Muff Potter when it done it."
+
+Tom's fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as
+much as a week after this; and at breakfast one morning Sid said:
+
+"Tom, you pitch around and talk in your sleep so much that you keep me
+awake half the time."
+
+Tom blanched and dropped his eyes.
+
+"It's a bad sign," said Aunt Polly, gravely. "What you got on your
+mind, Tom?"
+
+"Nothing. Nothing 't I know of." But the boy's hand shook so that he
+spilled his coffee.
+
+"And you do talk such stuff," Sid said. "Last night you said, 'It's
+blood, it's blood, that's what it is!' You said that over and over. And
+you said, 'Don't torment me so--I'll tell!' Tell WHAT? What is it
+you'll tell?"
+
+Everything was swimming before Tom. There is no telling what might
+have happened, now, but luckily the concern passed out of Aunt Polly's
+face and she came to Tom's relief without knowing it. She said:
+
+"Sho! It's that dreadful murder. I dream about it most every night
+myself. Sometimes I dream it's me that done it."
+
+Mary said she had been affected much the same way. Sid seemed
+satisfied. Tom got out of the presence as quick as he plausibly could,
+and after that he complained of toothache for a week, and tied up his
+jaws every night. He never knew that Sid lay nightly watching, and
+frequently slipped the bandage free and then leaned on his elbow
+listening a good while at a time, and afterward slipped the bandage
+back to its place again. Tom's distress of mind wore off gradually and
+the toothache grew irksome and was discarded. If Sid really managed to
+make anything out of Tom's disjointed mutterings, he kept it to himself.
+
+It seemed to Tom that his schoolmates never would get done holding
+inquests on dead cats, and thus keeping his trouble present to his
+mind. Sid noticed that Tom never was coroner at one of these inquiries,
+though it had been his habit to take the lead in all new enterprises;
+he noticed, too, that Tom never acted as a witness--and that was
+strange; and Sid did not overlook the fact that Tom even showed a
+marked aversion to these inquests, and always avoided them when he
+could. Sid marvelled, but said nothing. However, even inquests went out
+of vogue at last, and ceased to torture Tom's conscience.
+
+Every day or two, during this time of sorrow, Tom watched his
+opportunity and went to the little grated jail-window and smuggled such
+small comforts through to the "murderer" as he could get hold of. The
+jail was a trifling little brick den that stood in a marsh at the edge
+of the village, and no guards were afforded for it; indeed, it was
+seldom occupied. These offerings greatly helped to ease Tom's
+conscience.
+
+The villagers had a strong desire to tar-and-feather Injun Joe and
+ride him on a rail, for body-snatching, but so formidable was his
+character that nobody could be found who was willing to take the lead
+in the matter, so it was dropped. He had been careful to begin both of
+his inquest-statements with the fight, without confessing the
+grave-robbery that preceded it; therefore it was deemed wisest not
+to try the case in the courts at present.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ONE of the reasons why Tom's mind had drifted away from its secret
+troubles was, that it had found a new and weighty matter to interest
+itself about. Becky Thatcher had stopped coming to school. Tom had
+struggled with his pride a few days, and tried to "whistle her down the
+wind," but failed. He began to find himself hanging around her father's
+house, nights, and feeling very miserable. She was ill. What if she
+should die! There was distraction in the thought. He no longer took an
+interest in war, nor even in piracy. The charm of life was gone; there
+was nothing but dreariness left. He put his hoop away, and his bat;
+there was no joy in them any more. His aunt was concerned. She began to
+try all manner of remedies on him. She was one of those people who are
+infatuated with patent medicines and all new-fangled methods of
+producing health or mending it. She was an inveterate experimenter in
+these things. When something fresh in this line came out she was in a
+fever, right away, to try it; not on herself, for she was never ailing,
+but on anybody else that came handy. She was a subscriber for all the
+"Health" periodicals and phrenological frauds; and the solemn ignorance
+they were inflated with was breath to her nostrils. All the "rot" they
+contained about ventilation, and how to go to bed, and how to get up,
+and what to eat, and what to drink, and how much exercise to take, and
+what frame of mind to keep one's self in, and what sort of clothing to
+wear, was all gospel to her, and she never observed that her
+health-journals of the current month customarily upset everything they
+had recommended the month before. She was as simple-hearted and honest
+as the day was long, and so she was an easy victim. She gathered
+together her quack periodicals and her quack medicines, and thus armed
+with death, went about on her pale horse, metaphorically speaking, with
+"hell following after." But she never suspected that she was not an
+angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise, to the suffering
+neighbors.
+
+The water treatment was new, now, and Tom's low condition was a
+windfall to her. She had him out at daylight every morning, stood him
+up in the woodshed and drowned him with a deluge of cold water; then
+she scrubbed him down with a towel like a file, and so brought him to;
+then she rolled him up in a wet sheet and put him away under blankets
+till she sweated his soul clean and "the yellow stains of it came
+through his pores"--as Tom said.
+
+Yet notwithstanding all this, the boy grew more and more melancholy
+and pale and dejected. She added hot baths, sitz baths, shower baths,
+and plunges. The boy remained as dismal as a hearse. She began to
+assist the water with a slim oatmeal diet and blister-plasters. She
+calculated his capacity as she would a jug's, and filled him up every
+day with quack cure-alls.
+
+Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time. This phase
+filled the old lady's heart with consternation. This indifference must
+be broken up at any cost. Now she heard of Pain-killer for the first
+time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with
+gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water
+treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Pain-killer. She
+gave Tom a teaspoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the
+result. Her troubles were instantly at rest, her soul at peace again;
+for the "indifference" was broken up. The boy could not have shown a
+wilder, heartier interest, if she had built a fire under him.
+
+Tom felt that it was time to wake up; this sort of life might be
+romantic enough, in his blighted condition, but it was getting to have
+too little sentiment and too much distracting variety about it. So he
+thought over various plans for relief, and finally hit pon that of
+professing to be fond of Pain-killer. He asked for it so often that he
+became a nuisance, and his aunt ended by telling him to help himself
+and quit bothering her. If it had been Sid, she would have had no
+misgivings to alloy her delight; but since it was Tom, she watched the
+bottle clandestinely. She found that the medicine did really diminish,
+but it did not occur to her that the boy was mending the health of a
+crack in the sitting-room floor with it.
+
+One day Tom was in the act of dosing the crack when his aunt's yellow
+cat came along, purring, eying the teaspoon avariciously, and begging
+for a taste. Tom said:
+
+"Don't ask for it unless you want it, Peter."
+
+But Peter signified that he did want it.
+
+"You better make sure."
+
+Peter was sure.
+
+"Now you've asked for it, and I'll give it to you, because there ain't
+anything mean about me; but if you find you don't like it, you mustn't
+blame anybody but your own self."
+
+Peter was agreeable. So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the
+Pain-killer. Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then
+delivered a war-whoop and set off round and round the room, banging
+against furniture, upsetting flower-pots, and making general havoc.
+Next he rose on his hind feet and pranced around, in a frenzy of
+enjoyment, with his head over his shoulder and his voice proclaiming
+his unappeasable happiness. Then he went tearing around the house again
+spreading chaos and destruction in his path. Aunt Polly entered in time
+to see him throw a few double summersets, deliver a final mighty
+hurrah, and sail through the open window, carrying the rest of the
+flower-pots with him. The old lady stood petrified with astonishment,
+peering over her glasses; Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter.
+
+"Tom, what on earth ails that cat?"
+
+"I don't know, aunt," gasped the boy.
+
+"Why, I never see anything like it. What did make him act so?"
+
+"Deed I don't know, Aunt Polly; cats always act so when they're having
+a good time."
+
+"They do, do they?" There was something in the tone that made Tom
+apprehensive.
+
+"Yes'm. That is, I believe they do."
+
+"You DO?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+The old lady was bending down, Tom watching, with interest emphasized
+by anxiety. Too late he divined her "drift." The handle of the telltale
+teaspoon was visible under the bed-valance. Aunt Polly took it, held it
+up. Tom winced, and dropped his eyes. Aunt Polly raised him by the
+usual handle--his ear--and cracked his head soundly with her thimble.
+
+"Now, sir, what did you want to treat that poor dumb beast so, for?"
+
+"I done it out of pity for him--because he hadn't any aunt."
+
+"Hadn't any aunt!--you numskull. What has that got to do with it?"
+
+"Heaps. Because if he'd had one she'd a burnt him out herself! She'd a
+roasted his bowels out of him 'thout any more feeling than if he was a
+human!"
+
+Aunt Polly felt a sudden pang of remorse. This was putting the thing
+in a new light; what was cruelty to a cat MIGHT be cruelty to a boy,
+too. She began to soften; she felt sorry. Her eyes watered a little,
+and she put her hand on Tom's head and said gently:
+
+"I was meaning for the best, Tom. And, Tom, it DID do you good."
+
+Tom looked up in her face with just a perceptible twinkle peeping
+through his gravity.
+
+"I know you was meaning for the best, aunty, and so was I with Peter.
+It done HIM good, too. I never see him get around so since--"
+
+"Oh, go 'long with you, Tom, before you aggravate me again. And you
+try and see if you can't be a good boy, for once, and you needn't take
+any more medicine."
+
+Tom reached school ahead of time. It was noticed that this strange
+thing had been occurring every day latterly. And now, as usual of late,
+he hung about the gate of the schoolyard instead of playing with his
+comrades. He was sick, he said, and he looked it. He tried to seem to
+be looking everywhere but whither he really was looking--down the road.
+Presently Jeff Thatcher hove in sight, and Tom's face lighted; he gazed
+a moment, and then turned sorrowfully away. When Jeff arrived, Tom
+accosted him; and "led up" warily to opportunities for remark about
+Becky, but the giddy lad never could see the bait. Tom watched and
+watched, hoping whenever a frisking frock came in sight, and hating the
+owner of it as soon as he saw she was not the right one. At last frocks
+ceased to appear, and he dropped hopelessly into the dumps; he entered
+the empty schoolhouse and sat down to suffer. Then one more frock
+passed in at the gate, and Tom's heart gave a great bound. The next
+instant he was out, and "going on" like an Indian; yelling, laughing,
+chasing boys, jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb, throwing
+handsprings, standing on his head--doing all the heroic things he could
+conceive of, and keeping a furtive eye out, all the while, to see if
+Becky Thatcher was noticing. But she seemed to be unconscious of it
+all; she never looked. Could it be possible that she was not aware that
+he was there? He carried his exploits to her immediate vicinity; came
+war-whooping around, snatched a boy's cap, hurled it to the roof of the
+schoolhouse, broke through a group of boys, tumbling them in every
+direction, and fell sprawling, himself, under Becky's nose, almost
+upsetting her--and she turned, with her nose in the air, and he heard
+her say: "Mf! some people think they're mighty smart--always showing
+off!"
+
+Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed
+and crestfallen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 3. ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
+    
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
+at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
+you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
+
+Author: Mark Twain
+
+Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7196]
+                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
+
+Language: English
+
+Credits: Produced by David Widger
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 4. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+                                BY
+                            MARK TWAIN
+                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+                              Part 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+TOM'S mind was made up now. He was gloomy and desperate. He was a
+forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found
+out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had
+tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since
+nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them
+blame HIM for the consequences--why shouldn't they? What right had the
+friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he
+would lead a life of crime. There was no choice.
+
+By this time he was far down Meadow Lane, and the bell for school to
+"take up" tinkled faintly upon his ear. He sobbed, now, to think he
+should never, never hear that old familiar sound any more--it was very
+hard, but it was forced on him; since he was driven out into the cold
+world, he must submit--but he forgave them. Then the sobs came thick
+and fast.
+
+Just at this point he met his soul's sworn comrade, Joe Harper
+--hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart.
+Plainly here were "two souls with but a single thought." Tom, wiping
+his eyes with his sleeve, began to blubber out something about a
+resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by
+roaming abroad into the great world never to return; and ended by
+hoping that Joe would not forget him.
+
+But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been
+going to make of Tom, and had come to hunt him up for that purpose. His
+mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never
+tasted and knew nothing about; it was plain that she was tired of him
+and wished him to go; if she felt that way, there was nothing for him
+to do but succumb; he hoped she would be happy, and never regret having
+driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die.
+
+As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to
+stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death
+relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans.
+Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and
+dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to
+Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a
+life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate.
+
+Three miles below St. Petersburg, at a point where the Mississippi
+River was a trifle over a mile wide, there was a long, narrow, wooded
+island, with a shallow bar at the head of it, and this offered well as
+a rendezvous. It was not inhabited; it lay far over toward the further
+shore, abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest. So Jackson's
+Island was chosen. Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a
+matter that did not occur to them. Then they hunted up Huckleberry
+Finn, and he joined them promptly, for all careers were one to him; he
+was indifferent. They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on
+the river-bank two miles above the village at the favorite hour--which
+was midnight. There was a small log raft there which they meant to
+capture. Each would bring hooks and lines, and such provision as he
+could steal in the most dark and mysterious way--as became outlaws. And
+before the afternoon was done, they had all managed to enjoy the sweet
+glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would "hear
+something." All who got this vague hint were cautioned to "be mum and
+wait."
+
+About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles,
+and stopped in a dense undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the
+meeting-place. It was starlight, and very still. The mighty river lay
+like an ocean at rest. Tom listened a moment, but no sound disturbed the
+quiet. Then he gave a low, distinct whistle. It was answered from under
+the bluff. Tom whistled twice more; these signals were answered in the
+same way. Then a guarded voice said:
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names."
+
+"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas." Tom
+had furnished these titles, from his favorite literature.
+
+"'Tis well. Give the countersign."
+
+Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to
+the brooding night:
+
+"BLOOD!"
+
+Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it,
+tearing both skin and clothes to some extent in the effort. There was
+an easy, comfortable path along the shore under the bluff, but it
+lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate.
+
+The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, and had about worn
+himself out with getting it there. Finn the Red-Handed had stolen a
+skillet and a quantity of half-cured leaf tobacco, and had also brought
+a few corn-cobs to make pipes with. But none of the pirates smoked or
+"chewed" but himself. The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it
+would never do to start without some fire. That was a wise thought;
+matches were hardly known there in that day. They saw a fire
+smouldering upon a great raft a hundred yards above, and they went
+stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk. They made an
+imposing adventure of it, saying, "Hist!" every now and then, and
+suddenly halting with finger on lip; moving with hands on imaginary
+dagger-hilts; and giving orders in dismal whispers that if "the foe"
+stirred, to "let him have it to the hilt," because "dead men tell no
+tales." They knew well enough that the raftsmen were all down at the
+village laying in stores or having a spree, but still that was no
+excuse for their conducting this thing in an unpiratical way.
+
+They shoved off, presently, Tom in command, Huck at the after oar and
+Joe at the forward. Tom stood amidships, gloomy-browed, and with folded
+arms, and gave his orders in a low, stern whisper:
+
+"Luff, and bring her to the wind!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Steady, steady-y-y-y!"
+
+"Steady it is, sir!"
+
+"Let her go off a point!"
+
+"Point it is, sir!"
+
+As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward mid-stream
+it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for
+"style," and were not intended to mean anything in particular.
+
+"What sail's she carrying?"
+
+"Courses, tops'ls, and flying-jib, sir."
+
+"Send the r'yals up! Lay out aloft, there, half a dozen of ye
+--foretopmaststuns'l! Lively, now!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Shake out that maintogalans'l! Sheets and braces! NOW my hearties!"
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!"
+
+"Hellum-a-lee--hard a port! Stand by to meet her when she comes! Port,
+port! NOW, men! With a will! Stead-y-y-y!"
+
+"Steady it is, sir!"
+
+The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her
+head right, and then lay on their oars. The river was not high, so
+there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
+said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was
+passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed
+where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of
+star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.
+The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
+the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
+"she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death
+with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips.
+It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson's Island
+beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he "looked his last" with a
+broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last,
+too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the
+current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered
+the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two o'clock in
+the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the
+head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed
+their freight. Part of the little raft's belongings consisted of an old
+sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to
+shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open
+air in good weather, as became outlaws.
+
+They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
+steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
+bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn "pone"
+stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
+wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
+island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
+return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
+its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
+and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.
+
+When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of
+corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass,
+filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they
+would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting
+camp-fire.
+
+"AIN'T it gay?" said Joe.
+
+"It's NUTS!" said Tom. "What would the boys say if they could see us?"
+
+"Say? Well, they'd just die to be here--hey, Hucky!"
+
+"I reckon so," said Huckleberry; "anyways, I'm suited. I don't want
+nothing better'n this. I don't ever get enough to eat, gen'ally--and
+here they can't come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so."
+
+"It's just the life for me," said Tom. "You don't have to get up,
+mornings, and you don't have to go to school, and wash, and all that
+blame foolishness. You see a pirate don't have to do ANYTHING, Joe,
+when he's ashore, but a hermit HE has to be praying considerable, and
+then he don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way."
+
+"Oh yes, that's so," said Joe, "but I hadn't thought much about it,
+you know. I'd a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I've tried it."
+
+"You see," said Tom, "people don't go much on hermits, nowadays, like
+they used to in old times, but a pirate's always respected. And a
+hermit's got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put
+sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and--"
+
+"What does he put sackcloth and ashes on his head for?" inquired Huck.
+
+"I dono. But they've GOT to do it. Hermits always do. You'd have to do
+that if you was a hermit."
+
+"Dern'd if I would," said Huck.
+
+"Well, what would you do?"
+
+"I dono. But I wouldn't do that."
+
+"Why, Huck, you'd HAVE to. How'd you get around it?"
+
+"Why, I just wouldn't stand it. I'd run away."
+
+"Run away! Well, you WOULD be a nice old slouch of a hermit. You'd be
+a disgrace."
+
+The Red-Handed made no response, being better employed. He had
+finished gouging out a cob, and now he fitted a weed stem to it, loaded
+it with tobacco, and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a
+cloud of fragrant smoke--he was in the full bloom of luxurious
+contentment. The other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and
+secretly resolved to acquire it shortly. Presently Huck said:
+
+"What does pirates have to do?"
+
+Tom said:
+
+"Oh, they have just a bully time--take ships and burn them, and get
+the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's
+ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships--make
+'em walk a plank."
+
+"And they carry the women to the island," said Joe; "they don't kill
+the women."
+
+"No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women--they're too noble. And
+the women's always beautiful, too.
+
+"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver
+and di'monds," said Joe, with enthusiasm.
+
+"Who?" said Huck.
+
+"Why, the pirates."
+
+Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly.
+
+"I reckon I ain't dressed fitten for a pirate," said he, with a
+regretful pathos in his voice; "but I ain't got none but these."
+
+But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough,
+after they should have begun their adventures. They made him understand
+that his poor rags would do to begin with, though it was customary for
+wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
+
+Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the
+eyelids of the little waifs. The pipe dropped from the fingers of the
+Red-Handed, and he slept the sleep of the conscience-free and the
+weary. The Terror of the Seas and the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main
+had more difficulty in getting to sleep. They said their prayers
+inwardly, and lying down, since there was nobody there with authority
+to make them kneel and recite aloud; in truth, they had a mind not to
+say them at all, but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as
+that, lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from
+heaven. Then at once they reached and hovered upon the imminent verge
+of sleep--but an intruder came, now, that would not "down." It was
+conscience. They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing
+wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then
+the real torture came. They tried to argue it away by reminding
+conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of
+times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin
+plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no
+getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only
+"hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain
+simple stealing--and there was a command against that in the Bible. So
+they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business,
+their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing.
+Then conscience granted a truce, and these curiously inconsistent
+pirates fell peacefully to sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+WHEN Tom awoke in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up and
+rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was the
+cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in
+the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a leaf stirred;
+not a sound obtruded upon great Nature's meditation. Beaded dewdrops
+stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of ashes covered the
+fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air. Joe
+and Huck still slept.
+
+Now, far away in the woods a bird called; another answered; presently
+the hammering of a woodpecker was heard. Gradually the cool dim gray of
+the morning whitened, and as gradually sounds multiplied and life
+manifested itself. The marvel of Nature shaking off sleep and going to
+work unfolded itself to the musing boy. A little green worm came
+crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds of his body into the air
+from time to time and "sniffing around," then proceeding again--for he
+was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm approached him, of its own
+accord, he sat as still as a stone, with his hopes rising and falling,
+by turns, as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to
+go elsewhere; and when at last it considered a painful moment with its
+curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Tom's leg and
+began a journey over him, his whole heart was glad--for that meant that
+he was going to have a new suit of clothes--without the shadow of a
+doubt a gaudy piratical uniform. Now a procession of ants appeared,
+from nowhere in particular, and went about their labors; one struggled
+manfully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms,
+and lugged it straight up a tree-trunk. A brown spotted lady-bug
+climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to
+it and said, "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire,
+your children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it
+--which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was
+credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its
+simplicity more than once. A tumblebug came next, heaving sturdily at
+its ball, and Tom touched the creature, to see it shut its legs against
+its body and pretend to be dead. The birds were fairly rioting by this
+time. A catbird, the Northern mocker, lit in a tree over Tom's head,
+and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a rapture of
+enjoyment; then a shrill jay swept down, a flash of blue flame, and
+stopped on a twig almost within the boy's reach, cocked his head to one
+side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity; a gray squirrel
+and a big fellow of the "fox" kind came skurrying along, sitting up at
+intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys, for the wild things had
+probably never seen a human being before and scarcely knew whether to
+be afraid or not. All Nature was wide awake and stirring, now; long
+lances of sunlight pierced down through the dense foliage far and near,
+and a few butterflies came fluttering upon the scene.
+
+Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a
+shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and
+tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white
+sandbar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the
+distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a
+slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only
+gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge
+between them and civilization.
+
+They came back to camp wonderfully refreshed, glad-hearted, and
+ravenous; and they soon had the camp-fire blazing up again. Huck found
+a spring of clear cold water close by, and the boys made cups of broad
+oak or hickory leaves, and felt that water, sweetened with such a
+wildwood charm as that, would be a good enough substitute for coffee.
+While Joe was slicing bacon for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him to
+hold on a minute; they stepped to a promising nook in the river-bank
+and threw in their lines; almost immediately they had reward. Joe had
+not had time to get impatient before they were back again with some
+handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a small catfish--provisions
+enough for quite a family. They fried the fish with the bacon, and were
+astonished; for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did
+not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire after he is
+caught the better he is; and they reflected little upon what a sauce
+open-air sleeping, open-air exercise, bathing, and a large ingredient
+of hunger make, too.
+
+They lay around in the shade, after breakfast, while Huck had a smoke,
+and then went off through the woods on an exploring expedition. They
+tramped gayly along, over decaying logs, through tangled underbrush,
+among solemn monarchs of the forest, hung from their crowns to the
+ground with a drooping regalia of grape-vines. Now and then they came
+upon snug nooks carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers.
+
+They found plenty of things to be delighted with, but nothing to be
+astonished at. They discovered that the island was about three miles
+long and a quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to
+was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards
+wide. They took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the
+middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp. They were too
+hungry to stop to fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and
+then threw themselves down in the shade to talk. But the talk soon
+began to drag, and then died. The stillness, the solemnity that brooded
+in the woods, and the sense of loneliness, began to tell upon the
+spirits of the boys. They fell to thinking. A sort of undefined longing
+crept upon them. This took dim shape, presently--it was budding
+homesickness. Even Finn the Red-Handed was dreaming of his doorsteps
+and empty hogsheads. But they were all ashamed of their weakness, and
+none was brave enough to speak his thought.
+
+For some time, now, the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar
+sound in the distance, just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a
+clock which he takes no distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound
+became more pronounced, and forced a recognition. The boys started,
+glanced at each other, and then each assumed a listening attitude.
+There was a long silence, profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen
+boom came floating down out of the distance.
+
+"What is it!" exclaimed Joe, under his breath.
+
+"I wonder," said Tom in a whisper.
+
+"'Tain't thunder," said Huckleberry, in an awed tone, "becuz thunder--"
+
+"Hark!" said Tom. "Listen--don't talk."
+
+They waited a time that seemed an age, and then the same muffled boom
+troubled the solemn hush.
+
+"Let's go and see."
+
+They sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town.
+They parted the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water. The
+little steam ferryboat was about a mile below the village, drifting
+with the current. Her broad deck seemed crowded with people. There were
+a great many skiffs rowing about or floating with the stream in the
+neighborhood of the ferryboat, but the boys could not determine what
+the men in them were doing. Presently a great jet of white smoke burst
+from the ferryboat's side, and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud,
+that same dull throb of sound was borne to the listeners again.
+
+"I know now!" exclaimed Tom; "somebody's drownded!"
+
+"That's it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner
+got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him
+come up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put
+quicksilver in 'em and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody
+that's drownded, they'll float right there and stop."
+
+"Yes, I've heard about that," said Joe. "I wonder what makes the bread
+do that."
+
+"Oh, it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly
+what they SAY over it before they start it out."
+
+"But they don't say anything over it," said Huck. "I've seen 'em and
+they don't."
+
+"Well, that's funny," said Tom. "But maybe they say it to themselves.
+Of COURSE they do. Anybody might know that."
+
+The other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said, because
+an ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by an incantation, could not be
+expected to act very intelligently when set upon an errand of such
+gravity.
+
+"By jings, I wish I was over there, now," said Joe.
+
+"I do too" said Huck "I'd give heaps to know who it is."
+
+The boys still listened and watched. Presently a revealing thought
+flashed through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed:
+
+"Boys, I know who's drownded--it's us!"
+
+They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they
+were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account;
+tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor
+lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being
+indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole
+town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety
+was concerned. This was fine. It was worth while to be a pirate, after
+all.
+
+As twilight drew on, the ferryboat went back to her accustomed
+business and the skiffs disappeared. The pirates returned to camp. They
+were jubilant with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious
+trouble they were making. They caught fish, cooked supper and ate it,
+and then fell to guessing at what the village was thinking and saying
+about them; and the pictures they drew of the public distress on their
+account were gratifying to look upon--from their point of view. But
+when the shadows of night closed them in, they gradually ceased to
+talk, and sat gazing into the fire, with their minds evidently
+wandering elsewhere. The excitement was gone, now, and Tom and Joe
+could not keep back thoughts of certain persons at home who were not
+enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were. Misgivings came; they
+grew troubled and unhappy; a sigh or two escaped, unawares. By and by
+Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout "feeler" as to how the others
+might look upon a return to civilization--not right now, but--
+
+Tom withered him with derision! Huck, being uncommitted as yet, joined
+in with Tom, and the waverer quickly "explained," and was glad to get
+out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken-hearted homesickness
+clinging to his garments as he could. Mutiny was effectually laid to
+rest for the moment.
+
+As the night deepened, Huck began to nod, and presently to snore. Joe
+followed next. Tom lay upon his elbow motionless, for some time,
+watching the two intently. At last he got up cautiously, on his knees,
+and went searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung
+by the camp-fire. He picked up and inspected several large
+semi-cylinders of the thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose
+two which seemed to suit him. Then he knelt by the fire and painfully
+wrote something upon each of these with his "red keel"; one he rolled up
+and put in his jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and
+removed it to a little distance from the owner. And he also put into the
+hat certain schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value--among them
+a lump of chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of that
+kind of marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal." Then he tiptoed his
+way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing,
+and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sandbar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A FEW minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading
+toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was
+half-way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he
+struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam
+quartering upstream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he
+had expected. However, he reached the shore finally, and drifted along
+till he found a low place and drew himself out. He put his hand on his
+jacket pocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through
+the woods, following the shore, with streaming garments. Shortly before
+ten o'clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and
+saw the ferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank.
+Everything was quiet under the blinking stars. He crept down the bank,
+watching with all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four
+strokes and climbed into the skiff that did "yawl" duty at the boat's
+stern. He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting.
+
+Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to "cast
+off." A minute or two later the skiff's head was standing high up,
+against the boat's swell, and the voyage was begun. Tom felt happy in
+his success, for he knew it was the boat's last trip for the night. At
+the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and Tom
+slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards
+downstream, out of danger of possible stragglers.
+
+He flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his
+aunt's back fence. He climbed over, approached the "ell," and looked in
+at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. There sat
+Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother, grouped together,
+talking. They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the
+door. Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then he
+pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing
+cautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might
+squeeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began,
+warily.
+
+"What makes the candle blow so?" said Aunt Polly. Tom hurried up.
+"Why, that door's open, I believe. Why, of course it is. No end of
+strange things now. Go 'long and shut it, Sid."
+
+Tom disappeared under the bed just in time. He lay and "breathed"
+himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his
+aunt's foot.
+
+"But as I was saying," said Aunt Polly, "he warn't BAD, so to say
+--only mischEEvous. Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. He
+warn't any more responsible than a colt. HE never meant any harm, and
+he was the best-hearted boy that ever was"--and she began to cry.
+
+"It was just so with my Joe--always full of his devilment, and up to
+every kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he
+could be--and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking
+that cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself
+because it was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never,
+never, never, poor abused boy!" And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart
+would break.
+
+"I hope Tom's better off where he is," said Sid, "but if he'd been
+better in some ways--"
+
+"SID!" Tom felt the glare of the old lady's eye, though he could not
+see it. "Not a word against my Tom, now that he's gone! God'll take
+care of HIM--never you trouble YOURself, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don't
+know how to give him up! I don't know how to give him up! He was such a
+comfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, 'most."
+
+"The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away--Blessed be the name of
+the Lord! But it's so hard--Oh, it's so hard! Only last Saturday my
+Joe busted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him
+sprawling. Little did I know then, how soon--Oh, if it was to do over
+again I'd hug him and bless him for it."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just
+exactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took
+and filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur
+would tear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom's head
+with my thimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he's out of all his
+troubles now. And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach--"
+
+But this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely
+down. Tom was snuffling, now, himself--and more in pity of himself than
+anybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word
+for him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself
+than ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's
+grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with
+joy--and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to
+his nature, too, but he resisted and lay still.
+
+He went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was
+conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim;
+then the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the
+missing lads had promised that the village should "hear something"
+soon; the wise-heads had "put this and that together" and decided that
+the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town
+below, presently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged
+against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village
+--and then hope perished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have
+driven them home by nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the
+search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the
+drowning must have occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good
+swimmers, would otherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday
+night. If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be
+given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning. Tom
+shuddered.
+
+Mrs. Harper gave a sobbing good-night and turned to go. Then with a
+mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each
+other's arms and had a good, consoling cry, and then parted. Aunt Polly
+was tender far beyond her wont, in her good-night to Sid and Mary. Sid
+snuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart.
+
+Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so
+appealingly, and with such measureless love in her words and her old
+trembling voice, that he was weltering in tears again, long before she
+was through.
+
+He had to keep still long after she went to bed, for she kept making
+broken-hearted ejaculations from time to time, tossing unrestfully, and
+turning over. But at last she was still, only moaning a little in her
+sleep. Now the boy stole out, rose gradually by the bedside, shaded the
+candle-light with his hand, and stood regarding her. His heart was full
+of pity for her. He took out his sycamore scroll and placed it by the
+candle. But something occurred to him, and he lingered considering. His
+face lighted with a happy solution of his thought; he put the bark
+hastily in his pocket. Then he bent over and kissed the faded lips, and
+straightway made his stealthy exit, latching the door behind him.
+
+He threaded his way back to the ferry landing, found nobody at large
+there, and walked boldly on board the boat, for he knew she was
+tenantless except that there was a watchman, who always turned in and
+slept like a graven image. He untied the skiff at the stern, slipped
+into it, and was soon rowing cautiously upstream. When he had pulled a
+mile above the village, he started quartering across and bent himself
+stoutly to his work. He hit the landing on the other side neatly, for
+this was a familiar bit of work to him. He was moved to capture the
+skiff, arguing that it might be considered a ship and therefore
+legitimate prey for a pirate, but he knew a thorough search would be
+made for it and that might end in revelations. So he stepped ashore and
+entered the woods.
+
+He sat down and took a long rest, torturing himself meanwhile to keep
+awake, and then started warily down the home-stretch. The night was far
+spent. It was broad daylight before he found himself fairly abreast the
+island bar. He rested again until the sun was well up and gilding the
+great river with its splendor, and then he plunged into the stream. A
+little later he paused, dripping, upon the threshold of the camp, and
+heard Joe say:
+
+"No, Tom's true-blue, Huck, and he'll come back. He won't desert. He
+knows that would be a disgrace to a pirate, and Tom's too proud for
+that sort of thing. He's up to something or other. Now I wonder what?"
+
+"Well, the things is ours, anyway, ain't they?"
+
+Pretty near, but not yet, Huck. The writing says they are if he ain't
+back here to breakfast."
+
+"Which he is!" exclaimed Tom, with fine dramatic effect, stepping
+grandly into camp.
+
+A sumptuous breakfast of bacon and fish was shortly provided, and as
+the boys set to work upon it, Tom recounted (and adorned) his
+adventures. They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the
+tale was done. Then Tom hid himself away in a shady nook to sleep till
+noon, and the other pirates got ready to fish and explore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+AFTER dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the
+bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a
+soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands.
+Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole. They
+were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English
+walnut. They had a famous fried-egg feast that night, and another on
+Friday morning.
+
+After breakfast they went whooping and prancing out on the bar, and
+chased each other round and round, shedding clothes as they went, until
+they were naked, and then continued the frolic far away up the shoal
+water of the bar, against the stiff current, which latter tripped their
+legs from under them from time to time and greatly increased the fun.
+And now and then they stooped in a group and splashed water in each
+other's faces with their palms, gradually approaching each other, with
+averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays, and finally gripping and
+struggling till the best man ducked his neighbor, and then they all
+went under in a tangle of white legs and arms and came up blowing,
+sputtering, laughing, and gasping for breath at one and the same time.
+
+When they were well exhausted, they would run out and sprawl on the
+dry, hot sand, and lie there and cover themselves up with it, and by
+and by break for the water again and go through the original
+performance once more. Finally it occurred to them that their naked
+skin represented flesh-colored "tights" very fairly; so they drew a
+ring in the sand and had a circus--with three clowns in it, for none
+would yield this proudest post to his neighbor.
+
+Next they got their marbles and played "knucks" and "ring-taw" and
+"keeps" till that amusement grew stale. Then Joe and Huck had another
+swim, but Tom would not venture, because he found that in kicking off
+his trousers he had kicked his string of rattlesnake rattles off his
+ankle, and he wondered how he had escaped cramp so long without the
+protection of this mysterious charm. He did not venture again until he
+had found it, and by that time the other boys were tired and ready to
+rest. They gradually wandered apart, dropped into the "dumps," and fell
+to gazing longingly across the wide river to where the village lay
+drowsing in the sun. Tom found himself writing "BECKY" in the sand with
+his big toe; he scratched it out, and was angry with himself for his
+weakness. But he wrote it again, nevertheless; he could not help it. He
+erased it once more and then took himself out of temptation by driving
+the other boys together and joining them.
+
+But Joe's spirits had gone down almost beyond resurrection. He was so
+homesick that he could hardly endure the misery of it. The tears lay
+very near the surface. Huck was melancholy, too. Tom was downhearted,
+but tried hard not to show it. He had a secret which he was not ready
+to tell, yet, but if this mutinous depression was not broken up soon,
+he would have to bring it out. He said, with a great show of
+cheerfulness:
+
+"I bet there's been pirates on this island before, boys. We'll explore
+it again. They've hid treasures here somewhere. How'd you feel to light
+on a rotten chest full of gold and silver--hey?"
+
+But it roused only faint enthusiasm, which faded out, with no reply.
+Tom tried one or two other seductions; but they failed, too. It was
+discouraging work. Joe sat poking up the sand with a stick and looking
+very gloomy. Finally he said:
+
+"Oh, boys, let's give it up. I want to go home. It's so lonesome."
+
+"Oh no, Joe, you'll feel better by and by," said Tom. "Just think of
+the fishing that's here."
+
+"I don't care for fishing. I want to go home."
+
+"But, Joe, there ain't such another swimming-place anywhere."
+
+"Swimming's no good. I don't seem to care for it, somehow, when there
+ain't anybody to say I sha'n't go in. I mean to go home."
+
+"Oh, shucks! Baby! You want to see your mother, I reckon."
+
+"Yes, I DO want to see my mother--and you would, too, if you had one.
+I ain't any more baby than you are." And Joe snuffled a little.
+
+"Well, we'll let the cry-baby go home to his mother, won't we, Huck?
+Poor thing--does it want to see its mother? And so it shall. You like
+it here, don't you, Huck? We'll stay, won't we?"
+
+Huck said, "Y-e-s"--without any heart in it.
+
+"I'll never speak to you again as long as I live," said Joe, rising.
+"There now!" And he moved moodily away and began to dress himself.
+
+"Who cares!" said Tom. "Nobody wants you to. Go 'long home and get
+laughed at. Oh, you're a nice pirate. Huck and me ain't cry-babies.
+We'll stay, won't we, Huck? Let him go if he wants to. I reckon we can
+get along without him, per'aps."
+
+But Tom was uneasy, nevertheless, and was alarmed to see Joe go
+sullenly on with his dressing. And then it was discomforting to see
+Huck eying Joe's preparations so wistfully, and keeping up such an
+ominous silence. Presently, without a parting word, Joe began to wade
+off toward the Illinois shore. Tom's heart began to sink. He glanced at
+Huck. Huck could not bear the look, and dropped his eyes. Then he said:
+
+"I want to go, too, Tom. It was getting so lonesome anyway, and now
+it'll be worse. Let's us go, too, Tom."
+
+"I won't! You can all go, if you want to. I mean to stay."
+
+"Tom, I better go."
+
+"Well, go 'long--who's hendering you."
+
+Huck began to pick up his scattered clothes. He said:
+
+"Tom, I wisht you'd come, too. Now you think it over. We'll wait for
+you when we get to shore."
+
+"Well, you'll wait a blame long time, that's all."
+
+Huck started sorrowfully away, and Tom stood looking after him, with a
+strong desire tugging at his heart to yield his pride and go along too.
+He hoped the boys would stop, but they still waded slowly on. It
+suddenly dawned on Tom that it was become very lonely and still. He
+made one final struggle with his pride, and then darted after his
+comrades, yelling:
+
+"Wait! Wait! I want to tell you something!"
+
+They presently stopped and turned around. When he got to where they
+were, he began unfolding his secret, and they listened moodily till at
+last they saw the "point" he was driving at, and then they set up a
+war-whoop of applause and said it was "splendid!" and said if he had
+told them at first, they wouldn't have started away. He made a plausible
+excuse; but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret
+would keep them with him any very great length of time, and so he had
+meant to hold it in reserve as a last seduction.
+
+The lads came gayly back and went at their sports again with a will,
+chattering all the time about Tom's stupendous plan and admiring the
+genius of it. After a dainty egg and fish dinner, Tom said he wanted to
+learn to smoke, now. Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to
+try, too. So Huck made pipes and filled them. These novices had never
+smoked anything before but cigars made of grape-vine, and they "bit"
+the tongue, and were not considered manly anyway.
+
+Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff,
+charily, and with slender confidence. The smoke had an unpleasant
+taste, and they gagged a little, but Tom said:
+
+"Why, it's just as easy! If I'd a knowed this was all, I'd a learnt
+long ago."
+
+"So would I," said Joe. "It's just nothing."
+
+"Why, many a time I've looked at people smoking, and thought well I
+wish I could do that; but I never thought I could," said Tom.
+
+"That's just the way with me, hain't it, Huck? You've heard me talk
+just that way--haven't you, Huck? I'll leave it to Huck if I haven't."
+
+"Yes--heaps of times," said Huck.
+
+"Well, I have too," said Tom; "oh, hundreds of times. Once down by the
+slaughter-house. Don't you remember, Huck? Bob Tanner was there, and
+Johnny Miller, and Jeff Thatcher, when I said it. Don't you remember,
+Huck, 'bout me saying that?"
+
+"Yes, that's so," said Huck. "That was the day after I lost a white
+alley. No, 'twas the day before."
+
+"There--I told you so," said Tom. "Huck recollects it."
+
+"I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day," said Joe. "I don't feel
+sick."
+
+"Neither do I," said Tom. "I could smoke it all day. But I bet you
+Jeff Thatcher couldn't."
+
+"Jeff Thatcher! Why, he'd keel over just with two draws. Just let him
+try it once. HE'D see!"
+
+"I bet he would. And Johnny Miller--I wish could see Johnny Miller
+tackle it once."
+
+"Oh, don't I!" said Joe. "Why, I bet you Johnny Miller couldn't any
+more do this than nothing. Just one little snifter would fetch HIM."
+
+"'Deed it would, Joe. Say--I wish the boys could see us now."
+
+"So do I."
+
+"Say--boys, don't say anything about it, and some time when they're
+around, I'll come up to you and say, 'Joe, got a pipe? I want a smoke.'
+And you'll say, kind of careless like, as if it warn't anything, you'll
+say, 'Yes, I got my OLD pipe, and another one, but my tobacker ain't
+very good.' And I'll say, 'Oh, that's all right, if it's STRONG
+enough.' And then you'll out with the pipes, and we'll light up just as
+ca'm, and then just see 'em look!"
+
+"By jings, that'll be gay, Tom! I wish it was NOW!"
+
+"So do I! And when we tell 'em we learned when we was off pirating,
+won't they wish they'd been along?"
+
+"Oh, I reckon not! I'll just BET they will!"
+
+So the talk ran on. But presently it began to flag a trifle, and grow
+disjointed. The silences widened; the expectoration marvellously
+increased. Every pore inside the boys' cheeks became a spouting
+fountain; they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues
+fast enough to prevent an inundation; little overflowings down their
+throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and sudden retchings
+followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and miserable,
+now. Joe's pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom's followed.
+Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might
+and main. Joe said feebly:
+
+"I've lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it."
+
+Tom said, with quivering lips and halting utterance:
+
+"I'll help you. You go over that way and I'll hunt around by the
+spring. No, you needn't come, Huck--we can find it."
+
+So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it lonesome,
+and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods, both
+very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they
+had had any trouble they had got rid of it.
+
+They were not talkative at supper that night. They had a humble look,
+and when Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare
+theirs, they said no, they were not feeling very well--something they
+ate at dinner had disagreed with them.
+
+About midnight Joe awoke, and called the boys. There was a brooding
+oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something. The boys
+huddled themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of
+the fire, though the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was
+stifling. They sat still, intent and waiting. The solemn hush
+continued. Beyond the light of the fire everything was swallowed up in
+the blackness of darkness. Presently there came a quivering glow that
+vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished. By and by
+another came, a little stronger. Then another. Then a faint moan came
+sighing through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting
+breath upon their cheeks, and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit
+of the Night had gone by. There was a pause. Now a weird flash turned
+night into day and showed every little grass-blade, separate and
+distinct, that grew about their feet. And it showed three white,
+startled faces, too. A deep peal of thunder went rolling and tumbling
+down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. A
+sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the
+flaky ashes broadcast about the fire. Another fierce glare lit up the
+forest and an instant crash followed that seemed to rend the tree-tops
+right over the boys' heads. They clung together in terror, in the thick
+gloom that followed. A few big rain-drops fell pattering upon the
+leaves.
+
+"Quick! boys, go for the tent!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+They sprang away, stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark, no
+two plunging in the same direction. A furious blast roared through the
+trees, making everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after
+another came, and peal on peal of deafening thunder. And now a
+drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets
+along the ground. The boys cried out to each other, but the roaring
+wind and the booming thunder-blasts drowned their voices utterly.
+However, one by one they straggled in at last and took shelter under
+the tent, cold, scared, and streaming with water; but to have company
+in misery seemed something to be grateful for. They could not talk, the
+old sail flapped so furiously, even if the other noises would have
+allowed them. The tempest rose higher and higher, and presently the
+sail tore loose from its fastenings and went winging away on the blast.
+The boys seized each others' hands and fled, with many tumblings and
+bruises, to the shelter of a great oak that stood upon the river-bank.
+Now the battle was at its highest. Under the ceaseless conflagration of
+lightning that flamed in the skies, everything below stood out in
+clean-cut and shadowless distinctness: the bending trees, the billowy
+river, white with foam, the driving spray of spume-flakes, the dim
+outlines of the high bluffs on the other side, glimpsed through the
+drifting cloud-rack and the slanting veil of rain. Every little while
+some giant tree yielded the fight and fell crashing through the younger
+growth; and the unflagging thunder-peals came now in ear-splitting
+explosive bursts, keen and sharp, and unspeakably appalling. The storm
+culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island
+to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the tree-tops, blow it away, and
+deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. It was a
+wild night for homeless young heads to be out in.
+
+But at last the battle was done, and the forces retired with weaker
+and weaker threatenings and grumblings, and peace resumed her sway. The
+boys went back to camp, a good deal awed; but they found there was
+still something to be thankful for, because the great sycamore, the
+shelter of their beds, was a ruin, now, blasted by the lightnings, and
+they were not under it when the catastrophe happened.
+
+Everything in camp was drenched, the camp-fire as well; for they were
+but heedless lads, like their generation, and had made no provision
+against rain. Here was matter for dismay, for they were soaked through
+and chilled. They were eloquent in their distress; but they presently
+discovered that the fire had eaten so far up under the great log it had
+been built against (where it curved upward and separated itself from
+the ground), that a handbreadth or so of it had escaped wetting; so
+they patiently wrought until, with shreds and bark gathered from the
+under sides of sheltered logs, they coaxed the fire to burn again. Then
+they piled on great dead boughs till they had a roaring furnace, and
+were glad-hearted once more. They dried their boiled ham and had a
+feast, and after that they sat by the fire and expanded and glorified
+their midnight adventure until morning, for there was not a dry spot to
+sleep on, anywhere around.
+
+As the sun began to steal in upon the boys, drowsiness came over them,
+and they went out on the sandbar and lay down to sleep. They got
+scorched out by and by, and drearily set about getting breakfast. After
+the meal they felt rusty, and stiff-jointed, and a little homesick once
+more. Tom saw the signs, and fell to cheering up the pirates as well as
+he could. But they cared nothing for marbles, or circus, or swimming,
+or anything. He reminded them of the imposing secret, and raised a ray
+of cheer. While it lasted, he got them interested in a new device. This
+was to knock off being pirates, for a while, and be Indians for a
+change. They were attracted by this idea; so it was not long before
+they were stripped, and striped from head to heel with black mud, like
+so many zebras--all of them chiefs, of course--and then they went
+tearing through the woods to attack an English settlement.
+
+By and by they separated into three hostile tribes, and darted upon
+each other from ambush with dreadful war-whoops, and killed and scalped
+each other by thousands. It was a gory day. Consequently it was an
+extremely satisfactory one.
+
+They assembled in camp toward supper-time, hungry and happy; but now a
+difficulty arose--hostile Indians could not break the bread of
+hospitality together without first making peace, and this was a simple
+impossibility without smoking a pipe of peace. There was no other
+process that ever they had heard of. Two of the savages almost wished
+they had remained pirates. However, there was no other way; so with
+such show of cheerfulness as they could muster they called for the pipe
+and took their whiff as it passed, in due form.
+
+And behold, they were glad they had gone into savagery, for they had
+gained something; they found that they could now smoke a little without
+having to go and hunt for a lost knife; they did not get sick enough to
+be seriously uncomfortable. They were not likely to fool away this high
+promise for lack of effort. No, they practised cautiously, after
+supper, with right fair success, and so they spent a jubilant evening.
+They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would
+have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations. We will
+leave them to smoke and chatter and brag, since we have no further use
+for them at present.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+BUT there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil
+Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family, were being
+put into mourning, with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet
+possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all
+conscience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air,
+and talked little; but they sighed often. The Saturday holiday seemed a
+burden to the children. They had no heart in their sports, and
+gradually gave them up.
+
+In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the
+deserted schoolhouse yard, and feeling very melancholy. But she found
+nothing there to comfort her. She soliloquized:
+
+"Oh, if I only had a brass andiron-knob again! But I haven't got
+anything now to remember him by." And she choked back a little sob.
+
+Presently she stopped, and said to herself:
+
+"It was right here. Oh, if it was to do over again, I wouldn't say
+that--I wouldn't say it for the whole world. But he's gone now; I'll
+never, never, never see him any more."
+
+This thought broke her down, and she wandered away, with tears rolling
+down her cheeks. Then quite a group of boys and girls--playmates of
+Tom's and Joe's--came by, and stood looking over the paling fence and
+talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so-and-so the last time they
+saw him, and how Joe said this and that small trifle (pregnant with
+awful prophecy, as they could easily see now!)--and each speaker
+pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time, and
+then added something like "and I was a-standing just so--just as I am
+now, and as if you was him--I was as close as that--and he smiled, just
+this way--and then something seemed to go all over me, like--awful, you
+know--and I never thought what it meant, of course, but I can see now!"
+
+Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life, and
+many claimed that dismal distinction, and offered evidences, more or
+less tampered with by the witness; and when it was ultimately decided
+who DID see the departed last, and exchanged the last words with them,
+the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance, and
+were gaped at and envied by all the rest. One poor chap, who had no
+other grandeur to offer, said with tolerably manifest pride in the
+remembrance:
+
+"Well, Tom Sawyer he licked me once."
+
+But that bid for glory was a failure. Most of the boys could say that,
+and so that cheapened the distinction too much. The group loitered
+away, still recalling memories of the lost heroes, in awed voices.
+
+When the Sunday-school hour was finished, the next morning, the bell
+began to toll, instead of ringing in the usual way. It was a very still
+Sabbath, and the mournful sound seemed in keeping with the musing hush
+that lay upon nature. The villagers began to gather, loitering a moment
+in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the sad event. But there
+was no whispering in the house; only the funereal rustling of dresses
+as the women gathered to their seats disturbed the silence there. None
+could remember when the little church had been so full before. There
+was finally a waiting pause, an expectant dumbness, and then Aunt Polly
+entered, followed by Sid and Mary, and they by the Harper family, all
+in deep black, and the whole congregation, the old minister as well,
+rose reverently and stood until the mourners were seated in the front
+pew. There was another communing silence, broken at intervals by
+muffled sobs, and then the minister spread his hands abroad and prayed.
+A moving hymn was sung, and the text followed: "I am the Resurrection
+and the Life."
+
+As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the
+graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that
+every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in
+remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always
+before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor
+boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the
+departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the
+people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes
+were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had
+seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The
+congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on,
+till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping
+mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way
+to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.
+
+There was a rustle in the gallery, which nobody noticed; a moment
+later the church door creaked; the minister raised his streaming eyes
+above his handkerchief, and stood transfixed! First one and then
+another pair of eyes followed the minister's, and then almost with one
+impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came
+marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of
+drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in
+the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!
+
+Aunt Polly, Mary, and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored
+ones, smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings, while
+poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to
+do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes. He wavered, and
+started to slink away, but Tom seized him and said:
+
+"Aunt Polly, it ain't fair. Somebody's got to be glad to see Huck."
+
+"And so they shall. I'm glad to see him, poor motherless thing!" And
+the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing
+capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before.
+
+Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice: "Praise God
+from whom all blessings flow--SING!--and put your hearts in it!"
+
+And they did. Old Hundred swelled up with a triumphant burst, and
+while it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer the Pirate looked around upon the
+envying juveniles about him and confessed in his heart that this was
+the proudest moment of his life.
+
+As the "sold" congregation trooped out they said they would almost be
+willing to be made ridiculous again to hear Old Hundred sung like that
+once more.
+
+Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day--according to Aunt Polly's
+varying moods--than he had earned before in a year; and he hardly knew
+which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 4. ***
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From 2d7ce08f28ec545a35700eaade45e2c04823f078 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kateu Herbert <hkateu@gmail.com>
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Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Removed tom_sawyer.txt

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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 1.
-    
-This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
-at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
-you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
-before using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 1.
-
-Author: Mark Twain
-
-Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7193]
-                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
-
-Language: English
-
-Credits: Produced by David Widger
-
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 1. ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-                   THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
-                                BY
-                            MARK TWAIN
-                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
-
-                              Part 1
-
-
-                           P R E F A C E
-
-MOST of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or
-two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were
-schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but
-not from an individual--he is a combination of the characteristics of
-three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of
-architecture.
-
-The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children
-and slaves in the West at the period of this story--that is to say,
-thirty or forty years ago.
-
-Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and
-girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,
-for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what
-they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked,
-and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
-
-                                                            THE AUTHOR.
-
-HARTFORD, 1876.
-
-
-
-                          T O M   S A W Y E R
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-"TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-"TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-"What's gone with that boy,  I wonder? You TOM!"
-
-No answer.
-
-The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the
-room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or
-never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her
-state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not
-service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.
-She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but
-still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
-
-"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll--"
-
-She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching
-under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the
-punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
-
-"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
-
-She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the
-tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom.
-So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and
-shouted:
-
-"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
-
-There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to
-seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
-
-"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in
-there?"
-
-"Nothing."
-
-"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that
-truck?"
-
-"I don't know, aunt."
-
-"Well, I know. It's jam--that's what it is. Forty times I've said if
-you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."
-
-The switch hovered in the air--the peril was desperate--
-
-"My! Look behind you, aunt!"
-
-The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The
-lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and
-disappeared over it.
-
-His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle
-laugh.
-
-"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks
-enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old
-fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks,
-as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days,
-and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how
-long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he
-can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down
-again and I can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy,
-and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile
-the child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for
-us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my
-own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash
-him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so,
-and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man
-that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the
-Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, *
-and [* Southwestern for "afternoon"] I'll just be obleeged to make him
-work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work
-Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more
-than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my duty by him,
-or I'll be the ruination of the child."
-
-Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home
-barely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's
-wood and split the kindlings before supper--at least he was there in
-time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the
-work. Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already
-through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a
-quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
-
-While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity
-offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and
-very deep--for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
-many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she
-was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she
-loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low
-cunning. Said she:
-
-"Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn't it?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-"Powerful warm, warn't it?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-"Didn't you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?"
-
-A bit of a scare shot through Tom--a touch of uncomfortable suspicion.
-He searched Aunt Polly's face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
-
-"No'm--well, not very much."
-
-The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's shirt, and said:
-
-"But you ain't too warm now, though." And it flattered her to reflect
-that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing
-that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew
-where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
-
-"Some of us pumped on our heads--mine's damp yet. See?"
-
-Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of
-circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new
-inspiration:
-
-"Tom, you didn't have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to
-pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!"
-
-The trouble vanished out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket. His
-shirt collar was securely sewed.
-
-"Bother! Well, go 'long with you. I'd made sure you'd played hookey
-and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you're a kind of a
-singed cat, as the saying is--better'n you look. THIS time."
-
-She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom
-had stumbled into obedient conduct for once.
-
-But Sidney said:
-
-"Well, now, if I didn't think you sewed his collar with white thread,
-but it's black."
-
-"Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!"
-
-But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
-
-"Siddy, I'll lick you for that."
-
-In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into
-the lapels of his jacket, and had thread bound about them--one needle
-carried white thread and the other black. He said:
-
-"She'd never noticed if it hadn't been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes
-she sews it with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to
-geeminy she'd stick to one or t'other--I can't keep the run of 'em. But
-I bet you I'll lam Sid for that. I'll learn him!"
-
-He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very
-well though--and loathed him.
-
-Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles.
-Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him
-than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore
-them down and drove them out of his mind for the time--just as men's
-misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises. This
-new interest was a valued novelty in whistling, which he had just
-acquired from a negro, and he was suffering to practise it undisturbed.
-It consisted in a peculiar bird-like turn, a sort of liquid warble,
-produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short
-intervals in the midst of the music--the reader probably remembers how
-to do it, if he has ever been a boy. Diligence and attention soon gave
-him the knack of it, and he strode down the street with his mouth full
-of harmony and his soul full of gratitude. He felt much as an
-astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet--no doubt, as far as
-strong, deep, unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with
-the boy, not the astronomer.
-
-The summer evenings were long. It was not dark, yet. Presently Tom
-checked his whistle. A stranger was before him--a boy a shade larger
-than himself. A new-comer of any age or either sex was an impressive
-curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg. This boy
-was well dressed, too--well dressed on a week-day. This was simply
-astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth
-roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes
-on--and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bit of
-ribbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The
-more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he turned up his
-nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed
-to him to grow. Neither boy spoke. If one moved, the other moved--but
-only sidewise, in a circle; they kept face to face and eye to eye all
-the time. Finally Tom said:
-
-"I can lick you!"
-
-"I'd like to see you try it."
-
-"Well, I can do it."
-
-"No you can't, either."
-
-"Yes I can."
-
-"No you can't."
-
-"I can."
-
-"You can't."
-
-"Can!"
-
-"Can't!"
-
-An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
-
-"What's your name?"
-
-"'Tisn't any of your business, maybe."
-
-"Well I 'low I'll MAKE it my business."
-
-"Well why don't you?"
-
-"If you say much, I will."
-
-"Much--much--MUCH. There now."
-
-"Oh, you think you're mighty smart, DON'T you? I could lick you with
-one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to."
-
-"Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it."
-
-"Well I WILL, if you fool with me."
-
-"Oh yes--I've seen whole families in the same fix."
-
-"Smarty! You think you're SOME, now, DON'T you? Oh, what a hat!"
-
-"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it
-off--and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."
-
-"You're a liar!"
-
-"You're another."
-
-"You're a fighting liar and dasn't take it up."
-
-"Aw--take a walk!"
-
-"Say--if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a
-rock off'n your head."
-
-"Oh, of COURSE you will."
-
-"Well I WILL."
-
-"Well why don't you DO it then? What do you keep SAYING you will for?
-Why don't you DO it? It's because you're afraid."
-
-"I AIN'T afraid."
-
-"You are."
-
-"I ain't."
-
-"You are."
-
-Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other. Presently
-they were shoulder to shoulder. Tom said:
-
-"Get away from here!"
-
-"Go away yourself!"
-
-"I won't."
-
-"I won't either."
-
-So they stood, each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace, and
-both shoving with might and main, and glowering at each other with
-hate. But neither could get an advantage. After struggling till both
-were hot and flushed, each relaxed his strain with watchful caution,
-and Tom said:
-
-"You're a coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he
-can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make him do it, too."
-
-"What do I care for your big brother? I've got a brother that's bigger
-than he is--and what's more, he can throw him over that fence, too."
-[Both brothers were imaginary.]
-
-"That's a lie."
-
-"YOUR saying so don't make it so."
-
-Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe, and said:
-
-"I dare you to step over that, and I'll lick you till you can't stand
-up. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep."
-
-The new boy stepped over promptly, and said:
-
-"Now you said you'd do it, now let's see you do it."
-
-"Don't you crowd me now; you better look out."
-
-"Well, you SAID you'd do it--why don't you do it?"
-
-"By jingo! for two cents I WILL do it."
-
-The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out
-with derision. Tom struck them to the ground. In an instant both boys
-were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats; and
-for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each other's hair and
-clothes, punched and scratched each other's nose, and covered
-themselves with dust and glory. Presently the confusion took form, and
-through the fog of battle Tom appeared, seated astride the new boy, and
-pounding him with his fists. "Holler 'nuff!" said he.
-
-The boy only struggled to free himself. He was crying--mainly from rage.
-
-"Holler 'nuff!"--and the pounding went on.
-
-At last the stranger got out a smothered "'Nuff!" and Tom let him up
-and said:
-
-"Now that'll learn you. Better look out who you're fooling with next
-time."
-
-The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, sobbing,
-snuffling, and occasionally looking back and shaking his head and
-threatening what he would do to Tom the "next time he caught him out."
-To which Tom responded with jeers, and started off in high feather, and
-as soon as his back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone, threw
-it and hit him between the shoulders and then turned tail and ran like
-an antelope. Tom chased the traitor home, and thus found out where he
-lived. He then held a position at the gate for some time, daring the
-enemy to come outside, but the enemy only made faces at him through the
-window and declined. At last the enemy's mother appeared, and called
-Tom a bad, vicious, vulgar child, and ordered him away. So he went
-away; but he said he "'lowed" to "lay" for that boy.
-
-He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in
-at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt;
-and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn
-his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in
-its firmness.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-SATURDAY morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and
-fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if
-the heart was young the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in
-every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom
-and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond
-the village and above it, was green with vegetation and it lay just far
-enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.
-
-Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a
-long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and
-a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board
-fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a
-burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost
-plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant
-whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed
-fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. Jim came skipping out at
-the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. Bringing water from
-the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but
-now it did not strike him so. He remembered that there was company at
-the pump. White, mulatto, and negro boys and girls were always there
-waiting their turns, resting, trading playthings, quarrelling,
-fighting, skylarking. And he remembered that although the pump was only
-a hundred and fifty yards off, Jim never got back with a bucket of
-water under an hour--and even then somebody generally had to go after
-him. Tom said:
-
-"Say, Jim, I'll fetch the water if you'll whitewash some."
-
-Jim shook his head and said:
-
-"Can't, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an' git dis
-water an' not stop foolin' roun' wid anybody. She say she spec' Mars
-Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an' so she tole me go 'long an' 'tend
-to my own business--she 'lowed SHE'D 'tend to de whitewashin'."
-
-"Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That's the way she always
-talks. Gimme the bucket--I won't be gone only a a minute. SHE won't
-ever know."
-
-"Oh, I dasn't, Mars Tom. Ole missis she'd take an' tar de head off'n
-me. 'Deed she would."
-
-"SHE! She never licks anybody--whacks 'em over the head with her
-thimble--and who cares for that, I'd like to know. She talks awful, but
-talk don't hurt--anyways it don't if she don't cry. Jim, I'll give you
-a marvel. I'll give you a white alley!"
-
-Jim began to waver.
-
-"White alley, Jim! And it's a bully taw."
-
-"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I's powerful
-'fraid ole missis--"
-
-"And besides, if you will I'll show you my sore toe."
-
-Jim was only human--this attraction was too much for him. He put down
-his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing
-interest while the bandage was being unwound. In another moment he was
-flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was
-whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field
-with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye.
-
-But Tom's energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had
-planned for this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon the free boys
-would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions, and
-they would make a world of fun of him for having to work--the very
-thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and
-examined it--bits of toys, marbles, and trash; enough to buy an
-exchange of WORK, maybe, but not half enough to buy so much as half an
-hour of pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his
-pocket, and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At this dark
-and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a
-great, magnificent inspiration.
-
-He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in
-sight presently--the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been
-dreading. Ben's gait was the hop-skip-and-jump--proof enough that his
-heart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and
-giving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned
-ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. As
-he drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned
-far over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious
-pomp and circumstance--for he was personating the Big Missouri, and
-considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat and
-captain and engine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself
-standing on his own hurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:
-
-"Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!" The headway ran almost out, and he
-drew up slowly toward the sidewalk.
-
-"Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!" His arms straightened and
-stiffened down his sides.
-
-"Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow!
-Chow!" His right hand, meantime, describing stately circles--for it was
-representing a forty-foot wheel.
-
-"Let her go back on the labboard! Ting-a-lingling! Chow-ch-chow-chow!"
-The left hand began to describe circles.
-
-"Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead
-on the stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow!
-Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! LIVELY now!
-Come--out with your spring-line--what're you about there! Take a turn
-round that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now--let her
-go! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! SH'T! S'H'T! SH'T!"
-(trying the gauge-cocks).
-
-Tom went on whitewashing--paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben
-stared a moment and then said: "Hi-YI! YOU'RE up a stump, ain't you!"
-
-No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then
-he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as
-before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the
-apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:
-
-"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"
-
-Tom wheeled suddenly and said:
-
-"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."
-
-"Say--I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of
-course you'd druther WORK--wouldn't you? Course you would!"
-
-Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
-
-"What do you call work?"
-
-"Why, ain't THAT work?"
-
-Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
-
-"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom
-Sawyer."
-
-"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you LIKE it?"
-
-The brush continued to move.
-
-"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get
-a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"
-
-That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom
-swept his brush daintily back and forth--stepped back to note the
-effect--added a touch here and there--criticised the effect again--Ben
-watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more
-absorbed. Presently he said:
-
-"Say, Tom, let ME whitewash a little."
-
-Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:
-
-"No--no--I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's
-awful particular about this fence--right here on the street, you know
---but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and SHE wouldn't. Yes,
-she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very
-careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two
-thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."
-
-"No--is that so? Oh come, now--lemme just try. Only just a little--I'd
-let YOU, if you was me, Tom."
-
-"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to
-do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't
-let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this
-fence and anything was to happen to it--"
-
-"Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give
-you the core of my apple."
-
-"Well, here--No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard--"
-
-"I'll give you ALL of it!"
-
-Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his
-heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in
-the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by,
-dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more
-innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every
-little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time
-Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for
-a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in
-for a dead rat and a string to swing it with--and so on, and so on,
-hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being
-a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling
-in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles,
-part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a
-spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk,
-a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six
-fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass doorknob, a
-dog-collar--but no dog--the handle of a knife, four pieces of
-orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.
-
-He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while--plenty of company
---and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out
-of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.
-
-Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He
-had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely,
-that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only
-necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great
-and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have
-comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do,
-and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And
-this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers
-or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or
-climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in
-England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles
-on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them
-considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service,
-that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
-
-The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place
-in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to
-report.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-TOM presented himself before Aunt Polly, who was sitting by an open
-window in a pleasant rearward apartment, which was bedroom,
-breakfast-room, dining-room, and library, combined. The balmy summer
-air, the restful quiet, the odor of the flowers, and the drowsing murmur
-of the bees had had their effect, and she was nodding over her knitting
---for she had no company but the cat, and it was asleep in her lap. Her
-spectacles were propped up on her gray head for safety. She had thought
-that of course Tom had deserted long ago, and she wondered at seeing him
-place himself in her power again in this intrepid way. He said: "Mayn't
-I go and play now, aunt?"
-
-"What, a'ready? How much have you done?"
-
-"It's all done, aunt."
-
-"Tom, don't lie to me--I can't bear it."
-
-"I ain't, aunt; it IS all done."
-
-Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see
-for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent.
-of Tom's statement true. When she found the entire fence whitewashed,
-and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even
-a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.
-She said:
-
-"Well, I never! There's no getting round it, you can work when you're
-a mind to, Tom." And then she diluted the compliment by adding, "But
-it's powerful seldom you're a mind to, I'm bound to say. Well, go 'long
-and play; but mind you get back some time in a week, or I'll tan you."
-
-She was so overcome by the splendor of his achievement that she took
-him into the closet and selected a choice apple and delivered it to
-him, along with an improving lecture upon the added value and flavor a
-treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort.
-And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, he "hooked" a
-doughnut.
-
-Then he skipped out, and saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway
-that led to the back rooms on the second floor. Clods were handy and
-the air was full of them in a twinkling. They raged around Sid like a
-hail-storm; and before Aunt Polly could collect her surprised faculties
-and sally to the rescue, six or seven clods had taken personal effect,
-and Tom was over the fence and gone. There was a gate, but as a general
-thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it. His soul was at
-peace, now that he had settled with Sid for calling attention to his
-black thread and getting him into trouble.
-
-Tom skirted the block, and came round into a muddy alley that led by
-the back of his aunt's cow-stable. He presently got safely beyond the
-reach of capture and punishment, and hastened toward the public square
-of the village, where two "military" companies of boys had met for
-conflict, according to previous appointment. Tom was General of one of
-these armies, Joe Harper (a bosom friend) General of the other. These
-two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person--that being
-better suited to the still smaller fry--but sat together on an eminence
-and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through
-aides-de-camp. Tom's army won a great victory, after a long and
-hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged,
-the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the
-necessary battle appointed; after which the armies fell into line and
-marched away, and Tom turned homeward alone.
-
-As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new
-girl in the garden--a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair
-plaited into two long-tails, white summer frock and embroidered
-pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot. A
-certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a
-memory of herself behind. He had thought he loved her to distraction;
-he had regarded his passion as adoration; and behold it was only a poor
-little evanescent partiality. He had been months winning her; she had
-confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest
-boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant of time
-she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is
-done.
-
-He worshipped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she
-had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present,
-and began to "show off" in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to
-win her admiration. He kept up this grotesque foolishness for some
-time; but by-and-by, while he was in the midst of some dangerous
-gymnastic performances, he glanced aside and saw that the little girl
-was wending her way toward the house. Tom came up to the fence and
-leaned on it, grieving, and hoping she would tarry yet awhile longer.
-She halted a moment on the steps and then moved toward the door. Tom
-heaved a great sigh as she put her foot on the threshold. But his face
-lit up, right away, for she tossed a pansy over the fence a moment
-before she disappeared.
-
-The boy ran around and stopped within a foot or two of the flower, and
-then shaded his eyes with his hand and began to look down street as if
-he had discovered something of interest going on in that direction.
-Presently he picked up a straw and began trying to balance it on his
-nose, with his head tilted far back; and as he moved from side to side,
-in his efforts, he edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy; finally
-his bare foot rested upon it, his pliant toes closed upon it, and he
-hopped away with the treasure and disappeared round the corner. But
-only for a minute--only while he could button the flower inside his
-jacket, next his heart--or next his stomach, possibly, for he was not
-much posted in anatomy, and not hypercritical, anyway.
-
-He returned, now, and hung about the fence till nightfall, "showing
-off," as before; but the girl never exhibited herself again, though Tom
-comforted himself a little with the hope that she had been near some
-window, meantime, and been aware of his attentions. Finally he strode
-home reluctantly, with his poor head full of visions.
-
-All through supper his spirits were so high that his aunt wondered
-"what had got into the child." He took a good scolding about clodding
-Sid, and did not seem to mind it in the least. He tried to steal sugar
-under his aunt's very nose, and got his knuckles rapped for it. He said:
-
-"Aunt, you don't whack Sid when he takes it."
-
-"Well, Sid don't torment a body the way you do. You'd be always into
-that sugar if I warn't watching you."
-
-Presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his
-immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl--a sort of glorying over Tom which
-was wellnigh unbearable. But Sid's fingers slipped and the bowl dropped
-and broke. Tom was in ecstasies. In such ecstasies that he even
-controlled his tongue and was silent. He said to himself that he would
-not speak a word, even when his aunt came in, but would sit perfectly
-still till she asked who did the mischief; and then he would tell, and
-there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model
-"catch it." He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold
-himself when the old lady came back and stood above the wreck
-discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles. He said to
-himself, "Now it's coming!" And the next instant he was sprawling on
-the floor! The potent palm was uplifted to strike again when Tom cried
-out:
-
-"Hold on, now, what 'er you belting ME for?--Sid broke it!"
-
-Aunt Polly paused, perplexed, and Tom looked for healing pity. But
-when she got her tongue again, she only said:
-
-"Umf! Well, you didn't get a lick amiss, I reckon. You been into some
-other audacious mischief when I wasn't around, like enough."
-
-Then her conscience reproached her, and she yearned to say something
-kind and loving; but she judged that this would be construed into a
-confession that she had been in the wrong, and discipline forbade that.
-So she kept silence, and went about her affairs with a troubled heart.
-Tom sulked in a corner and exalted his woes. He knew that in her heart
-his aunt was on her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the
-consciousness of it. He would hang out no signals, he would take notice
-of none. He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him, now and then,
-through a film of tears, but he refused recognition of it. He pictured
-himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him beseeching
-one little forgiving word, but he would turn his face to the wall, and
-die with that word unsaid. Ah, how would she feel then? And he pictured
-himself brought home from the river, dead, with his curls all wet, and
-his sore heart at rest. How she would throw herself upon him, and how
-her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back
-her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more! But he would lie
-there cold and white and make no sign--a poor little sufferer, whose
-griefs were at an end. He so worked upon his feelings with the pathos
-of these dreams, that he had to keep swallowing, he was so like to
-choke; and his eyes swam in a blur of water, which overflowed when he
-winked, and ran down and trickled from the end of his nose. And such a
-luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows, that he could not bear
-to have any worldly cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it;
-it was too sacred for such contact; and so, presently, when his cousin
-Mary danced in, all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an
-age-long visit of one week to the country, he got up and moved in
-clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in
-at the other.
-
-He wandered far from the accustomed haunts of boys, and sought
-desolate places that were in harmony with his spirit. A log raft in the
-river invited him, and he seated himself on its outer edge and
-contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream, wishing, the while,
-that he could only be drowned, all at once and unconsciously, without
-undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by nature. Then he thought
-of his flower. He got it out, rumpled and wilted, and it mightily
-increased his dismal felicity. He wondered if she would pity him if she
-knew? Would she cry, and wish that she had a right to put her arms
-around his neck and comfort him? Or would she turn coldly away like all
-the hollow world? This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable
-suffering that he worked it over and over again in his mind and set it
-up in new and varied lights, till he wore it threadbare. At last he
-rose up sighing and departed in the darkness.
-
-About half-past nine or ten o'clock he came along the deserted street
-to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; no sound fell
-upon his listening ear; a candle was casting a dull glow upon the
-curtain of a second-story window. Was the sacred presence there? He
-climbed the fence, threaded his stealthy way through the plants, till
-he stood under that window; he looked up at it long, and with emotion;
-then he laid him down on the ground under it, disposing himself upon
-his back, with his hands clasped upon his breast and holding his poor
-wilted flower. And thus he would die--out in the cold world, with no
-shelter over his homeless head, no friendly hand to wipe the
-death-damps from his brow, no loving face to bend pityingly over him
-when the great agony came. And thus SHE would see him when she looked
-out upon the glad morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon
-his poor, lifeless form, would she heave one little sigh to see a bright
-young life so rudely blighted, so untimely cut down?
-
-The window went up, a maid-servant's discordant voice profaned the
-holy calm, and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyr's remains!
-
-The strangling hero sprang up with a relieving snort. There was a whiz
-as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, a sound
-as of shivering glass followed, and a small, vague form went over the
-fence and shot away in the gloom.
-
-Not long after, as Tom, all undressed for bed, was surveying his
-drenched garments by the light of a tallow dip, Sid woke up; but if he
-had any dim idea of making any "references to allusions," he thought
-better of it and held his peace, for there was danger in Tom's eye.
-
-Tom turned in without the added vexation of prayers, and Sid made
-mental note of the omission.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 1. ***
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-
-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 2.
-    
-This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
-at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
-you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
-before using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 2.
-
-Author: Mark Twain
-
-Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7194]
-                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
-
-Language: English
-
-Credits: Produced by David Widger
-
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 2. ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
-                                BY
-                            MARK TWAIN
-                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
-
-                              Part 2
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-THE sun rose upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the peaceful
-village like a benediction. Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had family
-worship: it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid
-courses of Scriptural quotations, welded together with a thin mortar of
-originality; and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter
-of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai.
-
-Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to "get
-his verses." Sid had learned his lesson days before. Tom bent all his
-energies to the memorizing of five verses, and he chose part of the
-Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were shorter.
-At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson,
-but no more, for his mind was traversing the whole field of human
-thought, and his hands were busy with distracting recreations. Mary
-took his book to hear him recite, and he tried to find his way through
-the fog:
-
-"Blessed are the--a--a--"
-
-"Poor"--
-
-"Yes--poor; blessed are the poor--a--a--"
-
-"In spirit--"
-
-"In spirit; blessed are the poor in spirit, for they--they--"
-
-"THEIRS--"
-
-"For THEIRS. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
-of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they--they--"
-
-"Sh--"
-
-"For they--a--"
-
-"S, H, A--"
-
-"For they S, H--Oh, I don't know what it is!"
-
-"SHALL!"
-
-"Oh, SHALL! for they shall--for they shall--a--a--shall mourn--a--a--
-blessed are they that shall--they that--a--they that shall mourn, for
-they shall--a--shall WHAT? Why don't you tell me, Mary?--what do you
-want to be so mean for?"
-
-"Oh, Tom, you poor thick-headed thing, I'm not teasing you. I wouldn't
-do that. You must go and learn it again. Don't you be discouraged, Tom,
-you'll manage it--and if you do, I'll give you something ever so nice.
-There, now, that's a good boy."
-
-"All right! What is it, Mary, tell me what it is."
-
-"Never you mind, Tom. You know if I say it's nice, it is nice."
-
-"You bet you that's so, Mary. All right, I'll tackle it again."
-
-And he did "tackle it again"--and under the double pressure of
-curiosity and prospective gain he did it with such spirit that he
-accomplished a shining success. Mary gave him a brand-new "Barlow"
-knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that
-swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would
-not cut anything, but it was a "sure-enough" Barlow, and there was
-inconceivable grandeur in that--though where the Western boys ever got
-the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its
-injury is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps. Tom
-contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin
-on the bureau, when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school.
-
-Mary gave him a tin basin of water and a piece of soap, and he went
-outside the door and set the basin on a little bench there; then he
-dipped the soap in the water and laid it down; turned up his sleeves;
-poured out the water on the ground, gently, and then entered the
-kitchen and began to wipe his face diligently on the towel behind the
-door. But Mary removed the towel and said:
-
-"Now ain't you ashamed, Tom. You mustn't be so bad. Water won't hurt
-you."
-
-Tom was a trifle disconcerted. The basin was refilled, and this time
-he stood over it a little while, gathering resolution; took in a big
-breath and began. When he entered the kitchen presently, with both eyes
-shut and groping for the towel with his hands, an honorable testimony
-of suds and water was dripping from his face. But when he emerged from
-the towel, he was not yet satisfactory, for the clean territory stopped
-short at his chin and his jaws, like a mask; below and beyond this line
-there was a dark expanse of unirrigated soil that spread downward in
-front and backward around his neck. Mary took him in hand, and when she
-was done with him he was a man and a brother, without distinction of
-color, and his saturated hair was neatly brushed, and its short curls
-wrought into a dainty and symmetrical general effect. [He privately
-smoothed out the curls, with labor and difficulty, and plastered his
-hair close down to his head; for he held curls to be effeminate, and
-his own filled his life with bitterness.] Then Mary got out a suit of
-his clothing that had been used only on Sundays during two years--they
-were simply called his "other clothes"--and so by that we know the
-size of his wardrobe. The girl "put him to rights" after he had dressed
-himself; she buttoned his neat roundabout up to his chin, turned his
-vast shirt collar down over his shoulders, brushed him off and crowned
-him with his speckled straw hat. He now looked exceedingly improved and
-uncomfortable. He was fully as uncomfortable as he looked; for there
-was a restraint about whole clothes and cleanliness that galled him. He
-hoped that Mary would forget his shoes, but the hope was blighted; she
-coated them thoroughly with tallow, as was the custom, and brought them
-out. He lost his temper and said he was always being made to do
-everything he didn't want to do. But Mary said, persuasively:
-
-"Please, Tom--that's a good boy."
-
-So he got into the shoes snarling. Mary was soon ready, and the three
-children set out for Sunday-school--a place that Tom hated with his
-whole heart; but Sid and Mary were fond of it.
-
-Sabbath-school hours were from nine to half-past ten; and then church
-service. Two of the children always remained for the sermon
-voluntarily, and the other always remained too--for stronger reasons.
-The church's high-backed, uncushioned pews would seat about three
-hundred persons; the edifice was but a small, plain affair, with a sort
-of pine board tree-box on top of it for a steeple. At the door Tom
-dropped back a step and accosted a Sunday-dressed comrade:
-
-"Say, Billy, got a yaller ticket?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"What'll you take for her?"
-
-"What'll you give?"
-
-"Piece of lickrish and a fish-hook."
-
-"Less see 'em."
-
-Tom exhibited. They were satisfactory, and the property changed hands.
-Then Tom traded a couple of white alleys for three red tickets, and
-some small trifle or other for a couple of blue ones. He waylaid other
-boys as they came, and went on buying tickets of various colors ten or
-fifteen minutes longer. He entered the church, now, with a swarm of
-clean and noisy boys and girls, proceeded to his seat and started a
-quarrel with the first boy that came handy. The teacher, a grave,
-elderly man, interfered; then turned his back a moment and Tom pulled a
-boy's hair in the next bench, and was absorbed in his book when the boy
-turned around; stuck a pin in another boy, presently, in order to hear
-him say "Ouch!" and got a new reprimand from his teacher. Tom's whole
-class were of a pattern--restless, noisy, and troublesome. When they
-came to recite their lessons, not one of them knew his verses
-perfectly, but had to be prompted all along. However, they worried
-through, and each got his reward--in small blue tickets, each with a
-passage of Scripture on it; each blue ticket was pay for two verses of
-the recitation. Ten blue tickets equalled a red one, and could be
-exchanged for it; ten red tickets equalled a yellow one; for ten yellow
-tickets the superintendent gave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty
-cents in those easy times) to the pupil. How many of my readers would
-have the industry and application to memorize two thousand verses, even
-for a Dore Bible? And yet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way--it
-was the patient work of two years--and a boy of German parentage had
-won four or five. He once recited three thousand verses without
-stopping; but the strain upon his mental faculties was too great, and
-he was little better than an idiot from that day forth--a grievous
-misfortune for the school, for on great occasions, before company, the
-superintendent (as Tom expressed it) had always made this boy come out
-and "spread himself." Only the older pupils managed to keep their
-tickets and stick to their tedious work long enough to get a Bible, and
-so the delivery of one of these prizes was a rare and noteworthy
-circumstance; the successful pupil was so great and conspicuous for
-that day that on the spot every scholar's heart was fired with a fresh
-ambition that often lasted a couple of weeks. It is possible that Tom's
-mental stomach had never really hungered for one of those prizes, but
-unquestionably his entire being had for many a day longed for the glory
-and the eclat that came with it.
-
-In due course the superintendent stood up in front of the pulpit, with
-a closed hymn-book in his hand and his forefinger inserted between its
-leaves, and commanded attention. When a Sunday-school superintendent
-makes his customary little speech, a hymn-book in the hand is as
-necessary as is the inevitable sheet of music in the hand of a singer
-who stands forward on the platform and sings a solo at a concert
---though why, is a mystery: for neither the hymn-book nor the sheet of
-music is ever referred to by the sufferer. This superintendent was a
-slim creature of thirty-five, with a sandy goatee and short sandy hair;
-he wore a stiff standing-collar whose upper edge almost reached his
-ears and whose sharp points curved forward abreast the corners of his
-mouth--a fence that compelled a straight lookout ahead, and a turning
-of the whole body when a side view was required; his chin was propped
-on a spreading cravat which was as broad and as long as a bank-note,
-and had fringed ends; his boot toes were turned sharply up, in the
-fashion of the day, like sleigh-runners--an effect patiently and
-laboriously produced by the young men by sitting with their toes
-pressed against a wall for hours together. Mr. Walters was very earnest
-of mien, and very sincere and honest at heart; and he held sacred
-things and places in such reverence, and so separated them from worldly
-matters, that unconsciously to himself his Sunday-school voice had
-acquired a peculiar intonation which was wholly absent on week-days. He
-began after this fashion:
-
-"Now, children, I want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty
-as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two. There
---that is it. That is the way good little boys and girls should do. I see
-one little girl who is looking out of the window--I am afraid she
-thinks I am out there somewhere--perhaps up in one of the trees making
-a speech to the little birds. [Applausive titter.] I want to tell you
-how good it makes me feel to see so many bright, clean little faces
-assembled in a place like this, learning to do right and be good." And
-so forth and so on. It is not necessary to set down the rest of the
-oration. It was of a pattern which does not vary, and so it is familiar
-to us all.
-
-The latter third of the speech was marred by the resumption of fights
-and other recreations among certain of the bad boys, and by fidgetings
-and whisperings that extended far and wide, washing even to the bases
-of isolated and incorruptible rocks like Sid and Mary. But now every
-sound ceased suddenly, with the subsidence of Mr. Walters' voice, and
-the conclusion of the speech was received with a burst of silent
-gratitude.
-
-A good part of the whispering had been occasioned by an event which
-was more or less rare--the entrance of visitors: lawyer Thatcher,
-accompanied by a very feeble and aged man; a fine, portly, middle-aged
-gentleman with iron-gray hair; and a dignified lady who was doubtless
-the latter's wife. The lady was leading a child. Tom had been restless
-and full of chafings and repinings; conscience-smitten, too--he could
-not meet Amy Lawrence's eye, he could not brook her loving gaze. But
-when he saw this small new-comer his soul was all ablaze with bliss in
-a moment. The next moment he was "showing off" with all his might
---cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces--in a word, using every art
-that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause. His
-exaltation had but one alloy--the memory of his humiliation in this
-angel's garden--and that record in sand was fast washing out, under
-the waves of happiness that were sweeping over it now.
-
-The visitors were given the highest seat of honor, and as soon as Mr.
-Walters' speech was finished, he introduced them to the school. The
-middle-aged man turned out to be a prodigious personage--no less a one
-than the county judge--altogether the most august creation these
-children had ever looked upon--and they wondered what kind of material
-he was made of--and they half wanted to hear him roar, and were half
-afraid he might, too. He was from Constantinople, twelve miles away--so
-he had travelled, and seen the world--these very eyes had looked upon
-the county court-house--which was said to have a tin roof. The awe
-which these reflections inspired was attested by the impressive silence
-and the ranks of staring eyes. This was the great Judge Thatcher,
-brother of their own lawyer. Jeff Thatcher immediately went forward, to
-be familiar with the great man and be envied by the school. It would
-have been music to his soul to hear the whisperings:
-
-"Look at him, Jim! He's a going up there. Say--look! he's a going to
-shake hands with him--he IS shaking hands with him! By jings, don't you
-wish you was Jeff?"
-
-Mr. Walters fell to "showing off," with all sorts of official
-bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments,
-discharging directions here, there, everywhere that he could find a
-target. The librarian "showed off"--running hither and thither with his
-arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss that
-insect authority delights in. The young lady teachers "showed off"
---bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed, lifting
-pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting good ones
-lovingly. The young gentlemen teachers "showed off" with small
-scoldings and other little displays of authority and fine attention to
-discipline--and most of the teachers, of both sexes, found business up
-at the library, by the pulpit; and it was business that frequently had
-to be done over again two or three times (with much seeming vexation).
-The little girls "showed off" in various ways, and the little boys
-"showed off" with such diligence that the air was thick with paper wads
-and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the great man sat and
-beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house, and warmed himself
-in the sun of his own grandeur--for he was "showing off," too.
-
-There was only one thing wanting to make Mr. Walters' ecstasy
-complete, and that was a chance to deliver a Bible-prize and exhibit a
-prodigy. Several pupils had a few yellow tickets, but none had enough
---he had been around among the star pupils inquiring. He would have given
-worlds, now, to have that German lad back again with a sound mind.
-
-And now at this moment, when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward
-with nine yellow tickets, nine red tickets, and ten blue ones, and
-demanded a Bible. This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Walters
-was not expecting an application from this source for the next ten
-years. But there was no getting around it--here were the certified
-checks, and they were good for their face. Tom was therefore elevated
-to a place with the Judge and the other elect, and the great news was
-announced from headquarters. It was the most stunning surprise of the
-decade, and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new hero
-up to the judicial one's altitude, and the school had two marvels to
-gaze upon in place of one. The boys were all eaten up with envy--but
-those that suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too
-late that they themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by
-trading tickets to Tom for the wealth he had amassed in selling
-whitewashing privileges. These despised themselves, as being the dupes
-of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.
-
-The prize was delivered to Tom with as much effusion as the
-superintendent could pump up under the circumstances; but it lacked
-somewhat of the true gush, for the poor fellow's instinct taught him
-that there was a mystery here that could not well bear the light,
-perhaps; it was simply preposterous that this boy had warehoused two
-thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises--a dozen would
-strain his capacity, without a doubt.
-
-Amy Lawrence was proud and glad, and she tried to make Tom see it in
-her face--but he wouldn't look. She wondered; then she was just a grain
-troubled; next a dim suspicion came and went--came again; she watched;
-a furtive glance told her worlds--and then her heart broke, and she was
-jealous, and angry, and the tears came and she hated everybody. Tom
-most of all (she thought).
-
-Tom was introduced to the Judge; but his tongue was tied, his breath
-would hardly come, his heart quaked--partly because of the awful
-greatness of the man, but mainly because he was her parent. He would
-have liked to fall down and worship him, if it were in the dark. The
-Judge put his hand on Tom's head and called him a fine little man, and
-asked him what his name was. The boy stammered, gasped, and got it out:
-
-"Tom."
-
-"Oh, no, not Tom--it is--"
-
-"Thomas."
-
-"Ah, that's it. I thought there was more to it, maybe. That's very
-well. But you've another one I daresay, and you'll tell it to me, won't
-you?"
-
-"Tell the gentleman your other name, Thomas," said Walters, "and say
-sir. You mustn't forget your manners."
-
-"Thomas Sawyer--sir."
-
-"That's it! That's a good boy. Fine boy. Fine, manly little fellow.
-Two thousand verses is a great many--very, very great many. And you
-never can be sorry for the trouble you took to learn them; for
-knowledge is worth more than anything there is in the world; it's what
-makes great men and good men; you'll be a great man and a good man
-yourself, some day, Thomas, and then you'll look back and say, It's all
-owing to the precious Sunday-school privileges of my boyhood--it's all
-owing to my dear teachers that taught me to learn--it's all owing to
-the good superintendent, who encouraged me, and watched over me, and
-gave me a beautiful Bible--a splendid elegant Bible--to keep and have
-it all for my own, always--it's all owing to right bringing up! That is
-what you will say, Thomas--and you wouldn't take any money for those
-two thousand verses--no indeed you wouldn't. And now you wouldn't mind
-telling me and this lady some of the things you've learned--no, I know
-you wouldn't--for we are proud of little boys that learn. Now, no
-doubt you know the names of all the twelve disciples. Won't you tell us
-the names of the first two that were appointed?"
-
-Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. He blushed,
-now, and his eyes fell. Mr. Walters' heart sank within him. He said to
-himself, it is not possible that the boy can answer the simplest
-question--why DID the Judge ask him? Yet he felt obliged to speak up
-and say:
-
-"Answer the gentleman, Thomas--don't be afraid."
-
-Tom still hung fire.
-
-"Now I know you'll tell me," said the lady. "The names of the first
-two disciples were--"
-
-"DAVID AND GOLIAH!"
-
-Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-ABOUT half-past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to
-ring, and presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon.
-The Sunday-school children distributed themselves about the house and
-occupied pews with their parents, so as to be under supervision. Aunt
-Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her--Tom being placed
-next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open
-window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible. The crowd
-filed up the aisles: the aged and needy postmaster, who had seen better
-days; the mayor and his wife--for they had a mayor there, among other
-unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair,
-smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her
-hill mansion the only palace in the town, and the most hospitable and
-much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St. Petersburg
-could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward; lawyer
-Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the
-village, followed by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young
-heart-breakers; then all the young clerks in town in a body--for they
-had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a circling wall of
-oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet;
-and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful
-care of his mother as if she were cut glass. He always brought his
-mother to church, and was the pride of all the matrons. The boys all
-hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown up to them"
-so much. His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind, as
-usual on Sundays--accidentally. Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked
-upon boys who had as snobs.
-
-The congregation being fully assembled, now, the bell rang once more,
-to warn laggards and stragglers, and then a solemn hush fell upon the
-church which was only broken by the tittering and whispering of the
-choir in the gallery. The choir always tittered and whispered all
-through service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred,
-but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago,
-and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in
-some foreign country.
-
-The minister gave out the hymn, and read it through with a relish, in
-a peculiar style which was much admired in that part of the country.
-His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily up till it reached
-a certain point, where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost
-word and then plunged down as if from a spring-board:
-
-  Shall I be car-ri-ed toe the skies, on flow'ry BEDS of ease,
-
-  Whilst others fight to win the prize, and sail thro' BLOODY seas?
-
-He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was
-always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies
-would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps,
-and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words
-cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal
-earth."
-
-After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into
-a bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and
-things till it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of
-doom--a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities,
-away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is
-to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
-
-And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went
-into details: it pleaded for the church, and the little children of the
-church; for the other churches of the village; for the village itself;
-for the county; for the State; for the State officers; for the United
-States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for the
-President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed
-by stormy seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of
-European monarchies and Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light
-and the good tidings, and yet have not eyes to see nor ears to hear
-withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and closed with
-a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace
-and favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a
-grateful harvest of good. Amen.
-
-There was a rustling of dresses, and the standing congregation sat
-down. The boy whose history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer,
-he only endured it--if he even did that much. He was restive all
-through it; he kept tally of the details of the prayer, unconsciously
---for he was not listening, but he knew the ground of old, and the
-clergyman's regular route over it--and when a little trifle of new
-matter was interlarded, his ear detected it and his whole nature
-resented it; he considered additions unfair, and scoundrelly. In the
-midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew in front of
-him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together,
-embracing its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that
-it seemed to almost part company with the body, and the slender thread
-of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its wings with its hind legs
-and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails; going
-through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly
-safe. As indeed it was; for as sorely as Tom's hands itched to grab for
-it they did not dare--he believed his soul would be instantly destroyed
-if he did such a thing while the prayer was going on. But with the
-closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward; and the
-instant the "Amen" was out the fly was a prisoner of war. His aunt
-detected the act and made him let it go.
-
-The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through
-an argument that was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod
---and yet it was an argument that dealt in limitless fire and brimstone
-and thinned the predestined elect down to a company so small as to be
-hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after
-church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew
-anything else about the discourse. However, this time he was really
-interested for a little while. The minister made a grand and moving
-picture of the assembling together of the world's hosts at the
-millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a
-little child should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of
-the great spectacle were lost upon the boy; he only thought of the
-conspicuousness of the principal character before the on-looking
-nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that he
-wished he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.
-
-Now he lapsed into suffering again, as the dry argument was resumed.
-Presently he bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out. It was
-a large black beetle with formidable jaws--a "pinchbug," he called it.
-It was in a percussion-cap box. The first thing the beetle did was to
-take him by the finger. A natural fillip followed, the beetle went
-floundering into the aisle and lit on its back, and the hurt finger
-went into the boy's mouth. The beetle lay there working its helpless
-legs, unable to turn over. Tom eyed it, and longed for it; but it was
-safe out of his reach. Other people uninterested in the sermon found
-relief in the beetle, and they eyed it too. Presently a vagrant poodle
-dog came idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the summer softness and
-the quiet, weary of captivity, sighing for change. He spied the beetle;
-the drooping tail lifted and wagged. He surveyed the prize; walked
-around it; smelt at it from a safe distance; walked around it again;
-grew bolder, and took a closer smell; then lifted his lip and made a
-gingerly snatch at it, just missing it; made another, and another;
-began to enjoy the diversion; subsided to his stomach with the beetle
-between his paws, and continued his experiments; grew weary at last,
-and then indifferent and absent-minded. His head nodded, and little by
-little his chin descended and touched the enemy, who seized it. There
-was a sharp yelp, a flirt of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell a
-couple of yards away, and lit on its back once more. The neighboring
-spectators shook with a gentle inward joy, several faces went behind
-fans and handkerchiefs, and Tom was entirely happy. The dog looked
-foolish, and probably felt so; but there was resentment in his heart,
-too, and a craving for revenge. So he went to the beetle and began a
-wary attack on it again; jumping at it from every point of a circle,
-lighting with his fore-paws within an inch of the creature, making even
-closer snatches at it with his teeth, and jerking his head till his
-ears flapped again. But he grew tired once more, after a while; tried
-to amuse himself with a fly but found no relief; followed an ant
-around, with his nose close to the floor, and quickly wearied of that;
-yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely, and sat down on it. Then
-there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the
-aisle; the yelps continued, and so did the dog; he crossed the house in
-front of the altar; he flew down the other aisle; he crossed before the
-doors; he clamored up the home-stretch; his anguish grew with his
-progress, till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its orbit
-with the gleam and the speed of light. At last the frantic sufferer
-sheered from its course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it
-out of the window, and the voice of distress quickly thinned away and
-died in the distance.
-
-By this time the whole church was red-faced and suffocating with
-suppressed laughter, and the sermon had come to a dead standstill. The
-discourse was resumed presently, but it went lame and halting, all
-possibility of impressiveness being at an end; for even the gravest
-sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of
-unholy mirth, under cover of some remote pew-back, as if the poor
-parson had said a rarely facetious thing. It was a genuine relief to
-the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the benediction
-pronounced.
-
-Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful, thinking to himself that there
-was some satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of
-variety in it. He had but one marring thought; he was willing that the
-dog should play with his pinchbug, but he did not think it was upright
-in him to carry it off.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-MONDAY morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found
-him so--because it began another week's slow suffering in school. He
-generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening
-holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much
-more odious.
-
-Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was
-sick; then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague
-possibility. He canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he
-investigated again. This time he thought he could detect colicky
-symptoms, and he began to encourage them with considerable hope. But
-they soon grew feeble, and presently died wholly away. He reflected
-further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of his upper front teeth
-was loose. This was lucky; he was about to begin to groan, as a
-"starter," as he called it, when it occurred to him that if he came
-into court with that argument, his aunt would pull it out, and that
-would hurt. So he thought he would hold the tooth in reserve for the
-present, and seek further. Nothing offered for some little time, and
-then he remembered hearing the doctor tell about a certain thing that
-laid up a patient for two or three weeks and threatened to make him
-lose a finger. So the boy eagerly drew his sore toe from under the
-sheet and held it up for inspection. But now he did not know the
-necessary symptoms. However, it seemed well worth while to chance it,
-so he fell to groaning with considerable spirit.
-
-But Sid slept on unconscious.
-
-Tom groaned louder, and fancied that he began to feel pain in the toe.
-
-No result from Sid.
-
-Tom was panting with his exertions by this time. He took a rest and
-then swelled himself up and fetched a succession of admirable groans.
-
-Sid snored on.
-
-Tom was aggravated. He said, "Sid, Sid!" and shook him. This course
-worked well, and Tom began to groan again. Sid yawned, stretched, then
-brought himself up on his elbow with a snort, and began to stare at
-Tom. Tom went on groaning. Sid said:
-
-"Tom! Say, Tom!" [No response.] "Here, Tom! TOM! What is the matter,
-Tom?" And he shook him and looked in his face anxiously.
-
-Tom moaned out:
-
-"Oh, don't, Sid. Don't joggle me."
-
-"Why, what's the matter, Tom? I must call auntie."
-
-"No--never mind. It'll be over by and by, maybe. Don't call anybody."
-
-"But I must! DON'T groan so, Tom, it's awful. How long you been this
-way?"
-
-"Hours. Ouch! Oh, don't stir so, Sid, you'll kill me."
-
-"Tom, why didn't you wake me sooner? Oh, Tom, DON'T! It makes my
-flesh crawl to hear you. Tom, what is the matter?"
-
-"I forgive you everything, Sid. [Groan.] Everything you've ever done
-to me. When I'm gone--"
-
-"Oh, Tom, you ain't dying, are you? Don't, Tom--oh, don't. Maybe--"
-
-"I forgive everybody, Sid. [Groan.] Tell 'em so, Sid. And Sid, you
-give my window-sash and my cat with one eye to that new girl that's
-come to town, and tell her--"
-
-But Sid had snatched his clothes and gone. Tom was suffering in
-reality, now, so handsomely was his imagination working, and so his
-groans had gathered quite a genuine tone.
-
-Sid flew down-stairs and said:
-
-"Oh, Aunt Polly, come! Tom's dying!"
-
-"Dying!"
-
-"Yes'm. Don't wait--come quick!"
-
-"Rubbage! I don't believe it!"
-
-But she fled up-stairs, nevertheless, with Sid and Mary at her heels.
-And her face grew white, too, and her lip trembled. When she reached
-the bedside she gasped out:
-
-"You, Tom! Tom, what's the matter with you?"
-
-"Oh, auntie, I'm--"
-
-"What's the matter with you--what is the matter with you, child?"
-
-"Oh, auntie, my sore toe's mortified!"
-
-The old lady sank down into a chair and laughed a little, then cried a
-little, then did both together. This restored her and she said:
-
-"Tom, what a turn you did give me. Now you shut up that nonsense and
-climb out of this."
-
-The groans ceased and the pain vanished from the toe. The boy felt a
-little foolish, and he said:
-
-"Aunt Polly, it SEEMED mortified, and it hurt so I never minded my
-tooth at all."
-
-"Your tooth, indeed! What's the matter with your tooth?"
-
-"One of them's loose, and it aches perfectly awful."
-
-"There, there, now, don't begin that groaning again. Open your mouth.
-Well--your tooth IS loose, but you're not going to die about that.
-Mary, get me a silk thread, and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen."
-
-Tom said:
-
-"Oh, please, auntie, don't pull it out. It don't hurt any more. I wish
-I may never stir if it does. Please don't, auntie. I don't want to stay
-home from school."
-
-"Oh, you don't, don't you? So all this row was because you thought
-you'd get to stay home from school and go a-fishing? Tom, Tom, I love
-you so, and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart
-with your outrageousness." By this time the dental instruments were
-ready. The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Tom's tooth
-with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost. Then she seized the
-chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boy's face. The
-tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now.
-
-But all trials bring their compensations. As Tom wended to school
-after breakfast, he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in
-his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and
-admirable way. He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the
-exhibition; and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of
-fascination and homage up to this time, now found himself suddenly
-without an adherent, and shorn of his glory. His heart was heavy, and
-he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasn't anything to
-spit like Tom Sawyer; but another boy said, "Sour grapes!" and he
-wandered away a dismantled hero.
-
-Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry
-Finn, son of the town drunkard. Huckleberry was cordially hated and
-dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless
-and vulgar and bad--and because all their children admired him so, and
-delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like
-him. Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied
-Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders
-not to play with him. So he played with him every time he got a chance.
-Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown
-men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags. His hat
-was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat,
-when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons
-far down the back; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat
-of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing, the fringed legs
-dragged in the dirt when not rolled up.
-
-Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps
-in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to
-school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could
-go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it
-suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he
-pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring
-and the last to resume leather in the fall; he never had to wash, nor
-put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully. In a word, everything
-that goes to make life precious that boy had. So thought every
-harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg.
-
-Tom hailed the romantic outcast:
-
-"Hello, Huckleberry!"
-
-"Hello yourself, and see how you like it."
-
-"What's that you got?"
-
-"Dead cat."
-
-"Lemme see him, Huck. My, he's pretty stiff. Where'd you get him ?"
-
-"Bought him off'n a boy."
-
-"What did you give?"
-
-"I give a blue ticket and a bladder that I got at the slaughter-house."
-
-"Where'd you get the blue ticket?"
-
-"Bought it off'n Ben Rogers two weeks ago for a hoop-stick."
-
-"Say--what is dead cats good for, Huck?"
-
-"Good for? Cure warts with."
-
-"No! Is that so? I know something that's better."
-
-"I bet you don't. What is it?"
-
-"Why, spunk-water."
-
-"Spunk-water! I wouldn't give a dern for spunk-water."
-
-"You wouldn't, wouldn't you? D'you ever try it?"
-
-"No, I hain't. But Bob Tanner did."
-
-"Who told you so!"
-
-"Why, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny
-told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Rogers, and Ben told a nigger, and
-the nigger told me. There now!"
-
-"Well, what of it? They'll all lie. Leastways all but the nigger. I
-don't know HIM. But I never see a nigger that WOULDN'T lie. Shucks! Now
-you tell me how Bob Tanner done it, Huck."
-
-"Why, he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the
-rain-water was."
-
-"In the daytime?"
-
-"Certainly."
-
-"With his face to the stump?"
-
-"Yes. Least I reckon so."
-
-"Did he say anything?"
-
-"I don't reckon he did. I don't know."
-
-"Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame
-fool way as that! Why, that ain't a-going to do any good. You got to go
-all by yourself, to the middle of the woods, where you know there's a
-spunk-water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the
-stump and jam your hand in and say:
-
-  'Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
-   Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts,'
-
-and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then
-turn around three times and walk home without speaking to anybody.
-Because if you speak the charm's busted."
-
-"Well, that sounds like a good way; but that ain't the way Bob Tanner
-done."
-
-"No, sir, you can bet he didn't, becuz he's the wartiest boy in this
-town; and he wouldn't have a wart on him if he'd knowed how to work
-spunk-water. I've took off thousands of warts off of my hands that way,
-Huck. I play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable many
-warts. Sometimes I take 'em off with a bean."
-
-"Yes, bean's good. I've done that."
-
-"Have you? What's your way?"
-
-"You take and split the bean, and cut the wart so as to get some
-blood, and then you put the blood on one piece of the bean and take and
-dig a hole and bury it 'bout midnight at the crossroads in the dark of
-the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean. You see that piece
-that's got the blood on it will keep drawing and drawing, trying to
-fetch the other piece to it, and so that helps the blood to draw the
-wart, and pretty soon off she comes."
-
-"Yes, that's it, Huck--that's it; though when you're burying it if you
-say 'Down bean; off wart; come no more to bother me!' it's better.
-That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to Coonville and
-most everywheres. But say--how do you cure 'em with dead cats?"
-
-"Why, you take your cat and go and get in the graveyard 'long about
-midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's
-midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see
-'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk;
-and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after 'em
-and say, 'Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm
-done with ye!' That'll fetch ANY wart."
-
-"Sounds right. D'you ever try it, Huck?"
-
-"No, but old Mother Hopkins told me."
-
-"Well, I reckon it's so, then. Becuz they say she's a witch."
-
-"Say! Why, Tom, I KNOW she is. She witched pap. Pap says so his own
-self. He come along one day, and he see she was a-witching him, so he
-took up a rock, and if she hadn't dodged, he'd a got her. Well, that
-very night he rolled off'n a shed wher' he was a layin drunk, and broke
-his arm."
-
-"Why, that's awful. How did he know she was a-witching him?"
-
-"Lord, pap can tell, easy. Pap says when they keep looking at you
-right stiddy, they're a-witching you. Specially if they mumble. Becuz
-when they mumble they're saying the Lord's Prayer backards."
-
-"Say, Hucky, when you going to try the cat?"
-
-"To-night. I reckon they'll come after old Hoss Williams to-night."
-
-"But they buried him Saturday. Didn't they get him Saturday night?"
-
-"Why, how you talk! How could their charms work till midnight?--and
-THEN it's Sunday. Devils don't slosh around much of a Sunday, I don't
-reckon."
-
-"I never thought of that. That's so. Lemme go with you?"
-
-"Of course--if you ain't afeard."
-
-"Afeard! 'Tain't likely. Will you meow?"
-
-"Yes--and you meow back, if you get a chance. Last time, you kep' me
-a-meowing around till old Hays went to throwing rocks at me and says
-'Dern that cat!' and so I hove a brick through his window--but don't
-you tell."
-
-"I won't. I couldn't meow that night, becuz auntie was watching me,
-but I'll meow this time. Say--what's that?"
-
-"Nothing but a tick."
-
-"Where'd you get him?"
-
-"Out in the woods."
-
-"What'll you take for him?"
-
-"I don't know. I don't want to sell him."
-
-"All right. It's a mighty small tick, anyway."
-
-"Oh, anybody can run a tick down that don't belong to them. I'm
-satisfied with it. It's a good enough tick for me."
-
-"Sho, there's ticks a plenty. I could have a thousand of 'em if I
-wanted to."
-
-"Well, why don't you? Becuz you know mighty well you can't. This is a
-pretty early tick, I reckon. It's the first one I've seen this year."
-
-"Say, Huck--I'll give you my tooth for him."
-
-"Less see it."
-
-Tom got out a bit of paper and carefully unrolled it. Huckleberry
-viewed it wistfully. The temptation was very strong. At last he said:
-
-"Is it genuwyne?"
-
-Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy.
-
-"Well, all right," said Huckleberry, "it's a trade."
-
-Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion-cap box that had lately been
-the pinchbug's prison, and the boys separated, each feeling wealthier
-than before.
-
-When Tom reached the little isolated frame schoolhouse, he strode in
-briskly, with the manner of one who had come with all honest speed.
-He hung his hat on a peg and flung himself into his seat with
-business-like alacrity. The master, throned on high in his great
-splint-bottom arm-chair, was dozing, lulled by the drowsy hum of study.
-The interruption roused him.
-
-"Thomas Sawyer!"
-
-Tom knew that when his name was pronounced in full, it meant trouble.
-
-"Sir!"
-
-"Come up here. Now, sir, why are you late again, as usual?"
-
-Tom was about to take refuge in a lie, when he saw two long tails of
-yellow hair hanging down a back that he recognized by the electric
-sympathy of love; and by that form was THE ONLY VACANT PLACE on the
-girls' side of the schoolhouse. He instantly said:
-
-"I STOPPED TO TALK WITH HUCKLEBERRY FINN!"
-
-The master's pulse stood still, and he stared helplessly. The buzz of
-study ceased. The pupils wondered if this foolhardy boy had lost his
-mind. The master said:
-
-"You--you did what?"
-
-"Stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn."
-
-There was no mistaking the words.
-
-"Thomas Sawyer, this is the most astounding confession I have ever
-listened to. No mere ferule will answer for this offence. Take off your
-jacket."
-
-The master's arm performed until it was tired and the stock of
-switches notably diminished. Then the order followed:
-
-"Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this be a warning to you."
-
-The titter that rippled around the room appeared to abash the boy, but
-in reality that result was caused rather more by his worshipful awe of
-his unknown idol and the dread pleasure that lay in his high good
-fortune. He sat down upon the end of the pine bench and the girl
-hitched herself away from him with a toss of her head. Nudges and winks
-and whispers traversed the room, but Tom sat still, with his arms upon
-the long, low desk before him, and seemed to study his book.
-
-By and by attention ceased from him, and the accustomed school murmur
-rose upon the dull air once more. Presently the boy began to steal
-furtive glances at the girl. She observed it, "made a mouth" at him and
-gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute. When she
-cautiously faced around again, a peach lay before her. She thrust it
-away. Tom gently put it back. She thrust it away again, but with less
-animosity. Tom patiently returned it to its place. Then she let it
-remain. Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it--I got more." The
-girl glanced at the words, but made no sign. Now the boy began to draw
-something on the slate, hiding his work with his left hand. For a time
-the girl refused to notice; but her human curiosity presently began to
-manifest itself by hardly perceptible signs. The boy worked on,
-apparently unconscious. The girl made a sort of noncommittal attempt to
-see, but the boy did not betray that he was aware of it. At last she
-gave in and hesitatingly whispered:
-
-"Let me see it."
-
-Tom partly uncovered a dismal caricature of a house with two gable
-ends to it and a corkscrew of smoke issuing from the chimney. Then the
-girl's interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot
-everything else. When it was finished, she gazed a moment, then
-whispered:
-
-"It's nice--make a man."
-
-The artist erected a man in the front yard, that resembled a derrick.
-He could have stepped over the house; but the girl was not
-hypercritical; she was satisfied with the monster, and whispered:
-
-"It's a beautiful man--now make me coming along."
-
-Tom drew an hour-glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and
-armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan. The girl said:
-
-"It's ever so nice--I wish I could draw."
-
-"It's easy," whispered Tom, "I'll learn you."
-
-"Oh, will you? When?"
-
-"At noon. Do you go home to dinner?"
-
-"I'll stay if you will."
-
-"Good--that's a whack. What's your name?"
-
-"Becky Thatcher. What's yours? Oh, I know. It's Thomas Sawyer."
-
-"That's the name they lick me by. I'm Tom when I'm good. You call me
-Tom, will you?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-Now Tom began to scrawl something on the slate, hiding the words from
-the girl. But she was not backward this time. She begged to see. Tom
-said:
-
-"Oh, it ain't anything."
-
-"Yes it is."
-
-"No it ain't. You don't want to see."
-
-"Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me."
-
-"You'll tell."
-
-"No I won't--deed and deed and double deed won't."
-
-"You won't tell anybody at all? Ever, as long as you live?"
-
-"No, I won't ever tell ANYbody. Now let me."
-
-"Oh, YOU don't want to see!"
-
-"Now that you treat me so, I WILL see." And she put her small hand
-upon his and a little scuffle ensued, Tom pretending to resist in
-earnest but letting his hand slip by degrees till these words were
-revealed: "I LOVE YOU."
-
-"Oh, you bad thing!" And she hit his hand a smart rap, but reddened
-and looked pleased, nevertheless.
-
-Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing on his
-ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that vise he was borne across the
-house and deposited in his own seat, under a peppering fire of giggles
-from the whole school. Then the master stood over him during a few
-awful moments, and finally moved away to his throne without saying a
-word. But although Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
-
-As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but the
-turmoil within him was too great. In turn he took his place in the
-reading class and made a botch of it; then in the geography class and
-turned lakes into mountains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into
-continents, till chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and
-got "turned down," by a succession of mere baby words, till he brought
-up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he had worn with
-ostentation for months.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-THE harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his
-ideas wandered. So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up. It
-seemed to him that the noon recess would never come. The air was
-utterly dead. There was not a breath stirring. It was the sleepiest of
-sleepy days. The drowsing murmur of the five and twenty studying
-scholars soothed the soul like the spell that is in the murmur of bees.
-Away off in the flaming sunshine, Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green
-sides through a shimmering veil of heat, tinted with the purple of
-distance; a few birds floated on lazy wing high in the air; no other
-living thing was visible but some cows, and they were asleep. Tom's
-heart ached to be free, or else to have something of interest to do to
-pass the dreary time. His hand wandered into his pocket and his face
-lit up with a glow of gratitude that was prayer, though he did not know
-it. Then furtively the percussion-cap box came out. He released the
-tick and put him on the long flat desk. The creature probably glowed
-with a gratitude that amounted to prayer, too, at this moment, but it
-was premature: for when he started thankfully to travel off, Tom turned
-him aside with a pin and made him take a new direction.
-
-Tom's bosom friend sat next him, suffering just as Tom had been, and
-now he was deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in an
-instant. This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn
-friends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays. Joe took a
-pin out of his lapel and began to assist in exercising the prisoner.
-The sport grew in interest momently. Soon Tom said that they were
-interfering with each other, and neither getting the fullest benefit of
-the tick. So he put Joe's slate on the desk and drew a line down the
-middle of it from top to bottom.
-
-"Now," said he, "as long as he is on your side you can stir him up and
-I'll let him alone; but if you let him get away and get on my side,
-you're to leave him alone as long as I can keep him from crossing over."
-
-"All right, go ahead; start him up."
-
-The tick escaped from Tom, presently, and crossed the equator. Joe
-harassed him awhile, and then he got away and crossed back again. This
-change of base occurred often. While one boy was worrying the tick with
-absorbing interest, the other would look on with interest as strong,
-the two heads bowed together over the slate, and the two souls dead to
-all things else. At last luck seemed to settle and abide with Joe. The
-tick tried this, that, and the other course, and got as excited and as
-anxious as the boys themselves, but time and again just as he would
-have victory in his very grasp, so to speak, and Tom's fingers would be
-twitching to begin, Joe's pin would deftly head him off, and keep
-possession. At last Tom could stand it no longer. The temptation was
-too strong. So he reached out and lent a hand with his pin. Joe was
-angry in a moment. Said he:
-
-"Tom, you let him alone."
-
-"I only just want to stir him up a little, Joe."
-
-"No, sir, it ain't fair; you just let him alone."
-
-"Blame it, I ain't going to stir him much."
-
-"Let him alone, I tell you."
-
-"I won't!"
-
-"You shall--he's on my side of the line."
-
-"Look here, Joe Harper, whose is that tick?"
-
-"I don't care whose tick he is--he's on my side of the line, and you
-sha'n't touch him."
-
-"Well, I'll just bet I will, though. He's my tick and I'll do what I
-blame please with him, or die!"
-
-A tremendous whack came down on Tom's shoulders, and its duplicate on
-Joe's; and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to fly from
-the two jackets and the whole school to enjoy it. The boys had been too
-absorbed to notice the hush that had stolen upon the school awhile
-before when the master came tiptoeing down the room and stood over
-them. He had contemplated a good part of the performance before he
-contributed his bit of variety to it.
-
-When school broke up at noon, Tom flew to Becky Thatcher, and
-whispered in her ear:
-
-"Put on your bonnet and let on you're going home; and when you get to
-the corner, give the rest of 'em the slip, and turn down through the
-lane and come back. I'll go the other way and come it over 'em the same
-way."
-
-So the one went off with one group of scholars, and the other with
-another. In a little while the two met at the bottom of the lane, and
-when they reached the school they had it all to themselves. Then they
-sat together, with a slate before them, and Tom gave Becky the pencil
-and held her hand in his, guiding it, and so created another surprising
-house. When the interest in art began to wane, the two fell to talking.
-Tom was swimming in bliss. He said:
-
-"Do you love rats?"
-
-"No! I hate them!"
-
-"Well, I do, too--LIVE ones. But I mean dead ones, to swing round your
-head with a string."
-
-"No, I don't care for rats much, anyway. What I like is chewing-gum."
-
-"Oh, I should say so! I wish I had some now."
-
-"Do you? I've got some. I'll let you chew it awhile, but you must give
-it back to me."
-
-That was agreeable, so they chewed it turn about, and dangled their
-legs against the bench in excess of contentment.
-
-"Was you ever at a circus?" said Tom.
-
-"Yes, and my pa's going to take me again some time, if I'm good."
-
-"I been to the circus three or four times--lots of times. Church ain't
-shucks to a circus. There's things going on at a circus all the time.
-I'm going to be a clown in a circus when I grow up."
-
-"Oh, are you! That will be nice. They're so lovely, all spotted up."
-
-"Yes, that's so. And they get slathers of money--most a dollar a day,
-Ben Rogers says. Say, Becky, was you ever engaged?"
-
-"What's that?"
-
-"Why, engaged to be married."
-
-"No."
-
-"Would you like to?"
-
-"I reckon so. I don't know. What is it like?"
-
-"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't
-ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's
-all. Anybody can do it."
-
-"Kiss? What do you kiss for?"
-
-"Why, that, you know, is to--well, they always do that."
-
-"Everybody?"
-
-"Why, yes, everybody that's in love with each other. Do you remember
-what I wrote on the slate?"
-
-"Ye--yes."
-
-"What was it?"
-
-"I sha'n't tell you."
-
-"Shall I tell YOU?"
-
-"Ye--yes--but some other time."
-
-"No, now."
-
-"No, not now--to-morrow."
-
-"Oh, no, NOW. Please, Becky--I'll whisper it, I'll whisper it ever so
-easy."
-
-Becky hesitating, Tom took silence for consent, and passed his arm
-about her waist and whispered the tale ever so softly, with his mouth
-close to her ear. And then he added:
-
-"Now you whisper it to me--just the same."
-
-She resisted, for a while, and then said:
-
-"You turn your face away so you can't see, and then I will. But you
-mustn't ever tell anybody--WILL you, Tom? Now you won't, WILL you?"
-
-"No, indeed, indeed I won't. Now, Becky."
-
-He turned his face away. She bent timidly around till her breath
-stirred his curls and whispered, "I--love--you!"
-
-Then she sprang away and ran around and around the desks and benches,
-with Tom after her, and took refuge in a corner at last, with her
-little white apron to her face. Tom clasped her about her neck and
-pleaded:
-
-"Now, Becky, it's all done--all over but the kiss. Don't you be afraid
-of that--it ain't anything at all. Please, Becky." And he tugged at her
-apron and the hands.
-
-By and by she gave up, and let her hands drop; her face, all glowing
-with the struggle, came up and submitted. Tom kissed the red lips and
-said:
-
-"Now it's all done, Becky. And always after this, you know, you ain't
-ever to love anybody but me, and you ain't ever to marry anybody but
-me, ever never and forever. Will you?"
-
-"No, I'll never love anybody but you, Tom, and I'll never marry
-anybody but you--and you ain't to ever marry anybody but me, either."
-
-"Certainly. Of course. That's PART of it. And always coming to school
-or when we're going home, you're to walk with me, when there ain't
-anybody looking--and you choose me and I choose you at parties, because
-that's the way you do when you're engaged."
-
-"It's so nice. I never heard of it before."
-
-"Oh, it's ever so gay! Why, me and Amy Lawrence--"
-
-The big eyes told Tom his blunder and he stopped, confused.
-
-"Oh, Tom! Then I ain't the first you've ever been engaged to!"
-
-The child began to cry. Tom said:
-
-"Oh, don't cry, Becky, I don't care for her any more."
-
-"Yes, you do, Tom--you know you do."
-
-Tom tried to put his arm about her neck, but she pushed him away and
-turned her face to the wall, and went on crying. Tom tried again, with
-soothing words in his mouth, and was repulsed again. Then his pride was
-up, and he strode away and went outside. He stood about, restless and
-uneasy, for a while, glancing at the door, every now and then, hoping
-she would repent and come to find him. But she did not. Then he began
-to feel badly and fear that he was in the wrong. It was a hard struggle
-with him to make new advances, now, but he nerved himself to it and
-entered. She was still standing back there in the corner, sobbing, with
-her face to the wall. Tom's heart smote him. He went to her and stood a
-moment, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Then he said hesitatingly:
-
-"Becky, I--I don't care for anybody but you."
-
-No reply--but sobs.
-
-"Becky"--pleadingly. "Becky, won't you say something?"
-
-More sobs.
-
-Tom got out his chiefest jewel, a brass knob from the top of an
-andiron, and passed it around her so that she could see it, and said:
-
-"Please, Becky, won't you take it?"
-
-She struck it to the floor. Then Tom marched out of the house and over
-the hills and far away, to return to school no more that day. Presently
-Becky began to suspect. She ran to the door; he was not in sight; she
-flew around to the play-yard; he was not there. Then she called:
-
-"Tom! Come back, Tom!"
-
-She listened intently, but there was no answer. She had no companions
-but silence and loneliness. So she sat down to cry again and upbraid
-herself; and by this time the scholars began to gather again, and she
-had to hide her griefs and still her broken heart and take up the cross
-of a long, dreary, aching afternoon, with none among the strangers
-about her to exchange sorrows with.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 2. ***
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 3.
-    
-This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online
-at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
-you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
-before using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 3.
-
-Author: Mark Twain
-
-Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7195]
-                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
-
-Language: English
-
-Credits: Produced by David Widger
-
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 3. ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
-                                BY
-                            MARK TWAIN
-                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
-
-                              Part 3
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-TOM dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of
-the track of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. He
-crossed a small "branch" two or three times, because of a prevailing
-juvenile superstition that to cross water baffled pursuit. Half an hour
-later he was disappearing behind the Douglas mansion on the summit of
-Cardiff Hill, and the schoolhouse was hardly distinguishable away off
-in the valley behind him. He entered a dense wood, picked his pathless
-way to the centre of it, and sat down on a mossy spot under a spreading
-oak. There was not even a zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had
-even stilled the songs of the birds; nature lay in a trance that was
-broken by no sound but the occasional far-off hammering of a
-woodpecker, and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense
-of loneliness the more profound. The boy's soul was steeped in
-melancholy; his feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings. He
-sat long with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands,
-meditating. It seemed to him that life was but a trouble, at best, and
-he more than half envied Jimmy Hodges, so lately released; it must be
-very peaceful, he thought, to lie and slumber and dream forever and
-ever, with the wind whispering through the trees and caressing the
-grass and the flowers over the grave, and nothing to bother and grieve
-about, ever any more. If he only had a clean Sunday-school record he
-could be willing to go, and be done with it all. Now as to this girl.
-What had he done? Nothing. He had meant the best in the world, and been
-treated like a dog--like a very dog. She would be sorry some day--maybe
-when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die TEMPORARILY!
-
-But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one
-constrained shape long at a time. Tom presently began to drift
-insensibly back into the concerns of this life again. What if he turned
-his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? What if he went away--ever
-so far away, into unknown countries beyond the seas--and never came
-back any more! How would she feel then! The idea of being a clown
-recurred to him now, only to fill him with disgust. For frivolity and
-jokes and spotted tights were an offense, when they intruded themselves
-upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the
-romantic. No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all
-war-worn and illustrious. No--better still, he would join the Indians,
-and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the
-trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come
-back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and
-prance into Sunday-school, some drowsy summer morning, with a
-bloodcurdling war-whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions
-with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than
-this. He would be a pirate! That was it! NOW his future lay plain
-before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would
-fill the world, and make people shudder! How gloriously he would go
-plowing the dancing seas, in his long, low, black-hulled racer, the
-Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore! And at
-the zenith of his fame, how he would suddenly appear at the old village
-and stalk into church, brown and weather-beaten, in his black velvet
-doublet and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his belt
-bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cutlass at his side, his
-slouch hat with waving plumes, his black flag unfurled, with the skull
-and crossbones on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings,
-"It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!--the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!"
-
-Yes, it was settled; his career was determined. He would run away from
-home and enter upon it. He would start the very next morning. Therefore
-he must now begin to get ready. He would collect his resources
-together. He went to a rotten log near at hand and began to dig under
-one end of it with his Barlow knife. He soon struck wood that sounded
-hollow. He put his hand there and uttered this incantation impressively:
-
-"What hasn't come here, come! What's here, stay here!"
-
-Then he scraped away the dirt, and exposed a pine shingle. He took it
-up and disclosed a shapely little treasure-house whose bottom and sides
-were of shingles. In it lay a marble. Tom's astonishment was boundless!
-He scratched his head with a perplexed air, and said:
-
-"Well, that beats anything!"
-
-Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood cogitating. The
-truth was, that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and
-all his comrades had always looked upon as infallible. If you buried a
-marble with certain necessary incantations, and left it alone a
-fortnight, and then opened the place with the incantation he had just
-used, you would find that all the marbles you had ever lost had
-gathered themselves together there, meantime, no matter how widely they
-had been separated. But now, this thing had actually and unquestionably
-failed. Tom's whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations.
-He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding but never of its
-failing before. It did not occur to him that he had tried it several
-times before, himself, but could never find the hiding-places
-afterward. He puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided
-that some witch had interfered and broken the charm. He thought he
-would satisfy himself on that point; so he searched around till he
-found a small sandy spot with a little funnel-shaped depression in it.
-He laid himself down and put his mouth close to this depression and
-called--
-
-"Doodle-bug, doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know! Doodle-bug,
-doodle-bug, tell me what I want to know!"
-
-The sand began to work, and presently a small black bug appeared for a
-second and then darted under again in a fright.
-
-"He dasn't tell! So it WAS a witch that done it. I just knowed it."
-
-He well knew the futility of trying to contend against witches, so he
-gave up discouraged. But it occurred to him that he might as well have
-the marble he had just thrown away, and therefore he went and made a
-patient search for it. But he could not find it. Now he went back to
-his treasure-house and carefully placed himself just as he had been
-standing when he tossed the marble away; then he took another marble
-from his pocket and tossed it in the same way, saying:
-
-"Brother, go find your brother!"
-
-He watched where it stopped, and went there and looked. But it must
-have fallen short or gone too far; so he tried twice more. The last
-repetition was successful. The two marbles lay within a foot of each
-other.
-
-Just here the blast of a toy tin trumpet came faintly down the green
-aisles of the forest. Tom flung off his jacket and trousers, turned a
-suspender into a belt, raked away some brush behind the rotten log,
-disclosing a rude bow and arrow, a lath sword and a tin trumpet, and in
-a moment had seized these things and bounded away, barelegged, with
-fluttering shirt. He presently halted under a great elm, blew an
-answering blast, and then began to tiptoe and look warily out, this way
-and that. He said cautiously--to an imaginary company:
-
-"Hold, my merry men! Keep hid till I blow."
-
-Now appeared Joe Harper, as airily clad and elaborately armed as Tom.
-Tom called:
-
-"Hold! Who comes here into Sherwood Forest without my pass?"
-
-"Guy of Guisborne wants no man's pass. Who art thou that--that--"
-
-"Dares to hold such language," said Tom, prompting--for they talked
-"by the book," from memory.
-
-"Who art thou that dares to hold such language?"
-
-"I, indeed! I am Robin Hood, as thy caitiff carcase soon shall know."
-
-"Then art thou indeed that famous outlaw? Right gladly will I dispute
-with thee the passes of the merry wood. Have at thee!"
-
-They took their lath swords, dumped their other traps on the ground,
-struck a fencing attitude, foot to foot, and began a grave, careful
-combat, "two up and two down." Presently Tom said:
-
-"Now, if you've got the hang, go it lively!"
-
-So they "went it lively," panting and perspiring with the work. By and
-by Tom shouted:
-
-"Fall! fall! Why don't you fall?"
-
-"I sha'n't! Why don't you fall yourself? You're getting the worst of
-it."
-
-"Why, that ain't anything. I can't fall; that ain't the way it is in
-the book. The book says, 'Then with one back-handed stroke he slew poor
-Guy of Guisborne.' You're to turn around and let me hit you in the
-back."
-
-There was no getting around the authorities, so Joe turned, received
-the whack and fell.
-
-"Now," said Joe, getting up, "you got to let me kill YOU. That's fair."
-
-"Why, I can't do that, it ain't in the book."
-
-"Well, it's blamed mean--that's all."
-
-"Well, say, Joe, you can be Friar Tuck or Much the miller's son, and
-lam me with a quarter-staff; or I'll be the Sheriff of Nottingham and
-you be Robin Hood a little while and kill me."
-
-This was satisfactory, and so these adventures were carried out. Then
-Tom became Robin Hood again, and was allowed by the treacherous nun to
-bleed his strength away through his neglected wound. And at last Joe,
-representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly forth,
-gave his bow into his feeble hands, and Tom said, "Where this arrow
-falls, there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree." Then he
-shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a
-nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.
-
-The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off
-grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern
-civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss.
-They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than
-President of the United States forever.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-AT half-past nine, that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual.
-They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep. Tom lay awake and
-waited, in restless impatience. When it seemed to him that it must be
-nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten! This was despair. He
-would have tossed and fidgeted, as his nerves demanded, but he was
-afraid he might wake Sid. So he lay still, and stared up into the dark.
-Everything was dismally still. By and by, out of the stillness, little,
-scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves. The ticking
-of the clock began to bring itself into notice. Old beams began to
-crack mysteriously. The stairs creaked faintly. Evidently spirits were
-abroad. A measured, muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber. And
-now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could
-locate, began. Next the ghastly ticking of a deathwatch in the wall at
-the bed's head made Tom shudder--it meant that somebody's days were
-numbered. Then the howl of a far-off dog rose on the night air, and was
-answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance. Tom was in an
-agony. At last he was satisfied that time had ceased and eternity
-begun; he began to doze, in spite of himself; the clock chimed eleven,
-but he did not hear it. And then there came, mingling with his
-half-formed dreams, a most melancholy caterwauling. The raising of a
-neighboring window disturbed him. A cry of "Scat! you devil!" and the
-crash of an empty bottle against the back of his aunt's woodshed
-brought him wide awake, and a single minute later he was dressed and
-out of the window and creeping along the roof of the "ell" on all
-fours. He "meow'd" with caution once or twice, as he went; then jumped
-to the roof of the woodshed and thence to the ground. Huckleberry Finn
-was there, with his dead cat. The boys moved off and disappeared in the
-gloom. At the end of half an hour they were wading through the tall
-grass of the graveyard.
-
-It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a
-hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board
-fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of
-the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew rank over the
-whole cemetery. All the old graves were sunken in, there was not a
-tombstone on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over
-the graves, leaning for support and finding none. "Sacred to the memory
-of" So-and-So had been painted on them once, but it could no longer
-have been read, on the most of them, now, even if there had been light.
-
-A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the
-spirits of the dead, complaining at being disturbed. The boys talked
-little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the
-pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits. They found the
-sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the
-protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet
-of the grave.
-
-Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time. The hooting
-of a distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness.
-Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk. So he said
-in a whisper:
-
-"Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?"
-
-Huckleberry whispered:
-
-"I wisht I knowed. It's awful solemn like, AIN'T it?"
-
-"I bet it is."
-
-There was a considerable pause, while the boys canvassed this matter
-inwardly. Then Tom whispered:
-
-"Say, Hucky--do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?"
-
-"O' course he does. Least his sperrit does."
-
-Tom, after a pause:
-
-"I wish I'd said Mister Williams. But I never meant any harm.
-Everybody calls him Hoss."
-
-"A body can't be too partic'lar how they talk 'bout these-yer dead
-people, Tom."
-
-This was a damper, and conversation died again.
-
-Presently Tom seized his comrade's arm and said:
-
-"Sh!"
-
-"What is it, Tom?" And the two clung together with beating hearts.
-
-"Sh! There 'tis again! Didn't you hear it?"
-
-"I--"
-
-"There! Now you hear it."
-
-"Lord, Tom, they're coming! They're coming, sure. What'll we do?"
-
-"I dono. Think they'll see us?"
-
-"Oh, Tom, they can see in the dark, same as cats. I wisht I hadn't
-come."
-
-"Oh, don't be afeard. I don't believe they'll bother us. We ain't
-doing any harm. If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us
-at all."
-
-"I'll try to, Tom, but, Lord, I'm all of a shiver."
-
-"Listen!"
-
-The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed. A muffled
-sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.
-
-"Look! See there!" whispered Tom. "What is it?"
-
-"It's devil-fire. Oh, Tom, this is awful."
-
-Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an
-old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable
-little spangles of light. Presently Huckleberry whispered with a
-shudder:
-
-"It's the devils sure enough. Three of 'em! Lordy, Tom, we're goners!
-Can you pray?"
-
-"I'll try, but don't you be afeard. They ain't going to hurt us. 'Now
-I lay me down to sleep, I--'"
-
-"Sh!"
-
-"What is it, Huck?"
-
-"They're HUMANS! One of 'em is, anyway. One of 'em's old Muff Potter's
-voice."
-
-"No--'tain't so, is it?"
-
-"I bet I know it. Don't you stir nor budge. He ain't sharp enough to
-notice us. Drunk, the same as usual, likely--blamed old rip!"
-
-"All right, I'll keep still. Now they're stuck. Can't find it. Here
-they come again. Now they're hot. Cold again. Hot again. Red hot!
-They're p'inted right, this time. Say, Huck, I know another o' them
-voices; it's Injun Joe."
-
-"That's so--that murderin' half-breed! I'd druther they was devils a
-dern sight. What kin they be up to?"
-
-The whisper died wholly out, now, for the three men had reached the
-grave and stood within a few feet of the boys' hiding-place.
-
-"Here it is," said the third voice; and the owner of it held the
-lantern up and revealed the face of young Doctor Robinson.
-
-Potter and Injun Joe were carrying a handbarrow with a rope and a
-couple of shovels on it. They cast down their load and began to open
-the grave. The doctor put the lantern at the head of the grave and came
-and sat down with his back against one of the elm trees. He was so
-close the boys could have touched him.
-
-"Hurry, men!" he said, in a low voice; "the moon might come out at any
-moment."
-
-They growled a response and went on digging. For some time there was
-no noise but the grating sound of the spades discharging their freight
-of mould and gravel. It was very monotonous. Finally a spade struck
-upon the coffin with a dull woody accent, and within another minute or
-two the men had hoisted it out on the ground. They pried off the lid
-with their shovels, got out the body and dumped it rudely on the
-ground. The moon drifted from behind the clouds and exposed the pallid
-face. The barrow was got ready and the corpse placed on it, covered
-with a blanket, and bound to its place with the rope. Potter took out a
-large spring-knife and cut off the dangling end of the rope and then
-said:
-
-"Now the cussed thing's ready, Sawbones, and you'll just out with
-another five, or here she stays."
-
-"That's the talk!" said Injun Joe.
-
-"Look here, what does this mean?" said the doctor. "You required your
-pay in advance, and I've paid you."
-
-"Yes, and you done more than that," said Injun Joe, approaching the
-doctor, who was now standing. "Five years ago you drove me away from
-your father's kitchen one night, when I come to ask for something to
-eat, and you said I warn't there for any good; and when I swore I'd get
-even with you if it took a hundred years, your father had me jailed for
-a vagrant. Did you think I'd forget? The Injun blood ain't in me for
-nothing. And now I've GOT you, and you got to SETTLE, you know!"
-
-He was threatening the doctor, with his fist in his face, by this
-time. The doctor struck out suddenly and stretched the ruffian on the
-ground. Potter dropped his knife, and exclaimed:
-
-"Here, now, don't you hit my pard!" and the next moment he had
-grappled with the doctor and the two were struggling with might and
-main, trampling the grass and tearing the ground with their heels.
-Injun Joe sprang to his feet, his eyes flaming with passion, snatched
-up Potter's knife, and went creeping, catlike and stooping, round and
-round about the combatants, seeking an opportunity. All at once the
-doctor flung himself free, seized the heavy headboard of Williams'
-grave and felled Potter to the earth with it--and in the same instant
-the half-breed saw his chance and drove the knife to the hilt in the
-young man's breast. He reeled and fell partly upon Potter, flooding him
-with his blood, and in the same moment the clouds blotted out the
-dreadful spectacle and the two frightened boys went speeding away in
-the dark.
-
-Presently, when the moon emerged again, Injun Joe was standing over
-the two forms, contemplating them. The doctor murmured inarticulately,
-gave a long gasp or two and was still. The half-breed muttered:
-
-"THAT score is settled--damn you."
-
-Then he robbed the body. After which he put the fatal knife in
-Potter's open right hand, and sat down on the dismantled coffin. Three
---four--five minutes passed, and then Potter began to stir and moan. His
-hand closed upon the knife; he raised it, glanced at it, and let it
-fall, with a shudder. Then he sat up, pushing the body from him, and
-gazed at it, and then around him, confusedly. His eyes met Joe's.
-
-"Lord, how is this, Joe?" he said.
-
-"It's a dirty business," said Joe, without moving.
-
-"What did you do it for?"
-
-"I! I never done it!"
-
-"Look here! That kind of talk won't wash."
-
-Potter trembled and grew white.
-
-"I thought I'd got sober. I'd no business to drink to-night. But it's
-in my head yet--worse'n when we started here. I'm all in a muddle;
-can't recollect anything of it, hardly. Tell me, Joe--HONEST, now, old
-feller--did I do it? Joe, I never meant to--'pon my soul and honor, I
-never meant to, Joe. Tell me how it was, Joe. Oh, it's awful--and him
-so young and promising."
-
-"Why, you two was scuffling, and he fetched you one with the headboard
-and you fell flat; and then up you come, all reeling and staggering
-like, and snatched the knife and jammed it into him, just as he fetched
-you another awful clip--and here you've laid, as dead as a wedge til
-now."
-
-"Oh, I didn't know what I was a-doing. I wish I may die this minute if
-I did. It was all on account of the whiskey and the excitement, I
-reckon. I never used a weepon in my life before, Joe. I've fought, but
-never with weepons. They'll all say that. Joe, don't tell! Say you
-won't tell, Joe--that's a good feller. I always liked you, Joe, and
-stood up for you, too. Don't you remember? You WON'T tell, WILL you,
-Joe?" And the poor creature dropped on his knees before the stolid
-murderer, and clasped his appealing hands.
-
-"No, you've always been fair and square with me, Muff Potter, and I
-won't go back on you. There, now, that's as fair as a man can say."
-
-"Oh, Joe, you're an angel. I'll bless you for this the longest day I
-live." And Potter began to cry.
-
-"Come, now, that's enough of that. This ain't any time for blubbering.
-You be off yonder way and I'll go this. Move, now, and don't leave any
-tracks behind you."
-
-Potter started on a trot that quickly increased to a run. The
-half-breed stood looking after him. He muttered:
-
-"If he's as much stunned with the lick and fuddled with the rum as he
-had the look of being, he won't think of the knife till he's gone so
-far he'll be afraid to come back after it to such a place by himself
---chicken-heart!"
-
-Two or three minutes later the murdered man, the blanketed corpse, the
-lidless coffin, and the open grave were under no inspection but the
-moon's. The stillness was complete again, too.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-THE two boys flew on and on, toward the village, speechless with
-horror. They glanced backward over their shoulders from time to time,
-apprehensively, as if they feared they might be followed. Every stump
-that started up in their path seemed a man and an enemy, and made them
-catch their breath; and as they sped by some outlying cottages that lay
-near the village, the barking of the aroused watch-dogs seemed to give
-wings to their feet.
-
-"If we can only get to the old tannery before we break down!"
-whispered Tom, in short catches between breaths. "I can't stand it much
-longer."
-
-Huckleberry's hard pantings were his only reply, and the boys fixed
-their eyes on the goal of their hopes and bent to their work to win it.
-They gained steadily on it, and at last, breast to breast, they burst
-through the open door and fell grateful and exhausted in the sheltering
-shadows beyond. By and by their pulses slowed down, and Tom whispered:
-
-"Huckleberry, what do you reckon'll come of this?"
-
-"If Doctor Robinson dies, I reckon hanging'll come of it."
-
-"Do you though?"
-
-"Why, I KNOW it, Tom."
-
-Tom thought a while, then he said:
-
-"Who'll tell? We?"
-
-"What are you talking about? S'pose something happened and Injun Joe
-DIDN'T hang? Why, he'd kill us some time or other, just as dead sure as
-we're a laying here."
-
-"That's just what I was thinking to myself, Huck."
-
-"If anybody tells, let Muff Potter do it, if he's fool enough. He's
-generally drunk enough."
-
-Tom said nothing--went on thinking. Presently he whispered:
-
-"Huck, Muff Potter don't know it. How can he tell?"
-
-"What's the reason he don't know it?"
-
-"Because he'd just got that whack when Injun Joe done it. D'you reckon
-he could see anything? D'you reckon he knowed anything?"
-
-"By hokey, that's so, Tom!"
-
-"And besides, look-a-here--maybe that whack done for HIM!"
-
-"No, 'taint likely, Tom. He had liquor in him; I could see that; and
-besides, he always has. Well, when pap's full, you might take and belt
-him over the head with a church and you couldn't phase him. He says so,
-his own self. So it's the same with Muff Potter, of course. But if a
-man was dead sober, I reckon maybe that whack might fetch him; I dono."
-
-After another reflective silence, Tom said:
-
-"Hucky, you sure you can keep mum?"
-
-"Tom, we GOT to keep mum. You know that. That Injun devil wouldn't
-make any more of drownding us than a couple of cats, if we was to
-squeak 'bout this and they didn't hang him. Now, look-a-here, Tom, less
-take and swear to one another--that's what we got to do--swear to keep
-mum."
-
-"I'm agreed. It's the best thing. Would you just hold hands and swear
-that we--"
-
-"Oh no, that wouldn't do for this. That's good enough for little
-rubbishy common things--specially with gals, cuz THEY go back on you
-anyway, and blab if they get in a huff--but there orter be writing
-'bout a big thing like this. And blood."
-
-Tom's whole being applauded this idea. It was deep, and dark, and
-awful; the hour, the circumstances, the surroundings, were in keeping
-with it. He picked up a clean pine shingle that lay in the moonlight,
-took a little fragment of "red keel" out of his pocket, got the moon on
-his work, and painfully scrawled these lines, emphasizing each slow
-down-stroke by clamping his tongue between his teeth, and letting up
-the pressure on the up-strokes. [See next page.]
-
-   "Huck Finn and
-    Tom Sawyer swears
-    they will keep mum
-    about This and They
-    wish They may Drop
-    down dead in Their
-    Tracks if They ever
-    Tell and Rot."
-
-Huckleberry was filled with admiration of Tom's facility in writing,
-and the sublimity of his language. He at once took a pin from his lapel
-and was going to prick his flesh, but Tom said:
-
-"Hold on! Don't do that. A pin's brass. It might have verdigrease on
-it."
-
-"What's verdigrease?"
-
-"It's p'ison. That's what it is. You just swaller some of it once
---you'll see."
-
-So Tom unwound the thread from one of his needles, and each boy
-pricked the ball of his thumb and squeezed out a drop of blood. In
-time, after many squeezes, Tom managed to sign his initials, using the
-ball of his little finger for a pen. Then he showed Huckleberry how to
-make an H and an F, and the oath was complete. They buried the shingle
-close to the wall, with some dismal ceremonies and incantations, and
-the fetters that bound their tongues were considered to be locked and
-the key thrown away.
-
-A figure crept stealthily through a break in the other end of the
-ruined building, now, but they did not notice it.
-
-"Tom," whispered Huckleberry, "does this keep us from EVER telling
---ALWAYS?"
-
-"Of course it does. It don't make any difference WHAT happens, we got
-to keep mum. We'd drop down dead--don't YOU know that?"
-
-"Yes, I reckon that's so."
-
-They continued to whisper for some little time. Presently a dog set up
-a long, lugubrious howl just outside--within ten feet of them. The boys
-clasped each other suddenly, in an agony of fright.
-
-"Which of us does he mean?" gasped Huckleberry.
-
-"I dono--peep through the crack. Quick!"
-
-"No, YOU, Tom!"
-
-"I can't--I can't DO it, Huck!"
-
-"Please, Tom. There 'tis again!"
-
-"Oh, lordy, I'm thankful!" whispered Tom. "I know his voice. It's Bull
-Harbison." *
-
-[* If Mr. Harbison owned a slave named Bull, Tom would have spoken of
-him as "Harbison's Bull," but a son or a dog of that name was "Bull
-Harbison."]
-
-"Oh, that's good--I tell you, Tom, I was most scared to death; I'd a
-bet anything it was a STRAY dog."
-
-The dog howled again. The boys' hearts sank once more.
-
-"Oh, my! that ain't no Bull Harbison!" whispered Huckleberry. "DO, Tom!"
-
-Tom, quaking with fear, yielded, and put his eye to the crack. His
-whisper was hardly audible when he said:
-
-"Oh, Huck, IT S A STRAY DOG!"
-
-"Quick, Tom, quick! Who does he mean?"
-
-"Huck, he must mean us both--we're right together."
-
-"Oh, Tom, I reckon we're goners. I reckon there ain't no mistake 'bout
-where I'LL go to. I been so wicked."
-
-"Dad fetch it! This comes of playing hookey and doing everything a
-feller's told NOT to do. I might a been good, like Sid, if I'd a tried
---but no, I wouldn't, of course. But if ever I get off this time, I lay
-I'll just WALLER in Sunday-schools!" And Tom began to snuffle a little.
-
-"YOU bad!" and Huckleberry began to snuffle too. "Consound it, Tom
-Sawyer, you're just old pie, 'longside o' what I am. Oh, LORDY, lordy,
-lordy, I wisht I only had half your chance."
-
-Tom choked off and whispered:
-
-"Look, Hucky, look! He's got his BACK to us!"
-
-Hucky looked, with joy in his heart.
-
-"Well, he has, by jingoes! Did he before?"
-
-"Yes, he did. But I, like a fool, never thought. Oh, this is bully,
-you know. NOW who can he mean?"
-
-The howling stopped. Tom pricked up his ears.
-
-"Sh! What's that?" he whispered.
-
-"Sounds like--like hogs grunting. No--it's somebody snoring, Tom."
-
-"That IS it! Where 'bouts is it, Huck?"
-
-"I bleeve it's down at 'tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to
-sleep there, sometimes, 'long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he
-just lifts things when HE snores. Besides, I reckon he ain't ever
-coming back to this town any more."
-
-The spirit of adventure rose in the boys' souls once more.
-
-"Hucky, do you das't to go if I lead?"
-
-"I don't like to, much. Tom, s'pose it's Injun Joe!"
-
-Tom quailed. But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the
-boys agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take to
-their heels if the snoring stopped. So they went tiptoeing stealthily
-down, the one behind the other. When they had got to within five steps
-of the snorer, Tom stepped on a stick, and it broke with a sharp snap.
-The man moaned, writhed a little, and his face came into the moonlight.
-It was Muff Potter. The boys' hearts had stood still, and their hopes
-too, when the man moved, but their fears passed away now. They tiptoed
-out, through the broken weather-boarding, and stopped at a little
-distance to exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose on
-the night air again! They turned and saw the strange dog standing
-within a few feet of where Potter was lying, and FACING Potter, with
-his nose pointing heavenward.
-
-"Oh, geeminy, it's HIM!" exclaimed both boys, in a breath.
-
-"Say, Tom--they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller's
-house, 'bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill
-come in and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and
-there ain't anybody dead there yet."
-
-"Well, I know that. And suppose there ain't. Didn't Gracie Miller fall
-in the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?"
-
-"Yes, but she ain't DEAD. And what's more, she's getting better, too."
-
-"All right, you wait and see. She's a goner, just as dead sure as Muff
-Potter's a goner. That's what the niggers say, and they know all about
-these kind of things, Huck."
-
-Then they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his bedroom
-window the night was almost spent. He undressed with excessive caution,
-and fell asleep congratulating himself that nobody knew of his
-escapade. He was not aware that the gently-snoring Sid was awake, and
-had been so for an hour.
-
-When Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was a late look in the
-light, a late sense in the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not
-been called--persecuted till he was up, as usual? The thought filled
-him with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed and down-stairs,
-feeling sore and drowsy. The family were still at table, but they had
-finished breakfast. There was no voice of rebuke; but there were
-averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a
-chill to the culprit's heart. He sat down and tried to seem gay, but it
-was up-hill work; it roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into
-silence and let his heart sink down to the depths.
-
-After breakfast his aunt took him aside, and Tom almost brightened in
-the hope that he was going to be flogged; but it was not so. His aunt
-wept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so;
-and finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray
-hairs with sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any
-more. This was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom's heart was
-sorer now than his body. He cried, he pleaded for forgiveness, promised
-to reform over and over again, and then received his dismissal, feeling
-that he had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a
-feeble confidence.
-
-He left the presence too miserable to even feel revengeful toward Sid;
-and so the latter's prompt retreat through the back gate was
-unnecessary. He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging,
-along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before, with the air
-of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to
-trifles. Then he betook himself to his seat, rested his elbows on his
-desk and his jaws in his hands, and stared at the wall with the stony
-stare of suffering that has reached the limit and can no further go.
-His elbow was pressing against some hard substance. After a long time
-he slowly and sadly changed his position, and took up this object with
-a sigh. It was in a paper. He unrolled it. A long, lingering, colossal
-sigh followed, and his heart broke. It was his brass andiron knob!
-
-This final feather broke the camel's back.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-CLOSE upon the hour of noon the whole village was suddenly electrified
-with the ghastly news. No need of the as yet undreamed-of telegraph;
-the tale flew from man to man, from group to group, from house to
-house, with little less than telegraphic speed. Of course the
-schoolmaster gave holiday for that afternoon; the town would have
-thought strangely of him if he had not.
-
-A gory knife had been found close to the murdered man, and it had been
-recognized by somebody as belonging to Muff Potter--so the story ran.
-And it was said that a belated citizen had come upon Potter washing
-himself in the "branch" about one or two o'clock in the morning, and
-that Potter had at once sneaked off--suspicious circumstances,
-especially the washing which was not a habit with Potter. It was also
-said that the town had been ransacked for this "murderer" (the public
-are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a
-verdict), but that he could not be found. Horsemen had departed down
-all the roads in every direction, and the Sheriff "was confident" that
-he would be captured before night.
-
-All the town was drifting toward the graveyard. Tom's heartbreak
-vanished and he joined the procession, not because he would not a
-thousand times rather go anywhere else, but because an awful,
-unaccountable fascination drew him on. Arrived at the dreadful place,
-he wormed his small body through the crowd and saw the dismal
-spectacle. It seemed to him an age since he was there before. Somebody
-pinched his arm. He turned, and his eyes met Huckleberry's. Then both
-looked elsewhere at once, and wondered if anybody had noticed anything
-in their mutual glance. But everybody was talking, and intent upon the
-grisly spectacle before them.
-
-"Poor fellow!" "Poor young fellow!" "This ought to be a lesson to
-grave robbers!" "Muff Potter'll hang for this if they catch him!" This
-was the drift of remark; and the minister said, "It was a judgment; His
-hand is here."
-
-Now Tom shivered from head to heel; for his eye fell upon the stolid
-face of Injun Joe. At this moment the crowd began to sway and struggle,
-and voices shouted, "It's him! it's him! he's coming himself!"
-
-"Who? Who?" from twenty voices.
-
-"Muff Potter!"
-
-"Hallo, he's stopped!--Look out, he's turning! Don't let him get away!"
-
-People in the branches of the trees over Tom's head said he wasn't
-trying to get away--he only looked doubtful and perplexed.
-
-"Infernal impudence!" said a bystander; "wanted to come and take a
-quiet look at his work, I reckon--didn't expect any company."
-
-The crowd fell apart, now, and the Sheriff came through,
-ostentatiously leading Potter by the arm. The poor fellow's face was
-haggard, and his eyes showed the fear that was upon him. When he stood
-before the murdered man, he shook as with a palsy, and he put his face
-in his hands and burst into tears.
-
-"I didn't do it, friends," he sobbed; "'pon my word and honor I never
-done it."
-
-"Who's accused you?" shouted a voice.
-
-This shot seemed to carry home. Potter lifted his face and looked
-around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes. He saw Injun Joe,
-and exclaimed:
-
-"Oh, Injun Joe, you promised me you'd never--"
-
-"Is that your knife?" and it was thrust before him by the Sheriff.
-
-Potter would have fallen if they had not caught him and eased him to
-the ground. Then he said:
-
-"Something told me 't if I didn't come back and get--" He shuddered;
-then waved his nerveless hand with a vanquished gesture and said, "Tell
-'em, Joe, tell 'em--it ain't any use any more."
-
-Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring, and heard the
-stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, they expecting every
-moment that the clear sky would deliver God's lightnings upon his head,
-and wondering to see how long the stroke was delayed. And when he had
-finished and still stood alive and whole, their wavering impulse to
-break their oath and save the poor betrayed prisoner's life faded and
-vanished away, for plainly this miscreant had sold himself to Satan and
-it would be fatal to meddle with the property of such a power as that.
-
-"Why didn't you leave? What did you want to come here for?" somebody
-said.
-
-"I couldn't help it--I couldn't help it," Potter moaned. "I wanted to
-run away, but I couldn't seem to come anywhere but here." And he fell
-to sobbing again.
-
-Injun Joe repeated his statement, just as calmly, a few minutes
-afterward on the inquest, under oath; and the boys, seeing that the
-lightnings were still withheld, were confirmed in their belief that Joe
-had sold himself to the devil. He was now become, to them, the most
-balefully interesting object they had ever looked upon, and they could
-not take their fascinated eyes from his face.
-
-They inwardly resolved to watch him nights, when opportunity should
-offer, in the hope of getting a glimpse of his dread master.
-
-Injun Joe helped to raise the body of the murdered man and put it in a
-wagon for removal; and it was whispered through the shuddering crowd
-that the wound bled a little! The boys thought that this happy
-circumstance would turn suspicion in the right direction; but they were
-disappointed, for more than one villager remarked:
-
-"It was within three feet of Muff Potter when it done it."
-
-Tom's fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep for as
-much as a week after this; and at breakfast one morning Sid said:
-
-"Tom, you pitch around and talk in your sleep so much that you keep me
-awake half the time."
-
-Tom blanched and dropped his eyes.
-
-"It's a bad sign," said Aunt Polly, gravely. "What you got on your
-mind, Tom?"
-
-"Nothing. Nothing 't I know of." But the boy's hand shook so that he
-spilled his coffee.
-
-"And you do talk such stuff," Sid said. "Last night you said, 'It's
-blood, it's blood, that's what it is!' You said that over and over. And
-you said, 'Don't torment me so--I'll tell!' Tell WHAT? What is it
-you'll tell?"
-
-Everything was swimming before Tom. There is no telling what might
-have happened, now, but luckily the concern passed out of Aunt Polly's
-face and she came to Tom's relief without knowing it. She said:
-
-"Sho! It's that dreadful murder. I dream about it most every night
-myself. Sometimes I dream it's me that done it."
-
-Mary said she had been affected much the same way. Sid seemed
-satisfied. Tom got out of the presence as quick as he plausibly could,
-and after that he complained of toothache for a week, and tied up his
-jaws every night. He never knew that Sid lay nightly watching, and
-frequently slipped the bandage free and then leaned on his elbow
-listening a good while at a time, and afterward slipped the bandage
-back to its place again. Tom's distress of mind wore off gradually and
-the toothache grew irksome and was discarded. If Sid really managed to
-make anything out of Tom's disjointed mutterings, he kept it to himself.
-
-It seemed to Tom that his schoolmates never would get done holding
-inquests on dead cats, and thus keeping his trouble present to his
-mind. Sid noticed that Tom never was coroner at one of these inquiries,
-though it had been his habit to take the lead in all new enterprises;
-he noticed, too, that Tom never acted as a witness--and that was
-strange; and Sid did not overlook the fact that Tom even showed a
-marked aversion to these inquests, and always avoided them when he
-could. Sid marvelled, but said nothing. However, even inquests went out
-of vogue at last, and ceased to torture Tom's conscience.
-
-Every day or two, during this time of sorrow, Tom watched his
-opportunity and went to the little grated jail-window and smuggled such
-small comforts through to the "murderer" as he could get hold of. The
-jail was a trifling little brick den that stood in a marsh at the edge
-of the village, and no guards were afforded for it; indeed, it was
-seldom occupied. These offerings greatly helped to ease Tom's
-conscience.
-
-The villagers had a strong desire to tar-and-feather Injun Joe and
-ride him on a rail, for body-snatching, but so formidable was his
-character that nobody could be found who was willing to take the lead
-in the matter, so it was dropped. He had been careful to begin both of
-his inquest-statements with the fight, without confessing the
-grave-robbery that preceded it; therefore it was deemed wisest not
-to try the case in the courts at present.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-ONE of the reasons why Tom's mind had drifted away from its secret
-troubles was, that it had found a new and weighty matter to interest
-itself about. Becky Thatcher had stopped coming to school. Tom had
-struggled with his pride a few days, and tried to "whistle her down the
-wind," but failed. He began to find himself hanging around her father's
-house, nights, and feeling very miserable. She was ill. What if she
-should die! There was distraction in the thought. He no longer took an
-interest in war, nor even in piracy. The charm of life was gone; there
-was nothing but dreariness left. He put his hoop away, and his bat;
-there was no joy in them any more. His aunt was concerned. She began to
-try all manner of remedies on him. She was one of those people who are
-infatuated with patent medicines and all new-fangled methods of
-producing health or mending it. She was an inveterate experimenter in
-these things. When something fresh in this line came out she was in a
-fever, right away, to try it; not on herself, for she was never ailing,
-but on anybody else that came handy. She was a subscriber for all the
-"Health" periodicals and phrenological frauds; and the solemn ignorance
-they were inflated with was breath to her nostrils. All the "rot" they
-contained about ventilation, and how to go to bed, and how to get up,
-and what to eat, and what to drink, and how much exercise to take, and
-what frame of mind to keep one's self in, and what sort of clothing to
-wear, was all gospel to her, and she never observed that her
-health-journals of the current month customarily upset everything they
-had recommended the month before. She was as simple-hearted and honest
-as the day was long, and so she was an easy victim. She gathered
-together her quack periodicals and her quack medicines, and thus armed
-with death, went about on her pale horse, metaphorically speaking, with
-"hell following after." But she never suspected that she was not an
-angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise, to the suffering
-neighbors.
-
-The water treatment was new, now, and Tom's low condition was a
-windfall to her. She had him out at daylight every morning, stood him
-up in the woodshed and drowned him with a deluge of cold water; then
-she scrubbed him down with a towel like a file, and so brought him to;
-then she rolled him up in a wet sheet and put him away under blankets
-till she sweated his soul clean and "the yellow stains of it came
-through his pores"--as Tom said.
-
-Yet notwithstanding all this, the boy grew more and more melancholy
-and pale and dejected. She added hot baths, sitz baths, shower baths,
-and plunges. The boy remained as dismal as a hearse. She began to
-assist the water with a slim oatmeal diet and blister-plasters. She
-calculated his capacity as she would a jug's, and filled him up every
-day with quack cure-alls.
-
-Tom had become indifferent to persecution by this time. This phase
-filled the old lady's heart with consternation. This indifference must
-be broken up at any cost. Now she heard of Pain-killer for the first
-time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with
-gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water
-treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Pain-killer. She
-gave Tom a teaspoonful and watched with the deepest anxiety for the
-result. Her troubles were instantly at rest, her soul at peace again;
-for the "indifference" was broken up. The boy could not have shown a
-wilder, heartier interest, if she had built a fire under him.
-
-Tom felt that it was time to wake up; this sort of life might be
-romantic enough, in his blighted condition, but it was getting to have
-too little sentiment and too much distracting variety about it. So he
-thought over various plans for relief, and finally hit pon that of
-professing to be fond of Pain-killer. He asked for it so often that he
-became a nuisance, and his aunt ended by telling him to help himself
-and quit bothering her. If it had been Sid, she would have had no
-misgivings to alloy her delight; but since it was Tom, she watched the
-bottle clandestinely. She found that the medicine did really diminish,
-but it did not occur to her that the boy was mending the health of a
-crack in the sitting-room floor with it.
-
-One day Tom was in the act of dosing the crack when his aunt's yellow
-cat came along, purring, eying the teaspoon avariciously, and begging
-for a taste. Tom said:
-
-"Don't ask for it unless you want it, Peter."
-
-But Peter signified that he did want it.
-
-"You better make sure."
-
-Peter was sure.
-
-"Now you've asked for it, and I'll give it to you, because there ain't
-anything mean about me; but if you find you don't like it, you mustn't
-blame anybody but your own self."
-
-Peter was agreeable. So Tom pried his mouth open and poured down the
-Pain-killer. Peter sprang a couple of yards in the air, and then
-delivered a war-whoop and set off round and round the room, banging
-against furniture, upsetting flower-pots, and making general havoc.
-Next he rose on his hind feet and pranced around, in a frenzy of
-enjoyment, with his head over his shoulder and his voice proclaiming
-his unappeasable happiness. Then he went tearing around the house again
-spreading chaos and destruction in his path. Aunt Polly entered in time
-to see him throw a few double summersets, deliver a final mighty
-hurrah, and sail through the open window, carrying the rest of the
-flower-pots with him. The old lady stood petrified with astonishment,
-peering over her glasses; Tom lay on the floor expiring with laughter.
-
-"Tom, what on earth ails that cat?"
-
-"I don't know, aunt," gasped the boy.
-
-"Why, I never see anything like it. What did make him act so?"
-
-"Deed I don't know, Aunt Polly; cats always act so when they're having
-a good time."
-
-"They do, do they?" There was something in the tone that made Tom
-apprehensive.
-
-"Yes'm. That is, I believe they do."
-
-"You DO?"
-
-"Yes'm."
-
-The old lady was bending down, Tom watching, with interest emphasized
-by anxiety. Too late he divined her "drift." The handle of the telltale
-teaspoon was visible under the bed-valance. Aunt Polly took it, held it
-up. Tom winced, and dropped his eyes. Aunt Polly raised him by the
-usual handle--his ear--and cracked his head soundly with her thimble.
-
-"Now, sir, what did you want to treat that poor dumb beast so, for?"
-
-"I done it out of pity for him--because he hadn't any aunt."
-
-"Hadn't any aunt!--you numskull. What has that got to do with it?"
-
-"Heaps. Because if he'd had one she'd a burnt him out herself! She'd a
-roasted his bowels out of him 'thout any more feeling than if he was a
-human!"
-
-Aunt Polly felt a sudden pang of remorse. This was putting the thing
-in a new light; what was cruelty to a cat MIGHT be cruelty to a boy,
-too. She began to soften; she felt sorry. Her eyes watered a little,
-and she put her hand on Tom's head and said gently:
-
-"I was meaning for the best, Tom. And, Tom, it DID do you good."
-
-Tom looked up in her face with just a perceptible twinkle peeping
-through his gravity.
-
-"I know you was meaning for the best, aunty, and so was I with Peter.
-It done HIM good, too. I never see him get around so since--"
-
-"Oh, go 'long with you, Tom, before you aggravate me again. And you
-try and see if you can't be a good boy, for once, and you needn't take
-any more medicine."
-
-Tom reached school ahead of time. It was noticed that this strange
-thing had been occurring every day latterly. And now, as usual of late,
-he hung about the gate of the schoolyard instead of playing with his
-comrades. He was sick, he said, and he looked it. He tried to seem to
-be looking everywhere but whither he really was looking--down the road.
-Presently Jeff Thatcher hove in sight, and Tom's face lighted; he gazed
-a moment, and then turned sorrowfully away. When Jeff arrived, Tom
-accosted him; and "led up" warily to opportunities for remark about
-Becky, but the giddy lad never could see the bait. Tom watched and
-watched, hoping whenever a frisking frock came in sight, and hating the
-owner of it as soon as he saw she was not the right one. At last frocks
-ceased to appear, and he dropped hopelessly into the dumps; he entered
-the empty schoolhouse and sat down to suffer. Then one more frock
-passed in at the gate, and Tom's heart gave a great bound. The next
-instant he was out, and "going on" like an Indian; yelling, laughing,
-chasing boys, jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb, throwing
-handsprings, standing on his head--doing all the heroic things he could
-conceive of, and keeping a furtive eye out, all the while, to see if
-Becky Thatcher was noticing. But she seemed to be unconscious of it
-all; she never looked. Could it be possible that she was not aware that
-he was there? He carried his exploits to her immediate vicinity; came
-war-whooping around, snatched a boy's cap, hurled it to the roof of the
-schoolhouse, broke through a group of boys, tumbling them in every
-direction, and fell sprawling, himself, under Becky's nose, almost
-upsetting her--and she turned, with her nose in the air, and he heard
-her say: "Mf! some people think they're mighty smart--always showing
-off!"
-
-Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed
-and crestfallen.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 3. ***
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
-    
-This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
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-before using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 4.
-
-Author: Mark Twain
-
-Release date: June 29, 2004 [eBook #7196]
-                Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
-
-Language: English
-
-Credits: Produced by David Widger
-
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 4. ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-                    THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
-                                BY
-                            MARK TWAIN
-                     (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
-
-                              Part 4
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-TOM'S mind was made up now. He was gloomy and desperate. He was a
-forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found
-out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had
-tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since
-nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them
-blame HIM for the consequences--why shouldn't they? What right had the
-friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he
-would lead a life of crime. There was no choice.
-
-By this time he was far down Meadow Lane, and the bell for school to
-"take up" tinkled faintly upon his ear. He sobbed, now, to think he
-should never, never hear that old familiar sound any more--it was very
-hard, but it was forced on him; since he was driven out into the cold
-world, he must submit--but he forgave them. Then the sobs came thick
-and fast.
-
-Just at this point he met his soul's sworn comrade, Joe Harper
---hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart.
-Plainly here were "two souls with but a single thought." Tom, wiping
-his eyes with his sleeve, began to blubber out something about a
-resolution to escape from hard usage and lack of sympathy at home by
-roaming abroad into the great world never to return; and ended by
-hoping that Joe would not forget him.
-
-But it transpired that this was a request which Joe had just been
-going to make of Tom, and had come to hunt him up for that purpose. His
-mother had whipped him for drinking some cream which he had never
-tasted and knew nothing about; it was plain that she was tired of him
-and wished him to go; if she felt that way, there was nothing for him
-to do but succumb; he hoped she would be happy, and never regret having
-driven her poor boy out into the unfeeling world to suffer and die.
-
-As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to
-stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death
-relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans.
-Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and
-dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to
-Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a
-life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate.
-
-Three miles below St. Petersburg, at a point where the Mississippi
-River was a trifle over a mile wide, there was a long, narrow, wooded
-island, with a shallow bar at the head of it, and this offered well as
-a rendezvous. It was not inhabited; it lay far over toward the further
-shore, abreast a dense and almost wholly unpeopled forest. So Jackson's
-Island was chosen. Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a
-matter that did not occur to them. Then they hunted up Huckleberry
-Finn, and he joined them promptly, for all careers were one to him; he
-was indifferent. They presently separated to meet at a lonely spot on
-the river-bank two miles above the village at the favorite hour--which
-was midnight. There was a small log raft there which they meant to
-capture. Each would bring hooks and lines, and such provision as he
-could steal in the most dark and mysterious way--as became outlaws. And
-before the afternoon was done, they had all managed to enjoy the sweet
-glory of spreading the fact that pretty soon the town would "hear
-something." All who got this vague hint were cautioned to "be mum and
-wait."
-
-About midnight Tom arrived with a boiled ham and a few trifles,
-and stopped in a dense undergrowth on a small bluff overlooking the
-meeting-place. It was starlight, and very still. The mighty river lay
-like an ocean at rest. Tom listened a moment, but no sound disturbed the
-quiet. Then he gave a low, distinct whistle. It was answered from under
-the bluff. Tom whistled twice more; these signals were answered in the
-same way. Then a guarded voice said:
-
-"Who goes there?"
-
-"Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names."
-
-"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas." Tom
-had furnished these titles, from his favorite literature.
-
-"'Tis well. Give the countersign."
-
-Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word simultaneously to
-the brooding night:
-
-"BLOOD!"
-
-Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let himself down after it,
-tearing both skin and clothes to some extent in the effort. There was
-an easy, comfortable path along the shore under the bluff, but it
-lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so valued by a pirate.
-
-The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, and had about worn
-himself out with getting it there. Finn the Red-Handed had stolen a
-skillet and a quantity of half-cured leaf tobacco, and had also brought
-a few corn-cobs to make pipes with. But none of the pirates smoked or
-"chewed" but himself. The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main said it
-would never do to start without some fire. That was a wise thought;
-matches were hardly known there in that day. They saw a fire
-smouldering upon a great raft a hundred yards above, and they went
-stealthily thither and helped themselves to a chunk. They made an
-imposing adventure of it, saying, "Hist!" every now and then, and
-suddenly halting with finger on lip; moving with hands on imaginary
-dagger-hilts; and giving orders in dismal whispers that if "the foe"
-stirred, to "let him have it to the hilt," because "dead men tell no
-tales." They knew well enough that the raftsmen were all down at the
-village laying in stores or having a spree, but still that was no
-excuse for their conducting this thing in an unpiratical way.
-
-They shoved off, presently, Tom in command, Huck at the after oar and
-Joe at the forward. Tom stood amidships, gloomy-browed, and with folded
-arms, and gave his orders in a low, stern whisper:
-
-"Luff, and bring her to the wind!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Steady, steady-y-y-y!"
-
-"Steady it is, sir!"
-
-"Let her go off a point!"
-
-"Point it is, sir!"
-
-As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward mid-stream
-it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for
-"style," and were not intended to mean anything in particular.
-
-"What sail's she carrying?"
-
-"Courses, tops'ls, and flying-jib, sir."
-
-"Send the r'yals up! Lay out aloft, there, half a dozen of ye
---foretopmaststuns'l! Lively, now!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Shake out that maintogalans'l! Sheets and braces! NOW my hearties!"
-
-"Aye-aye, sir!"
-
-"Hellum-a-lee--hard a port! Stand by to meet her when she comes! Port,
-port! NOW, men! With a will! Stead-y-y-y!"
-
-"Steady it is, sir!"
-
-The raft drew beyond the middle of the river; the boys pointed her
-head right, and then lay on their oars. The river was not high, so
-there was not more than a two or three mile current. Hardly a word was
-said during the next three-quarters of an hour. Now the raft was
-passing before the distant town. Two or three glimmering lights showed
-where it lay, peacefully sleeping, beyond the vague vast sweep of
-star-gemmed water, unconscious of the tremendous event that was happening.
-The Black Avenger stood still with folded arms, "looking his last" upon
-the scene of his former joys and his later sufferings, and wishing
-"she" could see him now, abroad on the wild sea, facing peril and death
-with dauntless heart, going to his doom with a grim smile on his lips.
-It was but a small strain on his imagination to remove Jackson's Island
-beyond eyeshot of the village, and so he "looked his last" with a
-broken and satisfied heart. The other pirates were looking their last,
-too; and they all looked so long that they came near letting the
-current drift them out of the range of the island. But they discovered
-the danger in time, and made shift to avert it. About two o'clock in
-the morning the raft grounded on the bar two hundred yards above the
-head of the island, and they waded back and forth until they had landed
-their freight. Part of the little raft's belongings consisted of an old
-sail, and this they spread over a nook in the bushes for a tent to
-shelter their provisions; but they themselves would sleep in the open
-air in good weather, as became outlaws.
-
-They built a fire against the side of a great log twenty or thirty
-steps within the sombre depths of the forest, and then cooked some
-bacon in the frying-pan for supper, and used up half of the corn "pone"
-stock they had brought. It seemed glorious sport to be feasting in that
-wild, free way in the virgin forest of an unexplored and uninhabited
-island, far from the haunts of men, and they said they never would
-return to civilization. The climbing fire lit up their faces and threw
-its ruddy glare upon the pillared tree-trunks of their forest temple,
-and upon the varnished foliage and festooning vines.
-
-When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the last allowance of
-corn pone devoured, the boys stretched themselves out on the grass,
-filled with contentment. They could have found a cooler place, but they
-would not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the roasting
-camp-fire.
-
-"AIN'T it gay?" said Joe.
-
-"It's NUTS!" said Tom. "What would the boys say if they could see us?"
-
-"Say? Well, they'd just die to be here--hey, Hucky!"
-
-"I reckon so," said Huckleberry; "anyways, I'm suited. I don't want
-nothing better'n this. I don't ever get enough to eat, gen'ally--and
-here they can't come and pick at a feller and bullyrag him so."
-
-"It's just the life for me," said Tom. "You don't have to get up,
-mornings, and you don't have to go to school, and wash, and all that
-blame foolishness. You see a pirate don't have to do ANYTHING, Joe,
-when he's ashore, but a hermit HE has to be praying considerable, and
-then he don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself that way."
-
-"Oh yes, that's so," said Joe, "but I hadn't thought much about it,
-you know. I'd a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I've tried it."
-
-"You see," said Tom, "people don't go much on hermits, nowadays, like
-they used to in old times, but a pirate's always respected. And a
-hermit's got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put
-sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and--"
-
-"What does he put sackcloth and ashes on his head for?" inquired Huck.
-
-"I dono. But they've GOT to do it. Hermits always do. You'd have to do
-that if you was a hermit."
-
-"Dern'd if I would," said Huck.
-
-"Well, what would you do?"
-
-"I dono. But I wouldn't do that."
-
-"Why, Huck, you'd HAVE to. How'd you get around it?"
-
-"Why, I just wouldn't stand it. I'd run away."
-
-"Run away! Well, you WOULD be a nice old slouch of a hermit. You'd be
-a disgrace."
-
-The Red-Handed made no response, being better employed. He had
-finished gouging out a cob, and now he fitted a weed stem to it, loaded
-it with tobacco, and was pressing a coal to the charge and blowing a
-cloud of fragrant smoke--he was in the full bloom of luxurious
-contentment. The other pirates envied him this majestic vice, and
-secretly resolved to acquire it shortly. Presently Huck said:
-
-"What does pirates have to do?"
-
-Tom said:
-
-"Oh, they have just a bully time--take ships and burn them, and get
-the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's
-ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships--make
-'em walk a plank."
-
-"And they carry the women to the island," said Joe; "they don't kill
-the women."
-
-"No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women--they're too noble. And
-the women's always beautiful, too.
-
-"And don't they wear the bulliest clothes! Oh no! All gold and silver
-and di'monds," said Joe, with enthusiasm.
-
-"Who?" said Huck.
-
-"Why, the pirates."
-
-Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly.
-
-"I reckon I ain't dressed fitten for a pirate," said he, with a
-regretful pathos in his voice; "but I ain't got none but these."
-
-But the other boys told him the fine clothes would come fast enough,
-after they should have begun their adventures. They made him understand
-that his poor rags would do to begin with, though it was customary for
-wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
-
-Gradually their talk died out and drowsiness began to steal upon the
-eyelids of the little waifs. The pipe dropped from the fingers of the
-Red-Handed, and he slept the sleep of the conscience-free and the
-weary. The Terror of the Seas and the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main
-had more difficulty in getting to sleep. They said their prayers
-inwardly, and lying down, since there was nobody there with authority
-to make them kneel and recite aloud; in truth, they had a mind not to
-say them at all, but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as
-that, lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from
-heaven. Then at once they reached and hovered upon the imminent verge
-of sleep--but an intruder came, now, that would not "down." It was
-conscience. They began to feel a vague fear that they had been doing
-wrong to run away; and next they thought of the stolen meat, and then
-the real torture came. They tried to argue it away by reminding
-conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of
-times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin
-plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no
-getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only
-"hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain
-simple stealing--and there was a command against that in the Bible. So
-they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business,
-their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing.
-Then conscience granted a truce, and these curiously inconsistent
-pirates fell peacefully to sleep.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-WHEN Tom awoke in the morning, he wondered where he was. He sat up and
-rubbed his eyes and looked around. Then he comprehended. It was the
-cool gray dawn, and there was a delicious sense of repose and peace in
-the deep pervading calm and silence of the woods. Not a leaf stirred;
-not a sound obtruded upon great Nature's meditation. Beaded dewdrops
-stood upon the leaves and grasses. A white layer of ashes covered the
-fire, and a thin blue breath of smoke rose straight into the air. Joe
-and Huck still slept.
-
-Now, far away in the woods a bird called; another answered; presently
-the hammering of a woodpecker was heard. Gradually the cool dim gray of
-the morning whitened, and as gradually sounds multiplied and life
-manifested itself. The marvel of Nature shaking off sleep and going to
-work unfolded itself to the musing boy. A little green worm came
-crawling over a dewy leaf, lifting two-thirds of his body into the air
-from time to time and "sniffing around," then proceeding again--for he
-was measuring, Tom said; and when the worm approached him, of its own
-accord, he sat as still as a stone, with his hopes rising and falling,
-by turns, as the creature still came toward him or seemed inclined to
-go elsewhere; and when at last it considered a painful moment with its
-curved body in the air and then came decisively down upon Tom's leg and
-began a journey over him, his whole heart was glad--for that meant that
-he was going to have a new suit of clothes--without the shadow of a
-doubt a gaudy piratical uniform. Now a procession of ants appeared,
-from nowhere in particular, and went about their labors; one struggled
-manfully by with a dead spider five times as big as itself in its arms,
-and lugged it straight up a tree-trunk. A brown spotted lady-bug
-climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to
-it and said, "Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire,
-your children's alone," and she took wing and went off to see about it
---which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was
-credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its
-simplicity more than once. A tumblebug came next, heaving sturdily at
-its ball, and Tom touched the creature, to see it shut its legs against
-its body and pretend to be dead. The birds were fairly rioting by this
-time. A catbird, the Northern mocker, lit in a tree over Tom's head,
-and trilled out her imitations of her neighbors in a rapture of
-enjoyment; then a shrill jay swept down, a flash of blue flame, and
-stopped on a twig almost within the boy's reach, cocked his head to one
-side and eyed the strangers with a consuming curiosity; a gray squirrel
-and a big fellow of the "fox" kind came skurrying along, sitting up at
-intervals to inspect and chatter at the boys, for the wild things had
-probably never seen a human being before and scarcely knew whether to
-be afraid or not. All Nature was wide awake and stirring, now; long
-lances of sunlight pierced down through the dense foliage far and near,
-and a few butterflies came fluttering upon the scene.
-
-Tom stirred up the other pirates and they all clattered away with a
-shout, and in a minute or two were stripped and chasing after and
-tumbling over each other in the shallow limpid water of the white
-sandbar. They felt no longing for the little village sleeping in the
-distance beyond the majestic waste of water. A vagrant current or a
-slight rise in the river had carried off their raft, but this only
-gratified them, since its going was something like burning the bridge
-between them and civilization.
-
-They came back to camp wonderfully refreshed, glad-hearted, and
-ravenous; and they soon had the camp-fire blazing up again. Huck found
-a spring of clear cold water close by, and the boys made cups of broad
-oak or hickory leaves, and felt that water, sweetened with such a
-wildwood charm as that, would be a good enough substitute for coffee.
-While Joe was slicing bacon for breakfast, Tom and Huck asked him to
-hold on a minute; they stepped to a promising nook in the river-bank
-and threw in their lines; almost immediately they had reward. Joe had
-not had time to get impatient before they were back again with some
-handsome bass, a couple of sun-perch and a small catfish--provisions
-enough for quite a family. They fried the fish with the bacon, and were
-astonished; for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before. They did
-not know that the quicker a fresh-water fish is on the fire after he is
-caught the better he is; and they reflected little upon what a sauce
-open-air sleeping, open-air exercise, bathing, and a large ingredient
-of hunger make, too.
-
-They lay around in the shade, after breakfast, while Huck had a smoke,
-and then went off through the woods on an exploring expedition. They
-tramped gayly along, over decaying logs, through tangled underbrush,
-among solemn monarchs of the forest, hung from their crowns to the
-ground with a drooping regalia of grape-vines. Now and then they came
-upon snug nooks carpeted with grass and jeweled with flowers.
-
-They found plenty of things to be delighted with, but nothing to be
-astonished at. They discovered that the island was about three miles
-long and a quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to
-was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards
-wide. They took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the
-middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp. They were too
-hungry to stop to fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and
-then threw themselves down in the shade to talk. But the talk soon
-began to drag, and then died. The stillness, the solemnity that brooded
-in the woods, and the sense of loneliness, began to tell upon the
-spirits of the boys. They fell to thinking. A sort of undefined longing
-crept upon them. This took dim shape, presently--it was budding
-homesickness. Even Finn the Red-Handed was dreaming of his doorsteps
-and empty hogsheads. But they were all ashamed of their weakness, and
-none was brave enough to speak his thought.
-
-For some time, now, the boys had been dully conscious of a peculiar
-sound in the distance, just as one sometimes is of the ticking of a
-clock which he takes no distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound
-became more pronounced, and forced a recognition. The boys started,
-glanced at each other, and then each assumed a listening attitude.
-There was a long silence, profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen
-boom came floating down out of the distance.
-
-"What is it!" exclaimed Joe, under his breath.
-
-"I wonder," said Tom in a whisper.
-
-"'Tain't thunder," said Huckleberry, in an awed tone, "becuz thunder--"
-
-"Hark!" said Tom. "Listen--don't talk."
-
-They waited a time that seemed an age, and then the same muffled boom
-troubled the solemn hush.
-
-"Let's go and see."
-
-They sprang to their feet and hurried to the shore toward the town.
-They parted the bushes on the bank and peered out over the water. The
-little steam ferryboat was about a mile below the village, drifting
-with the current. Her broad deck seemed crowded with people. There were
-a great many skiffs rowing about or floating with the stream in the
-neighborhood of the ferryboat, but the boys could not determine what
-the men in them were doing. Presently a great jet of white smoke burst
-from the ferryboat's side, and as it expanded and rose in a lazy cloud,
-that same dull throb of sound was borne to the listeners again.
-
-"I know now!" exclaimed Tom; "somebody's drownded!"
-
-"That's it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner
-got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him
-come up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put
-quicksilver in 'em and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody
-that's drownded, they'll float right there and stop."
-
-"Yes, I've heard about that," said Joe. "I wonder what makes the bread
-do that."
-
-"Oh, it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly
-what they SAY over it before they start it out."
-
-"But they don't say anything over it," said Huck. "I've seen 'em and
-they don't."
-
-"Well, that's funny," said Tom. "But maybe they say it to themselves.
-Of COURSE they do. Anybody might know that."
-
-The other boys agreed that there was reason in what Tom said, because
-an ignorant lump of bread, uninstructed by an incantation, could not be
-expected to act very intelligently when set upon an errand of such
-gravity.
-
-"By jings, I wish I was over there, now," said Joe.
-
-"I do too" said Huck "I'd give heaps to know who it is."
-
-The boys still listened and watched. Presently a revealing thought
-flashed through Tom's mind, and he exclaimed:
-
-"Boys, I know who's drownded--it's us!"
-
-They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they
-were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account;
-tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor
-lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being
-indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole
-town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety
-was concerned. This was fine. It was worth while to be a pirate, after
-all.
-
-As twilight drew on, the ferryboat went back to her accustomed
-business and the skiffs disappeared. The pirates returned to camp. They
-were jubilant with vanity over their new grandeur and the illustrious
-trouble they were making. They caught fish, cooked supper and ate it,
-and then fell to guessing at what the village was thinking and saying
-about them; and the pictures they drew of the public distress on their
-account were gratifying to look upon--from their point of view. But
-when the shadows of night closed them in, they gradually ceased to
-talk, and sat gazing into the fire, with their minds evidently
-wandering elsewhere. The excitement was gone, now, and Tom and Joe
-could not keep back thoughts of certain persons at home who were not
-enjoying this fine frolic as much as they were. Misgivings came; they
-grew troubled and unhappy; a sigh or two escaped, unawares. By and by
-Joe timidly ventured upon a roundabout "feeler" as to how the others
-might look upon a return to civilization--not right now, but--
-
-Tom withered him with derision! Huck, being uncommitted as yet, joined
-in with Tom, and the waverer quickly "explained," and was glad to get
-out of the scrape with as little taint of chicken-hearted homesickness
-clinging to his garments as he could. Mutiny was effectually laid to
-rest for the moment.
-
-As the night deepened, Huck began to nod, and presently to snore. Joe
-followed next. Tom lay upon his elbow motionless, for some time,
-watching the two intently. At last he got up cautiously, on his knees,
-and went searching among the grass and the flickering reflections flung
-by the camp-fire. He picked up and inspected several large
-semi-cylinders of the thin white bark of a sycamore, and finally chose
-two which seemed to suit him. Then he knelt by the fire and painfully
-wrote something upon each of these with his "red keel"; one he rolled up
-and put in his jacket pocket, and the other he put in Joe's hat and
-removed it to a little distance from the owner. And he also put into the
-hat certain schoolboy treasures of almost inestimable value--among them
-a lump of chalk, an India-rubber ball, three fishhooks, and one of that
-kind of marbles known as a "sure 'nough crystal." Then he tiptoed his
-way cautiously among the trees till he felt that he was out of hearing,
-and straightway broke into a keen run in the direction of the sandbar.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-A FEW minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading
-toward the Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was
-half-way over; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he
-struck out confidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam
-quartering upstream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he
-had expected. However, he reached the shore finally, and drifted along
-till he found a low place and drew himself out. He put his hand on his
-jacket pocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through
-the woods, following the shore, with streaming garments. Shortly before
-ten o'clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and
-saw the ferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank.
-Everything was quiet under the blinking stars. He crept down the bank,
-watching with all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four
-strokes and climbed into the skiff that did "yawl" duty at the boat's
-stern. He laid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting.
-
-Presently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to "cast
-off." A minute or two later the skiff's head was standing high up,
-against the boat's swell, and the voyage was begun. Tom felt happy in
-his success, for he knew it was the boat's last trip for the night. At
-the end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and Tom
-slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards
-downstream, out of danger of possible stragglers.
-
-He flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his
-aunt's back fence. He climbed over, approached the "ell," and looked in
-at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. There sat
-Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper's mother, grouped together,
-talking. They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the
-door. Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then he
-pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing
-cautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might
-squeeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began,
-warily.
-
-"What makes the candle blow so?" said Aunt Polly. Tom hurried up.
-"Why, that door's open, I believe. Why, of course it is. No end of
-strange things now. Go 'long and shut it, Sid."
-
-Tom disappeared under the bed just in time. He lay and "breathed"
-himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his
-aunt's foot.
-
-"But as I was saying," said Aunt Polly, "he warn't BAD, so to say
---only mischEEvous. Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. He
-warn't any more responsible than a colt. HE never meant any harm, and
-he was the best-hearted boy that ever was"--and she began to cry.
-
-"It was just so with my Joe--always full of his devilment, and up to
-every kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he
-could be--and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking
-that cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself
-because it was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never,
-never, never, poor abused boy!" And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart
-would break.
-
-"I hope Tom's better off where he is," said Sid, "but if he'd been
-better in some ways--"
-
-"SID!" Tom felt the glare of the old lady's eye, though he could not
-see it. "Not a word against my Tom, now that he's gone! God'll take
-care of HIM--never you trouble YOURself, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don't
-know how to give him up! I don't know how to give him up! He was such a
-comfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, 'most."
-
-"The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away--Blessed be the name of
-the Lord! But it's so hard--Oh, it's so hard! Only last Saturday my
-Joe busted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him
-sprawling. Little did I know then, how soon--Oh, if it was to do over
-again I'd hug him and bless him for it."
-
-"Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just
-exactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took
-and filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur
-would tear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom's head
-with my thimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he's out of all his
-troubles now. And the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach--"
-
-But this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely
-down. Tom was snuffling, now, himself--and more in pity of himself than
-anybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word
-for him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself
-than ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's
-grief to long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with
-joy--and the theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to
-his nature, too, but he resisted and lay still.
-
-He went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was
-conjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim;
-then the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the
-missing lads had promised that the village should "hear something"
-soon; the wise-heads had "put this and that together" and decided that
-the lads had gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town
-below, presently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged
-against the Missouri shore some five or six miles below the village
---and then hope perished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have
-driven them home by nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the
-search for the bodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the
-drowning must have occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good
-swimmers, would otherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday
-night. If the bodies continued missing until Sunday, all hope would be
-given over, and the funerals would be preached on that morning. Tom
-shuddered.
-
-Mrs. Harper gave a sobbing good-night and turned to go. Then with a
-mutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each
-other's arms and had a good, consoling cry, and then parted. Aunt Polly
-was tender far beyond her wont, in her good-night to Sid and Mary. Sid
-snuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart.
-
-Aunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so
-appealingly, and with such measureless love in her words and her old
-trembling voice, that he was weltering in tears again, long before she
-was through.
-
-He had to keep still long after she went to bed, for she kept making
-broken-hearted ejaculations from time to time, tossing unrestfully, and
-turning over. But at last she was still, only moaning a little in her
-sleep. Now the boy stole out, rose gradually by the bedside, shaded the
-candle-light with his hand, and stood regarding her. His heart was full
-of pity for her. He took out his sycamore scroll and placed it by the
-candle. But something occurred to him, and he lingered considering. His
-face lighted with a happy solution of his thought; he put the bark
-hastily in his pocket. Then he bent over and kissed the faded lips, and
-straightway made his stealthy exit, latching the door behind him.
-
-He threaded his way back to the ferry landing, found nobody at large
-there, and walked boldly on board the boat, for he knew she was
-tenantless except that there was a watchman, who always turned in and
-slept like a graven image. He untied the skiff at the stern, slipped
-into it, and was soon rowing cautiously upstream. When he had pulled a
-mile above the village, he started quartering across and bent himself
-stoutly to his work. He hit the landing on the other side neatly, for
-this was a familiar bit of work to him. He was moved to capture the
-skiff, arguing that it might be considered a ship and therefore
-legitimate prey for a pirate, but he knew a thorough search would be
-made for it and that might end in revelations. So he stepped ashore and
-entered the woods.
-
-He sat down and took a long rest, torturing himself meanwhile to keep
-awake, and then started warily down the home-stretch. The night was far
-spent. It was broad daylight before he found himself fairly abreast the
-island bar. He rested again until the sun was well up and gilding the
-great river with its splendor, and then he plunged into the stream. A
-little later he paused, dripping, upon the threshold of the camp, and
-heard Joe say:
-
-"No, Tom's true-blue, Huck, and he'll come back. He won't desert. He
-knows that would be a disgrace to a pirate, and Tom's too proud for
-that sort of thing. He's up to something or other. Now I wonder what?"
-
-"Well, the things is ours, anyway, ain't they?"
-
-Pretty near, but not yet, Huck. The writing says they are if he ain't
-back here to breakfast."
-
-"Which he is!" exclaimed Tom, with fine dramatic effect, stepping
-grandly into camp.
-
-A sumptuous breakfast of bacon and fish was shortly provided, and as
-the boys set to work upon it, Tom recounted (and adorned) his
-adventures. They were a vain and boastful company of heroes when the
-tale was done. Then Tom hid himself away in a shady nook to sleep till
-noon, and the other pirates got ready to fish and explore.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-AFTER dinner all the gang turned out to hunt for turtle eggs on the
-bar. They went about poking sticks into the sand, and when they found a
-soft place they went down on their knees and dug with their hands.
-Sometimes they would take fifty or sixty eggs out of one hole. They
-were perfectly round white things a trifle smaller than an English
-walnut. They had a famous fried-egg feast that night, and another on
-Friday morning.
-
-After breakfast they went whooping and prancing out on the bar, and
-chased each other round and round, shedding clothes as they went, until
-they were naked, and then continued the frolic far away up the shoal
-water of the bar, against the stiff current, which latter tripped their
-legs from under them from time to time and greatly increased the fun.
-And now and then they stooped in a group and splashed water in each
-other's faces with their palms, gradually approaching each other, with
-averted faces to avoid the strangling sprays, and finally gripping and
-struggling till the best man ducked his neighbor, and then they all
-went under in a tangle of white legs and arms and came up blowing,
-sputtering, laughing, and gasping for breath at one and the same time.
-
-When they were well exhausted, they would run out and sprawl on the
-dry, hot sand, and lie there and cover themselves up with it, and by
-and by break for the water again and go through the original
-performance once more. Finally it occurred to them that their naked
-skin represented flesh-colored "tights" very fairly; so they drew a
-ring in the sand and had a circus--with three clowns in it, for none
-would yield this proudest post to his neighbor.
-
-Next they got their marbles and played "knucks" and "ring-taw" and
-"keeps" till that amusement grew stale. Then Joe and Huck had another
-swim, but Tom would not venture, because he found that in kicking off
-his trousers he had kicked his string of rattlesnake rattles off his
-ankle, and he wondered how he had escaped cramp so long without the
-protection of this mysterious charm. He did not venture again until he
-had found it, and by that time the other boys were tired and ready to
-rest. They gradually wandered apart, dropped into the "dumps," and fell
-to gazing longingly across the wide river to where the village lay
-drowsing in the sun. Tom found himself writing "BECKY" in the sand with
-his big toe; he scratched it out, and was angry with himself for his
-weakness. But he wrote it again, nevertheless; he could not help it. He
-erased it once more and then took himself out of temptation by driving
-the other boys together and joining them.
-
-But Joe's spirits had gone down almost beyond resurrection. He was so
-homesick that he could hardly endure the misery of it. The tears lay
-very near the surface. Huck was melancholy, too. Tom was downhearted,
-but tried hard not to show it. He had a secret which he was not ready
-to tell, yet, but if this mutinous depression was not broken up soon,
-he would have to bring it out. He said, with a great show of
-cheerfulness:
-
-"I bet there's been pirates on this island before, boys. We'll explore
-it again. They've hid treasures here somewhere. How'd you feel to light
-on a rotten chest full of gold and silver--hey?"
-
-But it roused only faint enthusiasm, which faded out, with no reply.
-Tom tried one or two other seductions; but they failed, too. It was
-discouraging work. Joe sat poking up the sand with a stick and looking
-very gloomy. Finally he said:
-
-"Oh, boys, let's give it up. I want to go home. It's so lonesome."
-
-"Oh no, Joe, you'll feel better by and by," said Tom. "Just think of
-the fishing that's here."
-
-"I don't care for fishing. I want to go home."
-
-"But, Joe, there ain't such another swimming-place anywhere."
-
-"Swimming's no good. I don't seem to care for it, somehow, when there
-ain't anybody to say I sha'n't go in. I mean to go home."
-
-"Oh, shucks! Baby! You want to see your mother, I reckon."
-
-"Yes, I DO want to see my mother--and you would, too, if you had one.
-I ain't any more baby than you are." And Joe snuffled a little.
-
-"Well, we'll let the cry-baby go home to his mother, won't we, Huck?
-Poor thing--does it want to see its mother? And so it shall. You like
-it here, don't you, Huck? We'll stay, won't we?"
-
-Huck said, "Y-e-s"--without any heart in it.
-
-"I'll never speak to you again as long as I live," said Joe, rising.
-"There now!" And he moved moodily away and began to dress himself.
-
-"Who cares!" said Tom. "Nobody wants you to. Go 'long home and get
-laughed at. Oh, you're a nice pirate. Huck and me ain't cry-babies.
-We'll stay, won't we, Huck? Let him go if he wants to. I reckon we can
-get along without him, per'aps."
-
-But Tom was uneasy, nevertheless, and was alarmed to see Joe go
-sullenly on with his dressing. And then it was discomforting to see
-Huck eying Joe's preparations so wistfully, and keeping up such an
-ominous silence. Presently, without a parting word, Joe began to wade
-off toward the Illinois shore. Tom's heart began to sink. He glanced at
-Huck. Huck could not bear the look, and dropped his eyes. Then he said:
-
-"I want to go, too, Tom. It was getting so lonesome anyway, and now
-it'll be worse. Let's us go, too, Tom."
-
-"I won't! You can all go, if you want to. I mean to stay."
-
-"Tom, I better go."
-
-"Well, go 'long--who's hendering you."
-
-Huck began to pick up his scattered clothes. He said:
-
-"Tom, I wisht you'd come, too. Now you think it over. We'll wait for
-you when we get to shore."
-
-"Well, you'll wait a blame long time, that's all."
-
-Huck started sorrowfully away, and Tom stood looking after him, with a
-strong desire tugging at his heart to yield his pride and go along too.
-He hoped the boys would stop, but they still waded slowly on. It
-suddenly dawned on Tom that it was become very lonely and still. He
-made one final struggle with his pride, and then darted after his
-comrades, yelling:
-
-"Wait! Wait! I want to tell you something!"
-
-They presently stopped and turned around. When he got to where they
-were, he began unfolding his secret, and they listened moodily till at
-last they saw the "point" he was driving at, and then they set up a
-war-whoop of applause and said it was "splendid!" and said if he had
-told them at first, they wouldn't have started away. He made a plausible
-excuse; but his real reason had been the fear that not even the secret
-would keep them with him any very great length of time, and so he had
-meant to hold it in reserve as a last seduction.
-
-The lads came gayly back and went at their sports again with a will,
-chattering all the time about Tom's stupendous plan and admiring the
-genius of it. After a dainty egg and fish dinner, Tom said he wanted to
-learn to smoke, now. Joe caught at the idea and said he would like to
-try, too. So Huck made pipes and filled them. These novices had never
-smoked anything before but cigars made of grape-vine, and they "bit"
-the tongue, and were not considered manly anyway.
-
-Now they stretched themselves out on their elbows and began to puff,
-charily, and with slender confidence. The smoke had an unpleasant
-taste, and they gagged a little, but Tom said:
-
-"Why, it's just as easy! If I'd a knowed this was all, I'd a learnt
-long ago."
-
-"So would I," said Joe. "It's just nothing."
-
-"Why, many a time I've looked at people smoking, and thought well I
-wish I could do that; but I never thought I could," said Tom.
-
-"That's just the way with me, hain't it, Huck? You've heard me talk
-just that way--haven't you, Huck? I'll leave it to Huck if I haven't."
-
-"Yes--heaps of times," said Huck.
-
-"Well, I have too," said Tom; "oh, hundreds of times. Once down by the
-slaughter-house. Don't you remember, Huck? Bob Tanner was there, and
-Johnny Miller, and Jeff Thatcher, when I said it. Don't you remember,
-Huck, 'bout me saying that?"
-
-"Yes, that's so," said Huck. "That was the day after I lost a white
-alley. No, 'twas the day before."
-
-"There--I told you so," said Tom. "Huck recollects it."
-
-"I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day," said Joe. "I don't feel
-sick."
-
-"Neither do I," said Tom. "I could smoke it all day. But I bet you
-Jeff Thatcher couldn't."
-
-"Jeff Thatcher! Why, he'd keel over just with two draws. Just let him
-try it once. HE'D see!"
-
-"I bet he would. And Johnny Miller--I wish could see Johnny Miller
-tackle it once."
-
-"Oh, don't I!" said Joe. "Why, I bet you Johnny Miller couldn't any
-more do this than nothing. Just one little snifter would fetch HIM."
-
-"'Deed it would, Joe. Say--I wish the boys could see us now."
-
-"So do I."
-
-"Say--boys, don't say anything about it, and some time when they're
-around, I'll come up to you and say, 'Joe, got a pipe? I want a smoke.'
-And you'll say, kind of careless like, as if it warn't anything, you'll
-say, 'Yes, I got my OLD pipe, and another one, but my tobacker ain't
-very good.' And I'll say, 'Oh, that's all right, if it's STRONG
-enough.' And then you'll out with the pipes, and we'll light up just as
-ca'm, and then just see 'em look!"
-
-"By jings, that'll be gay, Tom! I wish it was NOW!"
-
-"So do I! And when we tell 'em we learned when we was off pirating,
-won't they wish they'd been along?"
-
-"Oh, I reckon not! I'll just BET they will!"
-
-So the talk ran on. But presently it began to flag a trifle, and grow
-disjointed. The silences widened; the expectoration marvellously
-increased. Every pore inside the boys' cheeks became a spouting
-fountain; they could scarcely bail out the cellars under their tongues
-fast enough to prevent an inundation; little overflowings down their
-throats occurred in spite of all they could do, and sudden retchings
-followed every time. Both boys were looking very pale and miserable,
-now. Joe's pipe dropped from his nerveless fingers. Tom's followed.
-Both fountains were going furiously and both pumps bailing with might
-and main. Joe said feebly:
-
-"I've lost my knife. I reckon I better go and find it."
-
-Tom said, with quivering lips and halting utterance:
-
-"I'll help you. You go over that way and I'll hunt around by the
-spring. No, you needn't come, Huck--we can find it."
-
-So Huck sat down again, and waited an hour. Then he found it lonesome,
-and went to find his comrades. They were wide apart in the woods, both
-very pale, both fast asleep. But something informed him that if they
-had had any trouble they had got rid of it.
-
-They were not talkative at supper that night. They had a humble look,
-and when Huck prepared his pipe after the meal and was going to prepare
-theirs, they said no, they were not feeling very well--something they
-ate at dinner had disagreed with them.
-
-About midnight Joe awoke, and called the boys. There was a brooding
-oppressiveness in the air that seemed to bode something. The boys
-huddled themselves together and sought the friendly companionship of
-the fire, though the dull dead heat of the breathless atmosphere was
-stifling. They sat still, intent and waiting. The solemn hush
-continued. Beyond the light of the fire everything was swallowed up in
-the blackness of darkness. Presently there came a quivering glow that
-vaguely revealed the foliage for a moment and then vanished. By and by
-another came, a little stronger. Then another. Then a faint moan came
-sighing through the branches of the forest and the boys felt a fleeting
-breath upon their cheeks, and shuddered with the fancy that the Spirit
-of the Night had gone by. There was a pause. Now a weird flash turned
-night into day and showed every little grass-blade, separate and
-distinct, that grew about their feet. And it showed three white,
-startled faces, too. A deep peal of thunder went rolling and tumbling
-down the heavens and lost itself in sullen rumblings in the distance. A
-sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the
-flaky ashes broadcast about the fire. Another fierce glare lit up the
-forest and an instant crash followed that seemed to rend the tree-tops
-right over the boys' heads. They clung together in terror, in the thick
-gloom that followed. A few big rain-drops fell pattering upon the
-leaves.
-
-"Quick! boys, go for the tent!" exclaimed Tom.
-
-They sprang away, stumbling over roots and among vines in the dark, no
-two plunging in the same direction. A furious blast roared through the
-trees, making everything sing as it went. One blinding flash after
-another came, and peal on peal of deafening thunder. And now a
-drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets
-along the ground. The boys cried out to each other, but the roaring
-wind and the booming thunder-blasts drowned their voices utterly.
-However, one by one they straggled in at last and took shelter under
-the tent, cold, scared, and streaming with water; but to have company
-in misery seemed something to be grateful for. They could not talk, the
-old sail flapped so furiously, even if the other noises would have
-allowed them. The tempest rose higher and higher, and presently the
-sail tore loose from its fastenings and went winging away on the blast.
-The boys seized each others' hands and fled, with many tumblings and
-bruises, to the shelter of a great oak that stood upon the river-bank.
-Now the battle was at its highest. Under the ceaseless conflagration of
-lightning that flamed in the skies, everything below stood out in
-clean-cut and shadowless distinctness: the bending trees, the billowy
-river, white with foam, the driving spray of spume-flakes, the dim
-outlines of the high bluffs on the other side, glimpsed through the
-drifting cloud-rack and the slanting veil of rain. Every little while
-some giant tree yielded the fight and fell crashing through the younger
-growth; and the unflagging thunder-peals came now in ear-splitting
-explosive bursts, keen and sharp, and unspeakably appalling. The storm
-culminated in one matchless effort that seemed likely to tear the island
-to pieces, burn it up, drown it to the tree-tops, blow it away, and
-deafen every creature in it, all at one and the same moment. It was a
-wild night for homeless young heads to be out in.
-
-But at last the battle was done, and the forces retired with weaker
-and weaker threatenings and grumblings, and peace resumed her sway. The
-boys went back to camp, a good deal awed; but they found there was
-still something to be thankful for, because the great sycamore, the
-shelter of their beds, was a ruin, now, blasted by the lightnings, and
-they were not under it when the catastrophe happened.
-
-Everything in camp was drenched, the camp-fire as well; for they were
-but heedless lads, like their generation, and had made no provision
-against rain. Here was matter for dismay, for they were soaked through
-and chilled. They were eloquent in their distress; but they presently
-discovered that the fire had eaten so far up under the great log it had
-been built against (where it curved upward and separated itself from
-the ground), that a handbreadth or so of it had escaped wetting; so
-they patiently wrought until, with shreds and bark gathered from the
-under sides of sheltered logs, they coaxed the fire to burn again. Then
-they piled on great dead boughs till they had a roaring furnace, and
-were glad-hearted once more. They dried their boiled ham and had a
-feast, and after that they sat by the fire and expanded and glorified
-their midnight adventure until morning, for there was not a dry spot to
-sleep on, anywhere around.
-
-As the sun began to steal in upon the boys, drowsiness came over them,
-and they went out on the sandbar and lay down to sleep. They got
-scorched out by and by, and drearily set about getting breakfast. After
-the meal they felt rusty, and stiff-jointed, and a little homesick once
-more. Tom saw the signs, and fell to cheering up the pirates as well as
-he could. But they cared nothing for marbles, or circus, or swimming,
-or anything. He reminded them of the imposing secret, and raised a ray
-of cheer. While it lasted, he got them interested in a new device. This
-was to knock off being pirates, for a while, and be Indians for a
-change. They were attracted by this idea; so it was not long before
-they were stripped, and striped from head to heel with black mud, like
-so many zebras--all of them chiefs, of course--and then they went
-tearing through the woods to attack an English settlement.
-
-By and by they separated into three hostile tribes, and darted upon
-each other from ambush with dreadful war-whoops, and killed and scalped
-each other by thousands. It was a gory day. Consequently it was an
-extremely satisfactory one.
-
-They assembled in camp toward supper-time, hungry and happy; but now a
-difficulty arose--hostile Indians could not break the bread of
-hospitality together without first making peace, and this was a simple
-impossibility without smoking a pipe of peace. There was no other
-process that ever they had heard of. Two of the savages almost wished
-they had remained pirates. However, there was no other way; so with
-such show of cheerfulness as they could muster they called for the pipe
-and took their whiff as it passed, in due form.
-
-And behold, they were glad they had gone into savagery, for they had
-gained something; they found that they could now smoke a little without
-having to go and hunt for a lost knife; they did not get sick enough to
-be seriously uncomfortable. They were not likely to fool away this high
-promise for lack of effort. No, they practised cautiously, after
-supper, with right fair success, and so they spent a jubilant evening.
-They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would
-have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations. We will
-leave them to smoke and chatter and brag, since we have no further use
-for them at present.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-BUT there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil
-Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family, were being
-put into mourning, with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet
-possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all
-conscience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air,
-and talked little; but they sighed often. The Saturday holiday seemed a
-burden to the children. They had no heart in their sports, and
-gradually gave them up.
-
-In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the
-deserted schoolhouse yard, and feeling very melancholy. But she found
-nothing there to comfort her. She soliloquized:
-
-"Oh, if I only had a brass andiron-knob again! But I haven't got
-anything now to remember him by." And she choked back a little sob.
-
-Presently she stopped, and said to herself:
-
-"It was right here. Oh, if it was to do over again, I wouldn't say
-that--I wouldn't say it for the whole world. But he's gone now; I'll
-never, never, never see him any more."
-
-This thought broke her down, and she wandered away, with tears rolling
-down her cheeks. Then quite a group of boys and girls--playmates of
-Tom's and Joe's--came by, and stood looking over the paling fence and
-talking in reverent tones of how Tom did so-and-so the last time they
-saw him, and how Joe said this and that small trifle (pregnant with
-awful prophecy, as they could easily see now!)--and each speaker
-pointed out the exact spot where the lost lads stood at the time, and
-then added something like "and I was a-standing just so--just as I am
-now, and as if you was him--I was as close as that--and he smiled, just
-this way--and then something seemed to go all over me, like--awful, you
-know--and I never thought what it meant, of course, but I can see now!"
-
-Then there was a dispute about who saw the dead boys last in life, and
-many claimed that dismal distinction, and offered evidences, more or
-less tampered with by the witness; and when it was ultimately decided
-who DID see the departed last, and exchanged the last words with them,
-the lucky parties took upon themselves a sort of sacred importance, and
-were gaped at and envied by all the rest. One poor chap, who had no
-other grandeur to offer, said with tolerably manifest pride in the
-remembrance:
-
-"Well, Tom Sawyer he licked me once."
-
-But that bid for glory was a failure. Most of the boys could say that,
-and so that cheapened the distinction too much. The group loitered
-away, still recalling memories of the lost heroes, in awed voices.
-
-When the Sunday-school hour was finished, the next morning, the bell
-began to toll, instead of ringing in the usual way. It was a very still
-Sabbath, and the mournful sound seemed in keeping with the musing hush
-that lay upon nature. The villagers began to gather, loitering a moment
-in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the sad event. But there
-was no whispering in the house; only the funereal rustling of dresses
-as the women gathered to their seats disturbed the silence there. None
-could remember when the little church had been so full before. There
-was finally a waiting pause, an expectant dumbness, and then Aunt Polly
-entered, followed by Sid and Mary, and they by the Harper family, all
-in deep black, and the whole congregation, the old minister as well,
-rose reverently and stood until the mourners were seated in the front
-pew. There was another communing silence, broken at intervals by
-muffled sobs, and then the minister spread his hands abroad and prayed.
-A moving hymn was sung, and the text followed: "I am the Resurrection
-and the Life."
-
-As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the
-graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that
-every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in
-remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always
-before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor
-boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the
-departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the
-people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes
-were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had
-seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The
-congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on,
-till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping
-mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way
-to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.
-
-There was a rustle in the gallery, which nobody noticed; a moment
-later the church door creaked; the minister raised his streaming eyes
-above his handkerchief, and stood transfixed! First one and then
-another pair of eyes followed the minister's, and then almost with one
-impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came
-marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of
-drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in
-the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!
-
-Aunt Polly, Mary, and the Harpers threw themselves upon their restored
-ones, smothered them with kisses and poured out thanksgivings, while
-poor Huck stood abashed and uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to
-do or where to hide from so many unwelcoming eyes. He wavered, and
-started to slink away, but Tom seized him and said:
-
-"Aunt Polly, it ain't fair. Somebody's got to be glad to see Huck."
-
-"And so they shall. I'm glad to see him, poor motherless thing!" And
-the loving attentions Aunt Polly lavished upon him were the one thing
-capable of making him more uncomfortable than he was before.
-
-Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice: "Praise God
-from whom all blessings flow--SING!--and put your hearts in it!"
-
-And they did. Old Hundred swelled up with a triumphant burst, and
-while it shook the rafters Tom Sawyer the Pirate looked around upon the
-envying juveniles about him and confessed in his heart that this was
-the proudest moment of his life.
-
-As the "sold" congregation trooped out they said they would almost be
-willing to be made ridiculous again to hear Old Hundred sung like that
-once more.
-
-Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day--according to Aunt Polly's
-varying moods--than he had earned before in a year; and he hardly knew
-which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, PART 4. ***
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