Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (free children's ebooks pdf .txt) š
- Author: Mark Twain
- Performer: 0142437174
Book online Ā«Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (free children's ebooks pdf .txt) šĀ». Author Mark Twain
After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didnāt care no more about him, because I donāt take no stock in dead people.
Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldnāt. She said it was a mean practice and wasnāt clean, and I must try to not do it any more. That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they donāt know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.
Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling-book. She worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease up. I couldnāt stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, āDonāt put your feet up there, Huckleberry;ā and āDonāt scrunch up like that, Huckleberryāset up straight;ā and pretty soon she would say, āDonāt gap and stretch like that, Huckleberryāwhy donāt you try to behave?ā Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didnāt mean no harm. All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warnāt particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldnāt say it for the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldnāt see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldnāt try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldnāt do no good.
Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didnāt think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.
Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed. I went up to my room with a piece of candle, and put it on the table. Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it warnāt no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldnāt make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me. Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something thatās on its mind and canāt make itself understood, and so canāt rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didnāt need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadnāt no confidence. You do that when youāve lost a horseshoe that youāve found, instead of nailing it up over the door, but I hadnāt ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when youād killed a spider.
I set down again, a-shaking all over, and got out my pipe for a smoke; for the house was all as still as death now, and so the widow wouldnāt know. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boomāboomāboomātwelve licks; and all still againāstiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the treesāsomething was a stirring. I set still and listened. Directly I could just barely hear a āme-yow! me-yow!ā down there. That was good! Says I, āme-yow! me-yow!ā as soft as I could, and then I put out the light and scrambled out of the window on to the shed. Then I slipped down to the ground and crawled in among the trees, and, sure enough, there was Tom Sawyer waiting for me.
CHAPTER II.
WE went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widowās garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldnāt scrape our heads. When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made a noise. We scrouched down and laid still. Miss Watsonās big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him pretty clear, because there was a light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck out about a minute, listening. Then he says:
āWho dah?ā
He listened some more; then he come tiptoeing down and stood right between us; we could a touched him, nearly. Well, likely it was minutes and minutes that there warnāt a sound, and we all there so close together. There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I dasnāt scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders. Seemed like Iād die if I couldnāt scratch. Well, Iāve noticed that thing plenty times since. If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you aināt sleepyāif you are anywheres where it wonāt do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim says:
āSay, who is you? Whar is you? Dog my cats ef I didnā hear sumfān. Well, I know what Iās gwyne to do: Iās gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin.ā
So he set down on the ground betwixt me and Tom. He leaned his back up against a tree, and stretched his legs out till one of them most touched one of mine. My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears come into my eyes. But I dasnāt scratch. Then it begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to itching underneath. I didnāt know how I was going to set still. This miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes; but it seemed a sight longer than that. I was itching in eleven different places now. I reckoned I couldnāt stand it moreān a minute longer, but I set my teeth hard and got ready to try. Just then Jim begun to breathe heavy; next he begun to snoreāand then I was pretty soon comfortable again.
Tom he made a sign to meākind of a little noise with his mouthāand we went creeping away on our hands and knees. When we was ten foot off Tom whispered to me, and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun. But I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then theyād find out I warnāt in. Then Tom said he hadnāt got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I didnāt want him to try. I said Jim might wake up and come. But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we got out, and I was in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was so still and lonesome.
As soon as Tom was back we cut along the path, around the garden fence, and by and by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jimās hat off of his head and hung it on a limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didnāt wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches be witched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again, and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and, after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by and by he said they rode him all over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldnāt hardly notice the other niggers. Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, āHm! What you know ābout witches?ā and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece round his neck with a string, and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands, and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that five-center piece; but they wouldnāt touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined for a servant,
Comments (0)