Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (free children's ebooks pdf .txt) š
- Author: Mark Twain
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I had got so uneasy I couldnāt set still. 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 curious and smiling a little. I put down the needle and thread, and let on to be interestedāand I was, tooāand says:
āThree hundred dollars is a power of money. I wish my mother could get it. Is your husband going over there to-night?ā
āOh, yes. He went up-town with the man I was telling you of, to get a boat and see if they could borrow another gun. Theyāll go over after midnight.ā
āCouldnāt they see better if they was to wait till daytime?ā
āYes. And couldnāt the nigger see better, too? After midnight heāll likely be asleep, and they can slip around through the woods 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 curious, and I didnāt feel a bit comfortable. Pretty soon she says,
āWhat did you say your name was, honey?ā
āMāMary Williams.ā
Somehow it didnāt seem to me that I said it was Mary before, so I didnāt look upāseemed to me I said it was Sarah; so I felt sort of cornered, and was afeared maybe I was looking it, too. I wished the woman would say something more; the longer she set still the uneasier I was. But now she says:
āHoney, I thought you said it was Sarah when you first come in?ā
āOh, yesām, 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
āYesām.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 so forth and so on, and then I got easy again. She was right about the rats. Youād see one stick his nose out of a hole in the corner every little while. She said she had to have things handy to throw at them when she was alone, or they wouldnāt give her no peace. She showed me a bar of lead twisted up into a knot, and said she was a good shot with it generly, but sheād wrenched her arm a day or two ago, and didnāt know whether she could throw true now. But she watched for a chance, and directly banged away at a rat; but she missed him wide, and said āOuch!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 of course I didnāt let on. I got the thing, and the first rat that showed his nose I let drive, and if heād a stayed where he was heād a been a tolerable sick rat. She said that was first-rate, and she reckoned I would hive the next one. She went and got the lump of lead and fetched it back, and brought along a hank of yarn which she wanted me to help her with. I held up my two hands and she put the hank over them, and went on talking about her and her husbandās matters. But she broke off to say:
āKeep your eye on the rats. You better have the lead in your lap, handy.ā
So she dropped the lump into my lap just at that moment, and I clapped my legs together on it and she went on talking. But only about a minute. Then she took off the hank and looked me straight in the face, and very pleasant, and says:
āCome, now, whatās your real name?ā
āWhāwhat, mum?ā
āWhatās your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?āor what is it?ā
I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didnāt know hardly what to do. But I says:
āPlease to donāt poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum. If Iām in the way here, Iāllāā
āNo, you wonāt. Set down and stay where you are. I aināt going to hurt you, and I aināt going to tell on you, nuther. You just tell me your secret, and trust me. Iāll keep it; and, whatās more, Iāll help you. Soāll my old man if you want him to. You see, youāre a runaway āprentice, thatās all. It aināt anything. There aināt no harm in it. Youāve been treated bad, 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 just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she musnāt go back on her promise. Then I told her my father and mother was dead, and the law had bound me out to a mean old farmer in the country thirty mile back from the river, and he treated me so bad I couldnāt stand it no longer; he went away to be gone a couple of days, and so I took my chance and stole some of his daughterās old clothes and cleared out, and I had been three nights coming the thirty miles. I traveled nights, and hid daytimes and slept, and the bag of bread and meat I carried from home lasted me all the way, and I had a-plenty. I said I believed my uncle Abner Moore would take care of me, and so that was why I struck out for this town of Goshen.
āGoshen, child? This aināt Goshen. This is St. Petersburg. Goshenās ten mile further up the river. Who told you this was Goshen?ā
āWhy, a man I met at daybreak this morning, just as I was going to turn into the woods for my regular sleep. He told me when the roads forked I must take the right hand, and five mile would fetch me to Goshen.ā
āHe was drunk, I reckon. He told you just exactly wrong.ā
āWell, he did act like he was drunk, but it aināt no matter now. I got to be moving along. Iāll fetch Goshen before daylight.ā
āHold on a minute. Iāll put you up a snack to eat. You might want it.ā
So she put me up a snack, and says:
āSay, when a cowās laying down, which end of her gets up first? Answer up prompt nowādonāt stop to study over it. Which end gets up first?ā
āThe hind end, mum.ā
āWell, then, a horse?ā
āThe forārard end, mum.ā
āWhich side of a tree does the moss grow on?ā
āNorth side.ā
āIf fifteen cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with their heads pointed the same direction?ā
āThe whole fifteen, mum.ā
āWell, I reckon you have lived in the country. I thought maybe you was trying to hocus me again. Whatās your real name, now?ā
āGeorge Peters, mum.ā
āWell, try to remember it, George. Donāt forget and tell me itās Elexander before you go, and then get out by saying itās George Elexander when I catch you. And donāt go about women in that old calico. You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe. Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle donāt hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; thatās the way a woman most always does, but a man always does tāother way. And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tiptoe and fetch your hand up over your head as awkward as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on, like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side, like a boy. And, mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap she throws her knees apart; she donāt clap them together, the way you did when you catched the lump of lead. Why, I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle; and I contrived the other things just to make certain. Now trot along to your uncle, Sarah Mary Williams George Elexander Peters, and if you get into trouble you send word to Mrs. Judith Loftus, which is me, and Iāll do what I can to get you out of it. Keep the river road all the way, and next time you tramp take shoes and socks with you. The river roadās a rocky one, and your feetāll be in a condition when you get to Goshen, I reckon.ā
I went up the bank about fifty yards, and then I doubled on my tracks and slipped back to where my canoe was, a good piece below the house. I jumped in, and was off in a hurry. I went up-stream far enough to make the head of the island, and then started across. I took off the sun-bonnet, for I didnāt want no blinders on then. When I was about the middle I heard the clock begin to strike, so I stops and listens; the sound come faint over the water but clearāeleven. When I struck the head of the island I never waited to blow, though I was most winded, but I shoved right into the timber where my old camp used to be, and started a good fire there on a high and dry spot.
Then I jumped in the canoe and dug out for our place, a mile and a half below, as hard as I could go. I landed, and slopped through the timber and up the ridge and into the cavern. There Jim laid, sound asleep on the ground. I roused him out and says:
āGit up and hump yourself, Jim! There aināt a minute to lose. Theyāre after us!ā
Jim never asked no questions, he never said a word; but the way he worked for the next half an hour showed about how he was scared. By that time everything we had in the world was on our raft, and she was ready to be shoved out from the willow cove where she was hid. We put out the camp fire at the cavern the first thing, and didnāt show a candle outside after that.
I took the canoe out from the shore a little piece, and took a look; but if there was a boat around I couldnāt see it, for stars and shadows
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