Huckleberry Finn - Dave Mckay, Mark Twain (reading books for 7 year olds TXT) š
- Author: Dave Mckay, Mark Twain
Book online Ā«Huckleberry Finn - Dave Mckay, Mark Twain (reading books for 7 year olds TXT) šĀ». Author Dave Mckay, Mark Twain
I didnāt know her face; she was a stranger, for you couldnāt show a face in that town that I didnāt know. Now this was lucky, because I had been starting to fear; I was getting afraid that people might know my voice and find me out. But if this woman had been in such a little town even two days she could probably tell me all I wanted to know; so I knocked at the door, and promised myself I wouldnāt forget I was a girl.
Chapter 11
āCome in,ā she says, and I did. She says: āTake a chair.ā
I done it. She looked me over with her little dark eyes, and says: āWhat might your name be?ā
āSarah Williams.ā
āWhere about do you live? Near here?ā
āNo, ma'am. In Hookerville, seven mile below. Iāve walked all the way and Iām all tired out.ā
āHungry, too, I think. Iāll find you something.ā
āNo, ma'am, I aināt hungry. I was so hungry I had to stop two miles below here at a farm; so I aināt hungry no more. Itās what makes me so late. My motherās down sick, and out of money and everything, and I come to tell my Uncle Abner Moore. He lives at the top end of the town, she says. I aināt ever been here before. Do you know him?ā
āNo; but I donāt know everybody yet. I havenāt lived here quite two weeks. Itās a long way to the top end of the town. You better stay here all night. Take off your hat.ā
āNo,ā I says; āIāll rest up, and go on. I aināt afraid of the dark.ā
She said she wouldnāt let me go by myself, but her husband would be in by and by, maybe in an hour and a half, and sheād send him along with me. Then she got to talking about her husband, and about her family up the river, and her family down the river, and about how much better off they was before, and how they didnāt know but theyād done the wrong thing coming to our town, instead of letting good enough alone -- and so on and so on, until I was afraid I done the wrong thing coming to her to find out what was going on in the town; but by and by she dropped on to pap and the killing, and then I was pretty happy to let her go right on talking. She told about me and Tom Sawyer finding the six thousand dollars (only she got it ten) and all about pap and what a hard lot he was, and what a hard lot I was, and at last she got down to where I was killed.
I says: āWho done it? Weāve heard about this down in Hookerville, but we donāt know who it was that killed Huck Finn.ā
āWell, as I see it, thereās a lot of people here thatād like to know who killed him too. Some think old Finn done it himself.ā
āNo -- is that so?ā
āMost everybody thought it at first. Heāll never know how close he come to being hanged. But that night they changed around and judged it was done by a runaway slave named Jim.ā
āWhy he -- ā
I stopped. I thought I better keep quiet. She run on, and never saw I had put in at all:
āThat slave run off the very night Huck Finn was killed. So thereās a reward out for him -- three hundred dollars. And thereās a reward out for old Finn, too -- two hundred dollars. You see, he come to town the morning after the killing, and told about it, and was out with āem on the ferry hunt, and right away after he up and left. Before night they wanted to hang him, but he was gone, you see. Well, next day they found out the slave was gone; they found out he hadnāt been seen since ten oāclock the night the killing was done. So then they put it on him, you see; and while they was full of it, next day, back comes old Finn, and went crying to Judge Thatcher to get money to hunt for the slave all over Illinois with. The judge gave him some, and that night he got drunk, and was around until after midnight with two very hard-looking strangers, and then went off with them. Well, he aināt come back since, and they aināt looking for him back until this thing blows over a little, for people thinks now that he killed his boy and fixed things so people would think robbers done it, and then heād get Huckās money without having to wait a long time for the court. People do say he werenāt any too good to do it. Oh, heās smart, I say. If he donāt come back for a year heāll be all right. You canāt prove anything on him, you know; everything will be quieted down then, and heāll walk in and take Huckās money as easy as nothing.ā
āYes, I think so, maāam. I donāt see nothing in the way of it. Has everybody quit thinking the slave done it?ā
āOh, no, not everybody. A good many thinks he done it. But theyāll get the Black pretty soon now, and maybe they can scare it out of him.ā
āWhy? Are they after him yet?ā
āWell, youāre such a sweet thing, aināt you! Does three hundred dollars lay around every day for people to pick up? Some people think the slave aināt far from here. Iām one of them -- but I aināt talked it around. A few days ago I was talking with an old man and woman that lives next door in the log cabin, and they happened to say nobody don't ever go to that island over there that they call Jacksonās Island. āDonāt anyone live there?ā says I. āNo, nobody,ā says they. I didnāt say any more, but I done some thinking. I was pretty near sure Iād seen smoke over there, about the head of the island, a day or two before that, so I says to myself, like as not that slaveās hiding over there; anyway, says I, itās worth the trouble to give the place a hunt. I aināt seen any smoke since, so I think maybe heās gone, if it was him; but my husbandās going over to see -- him and another man. He was gone up the river; but he got back today, and I told him as soon as he got here two hours ago.ā
I had got so worried I couldnāt sit in one place. I had to do something with my hands; so I took up a needle off of the table and went to threading it. My hands shook, and I was making a bad job of it. When the woman stopped talking I looked up, and she was looking at me pretty strange and smiling a little. I put down the needle and thread, and let on to be interested -- and I was, too -- and says: āThree hundred dollars is a lot of money. I wish my mother could get it. Is your husband going over there tonight?ā
āOh, yes. He went up to town with the man I was telling you of, to get a boat and see if they could find another gun. Theyāll go over after midnight.ā
āCouldnāt they see better if they was to wait until morning?ā
āYes. And couldnāt the black man see better, too? After midnight heāll probably be asleep, and they can move around through the trees and hunt up his camp fire all the better for the dark, if heās got one.ā
āI didnāt think of that.ā
The woman kept looking at me pretty strangely, and I didnāt feel at all comfortable. Pretty soon she says: āWhat did you say your name was, honey?ā
āM -- Mary Williams.ā
It didnāt seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didnāt lookupāseemed to me I said it was Sarah; so I felt kind of in a corner, and was afraid maybe I was looking it, too. I wished the woman would say something more; the longer she did nothing the more worried I was.
But now she says: āHoney, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?ā
āOh, yes maāam, I did. Sarah Mary Williams. Sarahās my first name. Some calls me Sarah, some calls me Mary.ā
āOh, thatās the way of it?ā
āYes maāam.ā
I was feeling better then, but I wished I was out of there, anyway. I couldnāt look up yet.
Well, the woman fell to talking about how hard times was, and how poor they had to live, and how the rats was as free as if they owned the place, and on and on, and then I got re- laxed again. She was right about the rats. Youād see one put his nose out of a hole in the corner every little while. She said she had to have things close by to throw at them when she was alone, or they wouldnāt give her no rest. She showed me a bar of soft metal turned around itself into a ball, and said she was good at throwing it most times, but sheād pulled her arm a day or two ago, and didnāt know if she could throw true now. But she watched for them, and soon banged away at a rat; but she missed him wide, and said āOw!ā it hurt her arm so. Then she told me to try for the next one. I wanted to be getting away before the old man got back, but I werenāt stupid enough to let on. I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his nose I let go, and if heād a stayed where he was heād a been a very sick rat. She said that was very good, and she believed I would kill the next one. She went and got the ball of metal and brought it back, and brought along knitting thread which she wanted me to help her with. I held up my two hands and she put the circles of thread over them, and went on talking about her and her husbandās business. But she cut herself off to say: āKeep your eye on the rats. You better have the ball on your lap, where you can get it.ā
So she dropped the ball into my lap just that same second, and I squeezed my legs together on it and she went on talking. But only about a minute. Then she took off the thread and looked me straight in the face, and very nicely she says: āCome, now, whatās your real name?ā
āWh -- what, maāam?ā
āWhatās your real name? Is it Bill? Tom? Bob? What is it?ā
I think I was shaking like a leaf, and I didnāt know what to do. But I says: āPlease donāt make fun of a poor girl like me, maāam. If Iām in the way here, Iāll just...ā
"No, you wonāt. Sit down and stay where you are. I aināt going to hurt you, and I aināt going to tell on you, either. You just tell me your secret, and trust me. Iāll keep it; and, whatās more, Iāll help you. So will my old man if you want him to. You see, youāve done run away thatās all. It aināt anything. There aināt nothing wrong with it. Youāve been hurt, and you made up your mind to cut. Bless you, child, I wouldnāt tell on you. Tell me all about it now, thatās a good boy.ā
So I said it wouldnāt be no use to try to play it any longer, and I would tell her everything, but she mustnāt go back on her promise. Then I told her my father and mother was dead, and the law had given me to a cruel old farmer in the country thirty mile back from the river, and he was so cruel I couldnāt take it no more; he went away
Comments (0)