Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (free children's ebooks pdf .txt) š
- Author: Mark Twain
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I got a good place amongst the leaves, and set there on a log, munching the bread and watching the ferry-boat, and very well satisfied. And then something struck me. I says, now I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me, and here it has gone and done it. So there aināt no doubt but there is something in that thingāthat is, thereās something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it donāt work for me, and I reckon it donāt work for only just the right kind.
I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching. The ferryboat was floating with the current, and I allowed Iād have a chance to see who was aboard when she come along, because she would come in close, where the bread did. When sheād got pretty well along down towards me, I put out my pipe and went to where I fished out the bread, and laid down behind a log on the bank in a little open place. Where the log forked I could peep through.
By and by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could a run out a plank and walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat. Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Jo Harper, and Tom Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more. Everybody was talking about the murder, but the captain broke in and says:
āLook sharp, now; the current sets in the closest here, and maybe heās washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the waterās edge. I hope so, anyway.ā
I didnāt hope so. They all crowded up and leaned over the rails, nearly in my face, and kept still, watching with all their might. I could see them first-rate, but they couldnāt see me. Then the captain sung out:
āStand away!ā and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone. If theyād a had some bullets in, I reckon theyād a got the corpse they was after. Well, I see I warnāt hurt, thanks to goodness. The boat floated on and went out of sight around the shoulder of the island. I could hear the booming now and then, further and further off, and by and by, after an hour, I didnāt hear it no more. The island was three mile long. I judged they had got to the foot, and was giving it up. But they didnāt yet a while. They turned around the foot of the island and started up the channel on the Missouri side, under steam, and booming once in a while as they went. I crossed over to that side and watched them. When they got abreast the head of the island they quit shooting and dropped over to the Missouri shore and went home to the town.
I knowed I was all right now. Nobody else would come a-hunting after me. I got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the thick woods. I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldnāt get at them. I catched a catfish and haggled him open with my saw, and towards sundown I started my camp fire and had supper. Then I set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast.
When it was dark I set by my camp fire smoking, and feeling pretty well satisfied; but by and by it got sort of lonesome, and so I went and set on the bank and listened to the current swashing along, and counted the stars and drift logs and rafts that come down, and then went to bed; there aināt no better way to put in time when you are lonesome; you canāt stay so, you soon get over it.
And so for three days and nights. No differenceājust the same thing. But the next day I went exploring around down through the island. I was boss of it; it all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted to know all about it; but mainly I wanted to put in the time. I found plenty strawberries, ripe and prime; and green summer grapes, and green razberries; and the green blackberries was just beginning to show. They would all come handy by and by, I judged.
Well, I went fooling along in the deep woods till I judged I warnāt far from the foot of the island. I had my gun along, but I hadnāt shot nothing; it was for protection; thought I would kill some game nigh home. About this time I mighty near stepped on a good-sized snake, and it went sliding off through the grass and flowers, and I after it, trying to get a shot at it. I clipped along, and all of a sudden I bounded right on to the ashes of a camp fire that was still smoking.
My heart jumped up amongst my lungs. I never waited for to look further, but uncocked my gun and went sneaking back on my tiptoes as fast as ever I could. Every now and then I stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened, but my breath come so hard I couldnāt hear nothing else. I slunk along another piece further, then listened again; and so on, and so on. If I see a stump, I took it for a man; if I trod on a stick and broke it, it made me feel like a person had cut one of my breaths in two and I only got half, and the short half, too.
When I got to camp I warnāt feeling very brash, there warnāt much sand in my craw; but I says, this aināt no time to be fooling around. So I got all my traps into my canoe again so as to have them out of sight, and I put out the fire and scattered the ashes around to look like an old last yearās camp, and then clumb a tree.
I reckon I was up in the tree two hours; but I didnāt see nothing, I didnāt hear nothingāI only thought I heard and seen as much as a thousand things. Well, I couldnāt stay up there forever; so at last I got down, but I kept in the thick woods and on the lookout all the time. All I could get to eat was berries and what was left over from breakfast.
By the time it was night I was pretty hungry. So when it was good and dark I slid out from shore before moonrise and paddled over to the Illinois bankāabout a quarter of a mile. I went out in the woods and cooked a supper, and I had about made up my mind I would stay there all night when I hear a plunkety-plunk, plunkety-plunk, and says to myself, horses coming; and next I hear peopleās voices. I got everything into the canoe as quick as I could, and then went creeping through the woods to see what I could find out. I hadnāt got far when I hear a man say:
āWe better camp here if we can find a good place; the horses is about beat out. Letās look around.ā
I didnāt wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy. I tied up in the old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe.
I didnāt sleep much. I couldnāt, somehow, for thinking. And every time I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck. So the sleep didnāt do me no good. By and by I says to myself, I canāt live this way; Iām a-going to find out who it is thatās here on the island with me; Iāll find it out or bust. Well, I felt better right off.
So I took my paddle and slid out from shore just a step or two, and then let the canoe drop along down amongst the shadows. The moon was shining, and outside of the shadows it made it most as light as day. I poked along well on to an hour, everything still as rocks and sound asleep. Well, by this time I was most down to the foot of the island. A little ripply, cool breeze begun to blow, and that was as good as saying the night was about done. I give her a turn with the paddle and brung her nose to shore; then I got my gun and slipped out and into the edge of the woods. I sat down there on a log, and looked out through the leaves. I see the moon go off watch, and the darkness begin to blanket the river. But in a little while I see a pale streak over the treetops, and knowed the day was coming. So I took my gun and slipped off towards where I had run across that camp fire, stopping every minute or two to listen. But I hadnāt no luck somehow; I couldnāt seem to find the place. But by and by, sure enough, I catched a glimpse of fire away through the trees. I went for it, cautious and slow. By and by I was close enough to have a look, and there laid a man on the ground. It most give me the fan-tods. He had a blanket around his head, and his head was nearly in the fire. I set there behind a clump of bushes, in about six foot of him, and kept my eyes on him steady. It was getting gray daylight now. Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watsonās Jim! I bet I was glad to see him. I says:
āHello, Jim!ā and skipped out.
He bounced up and stared at me wild. Then he drops down on his knees, and puts his hands together and says:
āDoanā hurt meādonāt! I haināt ever done no harm to a ghosā. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for āem. You go en git in de river agin, whah you bālongs, en doanā do nuffn to Ole Jim, āat āuz awluz yoā frenā.ā
Well, I warnāt long making him understand I warnāt dead. I was ever so glad to see Jim. I warnāt lonesome now. I told him I warnāt afraid of him telling the people where I was. I talked along, but he only set there and looked at me; never said nothing. Then I says:
āItās good daylight. Leās get breakfast. Make up your camp fire good.ā
āWhatās de use er makinā up de camp fire to cook strawbries en sich truck? But you got a gun, haināt you? Den we
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