WELL, pretty soon the old man
was up and around again, and
then he went for Judge Thatcher
in the courts to make him give
up that money, and he went for
me, too, for not stopping school.
He catched me a couple of times
and thrashed me, but I went to
school just the same, and dodged
him or outrun him most of the
time. I didn't want to go to
school much before, but I reckoned
I'd go now to spite pap. That
law trial was a slow business
-- appeared like they warn't
ever going to get started on
it; so every now and then I'd
borrow two or three dollars off
of the judge for him, to keep
from getting a cowhiding. Every
time he got money he got drunk;
and every time he got drunk he
raised Cain around town; and
every time he raised Cain he
got jailed. He was just suited
-- this kind of thing was right
in his line.
He got to hanging around the
widow's too much and so she told
him at last that if he didn't
quit using around there she would
make trouble for him. Well, WASN'T
he mad? He said he would show
who was Huck Finn's boss. So
he watched out for me one day
in the spring, and catched me,
and took me up the river about
three mile in a skiff, and crossed
over to the Illinois shore where
it was woody and there warn't
no houses but an old log hut
in a place where the timber was
so thick you couldn't find it
if you didn't know where it was.
He kept me with him all the
time, and I never got a chance
to run off. We lived in that
old cabin, and he always locked
the door and put the key under
his head nights. He had a gun
which he had stole, I reckon,
and we fished and hunted, and
that was what we lived on. Every
little while he locked me in
and went down to the store, three
miles, to the ferry, and traded
fish and game for whisky, and
fetched it home and got drunk
and had a good time, and licked
me. The widow she found out where
I was by and by, and she sent
a man over to try to get hold
of me; but pap drove him off
with the gun, and it warn't long
after that till I was used to
being where I was, and liked
it -- all but the cowhide part.
It was kind of lazy and jolly,
laying off comfortable all day,
smoking and fishing, and no books
nor study. Two months or more
run along, and my clothes got
to be all rags and dirt, and
I didn't see how I'd ever got
to like it so well at the widow's,
where you had to wash, and eat
on a plate, and comb up, and
go to bed and get up regular,
and be forever bothering over
a book, and have old Miss Watson
pecking at you all the time.
I didn't want to go back no more.
I had stopped cussing, because
the widow didn't like it; but
now I took to it again because
pap hadn't no objections. It
was pretty good times up in the
woods there, take it all around.
But by and by pap got too handy
with his hick'ry, and I couldn't
stand it. I was all over welts.
He got to going away so much,
too, and locking me in. Once
he locked me in and was gone
three days. It was dreadful lonesome.
I judged he had got drowned,
and I wasn't ever going to get
out any more. I was scared. I
made up my mind I would fix up
some way to leave there. I had
tried to get out of that cabin
many a time, but I couldn't find
no way. There warn't a window
to it big enough for a dog to
get through. I couldn't get up
the chimbly; it was too narrow.
The door was thick, solid oak
slabs. Pap was pretty careful
not to leave a knife or anything
in the cabin when he was away;
I reckon I had hunted the place
over as much as a hundred times;
well, I was most all the time
at it, because it was about the
only way to put in the time.
But this time I found something
at last; I found an old rusty
wood-saw without any handle;
it was laid in between a rafter
and the clapboards of the roof.
I greased it up and went to work.
There was an old horse-blanket
nailed against the logs at the
far end of the cabin behind the
table, to keep the wind from
blowing through the chinks and
putting the candle out. I got
under the table and raised the
blanket, and went to work to
saw a section of the big bottom
log out -- big enough to let
me through. Well, it was a good
long job, but I was getting towards
the end of it when I heard pap's
gun in the woods. I got rid of
the signs of my work, and dropped
the blanket and hid my saw, and
pretty soon pap come in.
Pap warn't in a good humor
-- so he was his natural self.
He said he was down town, and
everything was going wrong. His
lawyer said he reckoned he would
win his lawsuit and get the money
if they ever got started on the
trial; but then there was ways
to put it off a long time, and
Judge Thatcher knowed how to
do it And he said people allowed
there'd be another trial to get
me away from him and give me
to the widow for my guardian,
and they guessed it would win
this time. This shook me up considerable,
because I didn't want to go back
to the widow's any more and be
so cramped up and sivilized,
as they called it. Then the old
man got to cussing, and cussed
everything and everybody he could
think of, and then cussed them
all over again to make sure he
hadn't skipped any, and after
that he polished off with a kind
of a general cuss all round,
including a considerable parcel
of people which he didn't know
the names of, and so called them
what's-his-name when he got to
them, and went right along with
his cussing.
He said he would like to see
the widow get me. He said he
would watch out, and if they
tried to come any such game on
him he knowed of a place six
or seven mile off to stow me
in, where they might hunt till
they dropped and they couldn't
find me. That made me pretty
uneasy again, but only for a
minute; I reckoned I wouldn't
stay on hand till he got that
chance.
The old man made me go to the
skiff and fetch the things he
had got. There was a fifty-pound
sack of corn meal, and a side
of bacon, ammunition, and a four-gallon
jug of whisky, and an old book
and two newspapers for wadding,
besides some tow. I toted up
a load, and went back and set
down on the bow of the skiff
to rest. I thought it all over,
and I reckoned I would walk off
with the gun and some lines,
and take to the woods when I
run away. I guessed I wouldn't
stay in one place, but just tramp
right across the country, mostly
night times, and hunt and fish
to keep alive, and so get so
far away that the old man nor
the widow couldn't ever find
me any more. I judged I would
saw out and leave that night
if pap got drunk enough, and
I reckoned he would. I got so
full of it I didn't notice how
long I was staying till the old
man hollered and asked me whether
I was asleep or drownded.
I got the things all up to
the cabin, and then it was about
dark. While I was cooking supper
the old man took a swig or two
and got sort of warmed up, and
went to ripping again. He had
been drunk over in town, and
laid in the gutter all night,
and he was a sight to look at.
A body would a thought he was
Adam -- he was just all mud.
Whenever his liquor begun to
work he most always went for
the govment. his time he says:
"Call this
a govment! why, just look at
it and see what
it's like. Here's the law a-standing
ready to take a man's son away
from him -- a man's own son,
which he has had all the trouble
and all the anxiety and all the
expense of raising. Yes, just
as that man has got that son
raised at last, and ready to
go to work and begin to do suthin'
for HIM and give him a rest,
the law up and goes for him.
And they call THAT govment! That
ain't all, nuther. The law backs
that old Judge Thatcher up and
helps him to keep me out o' my
property. Here's what the law
does: The law takes a man worth
six thousand dollars and up'ards,
and jams him into an old trap
of a cabin like this, and lets
him go round in clothes that
ain't fitten for a hog. They
call that govment! A man can't
get his rights in a govment like
this. Sometimes I've a mighty
notion to just leave the country
for good and all. Yes, and I
TOLD 'em so; I told old Thatcher
so to his face. Lots of 'em heard
me, and can tell what I said.
Says I, for two cents I'd leave
the blamed country and never
come a-near it agin. Them's the
very words. I says look at my
hat -- if you call it a hat --
but the lid raises up and the
rest of it goes down till it's
below my chin, and then it ain't
rightly a hat at all, but more
like my head was shoved up through
a jint o' stovepipe. Look at
it, says I -- such a hat for
me to wear -- one of the wealthiest
men in this town if I could git
my rights.
"Oh, yes, this
is a wonderful govment, wonderful.
Why, looky
here. There was a free nigger
there from Ohio -- a mulatter,
most as white as a white man.
He had the whitest shirt on you
ever see, too, and the shiniest
hat; and there ain't a man in
that town that's got as fine
clothes as what he had; and he
had a gold watch and chain, and
a silver-headed cane -- the awfulest
old gray-headed nabob in the
State. And what do you think?
They said he was a p'fessor in
a college, and could talk all
kinds of languages, and knowed
everything. And that ain't the
wust. They said he could VOTE
when he was at home. Well, that
let me out. Thinks I, what is
the country a-coming to? It was
'lection day, and I was just
about to go and vote myself if
I warn't too drunk to get there;
but when they told me there was
a State in this country where
they'd let that nigger vote,
I drawed out. I says I'll never
vote agin. Them's the very words
I said; they all heard me; and
the country may rot for all me
-- I'll never vote agin as long
as I live. And to see the cool
way of that nigger -- why, he
wouldn't a give me the road if
I hadn't shoved him out o' the
way. I says to the people, why
ain't this nigger put up at auction
and sold? -- that's what I want
to know. And what do you reckon
they said? Why, they said he
couldn't be sold till he'd been
in the State six months, and
he hadn't been there that long
yet. There, now -- that's a specimen.
They call that a govment that
can't sell a free nigger till
he's been in the State six months.
Here's a govment that calls itself
a govment, and lets on to be
a govment, and thinks it is a
govment, and yet's got to set
stock-still for six whole months
before it can take a hold of
a prowling, thieving, infernal,
white-shirted free nigger, and
--"
Pap was agoing on so he never
noticed where his old limber
legs was taking him to, so he
went head over heels over the
tub of salt pork and barked both
shins, and the rest of his speech
was all the hottest kind of language
-- mostly hove at the nigger
and the govment, though he give
the tub some, too, all along,
here and there. He hopped around
the cabin considerable, first
on one leg and then on the other,
holding first one shin and then
the other one, and at last he
let out with his left foot all
of a sudden and fetched the tub
a rattling kick. But it warn't
good judgment, because that was
the boot that had a couple of
his toes leaking out of the front
end of it; so now he raised a
howl that fairly made a body's
hair raise, and down he went
in the dirt, and rolled there,
and held his toes; and the cussing
he done then laid over anything
he had ever done previous. He
said so his own self afterwards.
He had heard old Sowberry Hagan
in his best days, and he said
it laid over him, too; but I
reckon that was sort of piling
it on, maybe.
After supper pap took the jug,
and said he had enough whisky
there for two drunks and one
delirium tremens. That was always
his word. I judged he would be
blind drunk in about an hour,
and then I would steal the key,
or saw myself out, one or t'other.
He drank and drank, and tumbled
down on his blankets by and by;
but luck didn't run my way. He
didn't go sound asleep, but was
uneasy. He groaned and moaned
and thrashed around this way
and that for a long time. At
last I got so sleepy I couldn't
keep my eyes open all I could
do, and so before I knowed what
I was about I was sound asleep,
and the candle burning.
I don't know
how long I was asleep, but
all of a sudden there
was an awful scream and I was
up. There was pap looking wild,
and skipping around every which
way and yelling about snakes.
He said they was crawling up
his legs; and then he would give
a jump and scream, and say one
had bit him on the cheek -- but
I couldn't see no snakes. He
started and run round and round
the cabin, hollering "Take him
off! take him off! he's biting
me on the neck!" I never see
a man look so wild in the eyes.
Pretty soon he was all fagged
out, and fell down panting; then
he rolled over and over wonderful
fast, kicking things every which
way, and striking and grabbing
at the air with his hands, and
screaming and saying there was
devils a-hold of him. He wore
out by and by, and laid still
a while, moaning. Then he laid
stiller, and didn't make a sound.
I could hear the owls and the
wolves away off in the woods,
and it seemed terrible still.
He was laying over by the corner.
By and by he raised up part way
and listened, with his head to
one side. He says, very low:
"Tramp -- tramp
-- tramp; that's the dead;
tramp -- tramp -- tramp;
they're coming after me; but
I won't go. Oh, they're here!
don't touch me -- don't! hands
off -- they're cold; let go.
Oh, let a poor devil alone!"
Then he went down on all fours
and crawled off, begging them
to let him alone, and he rolled
himself up in his blanket and
wallowed in under the old pine
table, still a-begging; and then
he went to crying. I could hear
him through the blanket.
By and by he rolled out and
jumped up on his feet looking
wild, and he see me and went
for me. He chased me round and
round the place with a claspknife,
calling me the Angel of Death,
and saying he would kill me,
and then I couldn't come for
him no more. I begged, and told
him I was only Huck; but he laughed
SUCH a screechy laugh, and roared
and cussed, and kept on chasing
me up. Once when I turned short
and dodged under his arm he made
a grab and got me by the jacket
between my shoulders, and I thought
I was gone; but I slid out of
the jacket quick as lightning,
and saved myself. Pretty soon
he was all tired out, and dropped
down with his back against the
door, and said he would rest
a minute and then kill me. He
put his knife under him, and
said he would sleep and get strong,
and then he would see who was
who.
So he dozed off pretty soon.
By and by I got the old split-bottom
chair and clumb up as easy as
I could, not to make any noise,
and got down the gun. I slipped
the ramrod down it to make sure
it was loaded, then I laid it
across the turnip barrel, pointing
towards pap, and set down behind
it to wait for him to stir. And
how slow and still the time did
drag along. |