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diff --git a/libgo/go/compress/testdata/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt b/libgo/go/compress/testdata/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d0ff4e --- /dev/null +++ b/libgo/go/compress/testdata/Mark.Twain-Tom.Sawyer.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8858 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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.net + + +Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #74] +[Last updated: May 3, 2011] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger. The previous edition was updated by Jose +Menendez. + + + + + + THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER + BY + MARK TWAIN + (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) + + + + + 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. + + + +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 wise 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. + + + +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. + + + +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. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THAT was Tom's great secret--the scheme to return home with his +brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over to +the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or six +miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge of the +town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back lanes and +alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a +chaos of invalided benches. + +At breakfast, Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to +Tom, and very attentive to his wants. There was an unusual amount of +talk. In the course of it Aunt Polly said: + +"Well, I don't say it wasn't a fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody +suffering 'most a week so you boys had a good time, but it is a pity +you could be so hard-hearted as to let me suffer so. If you could come +over on a log to go to your funeral, you could have come over and give +me a hint some way that you warn't dead, but only run off." + +"Yes, you could have done that, Tom," said Mary; "and I believe you +would if you had thought of it." + +"Would you, Tom?" said Aunt Polly, her face lighting wistfully. "Say, +now, would you, if you'd thought of it?" + +"I--well, I don't know. 'Twould 'a' spoiled everything." + +"Tom, I hoped you loved me that much," said Aunt Polly, with a grieved +tone that discomforted the boy. "It would have been something if you'd +cared enough to THINK of it, even if you didn't DO it." + +"Now, auntie, that ain't any harm," pleaded Mary; "it's only Tom's +giddy way--he is always in such a rush that he never thinks of +anything." + +"More's the pity. Sid would have thought. And Sid would have come and +DONE it, too. Tom, you'll look back, some day, when it's too late, and +wish you'd cared a little more for me when it would have cost you so +little." + +"Now, auntie, you know I do care for you," said Tom. + +"I'd know it better if you acted more like it." + +"I wish now I'd thought," said Tom, with a repentant tone; "but I +dreamt about you, anyway. That's something, ain't it?" + +"It ain't much--a cat does that much--but it's better than nothing. +What did you dream?" + +"Why, Wednesday night I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the +bed, and Sid was sitting by the woodbox, and Mary next to him." + +"Well, so we did. So we always do. I'm glad your dreams could take +even that much trouble about us." + +"And I dreamt that Joe Harper's mother was here." + +"Why, she was here! Did you dream any more?" + +"Oh, lots. But it's so dim, now." + +"Well, try to recollect--can't you?" + +"Somehow it seems to me that the wind--the wind blowed the--the--" + +"Try harder, Tom! The wind did blow something. Come!" + +Tom pressed his fingers on his forehead an anxious minute, and then +said: + +"I've got it now! I've got it now! It blowed the candle!" + +"Mercy on us! Go on, Tom--go on!" + +"And it seems to me that you said, 'Why, I believe that that door--'" + +"Go ON, Tom!" + +"Just let me study a moment--just a moment. Oh, yes--you said you +believed the door was open." + +"As I'm sitting here, I did! Didn't I, Mary! Go on!" + +"And then--and then--well I won't be certain, but it seems like as if +you made Sid go and--and--" + +"Well? Well? What did I make him do, Tom? What did I make him do?" + +"You made him--you--Oh, you made him shut it." + +"Well, for the land's sake! I never heard the beat of that in all my +days! Don't tell ME there ain't anything in dreams, any more. Sereny +Harper shall know of this before I'm an hour older. I'd like to see her +get around THIS with her rubbage 'bout superstition. Go on, Tom!" + +"Oh, it's all getting just as bright as day, now. Next you said I +warn't BAD, only mischeevous and harum-scarum, and not any more +responsible than--than--I think it was a colt, or something." + +"And so it was! Well, goodness gracious! Go on, Tom!" + +"And then you began to cry." + +"So I did. So I did. Not the first time, neither. And then--" + +"Then Mrs. Harper she began to cry, and said Joe was just the same, +and she wished she hadn't whipped him for taking cream when she'd +throwed it out her own self--" + +"Tom! The sperrit was upon you! You was a prophesying--that's what you +was doing! Land alive, go on, Tom!" + +"Then Sid he said--he said--" + +"I don't think I said anything," said Sid. + +"Yes you did, Sid," said Mary. + +"Shut your heads and let Tom go on! What did he say, Tom?" + +"He said--I THINK he said he hoped I was better off where I was gone +to, but if I'd been better sometimes--" + +"THERE, d'you hear that! It was his very words!" + +"And you shut him up sharp." + +"I lay I did! There must 'a' been an angel there. There WAS an angel +there, somewheres!" + +"And Mrs. Harper told about Joe scaring her with a firecracker, and +you told about Peter and the Painkiller--" + +"Just as true as I live!" + +"And then there was a whole lot of talk 'bout dragging the river for +us, and 'bout having the funeral Sunday, and then you and old Miss +Harper hugged and cried, and she went." + +"It happened just so! It happened just so, as sure as I'm a-sitting in +these very tracks. Tom, you couldn't told it more like if you'd 'a' +seen it! And then what? Go on, Tom!" + +"Then I thought you prayed for me--and I could see you and hear every +word you said. And you went to bed, and I was so sorry that I took and +wrote on a piece of sycamore bark, 'We ain't dead--we are only off +being pirates,' and put it on the table by the candle; and then you +looked so good, laying there asleep, that I thought I went and leaned +over and kissed you on the lips." + +"Did you, Tom, DID you! I just forgive you everything for that!" And +she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made him feel like the +guiltiest of villains. + +"It was very kind, even though it was only a--dream," Sid soliloquized +just audibly. + +"Shut up, Sid! A body does just the same in a dream as he'd do if he +was awake. Here's a big Milum apple I've been saving for you, Tom, if +you was ever found again--now go 'long to school. I'm thankful to the +good God and Father of us all I've got you back, that's long-suffering +and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word, though +goodness knows I'm unworthy of it, but if only the worthy ones got His +blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places, there's +few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long +night comes. Go 'long Sid, Mary, Tom--take yourselves off--you've +hendered me long enough." + +The children left for school, and the old lady to call on Mrs. Harper +and vanquish her realism with Tom's marvellous dream. Sid had better +judgment than to utter the thought that was in his mind as he left the +house. It was this: "Pretty thin--as long a dream as that, without any +mistakes in it!" + +What a hero Tom was become, now! He did not go skipping and prancing, +but moved with a dignified swagger as became a pirate who felt that the +public eye was on him. And indeed it was; he tried not to seem to see +the looks or hear the remarks as he passed along, but they were food +and drink to him. Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels, as +proud to be seen with him, and tolerated by him, as if he had been the +drummer at the head of a procession or the elephant leading a menagerie +into town. Boys of his own size pretended not to know he had been away +at all; but they were consuming with envy, nevertheless. They would +have given anything to have that swarthy suntanned skin of his, and his +glittering notoriety; and Tom would not have parted with either for a +circus. + +At school the children made so much of him and of Joe, and delivered +such eloquent admiration from their eyes, that the two heroes were not +long in becoming insufferably "stuck-up." They began to tell their +adventures to hungry listeners--but they only began; it was not a thing +likely to have an end, with imaginations like theirs to furnish +material. And finally, when they got out their pipes and went serenely +puffing around, the very summit of glory was reached. + +Tom decided that he could be independent of Becky Thatcher now. Glory +was sufficient. He would live for glory. Now that he was distinguished, +maybe she would be wanting to "make up." Well, let her--she should see +that he could be as indifferent as some other people. Presently she +arrived. Tom pretended not to see her. He moved away and joined a group +of boys and girls and began to talk. Soon he observed that she was +tripping gayly back and forth with flushed face and dancing eyes, +pretending to be busy chasing schoolmates, and screaming with laughter +when she made a capture; but he noticed that she always made her +captures in his vicinity, and that she seemed to cast a conscious eye +in his direction at such times, too. It gratified all the vicious +vanity that was in him; and so, instead of winning him, it only "set +him up" the more and made him the more diligent to avoid betraying that +he knew she was about. Presently she gave over skylarking, and moved +irresolutely about, sighing once or twice and glancing furtively and +wistfully toward Tom. Then she observed that now Tom was talking more +particularly to Amy Lawrence than to any one else. She felt a sharp +pang and grew disturbed and uneasy at once. She tried to go away, but +her feet were treacherous, and carried her to the group instead. She +said to a girl almost at Tom's elbow--with sham vivacity: + +"Why, Mary Austin! you bad girl, why didn't you come to Sunday-school?" + +"I did come--didn't you see me?" + +"Why, no! Did you? Where did you sit?" + +"I was in Miss Peters' class, where I always go. I saw YOU." + +"Did you? Why, it's funny I didn't see you. I wanted to tell you about +the picnic." + +"Oh, that's jolly. Who's going to give it?" + +"My ma's going to let me have one." + +"Oh, goody; I hope she'll let ME come." + +"Well, she will. The picnic's for me. She'll let anybody come that I +want, and I want you." + +"That's ever so nice. When is it going to be?" + +"By and by. Maybe about vacation." + +"Oh, won't it be fun! You going to have all the girls and boys?" + +"Yes, every one that's friends to me--or wants to be"; and she glanced +ever so furtively at Tom, but he talked right along to Amy Lawrence +about the terrible storm on the island, and how the lightning tore the +great sycamore tree "all to flinders" while he was "standing within +three feet of it." + +"Oh, may I come?" said Grace Miller. + +"Yes." + +"And me?" said Sally Rogers. + +"Yes." + +"And me, too?" said Susy Harper. "And Joe?" + +"Yes." + +And so on, with clapping of joyful hands till all the group had begged +for invitations but Tom and Amy. Then Tom turned coolly away, still +talking, and took Amy with him. Becky's lips trembled and the tears +came to her eyes; she hid these signs with a forced gayety and went on +chattering, but the life had gone out of the picnic, now, and out of +everything else; she got away as soon as she could and hid herself and +had what her sex call "a good cry." Then she sat moody, with wounded +pride, till the bell rang. She roused up, now, with a vindictive cast +in her eye, and gave her plaited tails a shake and said she knew what +SHE'D do. + +At recess Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant +self-satisfaction. And he kept drifting about to find Becky and lacerate +her with the performance. At last he spied her, but there was a sudden +falling of his mercury. She was sitting cosily on a little bench behind +the schoolhouse looking at a picture-book with Alfred Temple--and so +absorbed were they, and their heads so close together over the book, +that they did not seem to be conscious of anything in the world besides. +Jealousy ran red-hot through Tom's veins. He began to hate himself for +throwing away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation. He +called himself a fool, and all the hard names he could think of. He +wanted to cry with vexation. Amy chatted happily along, as they walked, +for her heart was singing, but Tom's tongue had lost its function. He +did not hear what Amy was saying, and whenever she paused expectantly he +could only stammer an awkward assent, which was as often misplaced as +otherwise. He kept drifting to the rear of the schoolhouse, again and +again, to sear his eyeballs with the hateful spectacle there. He could +not help it. And it maddened him to see, as he thought he saw, that +Becky Thatcher never once suspected that he was even in the land of the +living. But she did see, nevertheless; and she knew she was winning her +fight, too, and was glad to see him suffer as she had suffered. + +Amy's happy prattle became intolerable. Tom hinted at things he had to +attend to; things that must be done; and time was fleeting. But in +vain--the girl chirped on. Tom thought, "Oh, hang her, ain't I ever +going to get rid of her?" At last he must be attending to those +things--and she said artlessly that she would be "around" when school +let out. And he hastened away, hating her for it. + +"Any other boy!" Tom thought, grating his teeth. "Any boy in the whole +town but that Saint Louis smarty that thinks he dresses so fine and is +aristocracy! Oh, all right, I licked you the first day you ever saw +this town, mister, and I'll lick you again! You just wait till I catch +you out! I'll just take and--" + +And he went through the motions of thrashing an imaginary boy +--pummelling the air, and kicking and gouging. "Oh, you do, do you? You +holler 'nough, do you? Now, then, let that learn you!" And so the +imaginary flogging was finished to his satisfaction. + +Tom fled home at noon. His conscience could not endure any more of +Amy's grateful happiness, and his jealousy could bear no more of the +other distress. Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred, but +as the minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer, her triumph +began to cloud and she lost interest; gravity and absent-mindedness +followed, and then melancholy; two or three times she pricked up her +ear at a footstep, but it was a false hope; no Tom came. At last she +grew entirely miserable and wished she hadn't carried it so far. When +poor Alfred, seeing that he was losing her, he did not know how, kept +exclaiming: "Oh, here's a jolly one! look at this!" she lost patience +at last, and said, "Oh, don't bother me! I don't care for them!" and +burst into tears, and got up and walked away. + +Alfred dropped alongside and was going to try to comfort her, but she +said: + +"Go away and leave me alone, can't you! I hate you!" + +So the boy halted, wondering what he could have done--for she had said +she would look at pictures all through the nooning--and she walked on, +crying. Then Alfred went musing into the deserted schoolhouse. He was +humiliated and angry. He easily guessed his way to the truth--the girl +had simply made a convenience of him to vent her spite upon Tom Sawyer. +He was far from hating Tom the less when this thought occurred to him. +He wished there was some way to get that boy into trouble without much +risk to himself. Tom's spelling-book fell under his eye. Here was his +opportunity. He gratefully opened to the lesson for the afternoon and +poured ink upon the page. + +Becky, glancing in at a window behind him at the moment, saw the act, +and moved on, without discovering herself. She started homeward, now, +intending to find Tom and tell him; Tom would be thankful and their +troubles would be healed. Before she was half way home, however, she +had changed her mind. The thought of Tom's treatment of her when she +was talking about her picnic came scorching back and filled her with +shame. She resolved to let him get whipped on the damaged +spelling-book's account, and to hate him forever, into the bargain. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TOM arrived at home in a dreary mood, and the first thing his aunt +said to him showed him that he had brought his sorrows to an +unpromising market: + +"Tom, I've a notion to skin you alive!" + +"Auntie, what have I done?" + +"Well, you've done enough. Here I go over to Sereny Harper, like an +old softy, expecting I'm going to make her believe all that rubbage +about that dream, when lo and behold you she'd found out from Joe that +you was over here and heard all the talk we had that night. Tom, I +don't know what is to become of a boy that will act like that. It makes +me feel so bad to think you could let me go to Sereny Harper and make +such a fool of myself and never say a word." + +This was a new aspect of the thing. His smartness of the morning had +seemed to Tom a good joke before, and very ingenious. It merely looked +mean and shabby now. He hung his head and could not think of anything +to say for a moment. Then he said: + +"Auntie, I wish I hadn't done it--but I didn't think." + +"Oh, child, you never think. You never think of anything but your own +selfishness. You could think to come all the way over here from +Jackson's Island in the night to laugh at our troubles, and you could +think to fool me with a lie about a dream; but you couldn't ever think +to pity us and save us from sorrow." + +"Auntie, I know now it was mean, but I didn't mean to be mean. I +didn't, honest. And besides, I didn't come over here to laugh at you +that night." + +"What did you come for, then?" + +"It was to tell you not to be uneasy about us, because we hadn't got +drownded." + +"Tom, Tom, I would be the thankfullest soul in this world if I could +believe you ever had as good a thought as that, but you know you never +did--and I know it, Tom." + +"Indeed and 'deed I did, auntie--I wish I may never stir if I didn't." + +"Oh, Tom, don't lie--don't do it. It only makes things a hundred times +worse." + +"It ain't a lie, auntie; it's the truth. I wanted to keep you from +grieving--that was all that made me come." + +"I'd give the whole world to believe that--it would cover up a power +of sins, Tom. I'd 'most be glad you'd run off and acted so bad. But it +ain't reasonable; because, why didn't you tell me, child?" + +"Why, you see, when you got to talking about the funeral, I just got +all full of the idea of our coming and hiding in the church, and I +couldn't somehow bear to spoil it. So I just put the bark back in my +pocket and kept mum." + +"What bark?" + +"The bark I had wrote on to tell you we'd gone pirating. I wish, now, +you'd waked up when I kissed you--I do, honest." + +The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed and a sudden tenderness +dawned in her eyes. + +"DID you kiss me, Tom?" + +"Why, yes, I did." + +"Are you sure you did, Tom?" + +"Why, yes, I did, auntie--certain sure." + +"What did you kiss me for, Tom?" + +"Because I loved you so, and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry." + +The words sounded like truth. The old lady could not hide a tremor in +her voice when she said: + +"Kiss me again, Tom!--and be off with you to school, now, and don't +bother me any more." + +The moment he was gone, she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a +jacket which Tom had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her +hand, and said to herself: + +"No, I don't dare. Poor boy, I reckon he's lied about it--but it's a +blessed, blessed lie, there's such a comfort come from it. I hope the +Lord--I KNOW the Lord will forgive him, because it was such +goodheartedness in him to tell it. But I don't want to find out it's a +lie. I won't look." + +She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute. Twice she put +out her hand to take the garment again, and twice she refrained. Once +more she ventured, and this time she fortified herself with the +thought: "It's a good lie--it's a good lie--I won't let it grieve me." +So she sought the jacket pocket. A moment later she was reading Tom's +piece of bark through flowing tears and saying: "I could forgive the +boy, now, if he'd committed a million sins!" + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THERE was something about Aunt Polly's manner, when she kissed Tom, +that swept away his low spirits and made him lighthearted and happy +again. He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky +Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane. His mood always determined his +manner. Without a moment's hesitation he ran to her and said: + +"I acted mighty mean to-day, Becky, and I'm so sorry. I won't ever, +ever do that way again, as long as ever I live--please make up, won't +you?" + +The girl stopped and looked him scornfully in the face: + +"I'll thank you to keep yourself TO yourself, Mr. Thomas Sawyer. I'll +never speak to you again." + +She tossed her head and passed on. Tom was so stunned that he had not +even presence of mind enough to say "Who cares, Miss Smarty?" until the +right time to say it had gone by. So he said nothing. But he was in a +fine rage, nevertheless. He moped into the schoolyard wishing she were +a boy, and imagining how he would trounce her if she were. He presently +encountered her and delivered a stinging remark as he passed. She +hurled one in return, and the angry breach was complete. It seemed to +Becky, in her hot resentment, that she could hardly wait for school to +"take in," she was so impatient to see Tom flogged for the injured +spelling-book. If she had had any lingering notion of exposing Alfred +Temple, Tom's offensive fling had driven it entirely away. + +Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was nearing trouble herself. +The master, Mr. Dobbins, had reached middle age with an unsatisfied +ambition. The darling of his desires was, to be a doctor, but poverty +had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village +schoolmaster. Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and +absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting. He kept +that book under lock and key. There was not an urchin in school but was +perishing to have a glimpse of it, but the chance never came. Every boy +and girl had a theory about the nature of that book; but no two +theories were alike, and there was no way of getting at the facts in +the case. Now, as Becky was passing by the desk, which stood near the +door, she noticed that the key was in the lock! It was a precious +moment. She glanced around; found herself alone, and the next instant +she had the book in her hands. The title-page--Professor Somebody's +ANATOMY--carried no information to her mind; so she began to turn the +leaves. She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored +frontispiece--a human figure, stark naked. At that moment a shadow fell +on the page and Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught a glimpse +of the picture. Becky snatched at the book to close it, and had the +hard luck to tear the pictured page half down the middle. She thrust +the volume into the desk, turned the key, and burst out crying with +shame and vexation. + +"Tom Sawyer, you are just as mean as you can be, to sneak up on a +person and look at what they're looking at." + +"How could I know you was looking at anything?" + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Tom Sawyer; you know you're +going to tell on me, and oh, what shall I do, what shall I do! I'll be +whipped, and I never was whipped in school." + +Then she stamped her little foot and said: + +"BE so mean if you want to! I know something that's going to happen. +You just wait and you'll see! Hateful, hateful, hateful!"--and she +flung out of the house with a new explosion of crying. + +Tom stood still, rather flustered by this onslaught. Presently he said +to himself: + +"What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! +Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl--they're so +thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. Well, of course I ain't going to tell +old Dobbins on this little fool, because there's other ways of getting +even on her, that ain't so mean; but what of it? Old Dobbins will ask +who it was tore his book. Nobody'll answer. Then he'll do just the way +he always does--ask first one and then t'other, and when he comes to the +right girl he'll know it, without any telling. Girls' faces always tell +on them. They ain't got any backbone. She'll get licked. Well, it's a +kind of a tight place for Becky Thatcher, because there ain't any way +out of it." Tom conned the thing a moment longer, and then added: "All +right, though; she'd like to see me in just such a fix--let her sweat it +out!" + +Tom joined the mob of skylarking scholars outside. In a few moments +the master arrived and school "took in." Tom did not feel a strong +interest in his studies. Every time he stole a glance at the girls' +side of the room Becky's face troubled him. Considering all things, he +did not want to pity her, and yet it was all he could do to help it. He +could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name. Presently +the spelling-book discovery was made, and Tom's mind was entirely full +of his own matters for a while after that. Becky roused up from her +lethargy of distress and showed good interest in the proceedings. She +did not expect that Tom could get out of his trouble by denying that he +spilt the ink on the book himself; and she was right. The denial only +seemed to make the thing worse for Tom. Becky supposed she would be +glad of that, and she tried to believe she was glad of it, but she +found she was not certain. When the worst came to the worst, she had an +impulse to get up and tell on Alfred Temple, but she made an effort and +forced herself to keep still--because, said she to herself, "he'll tell +about me tearing the picture sure. I wouldn't say a word, not to save +his life!" + +Tom took his whipping and went back to his seat not at all +broken-hearted, for he thought it was possible that he had unknowingly +upset the ink on the spelling-book himself, in some skylarking bout--he +had denied it for form's sake and because it was custom, and had stuck +to the denial from principle. + +A whole hour drifted by, the master sat nodding in his throne, the air +was drowsy with the hum of study. By and by, Mr. Dobbins straightened +himself up, yawned, then unlocked his desk, and reached for his book, +but seemed undecided whether to take it out or leave it. Most of the +pupils glanced up languidly, but there were two among them that watched +his movements with intent eyes. Mr. Dobbins fingered his book absently +for a while, then took it out and settled himself in his chair to read! +Tom shot a glance at Becky. He had seen a hunted and helpless rabbit +look as she did, with a gun levelled at its head. Instantly he forgot +his quarrel with her. Quick--something must be done! done in a flash, +too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention. +Good!--he had an inspiration! He would run and snatch the book, spring +through the door and fly. But his resolution shook for one little +instant, and the chance was lost--the master opened the volume. If Tom +only had the wasted opportunity back again! Too late. There was no help +for Becky now, he said. The next moment the master faced the school. +Every eye sank under his gaze. There was that in it which smote even +the innocent with fear. There was silence while one might count ten +--the master was gathering his wrath. Then he spoke: "Who tore this book?" + +There was not a sound. One could have heard a pin drop. The stillness +continued; the master searched face after face for signs of guilt. + +"Benjamin Rogers, did you tear this book?" + +A denial. Another pause. + +"Joseph Harper, did you?" + +Another denial. Tom's uneasiness grew more and more intense under the +slow torture of these proceedings. The master scanned the ranks of +boys--considered a while, then turned to the girls: + +"Amy Lawrence?" + +A shake of the head. + +"Gracie Miller?" + +The same sign. + +"Susan Harper, did you do this?" + +Another negative. The next girl was Becky Thatcher. Tom was trembling +from head to foot with excitement and a sense of the hopelessness of +the situation. + +"Rebecca Thatcher" [Tom glanced at her face--it was white with terror] +--"did you tear--no, look me in the face" [her hands rose in appeal] +--"did you tear this book?" + +A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his +feet and shouted--"I done it!" + +The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly. Tom stood a +moment, to gather his dismembered faculties; and when he stepped +forward to go to his punishment the surprise, the gratitude, the +adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky's eyes seemed pay +enough for a hundred floggings. Inspired by the splendor of his own +act, he took without an outcry the most merciless flaying that even Mr. +Dobbins had ever administered; and also received with indifference the +added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after school should be +dismissed--for he knew who would wait for him outside till his +captivity was done, and not count the tedious time as loss, either. + +Tom went to bed that night planning vengeance against Alfred Temple; +for with shame and repentance Becky had told him all, not forgetting +her own treachery; but even the longing for vengeance had to give way, +soon, to pleasanter musings, and he fell asleep at last with Becky's +latest words lingering dreamily in his ear-- + +"Tom, how COULD you be so noble!" + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VACATION was approaching. The schoolmaster, always severe, grew +severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a +good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom +idle now--at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and +young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing. Mr. Dobbins' +lashings were very vigorous ones, too; for although he carried, under +his wig, a perfectly bald and shiny head, he had only reached middle +age, and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle. As the great +day approached, all the tyranny that was in him came to the surface; he +seemed to take a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least +shortcomings. The consequence was, that the smaller boys spent their +days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting revenge. They +threw away no opportunity to do the master a mischief. But he kept +ahead all the time. The retribution that followed every vengeful +success was so sweeping and majestic that the boys always retired from +the field badly worsted. At last they conspired together and hit upon a +plan that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in the sign-painter's +boy, told him the scheme, and asked his help. He had his own reasons +for being delighted, for the master boarded in his father's family and +had given the boy ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would go +on a visit to the country in a few days, and there would be nothing to +interfere with the plan; the master always prepared himself for great +occasions by getting pretty well fuddled, and the sign-painter's boy +said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on +Examination Evening he would "manage the thing" while he napped in his +chair; then he would have him awakened at the right time and hurried +away to school. + +In the fulness of time the interesting occasion arrived. At eight in +the evening the schoolhouse was brilliantly lighted, and adorned with +wreaths and festoons of foliage and flowers. The master sat throned in +his great chair upon a raised platform, with his blackboard behind him. +He was looking tolerably mellow. Three rows of benches on each side and +six rows in front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the town +and by the parents of the pupils. To his left, back of the rows of +citizens, was a spacious temporary platform upon which were seated the +scholars who were to take part in the exercises of the evening; rows of +small boys, washed and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort; +rows of gawky big boys; snowbanks of girls and young ladies clad in +lawn and muslin and conspicuously conscious of their bare arms, their +grandmothers' ancient trinkets, their bits of pink and blue ribbon and +the flowers in their hair. All the rest of the house was filled with +non-participating scholars. + +The exercises began. A very little boy stood up and sheepishly +recited, "You'd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the +stage," etc.--accompanying himself with the painfully exact and +spasmodic gestures which a machine might have used--supposing the +machine to be a trifle out of order. But he got through safely, though +cruelly scared, and got a fine round of applause when he made his +manufactured bow and retired. + +A little shamefaced girl lisped, "Mary had a little lamb," etc., +performed a compassion-inspiring curtsy, got her meed of applause, and +sat down flushed and happy. + +Tom Sawyer stepped forward with conceited confidence and soared into +the unquenchable and indestructible "Give me liberty or give me death" +speech, with fine fury and frantic gesticulation, and broke down in the +middle of it. A ghastly stage-fright seized him, his legs quaked under +him and he was like to choke. True, he had the manifest sympathy of the +house but he had the house's silence, too, which was even worse than +its sympathy. The master frowned, and this completed the disaster. Tom +struggled awhile and then retired, utterly defeated. There was a weak +attempt at applause, but it died early. + +"The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" followed; also "The Assyrian Came +Down," and other declamatory gems. Then there were reading exercises, +and a spelling fight. The meagre Latin class recited with honor. The +prime feature of the evening was in order, now--original "compositions" +by the young ladies. Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of +the platform, cleared her throat, held up her manuscript (tied with +dainty ribbon), and proceeded to read, with labored attention to +"expression" and punctuation. The themes were the same that had been +illuminated upon similar occasions by their mothers before them, their +grandmothers, and doubtless all their ancestors in the female line +clear back to the Crusades. "Friendship" was one; "Memories of Other +Days"; "Religion in History"; "Dream Land"; "The Advantages of +Culture"; "Forms of Political Government Compared and Contrasted"; +"Melancholy"; "Filial Love"; "Heart Longings," etc., etc. + +A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and petted +melancholy; another was a wasteful and opulent gush of "fine language"; +another was a tendency to lug in by the ears particularly prized words +and phrases until they were worn entirely out; and a peculiarity that +conspicuously marked and marred them was the inveterate and intolerable +sermon that wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every one +of them. No matter what the subject might be, a brain-racking effort +was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and +religious mind could contemplate with edification. The glaring +insincerity of these sermons was not sufficient to compass the +banishment of the fashion from the schools, and it is not sufficient +to-day; it never will be sufficient while the world stands, perhaps. +There is no school in all our land where the young ladies do not feel +obliged to close their compositions with a sermon; and you will find +that the sermon of the most frivolous and the least religious girl in +the school is always the longest and the most relentlessly pious. But +enough of this. Homely truth is unpalatable. + +Let us return to the "Examination." The first composition that was +read was one entitled "Is this, then, Life?" Perhaps the reader can +endure an extract from it: + + "In the common walks of life, with what delightful + emotions does the youthful mind look forward to some + anticipated scene of festivity! Imagination is busy + sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the + voluptuous votary of fashion sees herself amid the + festive throng, 'the observed of all observers.' Her + graceful form, arrayed in snowy robes, is whirling + through the mazes of the joyous dance; her eye is + brightest, her step is lightest in the gay assembly. + + "In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by, + and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into + the Elysian world, of which she has had such bright + dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to + her enchanted vision! Each new scene is more charming + than the last. But after a while she finds that + beneath this goodly exterior, all is vanity, the + flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates + harshly upon her ear; the ball-room has lost its + charms; and with wasted health and imbittered heart, + she turns away with the conviction that earthly + pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul!" + +And so forth and so on. There was a buzz of gratification from time to +time during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of "How +sweet!" "How eloquent!" "So true!" etc., and after the thing had closed +with a peculiarly afflicting sermon the applause was enthusiastic. + +Then arose a slim, melancholy girl, whose face had the "interesting" +paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read a "poem." Two +stanzas of it will do: + + "A MISSOURI MAIDEN'S FAREWELL TO ALABAMA + + "Alabama, good-bye! I love thee well! + But yet for a while do I leave thee now! + Sad, yes, sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell, + And burning recollections throng my brow! + For I have wandered through thy flowery woods; + Have roamed and read near Tallapoosa's stream; + Have listened to Tallassee's warring floods, + And wooed on Coosa's side Aurora's beam. + + "Yet shame I not to bear an o'er-full heart, + Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes; + 'Tis from no stranger land I now must part, + 'Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs. + Welcome and home were mine within this State, + Whose vales I leave--whose spires fade fast from me + And cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and tete, + When, dear Alabama! they turn cold on thee!" + +There were very few there who knew what "tete" meant, but the poem was +very satisfactory, nevertheless. + +Next appeared a dark-complexioned, black-eyed, black-haired young +lady, who paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic expression, and +began to read in a measured, solemn tone: + + "A VISION + + "Dark and tempestuous was night. Around the + throne on high not a single star quivered; but + the deep intonations of the heavy thunder + constantly vibrated upon the ear; whilst the + terrific lightning revelled in angry mood + through the cloudy chambers of heaven, seeming + to scorn the power exerted over its terror by + the illustrious Franklin! Even the boisterous + winds unanimously came forth from their mystic + homes, and blustered about as if to enhance by + their aid the wildness of the scene. + + "At such a time, so dark, so dreary, for human + sympathy my very spirit sighed; but instead thereof, + + "'My dearest friend, my counsellor, my comforter + and guide--My joy in grief, my second bliss + in joy,' came to my side. She moved like one of + those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks + of fancy's Eden by the romantic and young, a + queen of beauty unadorned save by her own + transcendent loveliness. So soft was her step, it + failed to make even a sound, and but for the + magical thrill imparted by her genial touch, as + other unobtrusive beauties, she would have glided + away un-perceived--unsought. A strange sadness + rested upon her features, like icy tears upon + the robe of December, as she pointed to the + contending elements without, and bade me contemplate + the two beings presented." + +This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with +a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took +the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest +effort of the evening. The mayor of the village, in delivering the +prize to the author of it, made a warm speech in which he said that it +was by far the most "eloquent" thing he had ever listened to, and that +Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it. + +It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in +which the word "beauteous" was over-fondled, and human experience +referred to as "life's page," was up to the usual average. + +Now the master, mellow almost to the verge of geniality, put his chair +aside, turned his back to the audience, and began to draw a map of +America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he +made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered +titter rippled over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set +himself to right it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only +distorted them more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced. +He threw his entire attention upon his work, now, as if determined not +to be put down by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon +him; he imagined he was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it +even manifestly increased. And well it might. There was a garret above, +pierced with a scuttle over his head; and down through this scuttle +came a cat, suspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag +tied about her head and jaws to keep her from mewing; as she slowly +descended she curved upward and clawed at the string, she swung +downward and clawed at the intangible air. The tittering rose higher +and higher--the cat was within six inches of the absorbed teacher's +head--down, down, a little lower, and she grabbed his wig with her +desperate claws, clung to it, and was snatched up into the garret in an +instant with her trophy still in her possession! And how the light did +blaze abroad from the master's bald pate--for the sign-painter's boy +had GILDED it! + +That broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged. Vacation had come. + + NOTE:--The pretended "compositions" quoted in + this chapter are taken without alteration from a + volume entitled "Prose and Poetry, by a Western + Lady"--but they are exactly and precisely after + the schoolgirl pattern, and hence are much + happier than any mere imitations could be. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TOM joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by +the showy character of their "regalia." He promised to abstain from +smoking, chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he +found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the +surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very +thing. Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and +swear; the desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a +chance to display himself in his red sash kept him from withdrawing +from the order. Fourth of July was coming; but he soon gave that up +--gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty-eight hours--and +fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was +apparently on his deathbed and would have a big public funeral, since +he was so high an official. During three days Tom was deeply concerned +about the Judge's condition and hungry for news of it. Sometimes his +hopes ran high--so high that he would venture to get out his regalia +and practise before the looking-glass. But the Judge had a most +discouraging way of fluctuating. At last he was pronounced upon the +mend--and then convalescent. Tom was disgusted; and felt a sense of +injury, too. He handed in his resignation at once--and that night the +Judge suffered a relapse and died. Tom resolved that he would never +trust a man like that again. + +The funeral was a fine thing. The Cadets paraded in a style calculated +to kill the late member with envy. Tom was a free boy again, however +--there was something in that. He could drink and swear, now--but found +to his surprise that he did not want to. The simple fact that he could, +took the desire away, and the charm of it. + +Tom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning +to hang a little heavily on his hands. + +He attempted a diary--but nothing happened during three days, and so +he abandoned it. + +The first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town, and made a +sensation. Tom and Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were +happy for two days. + +Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained +hard, there was no procession in consequence, and the greatest man in +the world (as Tom supposed), Mr. Benton, an actual United States +Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment--for he was not +twenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it. + +A circus came. The boys played circus for three days afterward in +tents made of rag carpeting--admission, three pins for boys, two for +girls--and then circusing was abandoned. + +A phrenologist and a mesmerizer came--and went again and left the +village duller and drearier than ever. + +There were some boys-and-girls' parties, but they were so few and so +delightful that they only made the aching voids between ache the harder. + +Becky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her +parents during vacation--so there was no bright side to life anywhere. + +The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery. It was a very +cancer for permanency and pain. + +Then came the measles. + +During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its +happenings. He was very ill, he was interested in nothing. When he got +upon his feet at last and moved feebly down-town, a melancholy change +had come over everything and every creature. There had been a +"revival," and everybody had "got religion," not only the adults, but +even the boys and girls. Tom went about, hoping against hope for the +sight of one blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him +everywhere. He found Joe Harper studying a Testament, and turned sadly +away from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben Rogers, and found him +visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He hunted up Jim Hollis, who +called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a +warning. Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression; +and when, in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of +Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural quotation, his +heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all +the town was lost, forever and forever. + +And that night there came on a terrific storm, with driving rain, +awful claps of thunder and blinding sheets of lightning. He covered his +head with the bedclothes and waited in a horror of suspense for his +doom; for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all this hubbub was +about him. He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above +to the extremity of endurance and that this was the result. It might +have seemed to him a waste of pomp and ammunition to kill a bug with a +battery of artillery, but there seemed nothing incongruous about the +getting up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock the turf +from under an insect like himself. + +By and by the tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its +object. The boy's first impulse was to be grateful, and reform. His +second was to wait--for there might not be any more storms. + +The next day the doctors were back; Tom had relapsed. The three weeks +he spent on his back this time seemed an entire age. When he got abroad +at last he was hardly grateful that he had been spared, remembering how +lonely was his estate, how companionless and forlorn he was. He drifted +listlessly down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge in a +juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder, in the presence of her +victim, a bird. He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a +stolen melon. Poor lads! they--like Tom--had suffered a relapse. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +AT last the sleepy atmosphere was stirred--and vigorously: the murder +trial came on in the court. It became the absorbing topic of village +talk immediately. Tom could not get away from it. Every reference to +the murder sent a shudder to his heart, for his troubled conscience and +fears almost persuaded him that these remarks were put forth in his +hearing as "feelers"; he did not see how he could be suspected of +knowing anything about the murder, but still he could not be +comfortable in the midst of this gossip. It kept him in a cold shiver +all the time. He took Huck to a lonely place to have a talk with him. +It would be some relief to unseal his tongue for a little while; to +divide his burden of distress with another sufferer. Moreover, he +wanted to assure himself that Huck had remained discreet. + +"Huck, have you ever told anybody about--that?" + +"'Bout what?" + +"You know what." + +"Oh--'course I haven't." + +"Never a word?" + +"Never a solitary word, so help me. What makes you ask?" + +"Well, I was afeard." + +"Why, Tom Sawyer, we wouldn't be alive two days if that got found out. +YOU know that." + +Tom felt more comfortable. After a pause: + +"Huck, they couldn't anybody get you to tell, could they?" + +"Get me to tell? Why, if I wanted that half-breed devil to drownd me +they could get me to tell. They ain't no different way." + +"Well, that's all right, then. I reckon we're safe as long as we keep +mum. But let's swear again, anyway. It's more surer." + +"I'm agreed." + +So they swore again with dread solemnities. + +"What is the talk around, Huck? I've heard a power of it." + +"Talk? Well, it's just Muff Potter, Muff Potter, Muff Potter all the +time. It keeps me in a sweat, constant, so's I want to hide som'ers." + +"That's just the same way they go on round me. I reckon he's a goner. +Don't you feel sorry for him, sometimes?" + +"Most always--most always. He ain't no account; but then he hain't +ever done anything to hurt anybody. Just fishes a little, to get money +to get drunk on--and loafs around considerable; but lord, we all do +that--leastways most of us--preachers and such like. But he's kind of +good--he give me half a fish, once, when there warn't enough for two; +and lots of times he's kind of stood by me when I was out of luck." + +"Well, he's mended kites for me, Huck, and knitted hooks on to my +line. I wish we could get him out of there." + +"My! we couldn't get him out, Tom. And besides, 'twouldn't do any +good; they'd ketch him again." + +"Yes--so they would. But I hate to hear 'em abuse him so like the +dickens when he never done--that." + +"I do too, Tom. Lord, I hear 'em say he's the bloodiest looking +villain in this country, and they wonder he wasn't ever hung before." + +"Yes, they talk like that, all the time. I've heard 'em say that if he +was to get free they'd lynch him." + +"And they'd do it, too." + +The boys had a long talk, but it brought them little comfort. As the +twilight drew on, they found themselves hanging about the neighborhood +of the little isolated jail, perhaps with an undefined hope that +something would happen that might clear away their difficulties. But +nothing happened; there seemed to be no angels or fairies interested in +this luckless captive. + +The boys did as they had often done before--went to the cell grating +and gave Potter some tobacco and matches. He was on the ground floor +and there were no guards. + +His gratitude for their gifts had always smote their consciences +before--it cut deeper than ever, this time. They felt cowardly and +treacherous to the last degree when Potter said: + +"You've been mighty good to me, boys--better'n anybody else in this +town. And I don't forget it, I don't. Often I says to myself, says I, +'I used to mend all the boys' kites and things, and show 'em where the +good fishin' places was, and befriend 'em what I could, and now they've +all forgot old Muff when he's in trouble; but Tom don't, and Huck +don't--THEY don't forget him, says I, 'and I don't forget them.' Well, +boys, I done an awful thing--drunk and crazy at the time--that's the +only way I account for it--and now I got to swing for it, and it's +right. Right, and BEST, too, I reckon--hope so, anyway. Well, we won't +talk about that. I don't want to make YOU feel bad; you've befriended +me. But what I want to say, is, don't YOU ever get drunk--then you won't +ever get here. Stand a litter furder west--so--that's it; it's a prime +comfort to see faces that's friendly when a body's in such a muck of +trouble, and there don't none come here but yourn. Good friendly +faces--good friendly faces. Git up on one another's backs and let me +touch 'em. That's it. Shake hands--yourn'll come through the bars, but +mine's too big. Little hands, and weak--but they've helped Muff Potter +a power, and they'd help him more if they could." + +Tom went home miserable, and his dreams that night were full of +horrors. The next day and the day after, he hung about the court-room, +drawn by an almost irresistible impulse to go in, but forcing himself +to stay out. Huck was having the same experience. They studiously +avoided each other. Each wandered away, from time to time, but the same +dismal fascination always brought them back presently. Tom kept his +ears open when idlers sauntered out of the court-room, but invariably +heard distressing news--the toils were closing more and more +relentlessly around poor Potter. At the end of the second day the +village talk was to the effect that Injun Joe's evidence stood firm and +unshaken, and that there was not the slightest question as to what the +jury's verdict would be. + +Tom was out late, that night, and came to bed through the window. He +was in a tremendous state of excitement. It was hours before he got to +sleep. All the village flocked to the court-house the next morning, for +this was to be the great day. Both sexes were about equally represented +in the packed audience. After a long wait the jury filed in and took +their places; shortly afterward, Potter, pale and haggard, timid and +hopeless, was brought in, with chains upon him, and seated where all +the curious eyes could stare at him; no less conspicuous was Injun Joe, +stolid as ever. There was another pause, and then the judge arrived and +the sheriff proclaimed the opening of the court. The usual whisperings +among the lawyers and gathering together of papers followed. These +details and accompanying delays worked up an atmosphere of preparation +that was as impressive as it was fascinating. + +Now a witness was called who testified that he found Muff Potter +washing in the brook, at an early hour of the morning that the murder +was discovered, and that he immediately sneaked away. After some +further questioning, counsel for the prosecution said: + +"Take the witness." + +The prisoner raised his eyes for a moment, but dropped them again when +his own counsel said: + +"I have no questions to ask him." + +The next witness proved the finding of the knife near the corpse. +Counsel for the prosecution said: + +"Take the witness." + +"I have no questions to ask him," Potter's lawyer replied. + +A third witness swore he had often seen the knife in Potter's +possession. + +"Take the witness." + +Counsel for Potter declined to question him. The faces of the audience +began to betray annoyance. Did this attorney mean to throw away his +client's life without an effort? + +Several witnesses deposed concerning Potter's guilty behavior when +brought to the scene of the murder. They were allowed to leave the +stand without being cross-questioned. + +Every detail of the damaging circumstances that occurred in the +graveyard upon that morning which all present remembered so well was +brought out by credible witnesses, but none of them were cross-examined +by Potter's lawyer. The perplexity and dissatisfaction of the house +expressed itself in murmurs and provoked a reproof from the bench. +Counsel for the prosecution now said: + +"By the oaths of citizens whose simple word is above suspicion, we +have fastened this awful crime, beyond all possibility of question, +upon the unhappy prisoner at the bar. We rest our case here." + +A groan escaped from poor Potter, and he put his face in his hands and +rocked his body softly to and fro, while a painful silence reigned in +the court-room. Many men were moved, and many women's compassion +testified itself in tears. Counsel for the defence rose and said: + +"Your honor, in our remarks at the opening of this trial, we +foreshadowed our purpose to prove that our client did this fearful deed +while under the influence of a blind and irresponsible delirium +produced by drink. We have changed our mind. We shall not offer that +plea." [Then to the clerk:] "Call Thomas Sawyer!" + +A puzzled amazement awoke in every face in the house, not even +excepting Potter's. Every eye fastened itself with wondering interest +upon Tom as he rose and took his place upon the stand. The boy looked +wild enough, for he was badly scared. The oath was administered. + +"Thomas Sawyer, where were you on the seventeenth of June, about the +hour of midnight?" + +Tom glanced at Injun Joe's iron face and his tongue failed him. The +audience listened breathless, but the words refused to come. After a +few moments, however, the boy got a little of his strength back, and +managed to put enough of it into his voice to make part of the house +hear: + +"In the graveyard!" + +"A little bit louder, please. Don't be afraid. You were--" + +"In the graveyard." + +A contemptuous smile flitted across Injun Joe's face. + +"Were you anywhere near Horse Williams' grave?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Speak up--just a trifle louder. How near were you?" + +"Near as I am to you." + +"Were you hidden, or not?" + +"I was hid." + +"Where?" + +"Behind the elms that's on the edge of the grave." + +Injun Joe gave a barely perceptible start. + +"Any one with you?" + +"Yes, sir. I went there with--" + +"Wait--wait a moment. Never mind mentioning your companion's name. We +will produce him at the proper time. Did you carry anything there with +you." + +Tom hesitated and looked confused. + +"Speak out, my boy--don't be diffident. The truth is always +respectable. What did you take there?" + +"Only a--a--dead cat." + +There was a ripple of mirth, which the court checked. + +"We will produce the skeleton of that cat. Now, my boy, tell us +everything that occurred--tell it in your own way--don't skip anything, +and don't be afraid." + +Tom began--hesitatingly at first, but as he warmed to his subject his +words flowed more and more easily; in a little while every sound ceased +but his own voice; every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips +and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note of +time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale. The strain upon +pent emotion reached its climax when the boy said: + +"--and as the doctor fetched the board around and Muff Potter fell, +Injun Joe jumped with the knife and--" + +Crash! Quick as lightning the half-breed sprang for a window, tore his +way through all opposers, and was gone! + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +TOM was a glittering hero once more--the pet of the old, the envy of +the young. His name even went into immortal print, for the village +paper magnified him. There were some that believed he would be +President, yet, if he escaped hanging. + +As usual, the fickle, unreasoning world took Muff Potter to its bosom +and fondled him as lavishly as it had abused him before. But that sort +of conduct is to the world's credit; therefore it is not well to find +fault with it. + +Tom's days were days of splendor and exultation to him, but his nights +were seasons of horror. Injun Joe infested all his dreams, and always +with doom in his eye. Hardly any temptation could persuade the boy to +stir abroad after nightfall. Poor Huck was in the same state of +wretchedness and terror, for Tom had told the whole story to the lawyer +the night before the great day of the trial, and Huck was sore afraid +that his share in the business might leak out, yet, notwithstanding +Injun Joe's flight had saved him the suffering of testifying in court. +The poor fellow had got the attorney to promise secrecy, but what of +that? Since Tom's harassed conscience had managed to drive him to the +lawyer's house by night and wring a dread tale from lips that had been +sealed with the dismalest and most formidable of oaths, Huck's +confidence in the human race was well-nigh obliterated. + +Daily Muff Potter's gratitude made Tom glad he had spoken; but nightly +he wished he had sealed up his tongue. + +Half the time Tom was afraid Injun Joe would never be captured; the +other half he was afraid he would be. He felt sure he never could draw +a safe breath again until that man was dead and he had seen the corpse. + +Rewards had been offered, the country had been scoured, but no Injun +Joe was found. One of those omniscient and awe-inspiring marvels, a +detective, came up from St. Louis, moused around, shook his head, +looked wise, and made that sort of astounding success which members of +that craft usually achieve. That is to say, he "found a clew." But you +can't hang a "clew" for murder, and so after that detective had got +through and gone home, Tom felt just as insecure as he was before. + +The slow days drifted on, and each left behind it a slightly lightened +weight of apprehension. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THERE comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy's life when he has +a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This +desire suddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe +Harper, but failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone +fishing. Presently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck +would answer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to +him confidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take a +hand in any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no +capital, for he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time +which is not money. "Where'll we dig?" said Huck. + +"Oh, most anywhere." + +"Why, is it hid all around?" + +"No, indeed it ain't. It's hid in mighty particular places, Huck +--sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of a +limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but +mostly under the floor in ha'nted houses." + +"Who hides it?" + +"Why, robbers, of course--who'd you reckon? Sunday-school +sup'rintendents?" + +"I don't know. If 'twas mine I wouldn't hide it; I'd spend it and have +a good time." + +"So would I. But robbers don't do that way. They always hide it and +leave it there." + +"Don't they come after it any more?" + +"No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or +else they die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by +and by somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the +marks--a paper that's got to be ciphered over about a week because it's +mostly signs and hy'roglyphics." + +"Hyro--which?" + +"Hy'roglyphics--pictures and things, you know, that don't seem to mean +anything." + +"Have you got one of them papers, Tom?" + +"No." + +"Well then, how you going to find the marks?" + +"I don't want any marks. They always bury it under a ha'nted house or +on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out. +Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it again +some time; and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch, +and there's lots of dead-limb trees--dead loads of 'em." + +"Is it under all of them?" + +"How you talk! No!" + +"Then how you going to know which one to go for?" + +"Go for all of 'em!" + +"Why, Tom, it'll take all summer." + +"Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred +dollars in it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di'monds. +How's that?" + +Huck's eyes glowed. + +"That's bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundred +dollars and I don't want no di'monds." + +"All right. But I bet you I ain't going to throw off on di'monds. Some +of 'em's worth twenty dollars apiece--there ain't any, hardly, but's +worth six bits or a dollar." + +"No! Is that so?" + +"Cert'nly--anybody'll tell you so. Hain't you ever seen one, Huck?" + +"Not as I remember." + +"Oh, kings have slathers of them." + +"Well, I don' know no kings, Tom." + +"I reckon you don't. But if you was to go to Europe you'd see a raft +of 'em hopping around." + +"Do they hop?" + +"Hop?--your granny! No!" + +"Well, what did you say they did, for?" + +"Shucks, I only meant you'd SEE 'em--not hopping, of course--what do +they want to hop for?--but I mean you'd just see 'em--scattered around, +you know, in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard." + +"Richard? What's his other name?" + +"He didn't have any other name. Kings don't have any but a given name." + +"No?" + +"But they don't." + +"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want to be a king +and have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say--where you +going to dig first?" + +"Well, I don't know. S'pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on the +hill t'other side of Still-House branch?" + +"I'm agreed." + +So they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on their +three-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselves +down in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke. + +"I like this," said Tom. + +"So do I." + +"Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your +share?" + +"Well, I'll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I'll go to +every circus that comes along. I bet I'll have a gay time." + +"Well, ain't you going to save any of it?" + +"Save it? What for?" + +"Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by." + +"Oh, that ain't any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town some +day and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you he'd +clean it out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?" + +"I'm going to buy a new drum, and a sure-'nough sword, and a red +necktie and a bull pup, and get married." + +"Married!" + +"That's it." + +"Tom, you--why, you ain't in your right mind." + +"Wait--you'll see." + +"Well, that's the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and my +mother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mighty +well." + +"That ain't anything. The girl I'm going to marry won't fight." + +"Tom, I reckon they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now you +better think 'bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What's the name +of the gal?" + +"It ain't a gal at all--it's a girl." + +"It's all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl--both's +right, like enough. Anyway, what's her name, Tom?" + +"I'll tell you some time--not now." + +"All right--that'll do. Only if you get married I'll be more lonesomer +than ever." + +"No you won't. You'll come and live with me. Now stir out of this and +we'll go to digging." + +They worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiled +another half-hour. Still no result. Huck said: + +"Do they always bury it as deep as this?" + +"Sometimes--not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven't got the +right place." + +So they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little, +but still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for some +time. Finally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops from +his brow with his sleeve, and said: + +"Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?" + +"I reckon maybe we'll tackle the old tree that's over yonder on +Cardiff Hill back of the widow's." + +"I reckon that'll be a good one. But won't the widow take it away from +us, Tom? It's on her land." + +"SHE take it away! Maybe she'd like to try it once. Whoever finds one +of these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don't make any difference +whose land it's on." + +That was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said: + +"Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?" + +"It is mighty curious, Huck. I don't understand it. Sometimes witches +interfere. I reckon maybe that's what's the trouble now." + +"Shucks! Witches ain't got no power in the daytime." + +"Well, that's so. I didn't think of that. Oh, I know what the matter +is! What a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the +shadow of the limb falls at midnight, and that's where you dig!" + +"Then consound it, we've fooled away all this work for nothing. Now +hang it all, we got to come back in the night. It's an awful long way. +Can you get out?" + +"I bet I will. We've got to do it to-night, too, because if somebody +sees these holes they'll know in a minute what's here and they'll go +for it." + +"Well, I'll come around and maow to-night." + +"All right. Let's hide the tools in the bushes." + +The boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat in +the shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn by +old traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurked +in the murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the +distance, an owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were +subdued by these solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judged +that twelve had come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began to +dig. Their hopes commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, and +their industry kept pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened, +but every time their hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon +something, they only suffered a new disappointment. It was only a stone +or a chunk. At last Tom said: + +"It ain't any use, Huck, we're wrong again." + +"Well, but we CAN'T be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot." + +"I know it, but then there's another thing." + +"What's that?". + +"Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or too +early." + +Huck dropped his shovel. + +"That's it," said he. "That's the very trouble. We got to give this +one up. We can't ever tell the right time, and besides this kind of +thing's too awful, here this time of night with witches and ghosts +a-fluttering around so. I feel as if something's behind me all the time; +and I'm afeard to turn around, becuz maybe there's others in front +a-waiting for a chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here." + +"Well, I've been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in a +dead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it." + +"Lordy!" + +"Yes, they do. I've always heard that." + +"Tom, I don't like to fool around much where there's dead people. A +body's bound to get into trouble with 'em, sure." + +"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one here was to +stick his skull out and say something!" + +"Don't Tom! It's awful." + +"Well, it just is. Huck, I don't feel comfortable a bit." + +"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try somewheres else." + +"All right, I reckon we better." + +"What'll it be?" + +Tom considered awhile; and then said: + +"The ha'nted house. That's it!" + +"Blame it, I don't like ha'nted houses, Tom. Why, they're a dern sight +worse'n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don't come +sliding around in a shroud, when you ain't noticing, and peep over your +shoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. I +couldn't stand such a thing as that, Tom--nobody could." + +"Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don't travel around only at night. They won't +hender us from digging there in the daytime." + +"Well, that's so. But you know mighty well people don't go about that +ha'nted house in the day nor the night." + +"Well, that's mostly because they don't like to go where a man's been +murdered, anyway--but nothing's ever been seen around that house except +in the night--just some blue lights slipping by the windows--no regular +ghosts." + +"Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom, +you can bet there's a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands to +reason. Becuz you know that they don't anybody but ghosts use 'em." + +"Yes, that's so. But anyway they don't come around in the daytime, so +what's the use of our being afeard?" + +"Well, all right. We'll tackle the ha'nted house if you say so--but I +reckon it's taking chances." + +They had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of +the moonlit valley below them stood the "ha'nted" house, utterly +isolated, its fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very +doorsteps, the chimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a +corner of the roof caved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting to +see a blue light flit past a window; then talking in a low tone, as +befitted the time and the circumstances, they struck far off to the +right, to give the haunted house a wide berth, and took their way +homeward through the woods that adorned the rearward side of Cardiff +Hill. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ABOUT noon the next day the boys arrived at the dead tree; they had +come for their tools. Tom was impatient to go to the haunted house; +Huck was measurably so, also--but suddenly said: + +"Lookyhere, Tom, do you know what day it is?" + +Tom mentally ran over the days of the week, and then quickly lifted +his eyes with a startled look in them-- + +"My! I never once thought of it, Huck!" + +"Well, I didn't neither, but all at once it popped onto me that it was +Friday." + +"Blame it, a body can't be too careful, Huck. We might 'a' got into an +awful scrape, tackling such a thing on a Friday." + +"MIGHT! Better say we WOULD! There's some lucky days, maybe, but +Friday ain't." + +"Any fool knows that. I don't reckon YOU was the first that found it +out, Huck." + +"Well, I never said I was, did I? And Friday ain't all, neither. I had +a rotten bad dream last night--dreampt about rats." + +"No! Sure sign of trouble. Did they fight?" + +"No." + +"Well, that's good, Huck. When they don't fight it's only a sign that +there's trouble around, you know. All we got to do is to look mighty +sharp and keep out of it. We'll drop this thing for to-day, and play. +Do you know Robin Hood, Huck?" + +"No. Who's Robin Hood?" + +"Why, he was one of the greatest men that was ever in England--and the +best. He was a robber." + +"Cracky, I wisht I was. Who did he rob?" + +"Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like. +But he never bothered the poor. He loved 'em. He always divided up with +'em perfectly square." + +"Well, he must 'a' been a brick." + +"I bet you he was, Huck. Oh, he was the noblest man that ever was. +They ain't any such men now, I can tell you. He could lick any man in +England, with one hand tied behind him; and he could take his yew bow +and plug a ten-cent piece every time, a mile and a half." + +"What's a YEW bow?" + +"I don't know. It's some kind of a bow, of course. And if he hit that +dime only on the edge he would set down and cry--and curse. But we'll +play Robin Hood--it's nobby fun. I'll learn you." + +"I'm agreed." + +So they played Robin Hood all the afternoon, now and then casting a +yearning eye down upon the haunted house and passing a remark about the +morrow's prospects and possibilities there. As the sun began to sink +into the west they took their way homeward athwart the long shadows of +the trees and soon were buried from sight in the forests of Cardiff +Hill. + +On Saturday, shortly after noon, the boys were at the dead tree again. +They had a smoke and a chat in the shade, and then dug a little in +their last hole, not with great hope, but merely because Tom said there +were so many cases where people had given up a treasure after getting +down within six inches of it, and then somebody else had come along and +turned it up with a single thrust of a shovel. The thing failed this +time, however, so the boys shouldered their tools and went away feeling +that they had not trifled with fortune, but had fulfilled all the +requirements that belong to the business of treasure-hunting. + +When they reached the haunted house there was something so weird and +grisly about the dead silence that reigned there under the baking sun, +and something so depressing about the loneliness and desolation of the +place, that they were afraid, for a moment, to venture in. Then they +crept to the door and took a trembling peep. They saw a weed-grown, +floorless room, unplastered, an ancient fireplace, vacant windows, a +ruinous staircase; and here, there, and everywhere hung ragged and +abandoned cobwebs. They presently entered, softly, with quickened +pulses, talking in whispers, ears alert to catch the slightest sound, +and muscles tense and ready for instant retreat. + +In a little while familiarity modified their fears and they gave the +place a critical and interested examination, rather admiring their own +boldness, and wondering at it, too. Next they wanted to look up-stairs. +This was something like cutting off retreat, but they got to daring +each other, and of course there could be but one result--they threw +their tools into a corner and made the ascent. Up there were the same +signs of decay. In one corner they found a closet that promised +mystery, but the promise was a fraud--there was nothing in it. Their +courage was up now and well in hand. They were about to go down and +begin work when-- + +"Sh!" said Tom. + +"What is it?" whispered Huck, blanching with fright. + +"Sh!... There!... Hear it?" + +"Yes!... Oh, my! Let's run!" + +"Keep still! Don't you budge! They're coming right toward the door." + +The boys stretched themselves upon the floor with their eyes to +knot-holes in the planking, and lay waiting, in a misery of fear. + +"They've stopped.... No--coming.... Here they are. Don't whisper +another word, Huck. My goodness, I wish I was out of this!" + +Two men entered. Each boy said to himself: "There's the old deaf and +dumb Spaniard that's been about town once or twice lately--never saw +t'other man before." + +"T'other" was a ragged, unkempt creature, with nothing very pleasant +in his face. The Spaniard was wrapped in a serape; he had bushy white +whiskers; long white hair flowed from under his sombrero, and he wore +green goggles. When they came in, "t'other" was talking in a low voice; +they sat down on the ground, facing the door, with their backs to the +wall, and the speaker continued his remarks. His manner became less +guarded and his words more distinct as he proceeded: + +"No," said he, "I've thought it all over, and I don't like it. It's +dangerous." + +"Dangerous!" grunted the "deaf and dumb" Spaniard--to the vast +surprise of the boys. "Milksop!" + +This voice made the boys gasp and quake. It was Injun Joe's! There was +silence for some time. Then Joe said: + +"What's any more dangerous than that job up yonder--but nothing's come +of it." + +"That's different. Away up the river so, and not another house about. +'Twon't ever be known that we tried, anyway, long as we didn't succeed." + +"Well, what's more dangerous than coming here in the daytime!--anybody +would suspicion us that saw us." + +"I know that. But there warn't any other place as handy after that +fool of a job. I want to quit this shanty. I wanted to yesterday, only +it warn't any use trying to stir out of here, with those infernal boys +playing over there on the hill right in full view." + +"Those infernal boys" quaked again under the inspiration of this +remark, and thought how lucky it was that they had remembered it was +Friday and concluded to wait a day. They wished in their hearts they +had waited a year. + +The two men got out some food and made a luncheon. After a long and +thoughtful silence, Injun Joe said: + +"Look here, lad--you go back up the river where you belong. Wait there +till you hear from me. I'll take the chances on dropping into this town +just once more, for a look. We'll do that 'dangerous' job after I've +spied around a little and think things look well for it. Then for +Texas! We'll leg it together!" + +This was satisfactory. Both men presently fell to yawning, and Injun +Joe said: + +"I'm dead for sleep! It's your turn to watch." + +He curled down in the weeds and soon began to snore. His comrade +stirred him once or twice and he became quiet. Presently the watcher +began to nod; his head drooped lower and lower, both men began to snore +now. + +The boys drew a long, grateful breath. Tom whispered: + +"Now's our chance--come!" + +Huck said: + +"I can't--I'd die if they was to wake." + +Tom urged--Huck held back. At last Tom rose slowly and softly, and +started alone. But the first step he made wrung such a hideous creak +from the crazy floor that he sank down almost dead with fright. He +never made a second attempt. The boys lay there counting the dragging +moments till it seemed to them that time must be done and eternity +growing gray; and then they were grateful to note that at last the sun +was setting. + +Now one snore ceased. Injun Joe sat up, stared around--smiled grimly +upon his comrade, whose head was drooping upon his knees--stirred him +up with his foot and said: + +"Here! YOU'RE a watchman, ain't you! All right, though--nothing's +happened." + +"My! have I been asleep?" + +"Oh, partly, partly. Nearly time for us to be moving, pard. What'll we +do with what little swag we've got left?" + +"I don't know--leave it here as we've always done, I reckon. No use to +take it away till we start south. Six hundred and fifty in silver's +something to carry." + +"Well--all right--it won't matter to come here once more." + +"No--but I'd say come in the night as we used to do--it's better." + +"Yes: but look here; it may be a good while before I get the right +chance at that job; accidents might happen; 'tain't in such a very good +place; we'll just regularly bury it--and bury it deep." + +"Good idea," said the comrade, who walked across the room, knelt down, +raised one of the rearward hearth-stones and took out a bag that +jingled pleasantly. He subtracted from it twenty or thirty dollars for +himself and as much for Injun Joe, and passed the bag to the latter, +who was on his knees in the corner, now, digging with his bowie-knife. + +The boys forgot all their fears, all their miseries in an instant. +With gloating eyes they watched every movement. Luck!--the splendor of +it was beyond all imagination! Six hundred dollars was money enough to +make half a dozen boys rich! Here was treasure-hunting under the +happiest auspices--there would not be any bothersome uncertainty as to +where to dig. They nudged each other every moment--eloquent nudges and +easily understood, for they simply meant--"Oh, but ain't you glad NOW +we're here!" + +Joe's knife struck upon something. + +"Hello!" said he. + +"What is it?" said his comrade. + +"Half-rotten plank--no, it's a box, I believe. Here--bear a hand and +we'll see what it's here for. Never mind, I've broke a hole." + +He reached his hand in and drew it out-- + +"Man, it's money!" + +The two men examined the handful of coins. They were gold. The boys +above were as excited as themselves, and as delighted. + +Joe's comrade said: + +"We'll make quick work of this. There's an old rusty pick over amongst +the weeds in the corner the other side of the fireplace--I saw it a +minute ago." + +He ran and brought the boys' pick and shovel. Injun Joe took the pick, +looked it over critically, shook his head, muttered something to +himself, and then began to use it. The box was soon unearthed. It was +not very large; it was iron bound and had been very strong before the +slow years had injured it. The men contemplated the treasure awhile in +blissful silence. + +"Pard, there's thousands of dollars here," said Injun Joe. + +"'Twas always said that Murrel's gang used to be around here one +summer," the stranger observed. + +"I know it," said Injun Joe; "and this looks like it, I should say." + +"Now you won't need to do that job." + +The half-breed frowned. Said he: + +"You don't know me. Least you don't know all about that thing. 'Tain't +robbery altogether--it's REVENGE!" and a wicked light flamed in his +eyes. "I'll need your help in it. When it's finished--then Texas. Go +home to your Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me." + +"Well--if you say so; what'll we do with this--bury it again?" + +"Yes. [Ravishing delight overhead.] NO! by the great Sachem, no! +[Profound distress overhead.] I'd nearly forgot. That pick had fresh +earth on it! [The boys were sick with terror in a moment.] What +business has a pick and a shovel here? What business with fresh earth +on them? Who brought them here--and where are they gone? Have you heard +anybody?--seen anybody? What! bury it again and leave them to come and +see the ground disturbed? Not exactly--not exactly. We'll take it to my +den." + +"Why, of course! Might have thought of that before. You mean Number +One?" + +"No--Number Two--under the cross. The other place is bad--too common." + +"All right. It's nearly dark enough to start." + +Injun Joe got up and went about from window to window cautiously +peeping out. Presently he said: + +"Who could have brought those tools here? Do you reckon they can be +up-stairs?" + +The boys' breath forsook them. Injun Joe put his hand on his knife, +halted a moment, undecided, and then turned toward the stairway. The +boys thought of the closet, but their strength was gone. The steps came +creaking up the stairs--the intolerable distress of the situation woke +the stricken resolution of the lads--they were about to spring for the +closet, when there was a crash of rotten timbers and Injun Joe landed +on the ground amid the debris of the ruined stairway. He gathered +himself up cursing, and his comrade said: + +"Now what's the use of all that? If it's anybody, and they're up +there, let them STAY there--who cares? If they want to jump down, now, +and get into trouble, who objects? It will be dark in fifteen minutes +--and then let them follow us if they want to. I'm willing. In my +opinion, whoever hove those things in here caught a sight of us and +took us for ghosts or devils or something. I'll bet they're running +yet." + +Joe grumbled awhile; then he agreed with his friend that what daylight +was left ought to be economized in getting things ready for leaving. +Shortly afterward they slipped out of the house in the deepening +twilight, and moved toward the river with their precious box. + +Tom and Huck rose up, weak but vastly relieved, and stared after them +through the chinks between the logs of the house. Follow? Not they. +They were content to reach ground again without broken necks, and take +the townward track over the hill. They did not talk much. They were too +much absorbed in hating themselves--hating the ill luck that made them +take the spade and the pick there. But for that, Injun Joe never would +have suspected. He would have hidden the silver with the gold to wait +there till his "revenge" was satisfied, and then he would have had the +misfortune to find that money turn up missing. Bitter, bitter luck that +the tools were ever brought there! + +They resolved to keep a lookout for that Spaniard when he should come +to town spying out for chances to do his revengeful job, and follow him +to "Number Two," wherever that might be. Then a ghastly thought +occurred to Tom. + +"Revenge? What if he means US, Huck!" + +"Oh, don't!" said Huck, nearly fainting. + +They talked it all over, and as they entered town they agreed to +believe that he might possibly mean somebody else--at least that he +might at least mean nobody but Tom, since only Tom had testified. + +Very, very small comfort it was to Tom to be alone in danger! Company +would be a palpable improvement, he thought. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE adventure of the day mightily tormented Tom's dreams that night. +Four times he had his hands on that rich treasure and four times it +wasted to nothingness in his fingers as sleep forsook him and +wakefulness brought back the hard reality of his misfortune. As he lay +in the early morning recalling the incidents of his great adventure, he +noticed that they seemed curiously subdued and far away--somewhat as if +they had happened in another world, or in a time long gone by. Then it +occurred to him that the great adventure itself must be a dream! There +was one very strong argument in favor of this idea--namely, that the +quantity of coin he had seen was too vast to be real. He had never seen +as much as fifty dollars in one mass before, and he was like all boys +of his age and station in life, in that he imagined that all references +to "hundreds" and "thousands" were mere fanciful forms of speech, and +that no such sums really existed in the world. He never had supposed +for a moment that so large a sum as a hundred dollars was to be found +in actual money in any one's possession. If his notions of hidden +treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of a +handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspable +dollars. + +But the incidents of his adventure grew sensibly sharper and clearer +under the attrition of thinking them over, and so he presently found +himself leaning to the impression that the thing might not have been a +dream, after all. This uncertainty must be swept away. He would snatch +a hurried breakfast and go and find Huck. Huck was sitting on the +gunwale of a flatboat, listlessly dangling his feet in the water and +looking very melancholy. Tom concluded to let Huck lead up to the +subject. If he did not do it, then the adventure would be proved to +have been only a dream. + +"Hello, Huck!" + +"Hello, yourself." + +Silence, for a minute. + +"Tom, if we'd 'a' left the blame tools at the dead tree, we'd 'a' got +the money. Oh, ain't it awful!" + +"'Tain't a dream, then, 'tain't a dream! Somehow I most wish it was. +Dog'd if I don't, Huck." + +"What ain't a dream?" + +"Oh, that thing yesterday. I been half thinking it was." + +"Dream! If them stairs hadn't broke down you'd 'a' seen how much dream +it was! I've had dreams enough all night--with that patch-eyed Spanish +devil going for me all through 'em--rot him!" + +"No, not rot him. FIND him! Track the money!" + +"Tom, we'll never find him. A feller don't have only one chance for +such a pile--and that one's lost. I'd feel mighty shaky if I was to see +him, anyway." + +"Well, so'd I; but I'd like to see him, anyway--and track him out--to +his Number Two." + +"Number Two--yes, that's it. I been thinking 'bout that. But I can't +make nothing out of it. What do you reckon it is?" + +"I dono. It's too deep. Say, Huck--maybe it's the number of a house!" + +"Goody!... No, Tom, that ain't it. If it is, it ain't in this +one-horse town. They ain't no numbers here." + +"Well, that's so. Lemme think a minute. Here--it's the number of a +room--in a tavern, you know!" + +"Oh, that's the trick! They ain't only two taverns. We can find out +quick." + +"You stay here, Huck, till I come." + +Tom was off at once. He did not care to have Huck's company in public +places. He was gone half an hour. He found that in the best tavern, No. +2 had long been occupied by a young lawyer, and was still so occupied. +In the less ostentatious house, No. 2 was a mystery. The +tavern-keeper's young son said it was kept locked all the time, and he +never saw anybody go into it or come out of it except at night; he did +not know any particular reason for this state of things; had had some +little curiosity, but it was rather feeble; had made the most of the +mystery by entertaining himself with the idea that that room was +"ha'nted"; had noticed that there was a light in there the night before. + +"That's what I've found out, Huck. I reckon that's the very No. 2 +we're after." + +"I reckon it is, Tom. Now what you going to do?" + +"Lemme think." + +Tom thought a long time. Then he said: + +"I'll tell you. The back door of that No. 2 is the door that comes out +into that little close alley between the tavern and the old rattle trap +of a brick store. Now you get hold of all the door-keys you can find, +and I'll nip all of auntie's, and the first dark night we'll go there +and try 'em. And mind you, keep a lookout for Injun Joe, because he +said he was going to drop into town and spy around once more for a +chance to get his revenge. If you see him, you just follow him; and if +he don't go to that No. 2, that ain't the place." + +"Lordy, I don't want to foller him by myself!" + +"Why, it'll be night, sure. He mightn't ever see you--and if he did, +maybe he'd never think anything." + +"Well, if it's pretty dark I reckon I'll track him. I dono--I dono. +I'll try." + +"You bet I'll follow him, if it's dark, Huck. Why, he might 'a' found +out he couldn't get his revenge, and be going right after that money." + +"It's so, Tom, it's so. I'll foller him; I will, by jingoes!" + +"Now you're TALKING! Don't you ever weaken, Huck, and I won't." + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THAT night Tom and Huck were ready for their adventure. They hung +about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the +alley at a distance and the other the tavern door. Nobody entered the +alley or left it; nobody resembling the Spaniard entered or left the +tavern door. The night promised to be a fair one; so Tom went home with +the understanding that if a considerable degree of darkness came on, +Huck was to come and "maow," whereupon he would slip out and try the +keys. But the night remained clear, and Huck closed his watch and +retired to bed in an empty sugar hogshead about twelve. + +Tuesday the boys had the same ill luck. Also Wednesday. But Thursday +night promised better. Tom slipped out in good season with his aunt's +old tin lantern, and a large towel to blindfold it with. He hid the +lantern in Huck's sugar hogshead and the watch began. An hour before +midnight the tavern closed up and its lights (the only ones +thereabouts) were put out. No Spaniard had been seen. Nobody had +entered or left the alley. Everything was auspicious. The blackness of +darkness reigned, the perfect stillness was interrupted only by +occasional mutterings of distant thunder. + +Tom got his lantern, lit it in the hogshead, wrapped it closely in the +towel, and the two adventurers crept in the gloom toward the tavern. +Huck stood sentry and Tom felt his way into the alley. Then there was a +season of waiting anxiety that weighed upon Huck's spirits like a +mountain. He began to wish he could see a flash from the lantern--it +would frighten him, but it would at least tell him that Tom was alive +yet. It seemed hours since Tom had disappeared. Surely he must have +fainted; maybe he was dead; maybe his heart had burst under terror and +excitement. In his uneasiness Huck found himself drawing closer and +closer to the alley; fearing all sorts of dreadful things, and +momentarily expecting some catastrophe to happen that would take away +his breath. There was not much to take away, for he seemed only able to +inhale it by thimblefuls, and his heart would soon wear itself out, the +way it was beating. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Tom came +tearing by him: "Run!" said he; "run, for your life!" + +He needn't have repeated it; once was enough; Huck was making thirty +or forty miles an hour before the repetition was uttered. The boys +never stopped till they reached the shed of a deserted slaughter-house +at the lower end of the village. Just as they got within its shelter +the storm burst and the rain poured down. As soon as Tom got his breath +he said: + +"Huck, it was awful! I tried two of the keys, just as soft as I could; +but they seemed to make such a power of racket that I couldn't hardly +get my breath I was so scared. They wouldn't turn in the lock, either. +Well, without noticing what I was doing, I took hold of the knob, and +open comes the door! It warn't locked! I hopped in, and shook off the +towel, and, GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!" + +"What!--what'd you see, Tom?" + +"Huck, I most stepped onto Injun Joe's hand!" + +"No!" + +"Yes! He was lying there, sound asleep on the floor, with his old +patch on his eye and his arms spread out." + +"Lordy, what did you do? Did he wake up?" + +"No, never budged. Drunk, I reckon. I just grabbed that towel and +started!" + +"I'd never 'a' thought of the towel, I bet!" + +"Well, I would. My aunt would make me mighty sick if I lost it." + +"Say, Tom, did you see that box?" + +"Huck, I didn't wait to look around. I didn't see the box, I didn't +see the cross. I didn't see anything but a bottle and a tin cup on the +floor by Injun Joe; yes, I saw two barrels and lots more bottles in the +room. Don't you see, now, what's the matter with that ha'nted room?" + +"How?" + +"Why, it's ha'nted with whiskey! Maybe ALL the Temperance Taverns have +got a ha'nted room, hey, Huck?" + +"Well, I reckon maybe that's so. Who'd 'a' thought such a thing? But +say, Tom, now's a mighty good time to get that box, if Injun Joe's +drunk." + +"It is, that! You try it!" + +Huck shuddered. + +"Well, no--I reckon not." + +"And I reckon not, Huck. Only one bottle alongside of Injun Joe ain't +enough. If there'd been three, he'd be drunk enough and I'd do it." + +There was a long pause for reflection, and then Tom said: + +"Lookyhere, Huck, less not try that thing any more till we know Injun +Joe's not in there. It's too scary. Now, if we watch every night, we'll +be dead sure to see him go out, some time or other, and then we'll +snatch that box quicker'n lightning." + +"Well, I'm agreed. I'll watch the whole night long, and I'll do it +every night, too, if you'll do the other part of the job." + +"All right, I will. All you got to do is to trot up Hooper Street a +block and maow--and if I'm asleep, you throw some gravel at the window +and that'll fetch me." + +"Agreed, and good as wheat!" + +"Now, Huck, the storm's over, and I'll go home. It'll begin to be +daylight in a couple of hours. You go back and watch that long, will +you?" + +"I said I would, Tom, and I will. I'll ha'nt that tavern every night +for a year! I'll sleep all day and I'll stand watch all night." + +"That's all right. Now, where you going to sleep?" + +"In Ben Rogers' hayloft. He lets me, and so does his pap's nigger man, +Uncle Jake. I tote water for Uncle Jake whenever he wants me to, and +any time I ask him he gives me a little something to eat if he can +spare it. That's a mighty good nigger, Tom. He likes me, becuz I don't +ever act as if I was above him. Sometime I've set right down and eat +WITH him. But you needn't tell that. A body's got to do things when +he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing." + +"Well, if I don't want you in the daytime, I'll let you sleep. I won't +come bothering around. Any time you see something's up, in the night, +just skip right around and maow." + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE first thing Tom heard on Friday morning was a glad piece of news +--Judge Thatcher's family had come back to town the night before. Both +Injun Joe and the treasure sunk into secondary importance for a moment, +and Becky took the chief place in the boy's interest. He saw her and +they had an exhausting good time playing "hi-spy" and "gully-keeper" +with a crowd of their school-mates. The day was completed and crowned +in a peculiarly satisfactory way: Becky teased her mother to appoint +the next day for the long-promised and long-delayed picnic, and she +consented. The child's delight was boundless; and Tom's not more +moderate. The invitations were sent out before sunset, and straightway +the young folks of the village were thrown into a fever of preparation +and pleasurable anticipation. Tom's excitement enabled him to keep +awake until a pretty late hour, and he had good hopes of hearing Huck's +"maow," and of having his treasure to astonish Becky and the picnickers +with, next day; but he was disappointed. No signal came that night. + +Morning came, eventually, and by ten or eleven o'clock a giddy and +rollicking company were gathered at Judge Thatcher's, and everything +was ready for a start. It was not the custom for elderly people to mar +the picnics with their presence. The children were considered safe +enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few +young gentlemen of twenty-three or thereabouts. The old steam ferryboat +was chartered for the occasion; presently the gay throng filed up the +main street laden with provision-baskets. Sid was sick and had to miss +the fun; Mary remained at home to entertain him. The last thing Mrs. +Thatcher said to Becky, was: + +"You'll not get back till late. Perhaps you'd better stay all night +with some of the girls that live near the ferry-landing, child." + +"Then I'll stay with Susy Harper, mamma." + +"Very well. And mind and behave yourself and don't be any trouble." + +Presently, as they tripped along, Tom said to Becky: + +"Say--I'll tell you what we'll do. 'Stead of going to Joe Harper's +we'll climb right up the hill and stop at the Widow Douglas'. She'll +have ice-cream! She has it most every day--dead loads of it. And she'll +be awful glad to have us." + +"Oh, that will be fun!" + +Then Becky reflected a moment and said: + +"But what will mamma say?" + +"How'll she ever know?" + +The girl turned the idea over in her mind, and said reluctantly: + +"I reckon it's wrong--but--" + +"But shucks! Your mother won't know, and so what's the harm? All she +wants is that you'll be safe; and I bet you she'd 'a' said go there if +she'd 'a' thought of it. I know she would!" + +The Widow Douglas' splendid hospitality was a tempting bait. It and +Tom's persuasions presently carried the day. So it was decided to say +nothing anybody about the night's programme. Presently it occurred to +Tom that maybe Huck might come this very night and give the signal. The +thought took a deal of the spirit out of his anticipations. Still he +could not bear to give up the fun at Widow Douglas'. And why should he +give it up, he reasoned--the signal did not come the night before, so +why should it be any more likely to come to-night? The sure fun of the +evening outweighed the uncertain treasure; and, boy-like, he determined +to yield to the stronger inclination and not allow himself to think of +the box of money another time that day. + +Three miles below town the ferryboat stopped at the mouth of a woody +hollow and tied up. The crowd swarmed ashore and soon the forest +distances and craggy heights echoed far and near with shoutings and +laughter. All the different ways of getting hot and tired were gone +through with, and by-and-by the rovers straggled back to camp fortified +with responsible appetites, and then the destruction of the good things +began. After the feast there was a refreshing season of rest and chat +in the shade of spreading oaks. By-and-by somebody shouted: + +"Who's ready for the cave?" + +Everybody was. Bundles of candles were procured, and straightway there +was a general scamper up the hill. The mouth of the cave was up the +hillside--an opening shaped like a letter A. Its massive oaken door +stood unbarred. Within was a small chamber, chilly as an ice-house, and +walled by Nature with solid limestone that was dewy with a cold sweat. +It was romantic and mysterious to stand here in the deep gloom and look +out upon the green valley shining in the sun. But the impressiveness of +the situation quickly wore off, and the romping began again. The moment +a candle was lighted there was a general rush upon the owner of it; a +struggle and a gallant defence followed, but the candle was soon +knocked down or blown out, and then there was a glad clamor of laughter +and a new chase. But all things have an end. By-and-by the procession +went filing down the steep descent of the main avenue, the flickering +rank of lights dimly revealing the lofty walls of rock almost to their +point of junction sixty feet overhead. This main avenue was not more +than eight or ten feet wide. Every few steps other lofty and still +narrower crevices branched from it on either hand--for McDougal's cave +was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and +out again and led nowhere. It was said that one might wander days and +nights together through its intricate tangle of rifts and chasms, and +never find the end of the cave; and that he might go down, and down, +and still down, into the earth, and it was just the same--labyrinth +under labyrinth, and no end to any of them. No man "knew" the cave. +That was an impossible thing. Most of the young men knew a portion of +it, and it was not customary to venture much beyond this known portion. +Tom Sawyer knew as much of the cave as any one. + +The procession moved along the main avenue some three-quarters of a +mile, and then groups and couples began to slip aside into branch +avenues, fly along the dismal corridors, and take each other by +surprise at points where the corridors joined again. Parties were able +to elude each other for the space of half an hour without going beyond +the "known" ground. + +By-and-by, one group after another came straggling back to the mouth +of the cave, panting, hilarious, smeared from head to foot with tallow +drippings, daubed with clay, and entirely delighted with the success of +the day. Then they were astonished to find that they had been taking no +note of time and that night was about at hand. The clanging bell had +been calling for half an hour. However, this sort of close to the day's +adventures was romantic and therefore satisfactory. When the ferryboat +with her wild freight pushed into the stream, nobody cared sixpence for +the wasted time but the captain of the craft. + +Huck was already upon his watch when the ferryboat's lights went +glinting past the wharf. He heard no noise on board, for the young +people were as subdued and still as people usually are who are nearly +tired to death. He wondered what boat it was, and why she did not stop +at the wharf--and then he dropped her out of his mind and put his +attention upon his business. The night was growing cloudy and dark. Ten +o'clock came, and the noise of vehicles ceased, scattered lights began +to wink out, all straggling foot-passengers disappeared, the village +betook itself to its slumbers and left the small watcher alone with the +silence and the ghosts. Eleven o'clock came, and the tavern lights were +put out; darkness everywhere, now. Huck waited what seemed a weary long +time, but nothing happened. His faith was weakening. Was there any use? +Was there really any use? Why not give it up and turn in? + +A noise fell upon his ear. He was all attention in an instant. The +alley door closed softly. He sprang to the corner of the brick store. +The next moment two men brushed by him, and one seemed to have +something under his arm. It must be that box! So they were going to +remove the treasure. Why call Tom now? It would be absurd--the men +would get away with the box and never be found again. No, he would +stick to their wake and follow them; he would trust to the darkness for +security from discovery. So communing with himself, Huck stepped out +and glided along behind the men, cat-like, with bare feet, allowing +them to keep just far enough ahead not to be invisible. + +They moved up the river street three blocks, then turned to the left +up a cross-street. They went straight ahead, then, until they came to +the path that led up Cardiff Hill; this they took. They passed by the +old Welshman's house, half-way up the hill, without hesitating, and +still climbed upward. Good, thought Huck, they will bury it in the old +quarry. But they never stopped at the quarry. They passed on, up the +summit. They plunged into the narrow path between the tall sumach +bushes, and were at once hidden in the gloom. Huck closed up and +shortened his distance, now, for they would never be able to see him. +He trotted along awhile; then slackened his pace, fearing he was +gaining too fast; moved on a piece, then stopped altogether; listened; +no sound; none, save that he seemed to hear the beating of his own +heart. The hooting of an owl came over the hill--ominous sound! But no +footsteps. Heavens, was everything lost! He was about to spring with +winged feet, when a man cleared his throat not four feet from him! +Huck's heart shot into his throat, but he swallowed it again; and then +he stood there shaking as if a dozen agues had taken charge of him at +once, and so weak that he thought he must surely fall to the ground. He +knew where he was. He knew he was within five steps of the stile +leading into Widow Douglas' grounds. Very well, he thought, let them +bury it there; it won't be hard to find. + +Now there was a voice--a very low voice--Injun Joe's: + +"Damn her, maybe she's got company--there's lights, late as it is." + +"I can't see any." + +This was that stranger's voice--the stranger of the haunted house. A +deadly chill went to Huck's heart--this, then, was the "revenge" job! +His thought was, to fly. Then he remembered that the Widow Douglas had +been kind to him more than once, and maybe these men were going to +murder her. He wished he dared venture to warn her; but he knew he +didn't dare--they might come and catch him. He thought all this and +more in the moment that elapsed between the stranger's remark and Injun +Joe's next--which was-- + +"Because the bush is in your way. Now--this way--now you see, don't +you?" + +"Yes. Well, there IS company there, I reckon. Better give it up." + +"Give it up, and I just leaving this country forever! Give it up and +maybe never have another chance. I tell you again, as I've told you +before, I don't care for her swag--you may have it. But her husband was +rough on me--many times he was rough on me--and mainly he was the +justice of the peace that jugged me for a vagrant. And that ain't all. +It ain't a millionth part of it! He had me HORSEWHIPPED!--horsewhipped +in front of the jail, like a nigger!--with all the town looking on! +HORSEWHIPPED!--do you understand? He took advantage of me and died. But +I'll take it out of HER." + +"Oh, don't kill her! Don't do that!" + +"Kill? Who said anything about killing? I would kill HIM if he was +here; but not her. When you want to get revenge on a woman you don't +kill her--bosh! you go for her looks. You slit her nostrils--you notch +her ears like a sow!" + +"By God, that's--" + +"Keep your opinion to yourself! It will be safest for you. I'll tie +her to the bed. If she bleeds to death, is that my fault? I'll not cry, +if she does. My friend, you'll help me in this thing--for MY sake +--that's why you're here--I mightn't be able alone. If you flinch, I'll +kill you. Do you understand that? And if I have to kill you, I'll kill +her--and then I reckon nobody'll ever know much about who done this +business." + +"Well, if it's got to be done, let's get at it. The quicker the +better--I'm all in a shiver." + +"Do it NOW? And company there? Look here--I'll get suspicious of you, +first thing you know. No--we'll wait till the lights are out--there's +no hurry." + +Huck felt that a silence was going to ensue--a thing still more awful +than any amount of murderous talk; so he held his breath and stepped +gingerly back; planted his foot carefully and firmly, after balancing, +one-legged, in a precarious way and almost toppling over, first on one +side and then on the other. He took another step back, with the same +elaboration and the same risks; then another and another, and--a twig +snapped under his foot! His breath stopped and he listened. There was +no sound--the stillness was perfect. His gratitude was measureless. Now +he turned in his tracks, between the walls of sumach bushes--turned +himself as carefully as if he were a ship--and then stepped quickly but +cautiously along. When he emerged at the quarry he felt secure, and so +he picked up his nimble heels and flew. Down, down he sped, till he +reached the Welshman's. He banged at the door, and presently the heads +of the old man and his two stalwart sons were thrust from windows. + +"What's the row there? Who's banging? What do you want?" + +"Let me in--quick! I'll tell everything." + +"Why, who are you?" + +"Huckleberry Finn--quick, let me in!" + +"Huckleberry Finn, indeed! It ain't a name to open many doors, I +judge! But let him in, lads, and let's see what's the trouble." + +"Please don't ever tell I told you," were Huck's first words when he +got in. "Please don't--I'd be killed, sure--but the widow's been good +friends to me sometimes, and I want to tell--I WILL tell if you'll +promise you won't ever say it was me." + +"By George, he HAS got something to tell, or he wouldn't act so!" +exclaimed the old man; "out with it and nobody here'll ever tell, lad." + +Three minutes later the old man and his sons, well armed, were up the +hill, and just entering the sumach path on tiptoe, their weapons in +their hands. Huck accompanied them no further. He hid behind a great +bowlder and fell to listening. There was a lagging, anxious silence, +and then all of a sudden there was an explosion of firearms and a cry. + +Huck waited for no particulars. He sprang away and sped down the hill +as fast as his legs could carry him. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +AS the earliest suspicion of dawn appeared on Sunday morning, Huck +came groping up the hill and rapped gently at the old Welshman's door. +The inmates were asleep, but it was a sleep that was set on a +hair-trigger, on account of the exciting episode of the night. A call +came from a window: + +"Who's there!" + +Huck's scared voice answered in a low tone: + +"Please let me in! It's only Huck Finn!" + +"It's a name that can open this door night or day, lad!--and welcome!" + +These were strange words to the vagabond boy's ears, and the +pleasantest he had ever heard. He could not recollect that the closing +word had ever been applied in his case before. The door was quickly +unlocked, and he entered. Huck was given a seat and the old man and his +brace of tall sons speedily dressed themselves. + +"Now, my boy, I hope you're good and hungry, because breakfast will be +ready as soon as the sun's up, and we'll have a piping hot one, too +--make yourself easy about that! I and the boys hoped you'd turn up and +stop here last night." + +"I was awful scared," said Huck, "and I run. I took out when the +pistols went off, and I didn't stop for three mile. I've come now becuz +I wanted to know about it, you know; and I come before daylight becuz I +didn't want to run across them devils, even if they was dead." + +"Well, poor chap, you do look as if you'd had a hard night of it--but +there's a bed here for you when you've had your breakfast. No, they +ain't dead, lad--we are sorry enough for that. You see we knew right +where to put our hands on them, by your description; so we crept along +on tiptoe till we got within fifteen feet of them--dark as a cellar +that sumach path was--and just then I found I was going to sneeze. It +was the meanest kind of luck! I tried to keep it back, but no use +--'twas bound to come, and it did come! I was in the lead with my pistol +raised, and when the sneeze started those scoundrels a-rustling to get +out of the path, I sung out, 'Fire boys!' and blazed away at the place +where the rustling was. So did the boys. But they were off in a jiffy, +those villains, and we after them, down through the woods. I judge we +never touched them. They fired a shot apiece as they started, but their +bullets whizzed by and didn't do us any harm. As soon as we lost the +sound of their feet we quit chasing, and went down and stirred up the +constables. They got a posse together, and went off to guard the river +bank, and as soon as it is light the sheriff and a gang are going to +beat up the woods. My boys will be with them presently. I wish we had +some sort of description of those rascals--'twould help a good deal. +But you couldn't see what they were like, in the dark, lad, I suppose?" + +"Oh yes; I saw them down-town and follered them." + +"Splendid! Describe them--describe them, my boy!" + +"One's the old deaf and dumb Spaniard that's ben around here once or +twice, and t'other's a mean-looking, ragged--" + +"That's enough, lad, we know the men! Happened on them in the woods +back of the widow's one day, and they slunk away. Off with you, boys, +and tell the sheriff--get your breakfast to-morrow morning!" + +The Welshman's sons departed at once. As they were leaving the room +Huck sprang up and exclaimed: + +"Oh, please don't tell ANYbody it was me that blowed on them! Oh, +please!" + +"All right if you say it, Huck, but you ought to have the credit of +what you did." + +"Oh no, no! Please don't tell!" + +When the young men were gone, the old Welshman said: + +"They won't tell--and I won't. But why don't you want it known?" + +Huck would not explain, further than to say that he already knew too +much about one of those men and would not have the man know that he +knew anything against him for the whole world--he would be killed for +knowing it, sure. + +The old man promised secrecy once more, and said: + +"How did you come to follow these fellows, lad? Were they looking +suspicious?" + +Huck was silent while he framed a duly cautious reply. Then he said: + +"Well, you see, I'm a kind of a hard lot,--least everybody says so, +and I don't see nothing agin it--and sometimes I can't sleep much, on +account of thinking about it and sort of trying to strike out a new way +of doing. That was the way of it last night. I couldn't sleep, and so I +come along up-street 'bout midnight, a-turning it all over, and when I +got to that old shackly brick store by the Temperance Tavern, I backed +up agin the wall to have another think. Well, just then along comes +these two chaps slipping along close by me, with something under their +arm, and I reckoned they'd stole it. One was a-smoking, and t'other one +wanted a light; so they stopped right before me and the cigars lit up +their faces and I see that the big one was the deaf and dumb Spaniard, +by his white whiskers and the patch on his eye, and t'other one was a +rusty, ragged-looking devil." + +"Could you see the rags by the light of the cigars?" + +This staggered Huck for a moment. Then he said: + +"Well, I don't know--but somehow it seems as if I did." + +"Then they went on, and you--" + +"Follered 'em--yes. That was it. I wanted to see what was up--they +sneaked along so. I dogged 'em to the widder's stile, and stood in the +dark and heard the ragged one beg for the widder, and the Spaniard +swear he'd spile her looks just as I told you and your two--" + +"What! The DEAF AND DUMB man said all that!" + +Huck had made another terrible mistake! He was trying his best to keep +the old man from getting the faintest hint of who the Spaniard might +be, and yet his tongue seemed determined to get him into trouble in +spite of all he could do. He made several efforts to creep out of his +scrape, but the old man's eye was upon him and he made blunder after +blunder. Presently the Welshman said: + +"My boy, don't be afraid of me. I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head +for all the world. No--I'd protect you--I'd protect you. This Spaniard +is not deaf and dumb; you've let that slip without intending it; you +can't cover that up now. You know something about that Spaniard that +you want to keep dark. Now trust me--tell me what it is, and trust me +--I won't betray you." + +Huck looked into the old man's honest eyes a moment, then bent over +and whispered in his ear: + +"'Tain't a Spaniard--it's Injun Joe!" + +The Welshman almost jumped out of his chair. In a moment he said: + +"It's all plain enough, now. When you talked about notching ears and +slitting noses I judged that that was your own embellishment, because +white men don't take that sort of revenge. But an Injun! That's a +different matter altogether." + +During breakfast the talk went on, and in the course of it the old man +said that the last thing which he and his sons had done, before going +to bed, was to get a lantern and examine the stile and its vicinity for +marks of blood. They found none, but captured a bulky bundle of-- + +"Of WHAT?" + +If the words had been lightning they could not have leaped with a more +stunning suddenness from Huck's blanched lips. His eyes were staring +wide, now, and his breath suspended--waiting for the answer. The +Welshman started--stared in return--three seconds--five seconds--ten +--then replied: + +"Of burglar's tools. Why, what's the MATTER with you?" + +Huck sank back, panting gently, but deeply, unutterably grateful. The +Welshman eyed him gravely, curiously--and presently said: + +"Yes, burglar's tools. That appears to relieve you a good deal. But +what did give you that turn? What were YOU expecting we'd found?" + +Huck was in a close place--the inquiring eye was upon him--he would +have given anything for material for a plausible answer--nothing +suggested itself--the inquiring eye was boring deeper and deeper--a +senseless reply offered--there was no time to weigh it, so at a venture +he uttered it--feebly: + +"Sunday-school books, maybe." + +Poor Huck was too distressed to smile, but the old man laughed loud +and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, +and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a-man's pocket, +because it cut down the doctor's bill like everything. Then he added: + +"Poor old chap, you're white and jaded--you ain't well a bit--no +wonder you're a little flighty and off your balance. But you'll come +out of it. Rest and sleep will fetch you out all right, I hope." + +Huck was irritated to think he had been such a goose and betrayed such +a suspicious excitement, for he had dropped the idea that the parcel +brought from the tavern was the treasure, as soon as he had heard the +talk at the widow's stile. He had only thought it was not the treasure, +however--he had not known that it wasn't--and so the suggestion of a +captured bundle was too much for his self-possession. But on the whole +he felt glad the little episode had happened, for now he knew beyond +all question that that bundle was not THE bundle, and so his mind was +at rest and exceedingly comfortable. In fact, everything seemed to be +drifting just in the right direction, now; the treasure must be still +in No. 2, the men would be captured and jailed that day, and he and Tom +could seize the gold that night without any trouble or any fear of +interruption. + +Just as breakfast was completed there was a knock at the door. Huck +jumped for a hiding-place, for he had no mind to be connected even +remotely with the late event. The Welshman admitted several ladies and +gentlemen, among them the Widow Douglas, and noticed that groups of +citizens were climbing up the hill--to stare at the stile. So the news +had spread. The Welshman had to tell the story of the night to the +visitors. The widow's gratitude for her preservation was outspoken. + +"Don't say a word about it, madam. There's another that you're more +beholden to than you are to me and my boys, maybe, but he don't allow +me to tell his name. We wouldn't have been there but for him." + +Of course this excited a curiosity so vast that it almost belittled +the main matter--but the Welshman allowed it to eat into the vitals of +his visitors, and through them be transmitted to the whole town, for he +refused to part with his secret. When all else had been learned, the +widow said: + +"I went to sleep reading in bed and slept straight through all that +noise. Why didn't you come and wake me?" + +"We judged it warn't worth while. Those fellows warn't likely to come +again--they hadn't any tools left to work with, and what was the use of +waking you up and scaring you to death? My three negro men stood guard +at your house all the rest of the night. They've just come back." + +More visitors came, and the story had to be told and retold for a +couple of hours more. + +There was no Sabbath-school during day-school vacation, but everybody +was early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed. News came +that not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered. When the +sermon was finished, Judge Thatcher's wife dropped alongside of Mrs. +Harper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said: + +"Is my Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she would be +tired to death." + +"Your Becky?" + +"Yes," with a startled look--"didn't she stay with you last night?" + +"Why, no." + +Mrs. Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly, +talking briskly with a friend, passed by. Aunt Polly said: + +"Good-morning, Mrs. Thatcher. Good-morning, Mrs. Harper. I've got a +boy that's turned up missing. I reckon my Tom stayed at your house last +night--one of you. And now he's afraid to come to church. I've got to +settle with him." + +Mrs. Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever. + +"He didn't stay with us," said Mrs. Harper, beginning to look uneasy. +A marked anxiety came into Aunt Polly's face. + +"Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?" + +"No'm." + +"When did you see him last?" + +Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The people had +stopped moving out of church. Whispers passed along, and a boding +uneasiness took possession of every countenance. Children were +anxiously questioned, and young teachers. They all said they had not +noticed whether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the +homeward trip; it was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any one was +missing. One young man finally blurted out his fear that they were +still in the cave! Mrs. Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly fell to +crying and wringing her hands. + +The alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group, from street to +street, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging and the +whole town was up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant +insignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled, +skiffs were manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror +was half an hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad and +river toward the cave. + +All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead. Many women +visited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher and tried to comfort them. They +cried with them, too, and that was still better than words. All the +tedious night the town waited for news; but when the morning dawned at +last, all the word that came was, "Send more candles--and send food." +Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. Judge Thatcher +sent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they +conveyed no real cheer. + +The old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with +candle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck +still in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with +fever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas came +and took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him, +because, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's, +and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected. The +Welshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said: + +"You can depend on it. That's the Lord's mark. He don't leave it off. +He never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his +hands." + +Early in the forenoon parties of jaded men began to straggle into the +village, but the strongest of the citizens continued searching. All the +news that could be gained was that remotenesses of the cavern were +being ransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner +and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one +wandered through the maze of passages, lights were to be seen flitting +hither and thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent +their hollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles. In one +place, far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names +"BECKY & TOM" had been found traced upon the rocky wall with +candle-smoke, and near at hand a grease-soiled bit of ribbon. Mrs. +Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it. She said it was the +last relic she should ever have of her child; and that no other memorial +of her could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest from +the living body before the awful death came. Some said that now and +then, in the cave, a far-away speck of light would glimmer, and then a +glorious shout would burst forth and a score of men go trooping down the +echoing aisle--and then a sickening disappointment always followed; the +children were not there; it was only a searcher's light. + +Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along, and +the village sank into a hopeless stupor. No one had heart for anything. +The accidental discovery, just made, that the proprietor of the +Temperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered the +public pulse, tremendous as the fact was. In a lucid interval, Huck +feebly led up to the subject of taverns, and finally asked--dimly +dreading the worst--if anything had been discovered at the Temperance +Tavern since he had been ill. + +"Yes," said the widow. + +Huck started up in bed, wild-eyed: + +"What? What was it?" + +"Liquor!--and the place has been shut up. Lie down, child--what a turn +you did give me!" + +"Only tell me just one thing--only just one--please! Was it Tom Sawyer +that found it?" + +The widow burst into tears. "Hush, hush, child, hush! I've told you +before, you must NOT talk. You are very, very sick!" + +Then nothing but liquor had been found; there would have been a great +powwow if it had been the gold. So the treasure was gone forever--gone +forever! But what could she be crying about? Curious that she should +cry. + +These thoughts worked their dim way through Huck's mind, and under the +weariness they gave him he fell asleep. The widow said to herself: + +"There--he's asleep, poor wreck. Tom Sawyer find it! Pity but somebody +could find Tom Sawyer! Ah, there ain't many left, now, that's got hope +enough, or strength enough, either, to go on searching." + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +NOW to return to Tom and Becky's share in the picnic. They tripped +along the murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the +familiar wonders of the cave--wonders dubbed with rather +over-descriptive names, such as "The Drawing-Room," "The Cathedral," +"Aladdin's Palace," and so on. Presently the hide-and-seek frolicking +began, and Tom and Becky engaged in it with zeal until the exertion +began to grow a trifle wearisome; then they wandered down a sinuous +avenue holding their candles aloft and reading the tangled web-work of +names, dates, post-office addresses, and mottoes with which the rocky +walls had been frescoed (in candle-smoke). Still drifting along and +talking, they scarcely noticed that they were now in a part of the cave +whose walls were not frescoed. They smoked their own names under an +overhanging shelf and moved on. Presently they came to a place where a +little stream of water, trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone +sediment with it, had, in the slow-dragging ages, formed a laced and +ruffled Niagara in gleaming and imperishable stone. Tom squeezed his +small body behind it in order to illuminate it for Becky's +gratification. He found that it curtained a sort of steep natural +stairway which was enclosed between narrow walls, and at once the +ambition to be a discoverer seized him. Becky responded to his call, +and they made a smoke-mark for future guidance, and started upon their +quest. They wound this way and that, far down into the secret depths of +the cave, made another mark, and branched off in search of novelties to +tell the upper world about. In one place they found a spacious cavern, +from whose ceiling depended a multitude of shining stalactites of the +length and circumference of a man's leg; they walked all about it, +wondering and admiring, and presently left it by one of the numerous +passages that opened into it. This shortly brought them to a bewitching +spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering +crystals; it was in the midst of a cavern whose walls were supported by +many fantastic pillars which had been formed by the joining of great +stalactites and stalagmites together, the result of the ceaseless +water-drip of centuries. Under the roof vast knots of bats had packed +themselves together, thousands in a bunch; the lights disturbed the +creatures and they came flocking down by hundreds, squeaking and +darting furiously at the candles. Tom knew their ways and the danger of +this sort of conduct. He seized Becky's hand and hurried her into the +first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for a bat struck +Becky's light out with its wing while she was passing out of the +cavern. The bats chased the children a good distance; but the fugitives +plunged into every new passage that offered, and at last got rid of the +perilous things. Tom found a subterranean lake, shortly, which +stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the shadows. +He wanted to explore its borders, but concluded that it would be best +to sit down and rest awhile, first. Now, for the first time, the deep +stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the +children. Becky said: + +"Why, I didn't notice, but it seems ever so long since I heard any of +the others." + +"Come to think, Becky, we are away down below them--and I don't know +how far away north, or south, or east, or whichever it is. We couldn't +hear them here." + +Becky grew apprehensive. + +"I wonder how long we've been down here, Tom? We better start back." + +"Yes, I reckon we better. P'raps we better." + +"Can you find the way, Tom? It's all a mixed-up crookedness to me." + +"I reckon I could find it--but then the bats. If they put our candles +out it will be an awful fix. Let's try some other way, so as not to go +through there." + +"Well. But I hope we won't get lost. It would be so awful!" and the +girl shuddered at the thought of the dreadful possibilities. + +They started through a corridor, and traversed it in silence a long +way, glancing at each new opening, to see if there was anything +familiar about the look of it; but they were all strange. Every time +Tom made an examination, Becky would watch his face for an encouraging +sign, and he would say cheerily: + +"Oh, it's all right. This ain't the one, but we'll come to it right +away!" + +But he felt less and less hopeful with each failure, and presently +began to turn off into diverging avenues at sheer random, in desperate +hope of finding the one that was wanted. He still said it was "all +right," but there was such a leaden dread at his heart that the words +had lost their ring and sounded just as if he had said, "All is lost!" +Becky clung to his side in an anguish of fear, and tried hard to keep +back the tears, but they would come. At last she said: + +"Oh, Tom, never mind the bats, let's go back that way! We seem to get +worse and worse off all the time." + +"Listen!" said he. + +Profound silence; silence so deep that even their breathings were +conspicuous in the hush. Tom shouted. The call went echoing down the +empty aisles and died out in the distance in a faint sound that +resembled a ripple of mocking laughter. + +"Oh, don't do it again, Tom, it is too horrid," said Becky. + +"It is horrid, but I better, Becky; they might hear us, you know," and +he shouted again. + +The "might" was even a chillier horror than the ghostly laughter, it +so confessed a perishing hope. The children stood still and listened; +but there was no result. Tom turned upon the back track at once, and +hurried his steps. It was but a little while before a certain +indecision in his manner revealed another fearful fact to Becky--he +could not find his way back! + +"Oh, Tom, you didn't make any marks!" + +"Becky, I was such a fool! Such a fool! I never thought we might want +to come back! No--I can't find the way. It's all mixed up." + +"Tom, Tom, we're lost! we're lost! We never can get out of this awful +place! Oh, why DID we ever leave the others!" + +She sank to the ground and burst into such a frenzy of crying that Tom +was appalled with the idea that she might die, or lose her reason. He +sat down by her and put his arms around her; she buried her face in his +bosom, she clung to him, she poured out her terrors, her unavailing +regrets, and the far echoes turned them all to jeering laughter. Tom +begged her to pluck up hope again, and she said she could not. He fell +to blaming and abusing himself for getting her into this miserable +situation; this had a better effect. She said she would try to hope +again, she would get up and follow wherever he might lead if only he +would not talk like that any more. For he was no more to blame than +she, she said. + +So they moved on again--aimlessly--simply at random--all they could do +was to move, keep moving. For a little while, hope made a show of +reviving--not with any reason to back it, but only because it is its +nature to revive when the spring has not been taken out of it by age +and familiarity with failure. + +By-and-by Tom took Becky's candle and blew it out. This economy meant +so much! Words were not needed. Becky understood, and her hope died +again. She knew that Tom had a whole candle and three or four pieces in +his pockets--yet he must economize. + +By-and-by, fatigue began to assert its claims; the children tried to +pay attention, for it was dreadful to think of sitting down when time +was grown to be so precious, moving, in some direction, in any +direction, was at least progress and might bear fruit; but to sit down +was to invite death and shorten its pursuit. + +At last Becky's frail limbs refused to carry her farther. She sat +down. Tom rested with her, and they talked of home, and the friends +there, and the comfortable beds and, above all, the light! Becky cried, +and Tom tried to think of some way of comforting her, but all his +encouragements were grown threadbare with use, and sounded like +sarcasms. Fatigue bore so heavily upon Becky that she drowsed off to +sleep. Tom was grateful. He sat looking into her drawn face and saw it +grow smooth and natural under the influence of pleasant dreams; and +by-and-by a smile dawned and rested there. The peaceful face reflected +somewhat of peace and healing into his own spirit, and his thoughts +wandered away to bygone times and dreamy memories. While he was deep in +his musings, Becky woke up with a breezy little laugh--but it was +stricken dead upon her lips, and a groan followed it. + +"Oh, how COULD I sleep! I wish I never, never had waked! No! No, I +don't, Tom! Don't look so! I won't say it again." + +"I'm glad you've slept, Becky; you'll feel rested, now, and we'll find +the way out." + +"We can try, Tom; but I've seen such a beautiful country in my dream. +I reckon we are going there." + +"Maybe not, maybe not. Cheer up, Becky, and let's go on trying." + +They rose up and wandered along, hand in hand and hopeless. They tried +to estimate how long they had been in the cave, but all they knew was +that it seemed days and weeks, and yet it was plain that this could not +be, for their candles were not gone yet. A long time after this--they +could not tell how long--Tom said they must go softly and listen for +dripping water--they must find a spring. They found one presently, and +Tom said it was time to rest again. Both were cruelly tired, yet Becky +said she thought she could go a little farther. She was surprised to +hear Tom dissent. She could not understand it. They sat down, and Tom +fastened his candle to the wall in front of them with some clay. +Thought was soon busy; nothing was said for some time. Then Becky broke +the silence: + +"Tom, I am so hungry!" + +Tom took something out of his pocket. + +"Do you remember this?" said he. + +Becky almost smiled. + +"It's our wedding-cake, Tom." + +"Yes--I wish it was as big as a barrel, for it's all we've got." + +"I saved it from the picnic for us to dream on, Tom, the way grown-up +people do with wedding-cake--but it'll be our--" + +She dropped the sentence where it was. Tom divided the cake and Becky +ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at his moiety. There was +abundance of cold water to finish the feast with. By-and-by Becky +suggested that they move on again. Tom was silent a moment. Then he +said: + +"Becky, can you bear it if I tell you something?" + +Becky's face paled, but she thought she could. + +"Well, then, Becky, we must stay here, where there's water to drink. +That little piece is our last candle!" + +Becky gave loose to tears and wailings. Tom did what he could to +comfort her, but with little effect. At length Becky said: + +"Tom!" + +"Well, Becky?" + +"They'll miss us and hunt for us!" + +"Yes, they will! Certainly they will!" + +"Maybe they're hunting for us now, Tom." + +"Why, I reckon maybe they are. I hope they are." + +"When would they miss us, Tom?" + +"When they get back to the boat, I reckon." + +"Tom, it might be dark then--would they notice we hadn't come?" + +"I don't know. But anyway, your mother would miss you as soon as they +got home." + +A frightened look in Becky's face brought Tom to his senses and he saw +that he had made a blunder. Becky was not to have gone home that night! +The children became silent and thoughtful. In a moment a new burst of +grief from Becky showed Tom that the thing in his mind had struck hers +also--that the Sabbath morning might be half spent before Mrs. Thatcher +discovered that Becky was not at Mrs. Harper's. + +The children fastened their eyes upon their bit of candle and watched +it melt slowly and pitilessly away; saw the half inch of wick stand +alone at last; saw the feeble flame rise and fall, climb the thin +column of smoke, linger at its top a moment, and then--the horror of +utter darkness reigned! + +How long afterward it was that Becky came to a slow consciousness that +she was crying in Tom's arms, neither could tell. All that they knew +was, that after what seemed a mighty stretch of time, both awoke out of +a dead stupor of sleep and resumed their miseries once more. Tom said +it might be Sunday, now--maybe Monday. He tried to get Becky to talk, +but her sorrows were too oppressive, all her hopes were gone. Tom said +that they must have been missed long ago, and no doubt the search was +going on. He would shout and maybe some one would come. He tried it; +but in the darkness the distant echoes sounded so hideously that he +tried it no more. + +The hours wasted away, and hunger came to torment the captives again. +A portion of Tom's half of the cake was left; they divided and ate it. +But they seemed hungrier than before. The poor morsel of food only +whetted desire. + +By-and-by Tom said: + +"SH! Did you hear that?" + +Both held their breath and listened. There was a sound like the +faintest, far-off shout. Instantly Tom answered it, and leading Becky +by the hand, started groping down the corridor in its direction. +Presently he listened again; again the sound was heard, and apparently +a little nearer. + +"It's them!" said Tom; "they're coming! Come along, Becky--we're all +right now!" + +The joy of the prisoners was almost overwhelming. Their speed was +slow, however, because pitfalls were somewhat common, and had to be +guarded against. They shortly came to one and had to stop. It might be +three feet deep, it might be a hundred--there was no passing it at any +rate. Tom got down on his breast and reached as far down as he could. +No bottom. They must stay there and wait until the searchers came. They +listened; evidently the distant shoutings were growing more distant! a +moment or two more and they had gone altogether. The heart-sinking +misery of it! Tom whooped until he was hoarse, but it was of no use. He +talked hopefully to Becky; but an age of anxious waiting passed and no +sounds came again. + +The children groped their way back to the spring. The weary time +dragged on; they slept again, and awoke famished and woe-stricken. Tom +believed it must be Tuesday by this time. + +Now an idea struck him. There were some side passages near at hand. It +would be better to explore some of these than bear the weight of the +heavy time in idleness. He took a kite-line from his pocket, tied it to +a projection, and he and Becky started, Tom in the lead, unwinding the +line as he groped along. At the end of twenty steps the corridor ended +in a "jumping-off place." Tom got down on his knees and felt below, and +then as far around the corner as he could reach with his hands +conveniently; he made an effort to stretch yet a little farther to the +right, and at that moment, not twenty yards away, a human hand, holding +a candle, appeared from behind a rock! Tom lifted up a glorious shout, +and instantly that hand was followed by the body it belonged to--Injun +Joe's! Tom was paralyzed; he could not move. He was vastly gratified +the next moment, to see the "Spaniard" take to his heels and get +himself out of sight. Tom wondered that Joe had not recognized his +voice and come over and killed him for testifying in court. But the +echoes must have disguised the voice. Without doubt, that was it, he +reasoned. Tom's fright weakened every muscle in his body. He said to +himself that if he had strength enough to get back to the spring he +would stay there, and nothing should tempt him to run the risk of +meeting Injun Joe again. He was careful to keep from Becky what it was +he had seen. He told her he had only shouted "for luck." + +But hunger and wretchedness rise superior to fears in the long run. +Another tedious wait at the spring and another long sleep brought +changes. The children awoke tortured with a raging hunger. Tom believed +that it must be Wednesday or Thursday or even Friday or Saturday, now, +and that the search had been given over. He proposed to explore another +passage. He felt willing to risk Injun Joe and all other terrors. But +Becky was very weak. She had sunk into a dreary apathy and would not be +roused. She said she would wait, now, where she was, and die--it would +not be long. She told Tom to go with the kite-line and explore if he +chose; but she implored him to come back every little while and speak +to her; and she made him promise that when the awful time came, he +would stay by her and hold her hand until all was over. + +Tom kissed her, with a choking sensation in his throat, and made a +show of being confident of finding the searchers or an escape from the +cave; then he took the kite-line in his hand and went groping down one +of the passages on his hands and knees, distressed with hunger and sick +with bodings of coming doom. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +TUESDAY afternoon came, and waned to the twilight. The village of St. +Petersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found. Public +prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private +prayer that had the petitioner's whole heart in it; but still no good +news came from the cave. The majority of the searchers had given up the +quest and gone back to their daily avocations, saying that it was plain +the children could never be found. Mrs. Thatcher was very ill, and a +great part of the time delirious. People said it was heartbreaking to +hear her call her child, and raise her head and listen a whole minute +at a time, then lay it wearily down again with a moan. Aunt Polly had +drooped into a settled melancholy, and her gray hair had grown almost +white. The village went to its rest on Tuesday night, sad and forlorn. + +Away in the middle of the night a wild peal burst from the village +bells, and in a moment the streets were swarming with frantic half-clad +people, who shouted, "Turn out! turn out! they're found! they're +found!" Tin pans and horns were added to the din, the population massed +itself and moved toward the river, met the children coming in an open +carriage drawn by shouting citizens, thronged around it, joined its +homeward march, and swept magnificently up the main street roaring +huzzah after huzzah! + +The village was illuminated; nobody went to bed again; it was the +greatest night the little town had ever seen. During the first half-hour +a procession of villagers filed through Judge Thatcher's house, seized +the saved ones and kissed them, squeezed Mrs. Thatcher's hand, tried to +speak but couldn't--and drifted out raining tears all over the place. + +Aunt Polly's happiness was complete, and Mrs. Thatcher's nearly so. It +would be complete, however, as soon as the messenger dispatched with +the great news to the cave should get the word to her husband. Tom lay +upon a sofa with an eager auditory about him and told the history of +the wonderful adventure, putting in many striking additions to adorn it +withal; and closed with a description of how he left Becky and went on +an exploring expedition; how he followed two avenues as far as his +kite-line would reach; how he followed a third to the fullest stretch of +the kite-line, and was about to turn back when he glimpsed a far-off +speck that looked like daylight; dropped the line and groped toward it, +pushed his head and shoulders through a small hole, and saw the broad +Mississippi rolling by! And if it had only happened to be night he would +not have seen that speck of daylight and would not have explored that +passage any more! He told how he went back for Becky and broke the good +news and she told him not to fret her with such stuff, for she was +tired, and knew she was going to die, and wanted to. He described how he +labored with her and convinced her; and how she almost died for joy when +she had groped to where she actually saw the blue speck of daylight; how +he pushed his way out at the hole and then helped her out; how they sat +there and cried for gladness; how some men came along in a skiff and Tom +hailed them and told them their situation and their famished condition; +how the men didn't believe the wild tale at first, "because," said they, +"you are five miles down the river below the valley the cave is in" +--then took them aboard, rowed to a house, gave them supper, made them +rest till two or three hours after dark and then brought them home. + +Before day-dawn, Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him +were tracked out, in the cave, by the twine clews they had strung +behind them, and informed of the great news. + +Three days and nights of toil and hunger in the cave were not to be +shaken off at once, as Tom and Becky soon discovered. They were +bedridden all of Wednesday and Thursday, and seemed to grow more and +more tired and worn, all the time. Tom got about, a little, on +Thursday, was down-town Friday, and nearly as whole as ever Saturday; +but Becky did not leave her room until Sunday, and then she looked as +if she had passed through a wasting illness. + +Tom learned of Huck's sickness and went to see him on Friday, but +could not be admitted to the bedroom; neither could he on Saturday or +Sunday. He was admitted daily after that, but was warned to keep still +about his adventure and introduce no exciting topic. The Widow Douglas +stayed by to see that he obeyed. At home Tom learned of the Cardiff +Hill event; also that the "ragged man's" body had eventually been found +in the river near the ferry-landing; he had been drowned while trying +to escape, perhaps. + +About a fortnight after Tom's rescue from the cave, he started off to +visit Huck, who had grown plenty strong enough, now, to hear exciting +talk, and Tom had some that would interest him, he thought. Judge +Thatcher's house was on Tom's way, and he stopped to see Becky. The +Judge and some friends set Tom to talking, and some one asked him +ironically if he wouldn't like to go to the cave again. Tom said he +thought he wouldn't mind it. The Judge said: + +"Well, there are others just like you, Tom, I've not the least doubt. +But we have taken care of that. Nobody will get lost in that cave any +more." + +"Why?" + +"Because I had its big door sheathed with boiler iron two weeks ago, +and triple-locked--and I've got the keys." + +Tom turned as white as a sheet. + +"What's the matter, boy! Here, run, somebody! Fetch a glass of water!" + +The water was brought and thrown into Tom's face. + +"Ah, now you're all right. What was the matter with you, Tom?" + +"Oh, Judge, Injun Joe's in the cave!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +WITHIN a few minutes the news had spread, and a dozen skiff-loads of +men were on their way to McDougal's cave, and the ferryboat, well +filled with passengers, soon followed. Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that +bore Judge Thatcher. + +When the cave door was unlocked, a sorrowful sight presented itself in +the dim twilight of the place. Injun Joe lay stretched upon the ground, +dead, with his face close to the crack of the door, as if his longing +eyes had been fixed, to the latest moment, upon the light and the cheer +of the free world outside. Tom was touched, for he knew by his own +experience how this wretch had suffered. His pity was moved, but +nevertheless he felt an abounding sense of relief and security, now, +which revealed to him in a degree which he had not fully appreciated +before how vast a weight of dread had been lying upon him since the day +he lifted his voice against this bloody-minded outcast. + +Injun Joe's bowie-knife lay close by, its blade broken in two. The +great foundation-beam of the door had been chipped and hacked through, +with tedious labor; useless labor, too, it was, for the native rock +formed a sill outside it, and upon that stubborn material the knife had +wrought no effect; the only damage done was to the knife itself. But if +there had been no stony obstruction there the labor would have been +useless still, for if the beam had been wholly cut away Injun Joe could +not have squeezed his body under the door, and he knew it. So he had +only hacked that place in order to be doing something--in order to pass +the weary time--in order to employ his tortured faculties. Ordinarily +one could find half a dozen bits of candle stuck around in the crevices +of this vestibule, left there by tourists; but there were none now. The +prisoner had searched them out and eaten them. He had also contrived to +catch a few bats, and these, also, he had eaten, leaving only their +claws. The poor unfortunate had starved to death. In one place, near at +hand, a stalagmite had been slowly growing up from the ground for ages, +builded by the water-drip from a stalactite overhead. The captive had +broken off the stalagmite, and upon the stump had placed a stone, +wherein he had scooped a shallow hollow to catch the precious drop +that fell once in every three minutes with the dreary regularity of a +clock-tick--a dessertspoonful once in four and twenty hours. That drop +was falling when the Pyramids were new; when Troy fell; when the +foundations of Rome were laid; when Christ was crucified; when the +Conqueror created the British empire; when Columbus sailed; when the +massacre at Lexington was "news." It is falling now; it will still be +falling when all these things shall have sunk down the afternoon of +history, and the twilight of tradition, and been swallowed up in the +thick night of oblivion. Has everything a purpose and a mission? Did +this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be ready for +this flitting human insect's need? and has it another important object +to accomplish ten thousand years to come? No matter. It is many and +many a year since the hapless half-breed scooped out the stone to catch +the priceless drops, but to this day the tourist stares longest at that +pathetic stone and that slow-dropping water when he comes to see the +wonders of McDougal's cave. Injun Joe's cup stands first in the list of +the cavern's marvels; even "Aladdin's Palace" cannot rival it. + +Injun Joe was buried near the mouth of the cave; and people flocked +there in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms and +hamlets for seven miles around; they brought their children, and all +sorts of provisions, and confessed that they had had almost as +satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the +hanging. + +This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing--the petition to +the governor for Injun Joe's pardon. The petition had been largely +signed; many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a +committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail +around the governor, and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample +his duty under foot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed five +citizens of the village, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself +there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names +to a pardon-petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently +impaired and leaky water-works. + +The morning after the funeral Tom took Huck to a private place to have +an important talk. Huck had learned all about Tom's adventure from the +Welshman and the Widow Douglas, by this time, but Tom said he reckoned +there was one thing they had not told him; that thing was what he +wanted to talk about now. Huck's face saddened. He said: + +"I know what it is. You got into No. 2 and never found anything but +whiskey. Nobody told me it was you; but I just knowed it must 'a' ben +you, soon as I heard 'bout that whiskey business; and I knowed you +hadn't got the money becuz you'd 'a' got at me some way or other and +told me even if you was mum to everybody else. Tom, something's always +told me we'd never get holt of that swag." + +"Why, Huck, I never told on that tavern-keeper. YOU know his tavern +was all right the Saturday I went to the picnic. Don't you remember you +was to watch there that night?" + +"Oh yes! Why, it seems 'bout a year ago. It was that very night that I +follered Injun Joe to the widder's." + +"YOU followed him?" + +"Yes--but you keep mum. I reckon Injun Joe's left friends behind him, +and I don't want 'em souring on me and doing me mean tricks. If it +hadn't ben for me he'd be down in Texas now, all right." + +Then Huck told his entire adventure in confidence to Tom, who had only +heard of the Welshman's part of it before. + +"Well," said Huck, presently, coming back to the main question, +"whoever nipped the whiskey in No. 2, nipped the money, too, I reckon +--anyways it's a goner for us, Tom." + +"Huck, that money wasn't ever in No. 2!" + +"What!" Huck searched his comrade's face keenly. "Tom, have you got on +the track of that money again?" + +"Huck, it's in the cave!" + +Huck's eyes blazed. + +"Say it again, Tom." + +"The money's in the cave!" + +"Tom--honest injun, now--is it fun, or earnest?" + +"Earnest, Huck--just as earnest as ever I was in my life. Will you go +in there with me and help get it out?" + +"I bet I will! I will if it's where we can blaze our way to it and not +get lost." + +"Huck, we can do that without the least little bit of trouble in the +world." + +"Good as wheat! What makes you think the money's--" + +"Huck, you just wait till we get in there. If we don't find it I'll +agree to give you my drum and every thing I've got in the world. I +will, by jings." + +"All right--it's a whiz. When do you say?" + +"Right now, if you say it. Are you strong enough?" + +"Is it far in the cave? I ben on my pins a little, three or four days, +now, but I can't walk more'n a mile, Tom--least I don't think I could." + +"It's about five mile into there the way anybody but me would go, +Huck, but there's a mighty short cut that they don't anybody but me +know about. Huck, I'll take you right to it in a skiff. I'll float the +skiff down there, and I'll pull it back again all by myself. You +needn't ever turn your hand over." + +"Less start right off, Tom." + +"All right. We want some bread and meat, and our pipes, and a little +bag or two, and two or three kite-strings, and some of these +new-fangled things they call lucifer matches. I tell you, many's +the time I wished I had some when I was in there before." + +A trifle after noon the boys borrowed a small skiff from a citizen who +was absent, and got under way at once. When they were several miles +below "Cave Hollow," Tom said: + +"Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the way down from the +cave hollow--no houses, no wood-yards, bushes all alike. But do you see +that white place up yonder where there's been a landslide? Well, that's +one of my marks. We'll get ashore, now." + +They landed. + +"Now, Huck, where we're a-standing you could touch that hole I got out +of with a fishing-pole. See if you can find it." + +Huck searched all the place about, and found nothing. Tom proudly +marched into a thick clump of sumach bushes and said: + +"Here you are! Look at it, Huck; it's the snuggest hole in this +country. You just keep mum about it. All along I've been wanting to be +a robber, but I knew I'd got to have a thing like this, and where to +run across it was the bother. We've got it now, and we'll keep it +quiet, only we'll let Joe Harper and Ben Rogers in--because of course +there's got to be a Gang, or else there wouldn't be any style about it. +Tom Sawyer's Gang--it sounds splendid, don't it, Huck?" + +"Well, it just does, Tom. And who'll we rob?" + +"Oh, most anybody. Waylay people--that's mostly the way." + +"And kill them?" + +"No, not always. Hive them in the cave till they raise a ransom." + +"What's a ransom?" + +"Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and +after you've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them. +That's the general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the +women, but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and +awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take +your hat off and talk polite. They ain't anybody as polite as robbers +--you'll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and +after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and +after that you couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd +turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books." + +"Why, it's real bully, Tom. I believe it's better'n to be a pirate." + +"Yes, it's better in some ways, because it's close to home and +circuses and all that." + +By this time everything was ready and the boys entered the hole, Tom +in the lead. They toiled their way to the farther end of the tunnel, +then made their spliced kite-strings fast and moved on. A few steps +brought them to the spring, and Tom felt a shudder quiver all through +him. He showed Huck the fragment of candle-wick perched on a lump of +clay against the wall, and described how he and Becky had watched the +flame struggle and expire. + +The boys began to quiet down to whispers, now, for the stillness and +gloom of the place oppressed their spirits. They went on, and presently +entered and followed Tom's other corridor until they reached the +"jumping-off place." The candles revealed the fact that it was not +really a precipice, but only a steep clay hill twenty or thirty feet +high. Tom whispered: + +"Now I'll show you something, Huck." + +He held his candle aloft and said: + +"Look as far around the corner as you can. Do you see that? There--on +the big rock over yonder--done with candle-smoke." + +"Tom, it's a CROSS!" + +"NOW where's your Number Two? 'UNDER THE CROSS,' hey? Right yonder's +where I saw Injun Joe poke up his candle, Huck!" + +Huck stared at the mystic sign awhile, and then said with a shaky voice: + +"Tom, less git out of here!" + +"What! and leave the treasure?" + +"Yes--leave it. Injun Joe's ghost is round about there, certain." + +"No it ain't, Huck, no it ain't. It would ha'nt the place where he +died--away out at the mouth of the cave--five mile from here." + +"No, Tom, it wouldn't. It would hang round the money. I know the ways +of ghosts, and so do you." + +Tom began to fear that Huck was right. Misgivings gathered in his +mind. But presently an idea occurred to him-- + +"Lookyhere, Huck, what fools we're making of ourselves! Injun Joe's +ghost ain't a going to come around where there's a cross!" + +The point was well taken. It had its effect. + +"Tom, I didn't think of that. But that's so. It's luck for us, that +cross is. I reckon we'll climb down there and have a hunt for that box." + +Tom went first, cutting rude steps in the clay hill as he descended. +Huck followed. Four avenues opened out of the small cavern which the +great rock stood in. The boys examined three of them with no result. +They found a small recess in the one nearest the base of the rock, with +a pallet of blankets spread down in it; also an old suspender, some +bacon rind, and the well-gnawed bones of two or three fowls. But there +was no money-box. The lads searched and researched this place, but in +vain. Tom said: + +"He said UNDER the cross. Well, this comes nearest to being under the +cross. It can't be under the rock itself, because that sets solid on +the ground." + +They searched everywhere once more, and then sat down discouraged. +Huck could suggest nothing. By-and-by Tom said: + +"Lookyhere, Huck, there's footprints and some candle-grease on the +clay about one side of this rock, but not on the other sides. Now, +what's that for? I bet you the money IS under the rock. I'm going to +dig in the clay." + +"That ain't no bad notion, Tom!" said Huck with animation. + +Tom's "real Barlow" was out at once, and he had not dug four inches +before he struck wood. + +"Hey, Huck!--you hear that?" + +Huck began to dig and scratch now. Some boards were soon uncovered and +removed. They had concealed a natural chasm which led under the rock. +Tom got into this and held his candle as far under the rock as he +could, but said he could not see to the end of the rift. He proposed to +explore. He stooped and passed under; the narrow way descended +gradually. He followed its winding course, first to the right, then to +the left, Huck at his heels. Tom turned a short curve, by-and-by, and +exclaimed: + +"My goodness, Huck, lookyhere!" + +It was the treasure-box, sure enough, occupying a snug little cavern, +along with an empty powder-keg, a couple of guns in leather cases, two +or three pairs of old moccasins, a leather belt, and some other rubbish +well soaked with the water-drip. + +"Got it at last!" said Huck, ploughing among the tarnished coins with +his hand. "My, but we're rich, Tom!" + +"Huck, I always reckoned we'd get it. It's just too good to believe, +but we HAVE got it, sure! Say--let's not fool around here. Let's snake +it out. Lemme see if I can lift the box." + +It weighed about fifty pounds. Tom could lift it, after an awkward +fashion, but could not carry it conveniently. + +"I thought so," he said; "THEY carried it like it was heavy, that day +at the ha'nted house. I noticed that. I reckon I was right to think of +fetching the little bags along." + +The money was soon in the bags and the boys took it up to the cross +rock. + +"Now less fetch the guns and things," said Huck. + +"No, Huck--leave them there. They're just the tricks to have when we +go to robbing. We'll keep them there all the time, and we'll hold our +orgies there, too. It's an awful snug place for orgies." + +"What orgies?" + +"I dono. But robbers always have orgies, and of course we've got to +have them, too. Come along, Huck, we've been in here a long time. It's +getting late, I reckon. I'm hungry, too. We'll eat and smoke when we +get to the skiff." + +They presently emerged into the clump of sumach bushes, looked warily +out, found the coast clear, and were soon lunching and smoking in the +skiff. As the sun dipped toward the horizon they pushed out and got +under way. Tom skimmed up the shore through the long twilight, chatting +cheerily with Huck, and landed shortly after dark. + +"Now, Huck," said Tom, "we'll hide the money in the loft of the +widow's woodshed, and I'll come up in the morning and we'll count it +and divide, and then we'll hunt up a place out in the woods for it +where it will be safe. Just you lay quiet here and watch the stuff till +I run and hook Benny Taylor's little wagon; I won't be gone a minute." + +He disappeared, and presently returned with the wagon, put the two +small sacks into it, threw some old rags on top of them, and started +off, dragging his cargo behind him. When the boys reached the +Welshman's house, they stopped to rest. Just as they were about to move +on, the Welshman stepped out and said: + +"Hallo, who's that?" + +"Huck and Tom Sawyer." + +"Good! Come along with me, boys, you are keeping everybody waiting. +Here--hurry up, trot ahead--I'll haul the wagon for you. Why, it's not +as light as it might be. Got bricks in it?--or old metal?" + +"Old metal," said Tom. + +"I judged so; the boys in this town will take more trouble and fool +away more time hunting up six bits' worth of old iron to sell to the +foundry than they would to make twice the money at regular work. But +that's human nature--hurry along, hurry along!" + +The boys wanted to know what the hurry was about. + +"Never mind; you'll see, when we get to the Widow Douglas'." + +Huck said with some apprehension--for he was long used to being +falsely accused: + +"Mr. Jones, we haven't been doing nothing." + +The Welshman laughed. + +"Well, I don't know, Huck, my boy. I don't know about that. Ain't you +and the widow good friends?" + +"Yes. Well, she's ben good friends to me, anyway." + +"All right, then. What do you want to be afraid for?" + +This question was not entirely answered in Huck's slow mind before he +found himself pushed, along with Tom, into Mrs. Douglas' drawing-room. +Mr. Jones left the wagon near the door and followed. + +The place was grandly lighted, and everybody that was of any +consequence in the village was there. The Thatchers were there, the +Harpers, the Rogerses, Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, the minister, the editor, +and a great many more, and all dressed in their best. The widow +received the boys as heartily as any one could well receive two such +looking beings. They were covered with clay and candle-grease. Aunt +Polly blushed crimson with humiliation, and frowned and shook her head +at Tom. Nobody suffered half as much as the two boys did, however. Mr. +Jones said: + +"Tom wasn't at home, yet, so I gave him up; but I stumbled on him and +Huck right at my door, and so I just brought them along in a hurry." + +"And you did just right," said the widow. "Come with me, boys." + +She took them to a bedchamber and said: + +"Now wash and dress yourselves. Here are two new suits of clothes +--shirts, socks, everything complete. They're Huck's--no, no thanks, +Huck--Mr. Jones bought one and I the other. But they'll fit both of you. +Get into them. We'll wait--come down when you are slicked up enough." + +Then she left. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +HUCK said: "Tom, we can slope, if we can find a rope. The window ain't +high from the ground." + +"Shucks! what do you want to slope for?" + +"Well, I ain't used to that kind of a crowd. I can't stand it. I ain't +going down there, Tom." + +"Oh, bother! It ain't anything. I don't mind it a bit. I'll take care +of you." + +Sid appeared. + +"Tom," said he, "auntie has been waiting for you all the afternoon. +Mary got your Sunday clothes ready, and everybody's been fretting about +you. Say--ain't this grease and clay, on your clothes?" + +"Now, Mr. Siddy, you jist 'tend to your own business. What's all this +blow-out about, anyway?" + +"It's one of the widow's parties that she's always having. This time +it's for the Welshman and his sons, on account of that scrape they +helped her out of the other night. And say--I can tell you something, +if you want to know." + +"Well, what?" + +"Why, old Mr. Jones is going to try to spring something on the people +here to-night, but I overheard him tell auntie to-day about it, as a +secret, but I reckon it's not much of a secret now. Everybody knows +--the widow, too, for all she tries to let on she don't. Mr. Jones was +bound Huck should be here--couldn't get along with his grand secret +without Huck, you know!" + +"Secret about what, Sid?" + +"About Huck tracking the robbers to the widow's. I reckon Mr. Jones +was going to make a grand time over his surprise, but I bet you it will +drop pretty flat." + +Sid chuckled in a very contented and satisfied way. + +"Sid, was it you that told?" + +"Oh, never mind who it was. SOMEBODY told--that's enough." + +"Sid, there's only one person in this town mean enough to do that, and +that's you. If you had been in Huck's place you'd 'a' sneaked down the +hill and never told anybody on the robbers. You can't do any but mean +things, and you can't bear to see anybody praised for doing good ones. +There--no thanks, as the widow says"--and Tom cuffed Sid's ears and +helped him to the door with several kicks. "Now go and tell auntie if +you dare--and to-morrow you'll catch it!" + +Some minutes later the widow's guests were at the supper-table, and a +dozen children were propped up at little side-tables in the same room, +after the fashion of that country and that day. At the proper time Mr. +Jones made his little speech, in which he thanked the widow for the +honor she was doing himself and his sons, but said that there was +another person whose modesty-- + +And so forth and so on. He sprung his secret about Huck's share in the +adventure in the finest dramatic manner he was master of, but the +surprise it occasioned was largely counterfeit and not as clamorous and +effusive as it might have been under happier circumstances. However, +the widow made a pretty fair show of astonishment, and heaped so many +compliments and so much gratitude upon Huck that he almost forgot the +nearly intolerable discomfort of his new clothes in the entirely +intolerable discomfort of being set up as a target for everybody's gaze +and everybody's laudations. + +The widow said she meant to give Huck a home under her roof and have +him educated; and that when she could spare the money she would start +him in business in a modest way. Tom's chance was come. He said: + +"Huck don't need it. Huck's rich." + +Nothing but a heavy strain upon the good manners of the company kept +back the due and proper complimentary laugh at this pleasant joke. But +the silence was a little awkward. Tom broke it: + +"Huck's got money. Maybe you don't believe it, but he's got lots of +it. Oh, you needn't smile--I reckon I can show you. You just wait a +minute." + +Tom ran out of doors. The company looked at each other with a +perplexed interest--and inquiringly at Huck, who was tongue-tied. + +"Sid, what ails Tom?" said Aunt Polly. "He--well, there ain't ever any +making of that boy out. I never--" + +Tom entered, struggling with the weight of his sacks, and Aunt Polly +did not finish her sentence. Tom poured the mass of yellow coin upon +the table and said: + +"There--what did I tell you? Half of it's Huck's and half of it's mine!" + +The spectacle took the general breath away. All gazed, nobody spoke +for a moment. Then there was a unanimous call for an explanation. Tom +said he could furnish it, and he did. The tale was long, but brimful of +interest. There was scarcely an interruption from any one to break the +charm of its flow. When he had finished, Mr. Jones said: + +"I thought I had fixed up a little surprise for this occasion, but it +don't amount to anything now. This one makes it sing mighty small, I'm +willing to allow." + +The money was counted. The sum amounted to a little over twelve +thousand dollars. It was more than any one present had ever seen at one +time before, though several persons were there who were worth +considerably more than that in property. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a +mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a +sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked +about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the +citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every +"haunted" house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was +dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for +hidden treasure--and not by boys, but men--pretty grave, unromantic +men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were +courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that +their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were +treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be +regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and +saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up +and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village +paper published biographical sketches of the boys. + +The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge +Thatcher did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each lad had +an income, now, that was simply prodigious--a dollar for every week-day +in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got +--no, it was what he was promised--he generally couldn't collect it. A +dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge, and school a boy in +those old simple days--and clothe him and wash him, too, for that +matter. + +Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no +commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When +Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her +whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded +grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that +whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine +outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie--a lie that +was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to +breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! Becky +thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he +walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight +off and told Tom about it. + +Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some +day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the +National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school +in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or +both. + +Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow +Douglas' protection introduced him into society--no, dragged him into +it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he +could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and +brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had +not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know +for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use +napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to +church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in +his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of +civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot. + +He bravely bore his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up +missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in +great distress. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched +high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third +morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads +down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found +the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some +stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with +his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of +rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and +happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing, +and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil content, and +took a melancholy cast. He said: + +"Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't +work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to +me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just +at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to +thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them +blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don't seem to any air +git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set +down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a +cellar-door for--well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and +sweat and sweat--I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in +there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by +a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell--everything's +so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it." + +"Well, everybody does that way, Huck." + +"Tom, it don't make no difference. I ain't everybody, and I can't +STAND it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy--I don't +take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I +got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask to do +everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got +to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in +my mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she +wouldn't let me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor +scratch, before folks--" [Then with a spasm of special irritation and +injury]--"And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a +woman! I HAD to shove, Tom--I just had to. And besides, that school's +going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, I wouldn't stand THAT, +Tom. Looky here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's +just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead +all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and +I ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into +all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take +my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not +many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable +hard to git--and you go and beg off for me with the widder." + +"Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if +you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it." + +"Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long +enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed +smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and +I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a +cave, and all just fixed to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to +come up and spile it all!" + +Tom saw his opportunity-- + +"Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning +robber." + +"No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?" + +"Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you +into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know." + +Huck's joy was quenched. + +"Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?" + +"Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a +pirate is--as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up +in the nobility--dukes and such." + +"Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me +out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, WOULD you, Tom?" + +"Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I DON'T want to--but what would people +say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! pretty low characters in +it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't." + +Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally +he said: + +"Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if +I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom." + +"All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the +widow to let up on you a little, Huck." + +"Will you, Tom--now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of +the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd +through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?" + +"Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation +to-night, maybe." + +"Have the which?" + +"Have the initiation." + +"What's that?" + +"It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's +secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and +all his family that hurts one of the gang." + +"That's gay--that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you." + +"Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at +midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted +house is the best, but they're all ripped up now." + +"Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom." + +"Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with +blood." + +"Now, that's something LIKE! Why, it's a million times bullier than +pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be +a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon +she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet." + + + +CONCLUSION + +SO endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a BOY, it +must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming +the history of a MAN. When one writes a novel about grown people, he +knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but when he +writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can. + +Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are +prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the +story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they +turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that +part of their lives at present. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER *** + +***** This file should be named 74.txt or 74.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/7/74/ + +Produced by David Widger. 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