Chapter 08 (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

01CHAPTER VIII.

02The sun was up so high when I waked that I judged it was after eight o'clock.

03I laid there in the grass in the cool shade, thinking about things, and feeling rested and rather comfortable and satisfied.

04I could see the sun out at one or two holes, but mostly it was big trees all about, and gloomy in there amongst them.

05There were freckled places on the shore where the light sifted down through the leaves and the freckled places swapped about a little, showing there was a little breeze up there.

06A couple of squirrels sat on a limb and jabbered at me very friendly.

07I was powerful, lazy, and comfortable.

08Didn't want to get up and cook breakfast.

09Well, I was dozing off again when I thinks I hear a deep sound of BOOM!

10away up the river.

11I rouses up, rests on my elbow and listens.

12Pretty soon I hears it again.

13I hopped up, and went and looked out at a hole in the leaves, and I see a bunch of smoke laying on the water a long ways up, about abreast the ferry.

14And there was the ferry-boat full of people floating along down.

15I knowed what was the matter now.

16BOOM!

17I see the white smoke squirt out of the ferry-boat's side.

18You see, they was firing cannon over the water, trying to make my carcass come to the top.

19I was pretty hungry, but it warn't going to do for me to start a fire, because they might see the smoke.

20So I sat there and watched the cannon smoke, and listened to the BOOM!

21The river was a mile wide there, and it always looks pretty on a summer morning, so I was having a good enough time seeing them hunt for my remainders, if I only had a bite to eat.

22Well, then I happened to think how they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off, because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there.

23So, says I, I'll keep a look-out, and if any of them's floating around after me, I'll give them a show.

24I changed to the Illinois edge of the island to see what luck I could have, and I warn't disappointed.

25A big double loaf come along, and I most got it with a long stick, but my foot slipped, and she floated out further.

26Of course, I was where the current set in the closest to the shore.

27I knowed enough for that.

28But by and by along comes another one, and this time I won.

29I took out the plug, and shook out the little dab of quicksilver, and set my teeth in.

30It was baker's bread, what the quality eat, none of your low-down corn-pone.

31I got a good place amongst the leaves, and set there on a log, munching the bread, and watching the ferry-boat, very well satisfied.

32And then something struck me.

33I says, now I reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me, and here it is gone and done it.

34So there ain't no doubt, but there is something in that thing.

35That is, there's something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don't work for me, and I reckon it don't work for only just the right kind.

36I lit a pipe, and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.

37The ferry-boat was floating with a current, and I allowed I'd have a chance to see who was aboard when she came along, because she would come in close, where the bread did.

38When she got pretty well along down towards me, I put out my pipe, and went to where I fished out the bread, and lay down behind a log on the bank, and a little open place.

39Where the log forked, I could peep through.

40By-and-by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could have run out of plank and walked ashore.

41Most everybody was on the boat.

42Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Joe Harper, and Tom Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more.

43Everybody was talking about the murder, but the captain broke in and says, Look sharp now.

44The current sets in the closest here, and maybe he's washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge.

45I hope so, anyway.

46I didn't hope so.

47They all crowded up and leaned over the rails, nearly in my face, and kept still, watching with all their might.

48I could see them first-rate, but they couldn't see me.

49Then the captain sung out, Stand away!

50And the cannon left 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.

51If they'd have had some bullets in, I reckon they'd have got the corpse they was after.

52Well, I see I warn't hurt, thanks to goodness.

53The boat floated on and went out of sight around the shoulder of the island.

54I could hear the booming now and then, further and further off, and by and by, after an hour, I didn't hear it no more.

55The island was three miles long.

56I judged they had got to the foot and was giving it up.

57But they didn't yet a while.

58They 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.

59I crossed over to that side and watched them.

60When they got abreast the head of the island they quit shooting, and dropped over to the Missouri shore, and went home to the town.

61I knowed I was all right now.

62Nobody else would come a-hunting after me.

63I got my traps out of the canoe, and made me a nice camp in the thick woods.

64I made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn't get at them.

65I catched a catfish, and haggled him open with my saw, and towards sundown I started my campfire and had supper.

66Then I set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast.

67When it was dark I set by my campfire smoking, and feeling pretty well satisfied.

68But by and by it got sort of lonesome, and so I went and sat 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.

69There ain't no better way to put in time when you are lonesome.

70You can't stay so.

71You soon get over it.

72And so for three days and nights.

73No difference, just the same thing.

74But the next day I went exploring around down through the island.

75I was boss of it.

76It all belonged to me, so to say, and I wanted to know all about it.

77But mainly I wanted to put in the time.

78I found plenty strawberries, ripe and prime, and green summer grapes, and green raspberries, and the green blackberries was just beginning to show.

79They would all come handy by and by, I judged.

80Well, I went fooling along in the deep woods till I judged I warn't far from the foot of the island.

81I had my gun along, but I hadn't shot nothing.

82It was for protection.

83I thought I would kill some game nigh home.

84About this time a mighty nurse 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.

85I clipped along, and all of a sudden I bounded right on to the ashes of a campfire that was still smoking.

86My heart jumped up amongst my lungs.

87I never waited for it to look further, but uncocked my gun, and went sneaking back on my tip-toes as fast as ever I could.

88Every now and then I stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened.

89But my breath come so hard I couldn't hear nothing else.

90I slunk along another piece further, then listened again, and so on and so on.

91If I see a stump, I took it for a man.

92If I trot 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.

93When I got to camp I warn't feeling very brash.

94There warn't much sand in my craw, but I says, this ain't no time to be fooling around.

95So 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 year's camp, and then clumb a tree.

96I reckon I was up in the tree two hours, but I didn't see nothing.

97I didn't hear nothing.

98I only thought I heard and seen as much as a thousand things.

99Well, I couldn't stay up there for ever.

100So at last I got down, but I kept in the thick woods and on the lookout all the time.

101All I could get to eat was berries and what was left over from breakfast.

102By the time it was night I was pretty hungry.

103So when it was good and dark I slid out from shore before moonrise and paddled over to the Illinois' bank, about a quarter of a mile.

104I went out in the woods and cooked a supper, and 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 people's voices.

105I got everything into my canoe as quick as I could, and then went creeping through the woods to see what I could find out.

106I hadn't got far when I hear a man say, We better camp here if we can find a good place.

107The horses is about beat out.

108Let's look around.

109I didn't wait, but shoved out and paddled away easy.

110I tied up in the old place, and reckoned I would sleep in the canoe.

111I didn't sleep much.

112I couldn't, somehow, for thinking.

113And every time I waked up I thought somebody had me by the neck.

114So the sleep didn't do me no good.

115By and by I says to myself, I can't live this way.

116I'm a-going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me.

117I'll find it out or bust.

118Well, I felt better right off.

119So 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.

120The moon was shining, and outside of the shadows it made it most as light as day.

121I poked along well on to an hour.

122Everything still as rocks and sound as sleep.

123Well, by this time I was most down to the foot of the island.

124A little riply, cool breeze begun to blow, and that was as good as saying the night was about done.

125I give her a turn with a paddle and brung her nose to shore.

126Then I got my gun and slipped out and into the edge of the woods.

127I sat down there on a log and looked out through the leaves.

128I see the moon go off watch, and the darkness begin to blanket the river.

129But in a little while I see a pale streak over the treetops and knowed the day was coming.

130So I took my gun and slipped off towards where I had run across that campfire, stopping every minute or two to listen.

131But I had no luck somehow.

132I couldn't seem to find the place.

133But by and by, sure enough, I catched a glimpse of fire away through the trees.

134I went for it, cautious and slow.

135By and by I was close enough to have a look, and there laid a man on the ground.

136It most give me the fan-tots.

137He had a blanket round his head, and his head was nearly in the fire.

138I sat there behind a clump of bushes and about six foot of him, and kept my eyes on him steady.

139It was getting grey daylight now.

140Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself, and hove off the blanket.

141And it was Miss Watson's Jim.

142I bet I was glad to see him.

143I says, Hello, Jim, and skipped out.

144He bounced up and stared at me wild.

145Then he drops down on his knees, and puts his hands together, and says, Don't hurt me, don't.

146I ain't never done no harm to a ghost.

147I always liked dead people, and done all I could for them.

148You go and get in the river again where you belongs, and don't do nothing to old Jim.

149Atter's always your friend." Well, I warn't long making him understand I warn't dead.

150I was ever so glad to see Jim.

151I warn't lonesome now.

152I told him I warn't afraid of him telling the people where I was.

153I talked along, but he only sat there and looked at me, never said nothing.

154Then I says, It's good daylight.

155Let's get breakfast.

156Make up your campfire good.

157What's the use of making up the campfire to cook strawberries in such truck?

158But you've got a gun, ain't you?

159Then we can get something better than strawberries.

160Strawberries in such truck, I says.

161Is that what you live on?

162I couldn't get nothing else, he says.

163Why, how long you been on the island, Jim?

164I come here the night after you's killed.

165What, all that time?

166Yes, indeedy.

167And ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbish to eat?

168No, sir, nothing else.

169Well, you must be most starved, ain't you?

170I reckon I could eat a horse.

171I think I could.

172How long you been on the island?

173Since the night I got killed.

174No.

175Why, what has you lived on?

176You got a gun.

177Oh, yes, you got a gun.

178That's good.

179Now you kill something, and I'll make up the fire.

180I'll make up the fire.

181So we went over to where the canoe was, and while he built a fire in a grassy open place amongst the trees, I fetched meal and bacon and coffee, and coffee pot and frying pan, and sugar, and tin cups, and the nigger was set back considerable, because he reckoned it was all done with witchcraft.

182I catched a good big catfish, too, and Jim cleaned him with his knife and fried him.

183When breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smokin' hot.

184Jim laid it in with all his might, for he was most about starved.

185Then when we got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.

186By and by, Jim says, But looky here, Huck, who was it dat is killed in dat shanty if it warn't you?

187Then I told him de whole thing, and he said it was smart.

188He said Tom Sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what I had.

189Then I says, How'd you come to be here, Jim?

190How'd you get here?

191He looked pretty uneasy, didn't say nothin' for a minute.

192Then he says, Maybe I'd better not tell.

193Why, Jim?

194Well, de's reasons.

195But you wouldn't tell on me if I'd as a tell you, would you, Huck?

196Blamed if I would, Jim.

197Well, I believe you, Huck.

198I—I run off.

199Jim!

200But, mine, you said you wouldn't tell.

201You know you said you wouldn't tell, Huck.

202Well, I did.

203I said I wouldn't, and I'll stick to it.

204Honest, injun, I will.

205People will call me a low-down abolitionist and despise me for keepin' Mum, but dat don't make no difference.

206I ain't a-goin' to tell, and I ain't a-goin' back there anyways.

207So now let's know all about it.

208Well, you see, it is dis way.

209Oh, missus, dat's mis Watson, she pecks on me all de time, and treats me pretty rough, but she always said she wouldn't sell me down to all ends.

210But I noticed there was a nigger-trader round de place considerable lately, and I begin to get on easy.

211Well, one night I creeps to de pooty late, and de door wa'n't quite shut, and I hear old missus tell de widder she'd go on sell me down to Orleans.

212But she didn't want to, but she could get eight hundred dollars for me, and it is such a big stack of money she couldn't resist.

213De widder she tried to get her to say she wouldn't do it, but I never waited to hear de rest.

214I let out mighty quick, I tell you.

215I took out and shinned down de hill, and spect to steal a skift along de shore somewaz above de town.

216But de was people a-stirin' yet, so I hid in de old tumble-down cooper shop on de bank, to wait for everybody to go away.

217Well, I was de all night.

218De was somebody round all de time.

219Long about six in de morning skifts begin de go by, and bout eight or nine every skift dat went long was talkin' bout how your pap come over to de town to say you's killed.

220Dees last skifts was full of ladies and gentlemen a-going over for de see de place.

221Sometimes de pull up at de shore an' take a rest before de started across, so by de talk I got de know all bout de killin'.

222I was powerful saw a you's killed, Huck, but I ain't no more now.

223I lay de under de shavins all day.

224I was hungry, but I wan't a fear cause I knowed old missus and de widow was goin' to start to de camp meetin' right after breakfast and be gone all day, and de knows I goes off wid de cattle about daylight, so de wouldn't spec to see me round de place, and so de wouldn't miss me till after dark in de evening.

225De other servants wouldn't miss me, cause de'd shin out and take holiday soon as de old folks was out of de way.

226Well, when it come dark I took out up de river road, an' went bout two mile or more to where de want no houses.

227I made up my mind about what I was goin' to do.

228You see, if I kept on tryin' to get away afoot, de dogs would track me if I stole a skiff to cross over, de'd miss dat skiff, you see, an' de know bout where I land on de other side, an' where to pick up my track.

229So I says, a raft is what I's after.

230It don't make no track.

231I see a light a' coming round de point by and by, an' I wade in an' shove a log ahead of me, an' swum more'n half way across de river, an' got in m'unct de driftwood, an' kept my head down low, an' kinda' swum again de current, till de raft come along.

232Then I swum to de stern of it an' took a holt.

233It clouded up an' was putty dark for a little while, so I clum up an' lay down on de planks.

234De men is all way yonder in de middle, where de lantern was.

235De river was a'risin', an' de was a good current, an' I reckon dat by four in de mornin' I'd be twenty-five mile down de river, an' den I'd slip in just fo' daylight an' swim ashore, an' take to de woods on de Illinois' side.

236But I didn't have no luck.

237When we is most down de de head o' de island, a man begins to come afer wit de lantern, an' I see it want no use fo' de weight, so I slid overboard, an' struck out fo' de island.

238Well, I had a notion I could land most anywheres, but I couldn't, bank to bluff, an' I was most o de foot o de island before I found a good place.

239I went into de woods, an' judged I wouldn't fool wi rafts no more, long as dey moved de lantern round so.

240I had my pipe an' a plug o' a dogleg, an' some matches in my cap, an' dey warn't wet, so I was all right.

241An' so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time?

242Why didn't you get mud turkles?

243How you goin' to git em?

244You can't slip up on em an' grab em.

245An' how the body goin' to git em wit a rock?

246How could a body do it in de night?

247An' I warn't goin' to show myself on de bank in de day time.

248Well, that's so.

249He've had a keep in de woods all de time, of course.

250Did you hear him shootin' the cannon?

251Oh, yes.

252I know dey was arter you.

253I see em go by here.

254Watched em through de bushes.

255Some young birds come along, flyin' a yard or two at a time, an' lightin'.

256Jim said it was a sign it was goin' to rain.

257He said it was a sign when young chickens flew that way, an' so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it.

258I was goin' to catch some of them, but Jim wouldn't let me.

259He said it was death.

260He said his father laid mighty sick once, an' some of them catched a bird, an' his old granny said his father would die, an' he did.

261And Jim said you mustn't count the things you're goin' to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck.

262The same if you shook the tablecloth after sundown.

263And he said that if a man owned a beehive, an' that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next mornin', or else the bees would all weaken down an' quit work an' die.

264Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, an' they wouldn't sting me.

265I had heard about some of these things before, but not all of them.

266Jim knowed all kinds of signs.

267He said he knowed most everything.

268I said it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck, and so I asked him if there weren't any good luck signs.

269He says, Mighty few, an' they ain't no use to a body.

270What you want to know when good luck's a comin' for?

271Want to keep it off?

272And he said, If you's got hairy arms an' a hairy breast, it's a sign that you's a goin' to be rich.

273Well, there's some use in a sign like that, cause it's so fur ahead.

274You see, maybe you's got to be poor a long time first, an' so you might get discouraged an' kill yourself if you didn't know by the sign that you're goin' to be rich by'n by.

275Have you got hairy arms an' a hairy breast, Jim?

276What's to use to ask that question?

277Don't you see I has?

278Well, are you rich?

279No, but I've been rich onst, an' goin' to be rich again.

280Onst I had fourteen dollars, but I took to speculating an' got busted out.

281What did you speculate in, Jim?

282Well, first I tackled stock.

283What kind of stock?

284Why, livestock, cattle, you know.

285I put ten dollars in a cow.

286But I ain't goin' to risk no more money in stock, to cow up an' diet on my hands.

287So you lost the ten dollars?

288No, I didn't lose it all.

289I only lost about nine of it.

290I sold the hide and taller for a dollar and ten cents.

291You had five dollars and ten cents left.

292Did you speculate any more?

293Yes.

294You know that one-legged nigger that belongs to old Mr.

295Braddish?

296Well, he sought up a bank, and say anybody that put in a dollar would get four dollars more at the end of the year.

297Well, all the niggers went in, but they didn't have much.

298I was the only one that had much.

299So I stuck out for more than four dollars, and I said if I didn't get it I'd start a bank myself.

300Well, of course that nigger want to keep me out of the business, because, he says, they want business enough for two banks.

301So he say I could put in my five dollars, and he pay me thirty-five at the end of the year.

302So I done it.

303Then I reckon I'd invest the thirty-five dollars right off, and keep things a-moving.

304There was a nigger named Bob that had catched the wood flat, and his master didn't know it.

305And I bought it off on him, and told him to take the thirty-five dollars when the end of the year come.

306But somebody stole the wood flat dat night, and next day the one-legged nigger say the bank's busted.

307So they didn't none of us get no money.

308What did you do with the ten cents, Jim?

309Well, I was going to spend it, but I had a dream.

310And the dream told me to give it to a nigger named Ballam.

311Ballam's Ass, they call him for short.

312He's one of them chuckleheads, you know.

313But he's lucky, they say.

314And I see I warn't lucky.

315The dream say that Ballam invested ten cents, and he'd make a raise for me.

316Well, Ballam, he took the money, and when he was in church, he'd hear the preacher say dat whoever giv'd to the poor lent to the Lord, and bound to get his money back a hundred times.

317So Ballam, he took and giv'd the ten cents to the poor, and laid low to see what was going come of it.

318Well, what did come of it, Jim?

319Nuffin never come of it.

320I could manage to collect dat money no way.

321And Ballam, he couldn't.

322I ain't goin' to lend no more money, doubt I see de security.

323Bound to get your money back a hundred times, the preacher says.

324If I could get the ten cents back, I'd call it square, and be glad of the chance.

325Well, it's all right anyway, Jim, long as you're goin' to be rich again some time or other.

326Yes, and I's rich now come to look at it.

327I owns myself, and I's worth eight hundred dollars.

328I wish'd I had de money.

329I wouldn't want no more.

330End of chapter.

331End of chapter.