WE was feeling pretty good after
breakfast, and took my canoe
and went over the river a-fishing,
with a lunch, and had a good
time, and took a look at the
raft and found her all right,
and got home late to supper,
and found them in such a sweat
and worry they didn't know which
end they was standing on, and
made us go right off to bed the
minute we was done supper, and
wouldn't tell us what the trouble
was, and never let on a word
about the new letter, but didn't
need to, because we knowed as
much about it as anybody did,
and as soon as we was half up
stairs and her back was turned
we slid for the cellar cubboard
and loaded up a good lunch and
took it up to our room and went
to bed, and got up about half-past
eleven, and Tom put on Aunt Sally's
dress that he stole and was going
to start with the lunch, but
says:
"Where's the
butter?"
"I laid out a hunk of it," I
says, "on a piece of a corn-pone."
"Well, you
LEFT it laid out, then -- it
ain't here."
"We can get along without it," I
says.
"We can get along WITH it,
too," he says; "just you slide
down cellar and fetch it. And
then mosey right down the lightning-rod
and come along. I'll go and stuff
the straw into Jim's clothes
to represent his mother in disguise,
and be ready to BA like a sheep
and shove soon as you get there."
So out he went, and down cellar
went I. The hunk of butter, big
as a person's fist, was where
I had left it, so I took up the
slab of corn-pone with it on,
and blowed out my light, and
started up stairs very stealthy,
and got up to the main floor
all right, but here comes Aunt
Sally with a candle, and I clapped
the truck in my hat, and clapped
my hat on my head, and the next
second she see me; and she says:
"You been down
cellar?"
"Yes'm."
"What you been
doing down there?"
"Noth'n."
"NOTH'N!"
"No'm."
"Well, then,
what possessed you to go down
there this time
of night?"
"I don't know
'm."
"You don't
KNOW? Don't answer me that
way. Tom, I want to know
what you been DOING down there."
"I hain't been
doing a single thing, Aunt
Sally, I hope to
gracious if I have."
I reckoned she'd let me go
now, and as a generl thing she
would; but I s'pose there was
so many strange things going
on she was just in a sweat about
every little thing that warn't
yard-stick straight; so she says,
very decided:
"You just march
into that setting-room and
stay there till I come. You
been up to something you no business
to, and I lay I'll find out what
it is before I'M done with you."
So she went away as I opened
the door and walked into the
setting-room. My, but there was
a crowd there! Fifteen farmers,
and every one of them had a gun.
I was most powerful sick, and
slunk to a chair and set down.
They was setting around, some
of them talking a little, in
a low voice, and all of them
fidgety and uneasy, but trying
to look like they warn't; but
I knowed they was, because they
was always taking off their hats,
and putting them on, and scratching
their heads, and changing their
seats, and fumbling with their
buttons. I warn't easy myself,
but I didn't take my hat off,
all the same.
I did wish Aunt Sally would
come, and get done with me, and
lick me, if she wanted to, and
let me get away and tell Tom
how we'd overdone this thing,
and what a thundering hornet's-nest
we'd got ourselves into, so we
could stop fooling around straight
off, and clear out with Jim before
these rips got out of patience
and come for us.
At last she
come and begun to ask me questions,
but I COULDN'T
answer them straight, I didn't
know which end of me was up;
because these men was in such
a fidget now that some was wanting
to start right NOW and lay for
them desperadoes, and saying
it warn't but a few minutes to
midnight; and others was trying
to get them to hold on and wait
for the sheep-signal; and here
was Aunty pegging away at the
questions, and me a-shaking all
over and ready to sink down in
my tracks I was that scared;
and the place getting hotter
and hotter, and the butter beginning
to melt and run down my neck
and behind my ears; and pretty
soon, when one of them says, "I'M
for going and getting in the
cabin FIRST and right NOW, and
catching them when they come," I
most dropped; and a streak of
butter come a-trickling down
my forehead, and Aunt Sally she
see it, and turns white as a
sheet, and says:
"For the land's
sake, what IS the matter with
the child?
He's got the brain-fever as shore
as you're born, and they're oozing
out!"
And everybody runs to see,
and she snatches off my hat,
and out comes the bread and what
was left of the butter, and she
grabbed me, and hugged me, and
says:
"Oh, what a
turn you did give me! and how
glad and grateful
I am it ain't no worse; for luck's
against us, and it never rains
but it pours, and when I see
that truck I thought we'd lost
you, for I knowed by the color
and all it was just like your
brains would be if -- Dear, dear,
whyd'nt you TELL me that was
what you'd been down there for,
I wouldn't a cared. Now cler
out to bed, and don't lemme see
no more of you till morning!"
I was up stairs in a second,
and down the lightningrod in
another one, and shinning through
the dark for the lean-to. I couldn't
hardly get my words out, I was
so anxious; but I told Tom as
quick as I could we must jump
for it now, and not a minute
to lose -- the house full of
men, yonder, with guns!
His eyes just blazed; and he
says:
"No! -- is
that so? AIN'T it bully! Why,
Huck, if it was to
do over again, I bet I could
fetch two hundred! If we could
put it off till --"
"Hurry! HURRY!" I says. "Where's
Jim?"
"Right at your
elbow; if you reach out your
arm you can touch
him. He's dressed, and everything's
ready. Now we'll slide out and
give the sheepsignal."
But then we heard the tramp
of men coming to the door, and
heard them begin to fumble with
the padlock, and heard a man
say:
"I TOLD you
we'd be too soon; they haven't
come -- the door
is locked. Here, I'll lock some
of you into the cabin, and you
lay for 'em in the dark and kill
'em when they come; and the rest
scatter around a piece, and listen
if you can hear 'em coming."
So in they come, but couldn't
see us in the dark, and most
trod on us whilst we was hustling
to get under the bed. But we
got under all right, and out
through the hole, swift but soft
-- Jim first, me next, and Tom
last, which was according to
Tom's orders. Now we was in the
lean-to, and heard trampings
close by outside. So we crept
to the door, and Tom stopped
us there and put his eye to the
crack, but couldn't make out
nothing, it was so dark; and
whispered and said he would listen
for the steps to get further,
and when he nudged us Jim must
glide out first, and him last.
So he set his ear to the crack
and listened, and listened, and
listened, and the steps a-scraping
around out there all the time;
and at last he nudged us, and
we slid out, and stooped down,
not breathing, and not making
the least noise, and slipped
stealthy towards the fence in
Injun file, and got to it all
right, and me and Jim over it;
but Tom's britches catched fast
on a splinter on the top rail,
and then he hear the steps coming,
so he had to pull loose, which
snapped the splinter and made
a noise; and as he dropped in
our tracks and started somebody
sings out:
"Who's that?
Answer, or I'll shoot!"
But we didn't answer; we just
unfurled our heels and shoved.
Then there was a rush, and a
BANG, BANG, BANG! and the bullets
fairly whizzed around us! We
heard them sing out:
"Here they
are! They've broke for the
river! After 'em, boys,
and turn loose the dogs!"
So here they come, full tilt.
We could hear them because they
wore boots and yelled, but we
didn't wear no boots and didn't
yell. We was in the path to the
mill; and when they got pretty
close on to us we dodged into
the bush and let them go by,
and then dropped in behind them.
They'd had all the dogs shut
up, so they wouldn't scare off
the robbers; but by this time
somebody had let them loose,
and here they come, making powwow
enough for a million; but they
was our dogs; so we stopped in
our tracks till they catched
up; and when they see it warn't
nobody but us, and no excitement
to offer them, they only just
said howdy, and tore right ahead
towards the shouting and clattering;
and then we up-steam again, and
whizzed along after them till
we was nearly to the mill, and
then struck up through the bush
to where my canoe was tied, and
hopped in and pulled for dear
life towards the middle of the
river, but didn't make no more
noise than we was obleeged to.
Then we struck out, easy and
comfortable, for the island where
my raft was; and we could hear
them yelling and barking at each
other all up and down the bank,
till we was so far away the sounds
got dim and died out. And when
we stepped on to the raft I says:
"NOW, old Jim,
you're a free man again, and
I bet you won't
ever be a slave no more."
"En a mighty
good job it wuz, too, Huck.
It 'uz planned beautiful,
en it 'uz done beautiful; en
dey ain't NOBODY kin git up a
plan dat's mo' mixed-up en splendid
den what dat one wuz."
We was all glad as we could
be, but Tom was the gladdest
of all because he had a bullet
in the calf of his leg.
When me and Jim heard that
we didn't feel so brash as what
we did before. It was hurting
him considerable, and bleeding;
so we laid him in the wigwam
and tore up one of the duke's
shirts for to bandage him, but
he says:
"Gimme the
rags; I can do it myself. Don't
stop now; don't
fool around here, and the evasion
booming along so handsome; man
the sweeps, and set her loose!
Boys, we done it elegant! --
'deed we did. I wish WE'D a had
the handling of Louis XVI., there
wouldn't a been no 'Son of Saint
Louis, ascend to heaven!' wrote
down in HIS biography; no, sir,
we'd a whooped him over the BORDER
-- that's what we'd a done with
HIM -- and done it just as slick
as nothing at all, too. Man the
sweeps -- man the sweeps!"
But me and Jim was consulting
-- and thinking. And after we'd
thought a minute, I says:
"Say it, Jim."
So he says:
"Well, den,
dis is de way it look to me,
Huck. Ef it wuz HIM
dat 'uz bein' sot free, en one
er de boys wuz to git shot, would
he say, 'Go on en save me, nemmine
'bout a doctor f'r to save dis
one?' Is dat like Mars Tom Sawyer?
Would he say dat? You BET he
wouldn't! WELL, den, is JIM gywne
to say it? No, sah -- I doan'
budge a step out'n dis place
'dout a DOCTOR, not if it's forty
year!"
I knowed he was white inside,
and I reckoned he'd say what
he did say -- so it was all right
now, and I told Tom I was a-going
for a doctor. He raised considerable
row about it, but me and Jim
stuck to it and wouldn't budge;
so he was for crawling out and
setting the raft loose himself;
but we wouldn't let him. Then
he give us a piece of his mind,
but it didn't do no good.
So when he sees me getting
the canoe ready, he says:
"Well, then,
if you re bound to go, I'll
tell you the way
to do when you get to the village.
Shut the door and blindfold the
doctor tight and fast, and make
him swear to be silent as the
grave, and put a purse full of
gold in his hand, and then take
and lead him all around the back
alleys and everywheres in the
dark, and then fetch him here
in the canoe, in a roundabout
way amongst the islands, and
search him and take his chalk
away from him, and don't give
it back to him till you get him
back to the village, or else
he will chalk this raft so he
can find it again. It's the way
they all do."
So I said I would, and left,
and Jim was to hide in the woods
when he see the doctor coming
till he was gone again.
|